Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Bills

Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Melissa Horne:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Employment) (18:09): It is great to take off from the member for Mordialloc and his impassioned speech that gave us a bit of joy this afternoon. Thank you very much for sharing.

I absolutely rise in support of this bill, which will dissolve the Prahran Mechanics’ Institution and Circulating Library and provide for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities to the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute’s successor body, the PMI Victorian History Library. Acting Speaker, I do not know if you were in the chamber earlier today when we heard the member for Yan Yean talk to this bill and to her fantastic mechanics institute in Mernda. Why that meant so much to me is that we used to live in the pub opposite that mechanics institute many, many, many years ago, and as a kid I used to wonder what a mechanics institute is. I could not figure out who the mechanics were, why they were not working on cars and what was going on, so it started my fascination with mechanics institutes, what they actually mean and what they do.

The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is one of nearly a thousand that were set up in our state, and there are around about 562 remaining today. They began in 1800, when Dr George Birkbeck of the Andersonian Institute of Scotland gave a series of lectures to local mechanics, ‘mechanics’ meaning artisans or people working with their hands – working men of course. From this sprouted the mechanics institutes, which were seen as a mechanism to deliver technical and moral education to skilled working-class men. While there are those historians who see the evolution of mechanics institutes as creating a genteel working class, many working-class men took advantage of the education offered without, I am happy to say, ‘compromising their class interests’.

Historians of colonial mechanics institutes have explained their popularity in this country by pointing to their civic character, suggesting that they more closely resembled community centres utilised by both working- and middle-class men. What I am pleased to note is that in Victoria women became a part of the story of our mechanics institutes, particularly when it came to funding, which I will come back to.

The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is Victoria’s second-oldest library, which is pretty cool. I would like to think that my working-class ancestors, who lived in Prahran for many years, availed themselves of the services of the PMI in the 1800s. In Australia, Hobart had the first mechanics institute, set up in 1827, and in Victoria the institutes’ history begins near this place, at the Athenaeum just down the road, which was the first mechanics institute, set up in 1839. The Port Phillip Gazette suggested that the institute would ‘spread an eager and praiseworthy desire for self-improvement throughout the community’. We need to also note that by 1841 the Athenaeum had become the first collecting institution in Port Phillip, which meant that it displayed the material culture and even the remains of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung in display cabinets around the lecture hall. This was not long after Batman and his band of opportunists found their way to Melbourne to begin the colonisation of these traditional lands of the Kulin nation. That was before this place was built. It is extraordinary to think that in less than 10 years collections of First Peoples were underway, and it speaks very clearly to the speed through which dispossession occurred. This example is just one of the markers of the connection to our history that mechanics institutes give us.

Mechanics institutes reflect much of our social history as a country and as a state. By 1860 the colony had over half a million settlers, and one MP – I have to say he was a Liberal MP – commented about mechanics institutes that they were ‘a distinguishing feature in all newly-proclaimed townships and municipalities’. It should also be noted that in the census that year the Aboriginal population was reported at just 1869.

Mechanics institutes were so popular in Australia that by 1900 we had more per head of population than did Britain. We also saw the steady inclusion of women in local mechanics institutes – again another reflection of how the mechanics institutes reflected our society and what was happening at the time and help us understand our history. We have reports of some mechanics institutes noting that:

… before the ladies gave their support the attendance at the weekly meetings and lecture was small.

Indeed at one meeting it was recognised that:

Accommodating women in the institution was, the speakers argued, crucial to the success of future generations …

I think it is something that we could argue in this place too. An important reflection of society, of business and of government, the inclusion of women is indeed crucial to the success of future generations. This is not to say that there was not also displeasure expressed by some men at women occupying space within the mechanics institute, and I am sure that there are plenty of women in this place who are familiar with that complaint. I want to add an anecdote about a regional mechanics institute, where it was noted by the menfolk:

… That the pages of the Ladies Suggestion Book be pasted together and a notice written on a fresh page requesting the ladies not to allow the Book to be made the receptacle of idle and impertinent remarks.

How very dare they! Many mechanics institutes were seen to provide women:

with opportunities and platforms for public and political engagement, while also revealing the acts of resistance to institutional forms of surveillance and moral policing.

