Prince’s Trust Australia is celebrating a major new milestone – moving into eco-friendly offices in iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge warehouses.
It is the first time the Trust has had official office space in Sydney, and the rental is generously donated by our gold patrons, Ken Harrison AM, KSJ and Jill Harrison OAM, DSJ. Prince’s Trust Australia now has staff based in both Melbourne and Sydney. The Trust’s Melbourne staff worked from home during the pandemic, and is due to move into pro-bono office space in the coming month, with details to come soon.
“After working at home during COVID, the chance to collaborate on projects and meet in person is priceless,” says Prince’s Trust Australia Chief Executive, Michelle Endacott
The new Sydney offices are in a co-sharing office space called Work inc. under the northern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in warehouses once occupied by the North Sydney Highway Patrol.
Work inc. has a focus on community. It features an onsite optometrist, a podcast studio, 30+ eclectic break-out rooms, a sundeck for meditation and a dog-friendly policy. As sustainability is a key focus for Prince’s Trust Australia, we loved that the space has energy-saving light and temperature-control systems in place, internal bicycle parking stations, recycling hubs and more planet-friendly additions.
“By first impression, our space seems massive; there are unreachable ceilings, hidden cavities all over the place with meandering paths joining to others but let Work inc wash over you and not long after you’ll feel it’s smallness, and that’s the wonderful community at play.” – Work inc.
An eclectic past
The 6 conjoined heritage warehouses have an eclectic past having first been built almost a century ago in 1923.
To make way for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the engineers needed to lay some foundations down and that included the making of the Northern warehouses propped under the railway. During construction, the Middlemiss St. & Ennis Rd. warehouses were used as supplementary steel workshops. Records tell us that the warehouse structure remains untouched but for the glazed bay windows and concrete flooring added post-bridge completion.
Throughout the century, this industrial strip was utilised by car dealers, mechanics, and public services such as the North Sydney Highway Patrol and the State Emergency Service.
That was until developer and soon-to-be Work inc founder, Mark Davidson, spotted an abandoned, leaky warehouse laying waste on the side of the highway.
One evening, Mark shared his new vision for a coffee cart with his mates, one which included a police officer. Knowing Mark’s imaginative ways, he mentioned a shipping container the police had just de-commissioned. Seized for smuggling 600kg of pseudoephedrine into Australian borders, the police were willing to auction off the shipping container.
Bay Ten Espresso opened its roller doors to the public in the Spring of 2014 with the narcotic shipping container taking centre stage as the barista station. It was the first chance Sydney had a glimpse inside one of these historic warehouses.
Shortly after Bay Ten was created, 22 office pods were created and the café was under the pump. A collective community had been created in the laneway that the world had forgotten about.
By 2020, Work inc. accommodates 550 brilliant minds spanning from Bay 10 all the way to Bay 5 and we are excited to be amongst the action!
