Hubcaps to Creative Hubs is a metaphor for the revival of a city, told through the stories of three once-forgotten gems of Australia’s oft-overlooked industrial heritage.

Hubcaps to Creative Hubs is a series of three short films that are the result of a collaboration between Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Creative Geelong; and widespread support from the Geelong community. This series unearths largely untold slices of Australia’s history that, until recently, have been fading into obscurity and disrepair.

The places covered in HC2CH include a paper mill that was once the southern hemisphere’s largest, to fabric mills that formed key planks of Australia’s World War One effort and its aftermath. These places now have a new life, turning from relics to incubators of Geelong’s creative future.

These are places of grit and solidity that has belied the crumbling certainty of industrial modernity. But above all, they are once again places of making, invested with new stories by a cohort of local artists, photographers, dancers, furniture makers, winemakers and cafes. The salvaging of these places and their new lives are lovingly told, with their share of characters, thrills and quirky turns.

From a city forging a new post-industrial identity, Hubcaps to Creative Hubs is a welcome statement of pride of place, of Geelong people reclaiming and re-forming their history and inscribing new stories in red brick, bluestone and earth.

Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Made by Nicholas Searle and Cristina Garduño Freeman for Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Creative Geelong, Short Film, 2018

In November 2016, Dr Fiona Gray and Dr Cristina Garduño Freeman teamed up with Creative Geelong Inc to raise funds via Research my World, an innovative collaboration between Deakin University and Australia's leading crowdfunding platform Pozible. Our target was $15,000 and our campaign ran for 42 adrenaline-filled days! We received 70 pledges and smashed our target by 143%!

We write about our experience in this article on The Conversation on why we think crowdfunding is a unique way of gaining both social and financial investment in the regeneration of the Geelong region.

The ‘Hubcaps to Creative Hubs’ films were funded by the business communities and people of Geelong. Our crowdfunding campaign on Pozible captured the imagination of the community. We were successful in receiving support from the following organisations, as well as smaller pledges:

• Geelong Connected Communities
• City of Greater Geelong
• TAC
• Provenance Wines
• Truffle Duck
• Costa Property Group
• David Hamilton Property Group
• Geelong Chamber of Commerce
• Fysho
• G21
• Gartland Property
• UBU Gallery
• Tandemvox
• Codeacious

Made by Nicholas Searle and Cristina Garduño Freeman for Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Creative Geelong, Short Film, 2018

Hidden in a once-overlooked industrial corner by the Barwon River at the southern end of bustling Pakington Street, the Returned Soldiers and Serviceman’s Mills (RS&S) has become the hub for a remarkable network of artists and creative makers.

And if you listen closely, you might hear sounds of the past reverberating in the building’s walls.

The mills were opened in 1921 to produce cloth and provide employment opportunities for servicemen returning from World War 1 as part of a community enterprise. They became an integral part of Geelong’s reputation for manufacturing quality tweed and worsted fabric, producing a range of significant products including the Monarch Rug with its distinctive rising sun motif.

The RS&S mills’ decorative façade and thrusting red brick chimney have maintained a strong visual presence, even as milling production declined. But the opening of the popular Boom Gallery sparked lift-off of a different kind. Today, the mills are home to a diverse network of professionals including artists, photographers, yoga and dance studios and videographers. The collaboration of these enterprises has made the mill a site for networks of cross-pollination and the spinning of remarkable new stories.

Oh, and that reverberating hum you might hear? It’s a working fabric mill, producing high-grade commercial textiles used around Australia that you may well have seen or touched. In another link between the RS&S Mill and the arts, the Geelong Textile Company’s fabric is used in the Geelong Performing Arts Centre.

The RS&S Mill is an extraordinary example of the opportunities that the buildings left behind by industrial decline can provide to communities creative enough to invest them with meaning, making places through new types of making.

