Eastern Hill Fire Station

Eastern Hill Fire Station is a museum in East Melbourne located at the corner of Victoria Parade and Gisborne Street. The distinctive red brick complex features a 150-foot observation tower that once helped detect fires across the city.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade headquarters opened in 1893, replacing an earlier station that had served the city from Little Bourke Street. It remained the center of organized firefighting in Melbourne until the 1970s when new facilities were developed.

The building displays Queen Anne revival features with stepped gables, steeply pitched rooflines, and decorative elements in red brick and cream-colored cement. These architectural choices shaped how the city expressed civic pride through its working buildings at the turn of the century.

The site is easily reached on foot from surrounding streets and offers clear views of the historic architecture and tower. It sits centrally in the city and is accessible by public transportation.

The observation tower was staffed continuously by firefighters who used it to visually spot fires across the city before automatic alert systems were introduced. This manual watch was central to daily operations and shows how firefighting detection methods evolved over time.