There was absolutely an evolution of the mechanics institutes whereby they not only provided educational and recreational spaces for the working class but also were captured by the middle class, who saw them as ‘respectable alternatives to venues such as the public house’. This was one of the advantages of having women involved in mechanics institutes, as the presence of women could be seen to elevate the standards of the place – something I would probably argue also applies to this place. The Beechworth mechanics institute honourable secretary observed at the institute’s third anniversary the:

… immense influence exercised by the ladies in the success or decline of an institution of this nature.

He further noted that:

… before the ladies gave their support the attendance at the weekly meetings and lecture was small.

At this event other speakers spoke of how the crucial presence of women would lead to the success of future generations. Some mechanics institutes would have a room put aside for ‘lady members’ which would offer them privacy. Some would be provided with journals such as Ladies’ Magazine, Victoria Magazine, The Queen, London Society and All the Year Round. What is important about Victoria Magazine is that it was very involved in the women’s rights movement in the United Kingdom. There were of course other print items that were also there at a number of mechanics institutes, advocating for women’s rights. I do not know how much work has been done to fully understand the role of mechanics institutes in Australia’s being one of the first nations in the world to allow women the vote, and it would be very interesting to know more.

Of course the women at the mechanics institutes were not given equal status with their male subscribers. For example, it seems common for the newspapers to have been stolen from reading rooms and taken into the ladies’ room. It was such a problem that one of our regional mechanics institutes had a sign stating:

… the committee is not in a position to supply the daily papers to the ladies’ room …

and that:

… the removal of copies from the desks in the reading room cannot be permitted.

At any time of fiscal restraint women were sought to undertake fundraising but also suffered the consequences of budget cuts – sounds a bit like the opposition. Rooms for women were sometimes commandeered to be used as storage when needed, meaning that they were unusable for the women. Sometimes the gas lights and the fire were not allowed to be used for months by women when funds were tight. But for males – subscribers and non-subscribers – of course that challenge did not arise.

And of course there were complaints by the menfolk of the noise that women could make. An annoyed subscriber wrote to a regional newspaper:

… ‘annoyance to ladies was caused by the misbehaviour of certain young men’ and it was resolved that the president of the institute would ‘communicate with the friends or employers of some of the offenders’.

…

The recesses on the northern side of the library are often used by youths as a place in which to secret themselves from the secretary’s view for the purpose of having a ‘lark’ with the girls, who stand with their backs against the bookshelves on the opposite side, and who thereby prevent subscribers from having recourse to many of the literary works.

Outrageous stuff.

The mere fact of a number of young girls having free access to its shelves and reading the works of ‘Ouida,’ and other abominations of a similar nature, where young minds are perverted by being introduced to the ‘scenes’ behind the scenes of theatre (and, such a theatre as could only exist in the imagination of a novelist), the billiard-room, the racecourse, the gambling hell, and heaven knows where besides, may account for the fact that it was found necessary to paint the walls of a certain portion of the ladies’ rooms black so that the disgraceful (to use the mildest term) pencil marks made by these juvenile larrikinesses might not shock the sight of modest women.

All hail the mechanics institutes.

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (18:19): I rise with anticipation at getting through the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill 2024. I have been waiting patiently for nearly two days now to be able to stand up and work my way through the bill. It has been great listening to other members on their feet who have actually had the time to be able to give a little bit of a history lesson on what the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill is about and who have been able to talk about their own mechanics institutes or buildings that are in their local area.

It would be remiss of me and the wrong thing to do if I did not actually go through the purpose of the bill, because I think we all really need to make sure we know all this. The purpose of the bill is to repeal the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899 – and I think the Leader of the Nationals when he spoke said this is one of the oldest acts that is currently here on the books in state Parliament; to dissolve the Prahran Mechanics’ Institution and Circulating Library incorporated, established by the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899; and to provide for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities to the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute’s successor body, the PMI Victorian History Library Incorporated, which is an incorporated association under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012. So it is great to get that on the record.

As we heard from the member for Prahran, the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is used for various different activities, and it is great to know that it is still going to this day. The mechanics institute is a 170-year-old community-owned and run library specialising in Victorian history. It is the state’s second-oldest library, making it a place for learning, research, knowledge sharing and community engagement, and it is a vital source of research material and education for those interested in Victorian history. We have a lot of people that are interested in history. I note the chair of my committee, the member for Wendouree, is a history buff, so I know that she would have enjoyed being able to get to the base of the Prahran institute repeal bill. The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is where the collections of the Mechanics’ Institutes of Victoria, the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society and the Victorian Railway History Library are located as well.

