Heritage Pelaco sign in Richmond Hill to get makeover

Richmond's landmark Pelaco shirt sign, one of the earliest neon signs still surviving in Australia, will be getting replaced before it becomes a danger.

There is an application before Heritage Victoria to remove and replace the sign's letters and supporting structure with the same Pelaco appearance.

The 74-year-old sign in Goodwood Street, high on Richmond Hill was heritage listed subsequent to the National Trust classifying the Pelaco building in 1993 for its historic and social significance.

Richmond has the greatest concentration of surviving sky-signs in the State - which include the Skipping Girl, Victoria Bitter, Slade Knitwear and Pelaco signs, and the Nylex sign as the most prominent.

Heritage authorities view these large sky-signs, which used to be an important feature of the Melbourne skyline, as increasing in rarity.

Pelaco moved out of the Richmond building in 1988.

It was 1939 when the shirt makers at Pelaco erected the neon sign with 14 foot letters on their roof with pink neon and incandescent bulbs. The company was formed by James Kerr Pearson and James Law in 1908 and reached the height of its importance in 1951 when it dominated the Australian market. PELACO was a pioneer in the shirt making industry in Australia and an innovator in the adoption of mass production methods and labour relations in the textiles and clothing industry. 

But in the mid-1990s the owner of the 7627 square metre Goodwood Street factory site wanted to remove the Richmond landmark and replace it with a billboard.

There was a 1995 application before the City of Yarra that asserted the sign was in a potentially dangerous state of disrepair with the owner, Mark Munzer indicating he was  losing $20,000 annual income from its potential advertising space.

At the time the managing director of Pelaco, Miles Gowty, hoped to make a deal with Mark Munzer to keep the sign in place. Erected by the Claude Neon Company, the sign was partially re-illuminated in 1997 after a long period of dereliction.

The factory now houses numerous businesses including radio stations who lease within the complex.

The current application notes "detailed inspections and assessments have brought us to the conclusion that the sign letters and supporting structure are in a severely deteriorated state and require repair or removal in the short term."

"We are of the opinion the existing structure is not able to be adequately repaired and the owner wishes to proceed with works to replace the sign and supporting structure with a new supporting structure and new letters, essentially of the same form and appearance as the existing ones," the SEMF consulting engineers reportv says.

It is noted the Melbourne Heritage Restoration Fund has agreed in principle to provide some funding towards these works.

Image of Pelaco sign courtesy of adonline.id.au