Film Music Credits:

Cold Funk Funkorama - Kevin MacLeod
Eagle Rock - Wes Hutchinson
Turn On - RW Smith
Pioneers - Audionautix
Satin Sugar - Huma-Huma
7th Floor Tango - Silent Partner
Little Drunk Quiet Floats - Puddle of Infinity
Where I am From - Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
Ghost Dance - Kevin MacLeod
Jupiter One - Riot
Strolling Through - Silent Partner

Ghost Dance, Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Pioneers by Jason Shaw/Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Made by Nicholas Searle and Cristina Garduño Freeman for Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Creative Geelong, Short Film, 2018

Shortly after its establishment, Geelong earned the nickname “the pivot” for its strategic location at a railway junction and for its early growth as an industrial city. Today, few places embody this idea of the Pivot City like the former Federal Woollen Mills.

Built on a 28000m2 site just north of the city centre, the mills mark a remarkable chapter and a turning point in Australia’s industrial and military history. On the cusp of World War One, the Commonwealth Government decided Australia’s military involvement should be as self-sufficient as possible, supported by a burst of local manufacturing. Following a nation-wide search, Geelong was chosen as the site for a fabric mill to manufacture cloth for new military uniforms.

What resulted was one of the most progressive and technologically advanced mills in the world; a facility that became known for its innovative work processes, ventilation and natural light.

Today, the mills retain an imposing presence as a hive of activity, defined by their free classical style in red brick, a material characteristic of much of Geelong, as well as the large windows that dominate its façade. While the mill was sold into private hands in 1923, it continued operating until the 1970s before it fell into disrepair.

The recent reinvention of the mill into a tech and creative start-up hub marked another turning point, paralleling Geelong’s 21 century pivot from industrial decline to rising creative city. The mills’ character has become a magnet for an unexpected array of creative and start-up enterprises from app developers to artists and web designers; all inspired by the place’s link to Geelong’s rich history. These operators are not only weaving their own stories into the fabric of the city, they are helping to reinstate the mill’s life as a centre of innovative making.

Film Music Credits:

Nice to You - Vibe Tracks
Eagle Rock - Wes Hutchinson
North - Silent Partner
Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No.2 - Kevin MacLeod
Gypsy Stroll - Aaron Lieberman
The Bluest Star - The 126ers
One Step Closer - Aakash Gandhi
Strolling Through - Silent Partner

Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No.2, Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Made by Nicholas Searle and Dr Cristina Garduño Freeman for Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Creative Geelong, Short Film, 2018

From their opening in the mid-1880s, the Fyansford Paper Mills were the largest and most advanced in the Southern Hemisphere. Technologically impressive then, the mills’ design remains a marvel, managing the seemingly impossible double-act of fitting into a riparian landscape while standing tall as a symbol of Victorian era industrial ambition.

Owner and manager Alex Robins describes the site as an Industrial Cathedral; and if you traverse the winding road to the mills (or check out this video) you will see why.

The Fyansford Paper Mills’ salvage and restoration is a remarkable process of 'creative conservation' which has incorporated a painstaking array of detail. This includes the working with the buildings’ industrial patina, fine-grained details like the original specifications used to restore long-rotted wooden columns, and the need for a community of stewardship to form around the buildings.

The mills produced paper for around 40 years from various waste products using an intensive production process. It was hard and dirty work, and technological advances and government outsourcing led to the mill closing in the 1920s, after which it has had a range of uses while gradually falling into disrepair.

Uniquely for an industrial building, the mill has a unique connection with the earth around it. Powered by the waters of the Barwon River, its distinct bluestone blocks that form its sheer scale were hewn from around the site.

Today, the mill hosts a creative community that draws uniquely from the surrounding environment: from a local winery, to galleries and cafes, a mosaic studio and even a furniture maker that uses recycled automotive parts; quite possibly even from Geelong’s now-defunct Ford Factory. The site’s layout is full of large spaces and mazy corners, with secrets waiting to be unearthed.

Film Music Credits:

Arms of Heaven - Aakash Gandhi
Eagle Rock - Wes Hutchinson
Little Drunk Quiet Floats - Puddle of Infinity
Where I am From - Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
One Step Closer - Aakash Gandhi
Avec Soin Romance - Kevin MacLeod
Memory Lane - Kevin MacLeod
Cold Funk Funkorama - Kevin MacLeod
Strolling Through - Silent Partner

Avec Soin, There is Romance, Memory Lane, Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Made by Nicholas Searle and Dr Cristina Garduño Freeman for Deakin University, University of Melbourne and Creative Geelong, Short Film, 2018