The decision was taken in 1899 to transfer the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute from the previous trustees to a body established for its proper administration due to concerns about mismanagement, the poor state of the library and buildings, and the reduction in membership to only 10 members. So even way back then they had concerns and had the foresight to make some changes, and this is what we are doing with this bill again today – making sure that we make changes so they can go forward and be there for another 170 years.

As a result of this history, the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899 does not provide the governing committee with the powers to make financial decisions, so we are changing that in the best interests of their members. The act has required an amendment each time the committee has sought to purchase or sell land or change the composition of the committee. There is no longer a requirement for the institute to be restricted by legislation. So that is the base and a little bit of what this repeal bill is going to do.

As many other members have said, in their electorates – and also in my electorate of Morwell and throughout the Latrobe Valley – we have older mechanics institutes. The buildings are still there, but they are used for other purposes. I know from talking to my father and mother that they used to have dances held at some of these mechanics institutes, so you can see by that what the Prahran institute is being used for today. Back in the day when they were courting, they used to be able to use these mechanics halls for purposes of dance and other functions.

We have the Morwell mechanics institute. It was a valued asset used for public functions, council meetings back in the day and formal occasions, which I spoke about, and as a library it was home to more than 2000 books. The mechanics institute in Morwell also doubled as a movie theatre, and it was housed alongside the clerk of courts, a masonic lodge and a welfare centre. So these mechanics institutes and buildings have had great value to the communities over the journey, and it really was a quintessential community hub. Sadly, though, the Morwell Mechanics Institute no longer stands today, as it burnt down in a huge fire in 1935.

The Traralgon Mechanics Institute was home to all sorts of events, from dance concerts to fashion parades, and at one point it even housed a shoe factory on the second storey of the hall. It was a grand old building and, like many mechanics institutes, was a wonderland of books for people of all ages to go and read and spend time there. As we have heard, a lot of these mechanics institutes back in the day were libraries for people to go and sit, relax, read and educate themselves.

There is a Narracan mechanics hall, but with the redistribution of places the Narracan one was in the City of Moe. And Moe is now in my electorate, so bad luck to the member for Narracan – I have actually taken that one into mine. The Moe one was built in 1905 to replace an earlier hall at Narracan East. In August 1978 the ownership of the building was transferred to Old Gippstown and the building was shortly moved to that site. Old Gippstown still stands today in Moe. I recommend if you are travelling through the area and you want to give yourself a step back in time, get to the Old Gippstown site in Moe. It is now used as a meeting place for a variety of local societies and currently houses Freemasons memorabilia. It is also available for public hire, and it is great to see all these years later that these halls are still being used and playing a big part in our local communities. In 1971 a collection of over 2300 books, which had been gathering dust in the library in the anteroom on the northern side of the institute, was donated to Old Gippstown, so it is great that they are there as well.

Now to Glengarry. Glengarry is a beautiful little country town in my electorate, and the Glengarry Mechanics Institute is a much-loved community asset. It has been a pillar of the Latrobe Valley community since 1927. While it no longer operates as a mechanics institute, it was refurbished back in 2022, so only a couple of years ago a lot of work was done on it. It is a real asset and a showpiece for not only the people of Glengarry but the wider community of the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland, which is great for them. As I said, while it is no longer a mechanics institute as such, new floors were put down and it has a new kitchen, acoustic panelling and a new sound system. A lot of bands and shows have come into the area, and out in Glengarry they do a lot of functions for the community and they do hold them at the Glengarry Mechanics Institute.

Like a lot of other places, the Glengarry Mechanics Institute was once home to a library and a picture theatre, and now, as I said, it has live music and countless community events there, so it was sort of the forerunner to a lot of our neighbourhood houses that we do have now. Back in the day the mechanics institutes were such a huge part of the local community. They were places for people to go and gather, spend their time and educate themselves. We heard from the last speaker on the government side that they were places for women to also be able to go and socialise back in the day. Although this is an institution that we do love – (Time expired)

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (18:29): I am very grateful that you have afforded me the opportunity to speak this evening on the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill 2024. While it is a bill that is quite limited in scope, I think it is quite momentous that we are in fact repealing the oldest act on the Victorian statute book, one that predates the establishment of Australia itself.

