Jack's Magazine

Jack's Magazine
The magazine in 2016
Location within Melbourne
Interactive map of the Jack's Magazine area
Alternative names	Saltwater River Gunpowder Magazine
Etymology	Wally Jack (keeper, WWI–1943)
General information
Type	Gunpowder magazine
Location	Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°46′55″S 144°53′43″E
Year built	1876–1878
Completed	1878 (1878)
Opened	c. 2026 (as a tourist site)
Closed	1993 (as a magazine)
Client	Colony of Victoria
Owner	Colony of Victoria (1876–1901) Australian Government (1901–c. 2004) Victorian Government (since c. 2004)
Operator	Working Heritage
Technical details
Material	Bluestone; bricks
Size	6 ha (15 acres)
Design and construction
Architect	William Wardell
Architecture firm	Public Works Department
Main contractor	George Cornwell
Website
workingheritage.com.au
Victorian Heritage Register
Official name	Jack's Magazine
Type	Registered place
Designated	18 April 1996
Reference no.	H1154
Heritage overlay no.	HO45
Categories	Military Transport - Water
Register of the National Estate
Official name	Jacks Magazine
Type	Defunct register
Designated	30 June 1992
Reference no.	5477

The Jack's Magazine, also known as the Saltwater River Gunpowder Magazine, is a gunpowder magazine located on the western banks of the Maribyrnong River, off La Scala Avenue, in Maribyrnong, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. Built in 1878 to provide safe storage for bonded gunpowder and explosives imported into the Colony of Victoria, the structure was decommissioned in 1993. Managed by Working Heritage, the site has been open to the public since 2026.

Located on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, the site was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 18 April 1996 in recognition of its historical, architectural and scientific significance; and was added to non-statutory heritage lists by the Victorian branch of the National Trust on 6 August 1997, the City of Maribyrnong on an unknown date, and various elements to other non-statutory heritage curtails. The site was also added to the now defunct Register of the National Estate on 30 June 1992.

Etymology

Formally known as the Saltwater River Gunpowder Magazine, the facility became popularly known as Jack’s Magazine in recognition of Wally Jack who served as depot foreman and keeper of the magazine from World War I until 1943.

Description

Jack's Magazine is a virtually intact complex of 19th century, twin bluestone-vaulted and gunpowder storage buildings, that are concealed behind high earth mound blast walls, and a tall bluestone wall, with a canal connecting it to the river. The six-hectare (fifteen-acre) site also contains tunnels, tramways, service buildings, and a loading dock. The twin 64-metre-long (210 ft) and 11-metre-wide (35 ft) tunnels were approved in 1875, designed by government architect, William Wardell, as Inspector General of the Public Works Department, and built by contractor George Cornwell between 1876 and 1878, commissioned by the Victorian colonial government.

On the Federation of Australia, the complex passed to the Australian Government, which built several brick magazines between 1908 and 1921, and became part of the former Footscray Ammunition Factory from the 1920s. The Footscray Ammunition Factory was mostly demolished and redeveloped for the Edgewater estate by Delfin Lend Lease.

Decommission and subsequent use

Jack's Magazine was decommissioned from 1993 and it was proposed that the site be redeveloped for a commercial use. Following several calls for expressions of interests it was decided that public ownership was the only practical management for the historic site. Jack's Magazine was transferred from the Commonwealth to the Victorian government in c. 2004. It has been managed by Working Heritage – a committee appointed by the Victorian Government to manage heritage properties on Crown land, and after ten years of remediation and short-term/temporary open days, it opened as a tourist site in 2026.

In an interview aired in 2020 on the SBS TV series Secrets of Our Cities, Peter Haffenden, a local resident, asserted that, from Jack's Magazine, "all the bullets, all the .303s bullets used in Gallipoli, in Egypt, in the Somme, in Amiens" were all made by the munition company, whose main factory was based at Jack's Magazine.

See also

Various views of Jacks Magazine courtesy of the Footscray Historical Society

• Architecture of Melbourne
• List of places on the Victorian Heritage Register in the City of Maribyrnong

External links

Media related to Jack's Magazine at Wikimedia Commons

• "Jack's Magazine". Working Heritage. 2026. Retrieved 30 June 2026.
• Fedorowicz, Andrew (8 December 2017). "The Maribyrnong – Melbourne's best kept secret. Green or Greed?" (blog). Balance Architecture. Retrieved 30 June 2026.