Historical information

This photograph, taken by The Advocate in 1999, features one of the buildings of the former 3LO Radio Transmitting Station located on Ashley Street, Maidstone.

Radio station 3LO commenced broadcasting on 13 October 1924, with its first transmission featuring an outside broadcast of the opera La Bohème from Melbourne's His Majesty's Theatre, including a performance by Dame Nellie Melba. The station was named after London's famous radio station, 2LO.

The transmission facilities were established at the Ashley Street site in the early 1920s. The station originally operated from a powerful transmitting tower and associated equipment buildings located near the Maribyrnong River. The site was chosen because radio transmission technology of the period required transmitters to be located close to their audience.

In 1932, when the Australian Broadcasting Commission was established, control of 3LO passed to the national broadcaster, making the station one of the foundations of the ABC radio network.

In 1938, 3LO's transmission operations were moved from Maidstone to a new site at Sydenham (then often described as St Albans or Delahey), where broadcasting infrastructure for ABC Melbourne remains today.

Significance

The photograph documents a surviving element of this historically significant site and provides a record of its appearance at the end of the twentieth century.

Physical description

Collection of digitally scanned coloured negative

Inscriptions & markings

7729 - 3LO Transmitter Station Building Ashley Street Maidstone 1999 Photograph (Advocate 559.2).JPG