The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899 – there is actually something revealing in the fact that it was brought to this place and enacted in 1899. As the member for Morwell said, its raison d’être was the fact that the PMI at the time only had 10 members and had fallen into a state of disrepair and mismanagement. 1899 came at the end of what could be termed a really long associative boom in Australia, whereby there was mass participation in organisations like mechanics institutes as well as friendly societies and the sorts of things which were precursors to what might be termed the modern welfare state, with the kinds of functions that government took upon itself to provide for the community through the 20th century. There had been that boom in the era immediately after the gold rushes of the 1850s and then through the second half of the 19th century, but the combination of the waxing and waning fortunes of associative bodies like mechanics institutes, coupled with the period after the land boom ended in Victoria in the 1890s, meant that bodies like the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute were struggling, and so the Parliament at the time took it upon itself to oversee the management of the PMI. Of course today, as the member for Prahran touched upon in his contribution earlier, the PMI is a thriving body that really has no need for an act of Parliament to oversee what really should be the proper role and functions of a functioning administrative committee of the PMI; with the repealing of this act they will indeed get that responsibility back.

In my contribution – it has been a wideranging debate, and I have no intention of curtailing that expansiveness in my contribution – I think it is worth recalling and reflecting upon the immense contribution that mechanics institutes played in the 19th century to social capital in Australia and indeed, as members from across the house have spoken about, particularly in rural areas where they still make that contribution today. Mechanics institutes in places like Tallarook and throughout the Goldfields – Kilmore, for example – are still at the very hub of community, the very heart of community. They are places for social gathering. They remain repositories of local history. In the 19th century they were immensely significant as providers of education where the state did not yet have a fully formed role. Of course Victoria is and should be rightly proud of this status. It is the jurisdiction that was the first in the world to move towards a system of universal, compulsory and free education for primary school students. There was much more piecemeal provision of education at other stages of life, bearing in mind that it was a time when the vast majority of the population were what might be termed working-class people; there was a very small professional middle class and an even smaller, very significant landowning class, but most people were to one extent or another working-class artisans who relied upon organisations like the mechanics institute not just for education but for bonds to be created between them.

There is an extraordinarily rich history of academic literature pertaining to both mechanics institutes of the time but also those friendly societies I spoke of earlier, which provided, in effect, insurance against harm and against risk for people in an era when government did not do that and where people were, without the provision of friendly societies, exposed to catastrophic risk that they and their families could not afford. The reason for this really rich academic literature is in part because the records of mechanics institutes and friendly societies are in and of themselves incredibly rich. They are rich repositories that illustrate who was joining these organisations, what their backgrounds were and the kinds of relationships they had with each other, and so from the perspective of an economic and social historian they provide an extraordinary insight into the nature of society as it was at the time. While this is superficially a bill of very limited scope, I think it points to something very profound in our economic and social history as a state and a jurisdiction and the importance of vocational training as it was in the 19th century and indeed continues to be in Victoria thanks to the work of this government. The Leader of the Nationals and the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence both talked about how mechanics institutes had their origins in Scotland, and again that is not a coincidence.

It really stems, in I think quite a linear fashion, from the Scottish Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th ‍centuries, where philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, writers like James Boswell and then inventors like James Watt, who in effect created the modern steam engine, as well as others like Thomas Telford, an extraordinary engineer, really provided an immense contribution to what we might call our own culture and civilisation in the modern world – that scientific, empirical method that led to real advancements in science, engineering and knowledge of the world. A lot of that originated in Scotland, and so it is no surprise that in 1821 in Edinburgh and in 1823 in Glasgow the first mechanics institutes appeared. And of course they exploded, as one historian has put it, like a process of spontaneous combustion across what was of course then the British Empire. That is obviously how those mechanics institutes found their way to Australia and in particular to Victoria.

I am someone who was born just down the A68 and across the Cheviots from Edinburgh in the home of the birthplace of the railways, where men – as the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence commented, they were invariably men who were members of these organisations in the early days – self-made, self-taught men like George Stephenson invented transformative devices like the steam engine, which had such a profound consequence on the economic development of the 19th century of industrialisation not just of northern England but of Victoria. The member for Murray Plains, the Leader of the Nationals, talked about the nation-building role the Victorian railways played in the 19th ‍century. I feel that there is an incredibly important lineal thread between that era of the Scottish Enlightenment through the creation of the mechanics institutes and to Australia.

