Server Room

Raking light from vertical blinds on the right wall cuts hard stripes across the floor of this room at the ATL Building, Meadowbank, photographed in 2015. Raised floor panels have been removed or pushed askew across almost the entire room, leaving the subfloor cavity and loose cabling exposed through the gaps. Lengths of conduit lie scattered in the foreground, and a large plain panel covers a section of the dark wall at the far end. Automatic Totalisators Limited built the Meadowbank factory in 1947, relocating from earlier premises near Central Station. The purpose-built facility, designed by the engineering firm Julius, Poole & Gibson, housed the factory floor, warehouse, and offices under an Art Deco facade with the ATL diamond motif set into the foyer floor. A separate building on the same site provided dressing rooms, showers, and a canteen for the workforce. ATL had spent decades manufacturing precision mechanical totalisator systems for racecourses worldwide. By 1970, the company's equipment was in use at racing centres across 29 countries. But the mechanical systems that made the factory's reputation were already giving way to electronic and computer technology. ATL developed the world's first computer totalisator system in 1966, and the physical infrastructure that followed, switching rooms, server rooms, relay racks, became part of the building's later working life. The factory's manufacturing operations wound down through the 1970s and 80s. ATL's operations were acquired by the Smorgan group in 1980, then purchased by AWA (Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd) c. 1988. Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the building was repurposed as a multi-tenant facility, accommodating a gym, a church, office space, and a dance school. The ATL Building was listed as a local heritage item under Ryde LEP No 105 in 2003. Despite that listing, the Planning Assessment Commission approved the building's demolition in principle on 6 March 2013 as part of the Shepherds Bay Urban Renewal Project. The factory was demolished c. 2016. The site is now residential apartments.