Bendigo Street is a peaceful street tucked into a corner of the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, with beautiful modern apartment buildings, a little coffee shop serving local dog walkers, and tall, shady trees that create an arbour over the road.
The only thing hinting at the street’s vibrant history is the large lettering on the side of one of the townhouse complexes. One side reads ‘Studio Nine’, another ‘Television City’. This site was once the bustling heart and soul of Australian entertainment. But not before its former lives as apiano factory and the Heinz factory. Following World War II and the boom of affordable, long-life foods, Heinz outgrew the Bendigo Street facility and the site was sold to a new owner, Channel Nine, in 1955.
Sir Dallas Brooks, then Governor of Victoria, opened the new Channel Nine studios in late 1956, and by January 1957, the first television program was broadcast from the site. The regular first program broadcast out of the studios was a nightly variety show, hosted by Graham Kennedy, called In Melbourne Tonight. The long-running variety show earned its place in the living rooms of Australian households, quickly becoming Channel Nine’s most popular program.
By the 1960s, Channel Nine employed over 600 people and Bendigo Street had its own recording studio, dance troupe, band and was home to the largest prop department in the southern hemisphere. By the end of the 20th century, Channel Nine had produced infamous shows like Hey, Hey It’s Saturday, The Footy Show, and The Paul Hogan Show.
David Langdon, lifelong resident and president of the Richmond and Burnley Historical Society remembers those days well.
“Well, if you went down to the Bridge Hotel on Fridays, you’d run into many of the stars of Channel Nine. You would catch up with them as if they’re just friends”, Langdon says.
Katrina Henley worked as a stylist at Channel Nine during the glory years of Australian television, from 1988-2010. Her work week was jam-packed, styling the hosts of Ernie and Denise, The Price is Right, The Footy Show and Sale of the Century.
“I grew up in Nhill, and to end up [at Channel Nine] was like, wow. Channel Nine had Hey Hey [it’s Saturday] and Wide World of Sports and big shows that you grew up with”, she says.
Henley, who still lives in Richmond, remembers the spirit that the Channel Nine studios brought to the community. She recalls many nights spent at the Bridge Hotel with the rest of the Channel Nine crew.
“Everyone would meet there. I think I’ve paid for a few walls at the Bridge Hotel myself,” she says.
Langdon says that the studios created vast employment opportunities for the community, and many locals found themselves regularly joining the live audience.
“It’s amazing who you’d run into. It connected people to people,” he says.
“You would have a whole lot of people coming and going. You’d see them and they’d stop and say g’day to you. In coffee shops, even the dry cleaners.”
“If you went to McDonalds on Bridge Road, you’d probably see Phil Brady there at one o’clock when he’d finish his show”, he says.
Henley made a real effort to support Richmond businesses when choosing items for the Channel Nine presenters to wear. She says that once their clothing was seen on a TV personality, their business would greatly benefit.
“I’ll say that, having Channel Nine there, it supported a lot of local businesses within Richmond. All the fashion labels along Bridge Road, I would use all of those and once their name was out there, their businesses boomed.”
By 2010, live television’s popularity waned and the high costs of maintaining the Bendigo Street building, became unsustainable. Channel Nine announced it would leave Richmond and move to a smaller building in Docklands. The building was then redeveloped into the high end apartments and townhouses that line Bendigo Street today.
Since Channel Nine left the suburb in 2010, the once vibrant Bridge Road shopping district has seen a constant steadying decline in visitor numbers. There are several factors contributing to the decline in foot traffic – like the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and lack of parking, but, there is no doubt that the street misses the consistency of the hundreds of Channel Nine workers that once frequented these businesses, and the attraction of tourists who came to have their picture taken in front of the studios.
“It was never a flash building as such,” Henley says. “But it was what the building held, as opposed to what the building was.”
Article: Amy Ditcham is a third-year Media and Communications (Journalism) student at La Trobe University. You can follow her on X @amyditcham_
Photo: By author