Indeed having just achieved representative government in the 1850s, Australians and Australian governments, including in Victoria, were very anxious to ensure that their societies be uplifted. What better way than to encourage reading and the higher pursuits that mechanics institutes afforded? The member for Geelong is not here, but one of her predecessors, in fact the first member for Geelong, a gentleman called Alexander Fyfe, who was the member for Geelong between 1856 and 1857 – so in the very first iteration of this Legislative Assembly – argued that mechanics institutes were ‘national blessings’ with a ‘tendency to improve the mental and social condition of the community’. Alexander Fyfe sounds like quite a decent fellow actually. He was one of the first gold diggers at Ballarat. He was the secretary of the anti-gold license committee and I think very saliently contributed to the legal expenses of Peter Lalor, so good on him.

The reason that I think his contribution is relevant is because it points to the role that mechanics institutes played in an era where government did not assume in and of itself a significant role in terms of the provision of education and training. Mechanics institutes filled that void. They not only created social capital and connections between citizens of what were then very small but rapidly growing towns across the colony of Victoria, but they provided the education that so many people depended upon, as I say, in that era when government did not have the role that it does today.

Notwithstanding the fact that government has assumed obviously much more of a role for education, it is my enduring passion in life to ensure that it continues to play that role, making sure that people have the opportunity to pursue vocational education regardless of their stage of life because that is the key to enabling productivity at a societal level but also to ensuring that people who are impacted by economic change have the chance to retrain, reskill and access new and better jobs. But even with government assuming that role, mechanics institutes are still an incredibly important part of our state. As we have heard from members across the house, those mechanics institutes in small country towns, in suburbs and indeed just down on Collins Street at the Athenaeum are still important parts of our communities. So I commend this bill to the house, and I wish the members of the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute a very happy future in continuation of their good work.

Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (18:39): Today I rise to stand and make a contribution on the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill 2024. I wish to acknowledge the lead speaker the Leader of the Nationals for his compelling and in-depth contribution and for sharing such a broad history of the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute and much more. I will also include some of the wonderful mechanics institutes in my electorate very shortly, but I will first speak to the bill.

The bill before the house is for an act to repeal the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899, to dissolve the Prahran Mechanics’ Institution and Circulating Library incorporated and to provide for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities of that entity to the PMI Victorian History Library Inc. and for other purposes. Clause 4 provides for the repeal of the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899, which will enable the PMI Circulating Library to be managed by the PMI Victorian History Library. Clause 5 provides for the dissolution of the PMI Circulating Library and once abolished its members cease to hold office, and any rules and regulations made under section 5 are revoked. Clause 6 provides for the transfer of the property rights and liabilities of the PMI Circulating Library to the PMI Victorian History Library on the repeal of the PMI act 1899.

The bill does not alter the position or rights of any party to the lease, and importantly, the employees of the PMI Circulating Library continue to be employed by the PMI Victorian History Library on the same terms and conditions, with their accrued entitlements to employment benefits and without breaking continued service. However, this does not prevent the terms and conditions of transferred employees from being later altered by or under any law, award or agreement to enable, for example, the employees to renegotiate their contracts or enter into an enterprise bargaining agreement.

In regard to taxes, no stamp duty or other tax is chargeable under any act in respect of anything effected by or done under this bill or in respect of any act or transaction connected with or necessary to be done by the reason of the bill. The purpose of this is to ensure that the PMI does not incur any tax liabilities as a result of the transfer of property due to the operation of the bill. The bill also provides a regulation-making power to deal with transitional matters for a period of two years. This is to ensure that if any additional matters arise from the succession that have not been addressed in the bill they can be dealt with through regulations.

The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute was first established in 1854, some 170 years ago – in fact the library celebrated its 170th birthday in February this year. The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is a community-owned and run library that specialises in the history of Victoria. In addition, the PMI has served the Prahran community and more broadly the Victorian community as a central resource for research into the state’s history. To date the library has over 40,000 books for loan, many of which are not available for loan anywhere else in the state. Furthermore, the PMI provides a professional information service to its members and organises educational activities, including lectures, seminars and competitions, to encourage and facilitate the study of history. The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is also home to the collections of the Mechanics’ Institute of Victoria, the Cinema and Theatre Historical Society and the Victorian Railway History Library.

