22 Bendigo Street, Richmond C.1955
GTV Channel 9 - It had a couple of incarnations before becoming “Television City”.
Hugo Wertheim, the son of a successful business man from Germany, moved to Melbourne in 1875 and started work for a family member. He saved enough money to start his own business selling sewing and knitting machines, bicycles and pianos. The business grew rapidly and as pianos were very popular at the time and no pianos were manufactured locally, Hugo decided to focuse on that side of the business.
He purchased the land in Bendigo St Richmond (Burnley) and the factory was operational by 1908. The factory had its own iron and brass foundries, wood curing facilities and generator. It even had a dedicated tram stop.
Hugo died in 1919 and his son took over the business but with the Great Depression and the popularity of radio the factory shut in 1935.
The Heinz company took over the site and operated from there until 1955. During that time they produced on average 13 million cans of food per year. Heinz decided it was no longer viable to operate out of Bendigo St and moved to Dandenong.
GTV 9 became Melbourne’s second television station and renamed the site “Television City” . the first broadcast was transmitted at 8pm on January 19th 1957. A new era in local entertainment had begun.