The Prahran Mechanics’ Institute is Victoria’s second-oldest library and is also the only mechanics institute in Victoria that is governed by its own act of Parliament. The decision was taken in 1899 to transfer the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute from the previous trustees to a body established for its proper administration, due to concerns about mismanagement, the poor state of the library and buildings and the reduction in membership to only 10 members back then. As a result of history, the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899 does not provide the governing committee with the powers to make financial decisions for its members. The act over time has required an amendment each time the committee has sought to purchase or sell land or change the composition of the committee. It is clear from this that it is no longer appropriate nor necessary for the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute to be bound by legislation that restricts its activities. As the successor body of the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute the PMI Victorian History Library is an incorporated association under the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012 and has a constitution in place to guide the board going forward.

In my electorate we have many historic mechanics institute buildings, which have been well utilised by the community. They are all historic heritage buildings with long histories. We have lost a lot of heritage – probably something that has not been raised enough today in the chamber – many buildings over time, and it is a good reminder that we must protect our heritage and our history. As I said, in my electorate we have many historic mechanics institute buildings, and they have been very, very well utilised by the community. For example, in Mooroopna we have the original mechanics institute right in the main street, which was built back in 1875. However, the building has succumbed to floods and is at present in McLennan Street. The site back in 1906 was actually moved. In 1920 a smaller hall, which is now known as the MG O’Brien Hall, was purchased and shifted and placed to the east of the hall. The original hall was replaced in 1933 by a cement structure largely funded by the Back to Mooroopna community. In 1974 and after being flooded to a depth of 25 centimetres across the floor, it was significantly renovated. The side hall, MG O’Brien Hall, was replaced in 1953, and this site was also largely funded by another Back to Mooroopna event. From the onset a library was established, and it continued to serve the community for a long time and for lots of different purposes. The mechanics institute today is still situated in the main street of Mooroopna in McLennan Street, where many people coming across the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway from Shepparton are greeted front and centre with such an amazing building.

In Shepparton the mechanics institute has served the community since 1877. Currently the mechanics institute site has office space as well as community meeting rooms for groups such as the Shepparton Chess Club and the Goulburn Valley Quilters. The hall can be utilised as a lecture theatre and for music recitals and has a place for small stage performances and a meeting area. It is a very old building but very significant, sitting right in the main street of Shepparton.

In Tatura, one of our other smaller towns, the mechanics institute was first built in 1882 and was the first public building in Tatura. It immediately became the centre of community activity in the rich farming locality of Tatura, which often is known as the jewel in the crown of the Goulburn Valley. The first church services were held there along with school classes and all community public meetings. Along with this, it has also held the library and was also an entertainment hub for the community right up to and during World War I. After World War I ended, the community leaders of the day decided to build a commemorative hall to the fallen from the local area, and so the idea for another hall next to the mechanics institute was formed. Both of these buildings sit very proudly right in the main street of Tatura. Just recently we had the Tatura art show held at the new building. It was a significant time where the history of both halls was actually recognised through art and painting.

In another small town, Nathalia, currently the Nathalia and District Historical Society is partly housed in the former mechanics institute, built in 1887. The society commenced in the 1960s when a group of local people decided to protect the history of the area so it was not lost to future generations. In Wunghnu, another small little community, the first Wunghnu Mechanics Institute opened on 5 June 1887 – a brick building with a two-storey section at the front. The building was not to last long, for soon after the front section was burnt down, and by mid-1889 the mechanics institute committee was making moves to reconstruct either a single- or a two-storey new front to the institute. The current building dates from that exercise, and at the time of its completion it contained the original hall. The library, meeting rooms, reading room and upstairs billiard room still remain today.

In Numurkah the first subscribers to the Numurkah Mechanics’ Institute met on 21 June 1882 and the building was constructed within the following year. The Numurkah Mechanics’ Institute was the site of the first Church of England service in the town ahead of the construction of the church and was also used as a courthouse and a venue for balls, concerts, lectures and the Numurkah Dramatic Club, fire brigade concerts and the choral union. The Numurkah shire also met there before the shire hall was built back in 1889. The site was associated with a wide variety of cultural, social, religious, recreation and political events and groups from the earliest period of the town’s history. The building was constructed by TE Draper, initially with a single storey. A second storey that included a billiards hall was added in 1887. The site was then gifted by the institute to the shire in 1938 and auctioned by them in 1957 when it was valued at £18,000. It was eventually sold for £16,250 and used as a hardware shop. Sold again, the building remained a hardware shop until 1980. The building has since been renovated but retains a few original features, such as the timber ceiling and pressed metal rear wall surroundings that were once the stage.

In recently visiting Numurkah, I took note of the actual building, and it has a retail store in the building now. When you look above those rooflines you see such a lot of history. As I said, it is so critical that we maintain the heritage buildings within our communities, something that has been neglected and lost over many, many years. I did not get to speak much on the bill, but I think it has been great to hear the contributions today, and I will finish there.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (18:49): I too rise to speak as the member for Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West on the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Repeal Bill 2024. In doing so, I acknowledge I am not a parliamentary representative of the Prahran area, but I certainly do have a longstanding connection to the Prahran community, having spent many of my formative years, particularly through my university days, at the nightlife up and down Chapel Street back in the day – at Chasers to name just one. But I will leave that there. And the member for Narre Warren South would appreciate the live music scene along Chapel Street that I would have been listening to, given his drumming background.

But look, before I turn to the substance of the bill, I think is important to point out, for the sake of my community when I share this speech around, the role of mechanics institutes. We have heard a lot of different descriptions, but essentially the best way I think we can describe what the roles of mechanics institutes were fundamentally is by saying that before we had free TAFE we had mechanics institutes. That is probably one way to describe them. Mechanics institutes did begin as a model for free education for workers in Scotland and were established throughout Britain’s colonies. Mechanics institutes opened in Australia in the early 19th century and were extremely popular, with one in almost every town in Victoria. They were places for community to gather and provided free education, with practical offerings like mathematics, mechanics, chemistry and drawing, which were growing skills for the workforce at the time. These institutes also had libraries and reading rooms to provide access to books and newspapers and had community hubs to host lectures, debates and other cultural events. Mechanics institutes were essentially precursors to public libraries and modern adult education, responding to the need for a skilled workforce and opening up these educational spaces to every person, regardless of their wealth or status.

With the rise of public libraries, technical colleges and other educational institutions in the 20th ‍century, the role of mechanics institutes gradually reduced, and sites transformed for different uses over time. Some of these, as we have heard today, still function as mechanics institutes, halls or library sites. They continue to be places for the community to gather, and around 500 mechanics institutes remain in Victoria today.

In amongst this rich history and evolution of mechanics institutes across Victoria there was of course the establishment of the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute. The PMI is Victoria’s second-oldest library, celebrating 170 years in February this year – astonishing that it is still going strong. It is also the only mechanics institute in Victoria governed by its own act of Parliament, one of the oldest pieces of legislation in the Victorian Parliament, and if I am not mistaken, it is the oldest in fact still on the statute books. 125 years ago the 1899 act was introduced to address growing concerns that the PMI was being mismanaged and had fallen into a state of disrepair. At the time it was a local scandal, with a sharp decline in membership and claims it was no longer acting in the interests of the community, and Parliament stepped in, as it should have, to put governance controls in place.

In 2024 the 1899 act imposes a number of restrictions that can no longer be deemed appropriate on the management and operation of the second-oldest library. When the governing body of the PMI have voted to make changes to their organisation, they have needed to seek amendments here in this Parliament. This is of course very time consuming and restrictive and an overly complicated task for what is essentially a not-for-profit community organisation. As someone who has been the chair of the Reynard Street Neighbourhood House and been the founder of the Oxygen youth committee and many other community groups in my area, I just cannot imagine the red tape involved in making a decision at that local level and then having to come to Parliament to get that support. The institute has sought to repeal the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute Act 1899 of course. They have asked for this to allow them to better utilise their assets and make decisions in their own interests, and this bill will ensure that they are able to do that.

It is also across my community that mechanics institutes have had a very longstanding history and role in fostering local community resilience and wellbeing. I will just turn the house’s attention to Coburg. There are four institutes that I will try to touch on as part of my contribution. The first is the Coburg Mechanics’ Institute and Free Library, which was originally located on Sydney Road and established in 1891 but then again in 1908. It was founded following a meeting of 15 residents in the then shire hall in August 1891, who resolved to establish the Coburg Mechanics’ Institute and Free Library. Their efforts saw the opening of the institute on 17 October 1891 by David Methven MLA. There were 90 members and the library consisted of 67 subscribers and 117 books, purchased by subscription and a council donation of £25. Twelve months later there were 490 books. The institute received government grants in 1892 and again in 1893, and in its first year the institute rented Mrs Mead’s cottage near the corner of Bell Street and Mary Street, presumably staying there for its short life, according to this research here, as it appears nothing came of efforts to erect a building, in spite of a £500 donation – a building grant – from the Coburg council in 1891. The Coburg Leader reported in March 1893 on the theft of daily and weekly journals from the library by individuals who ‘sneak them under the table and after quietly folding them, slyly put them put them into their pockets. They rise from their seats, nod “Adieu” to the librarian and leave the institute after the committal of the most despicable action simply to save a few paltry pence.’

Member numbers then dropped from 90 to 32 in the first 12 months, and in 1894 it was decided to close the institute and free library. Efforts to re-establish the Coburg Mechanics’ Institute and Free Library commenced in 1908, with a bazaar held in the public hall raising enough funds to allow a site to be purchased on Sydney Road. Nothing happened again until 1910, when Mayor Ernest Aikman called the committee together and submitted a scheme for building a brick hall with a stage, dressing rooms, reading rooms, lodge, anterooms and a shop. However, nothing happened for a further six years, and the Coburg Leader asked whether the land was going to be utilised for the purposes for which it was intended or left unimproved and neglected. Then in 1919 the 700-strong Coburg branch of the RSL, with many First World War returned servicemen, sought to establish its own clubrooms. After unsuccessful efforts to take over the property of the then defunct mechanics institute, the servicemen set themselves up in TR Congleton’s old premises on the corner of Sydney Road and Munro Street, with the RSL now proudly situated on 323 Sydney Road, Coburg. It is actually the oldest longest running RSL sub-branch in Victoria. It is older than the Shrine of Remembrance in fact.

Today the modern Coburg Library, which celebrated its 70th anniversary just last year, is on the corner of Victoria Street, Louisa Street and Waterfield Street. In fact Merri-bek council, to their credit, have undertaken community consultation. They are very keen to look at building a new Coburg Library, again as part of ongoing Coburg revitalisation efforts, which I do look forward to working with them on and supporting them on over coming years. Some fun facts about the Coburg Library: in 1947 the Free Library Service Board Act 1946 provided council with a government subsidy on a pound-for-pound basis. Following receipt of 3000 signatures on a petition, council committed itself in 1950 to fund a library on the town hall site. The new library was officially opened by Sir John Latham on 11 ‍July 1953. A children’s library was opened in the same room early the following year and in 1956 given its own building nearby. In 1981 council bought the old Safeway supermarket in Victoria Street and by 1983 had converted it into the new library, where it still stands today. Last year of course, as I mentioned, it celebrated its 70th birthday.

Coburg Library, along with Campbell Turnbull Library, Brunswick Library and the new Glenroy learning centre in the member for Broadmeadows’s electorate, do an amazing job in helping support our communities’ outcomes indeed. Just some loan statistics: in 2022–23 there were 1.1 million library loans, including over 853,000 physical items and over 271,000 e-resources. In 2023–24 that increased ‍– and it continues to increase – to over 1.2 million loans of library materials, including both physical and e-resources. They do an amazing job in terms of bringing in the community, particularly with non-English-speaking families and children and story times, which are magnificent. My two daughters made the most of them when they were a bit younger.

I will not have time to get into detail about the other remaining three mechanics institutes, but essentially we did have another three, one of which is still active. The only one in fact that is still active is in Brunswick. Firstly, we also had the Moonee Vale Mechanics’ Institute once upon a time that was established in 1904 in Brunswick West when Moonee Valley was very much part of Brunswick West. The legacy of that is the Campbell Turnbull Library, which opened in 1982 on Melville Road and Irvine Crescent, on the corner. It is going 42 years strong for my community in Brunswick West. We had the Brunswick Mechanics Institute as well that was established on the corner of Sydney Road and Glenlyon Road. It was first established in 1868 and is actually still standing there on the corner and is very much utilised by the community for arts, cultural and many other community events to this very day. We also did have the Brunswick School of Design that was opened in 1870 at the same site as well. Of course I commend the bill in that respect, and I very much wish the Prahran community all the best with this bill.

Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (18:59): With the remaining 43 seconds on the clock I would like to say that this has actually been a surprisingly enlightening debate. I learned a lot about mechanics institutes throughout this. I had no idea what an integral part of learning for adults these institutions actually provided. I have got to say I walk away with a great appreciation for the role that they played, especially amongst townships. I would like to shout out that Olinda Mechanics Institute was the first place where the Melbourne International Film Festival was held in 1953. It originated there at that fine institute. We still have the Kallista one, which we have just backed with a Tiny Towns grant to uplift this beautiful building, and I commend this bill to the house.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.