Skip to main content

The Dictionary of Sydney
Multimedia
AWA tower illuminated for VE Day May 1945

AWA tower illuminated for VE Day May 1945

Image courtesy of the

State Library of Victoria

Search

Browse

Browse
- Artefacts
- Buildings
- Events
- Natural Features
- Organisations
- People
- Places
- Structures
- Entries
- Multimedia
- Subjects
- Roles
- Contributors

Connections

Appears in

AWA Tower Sydney

Subjects

Celebrations Commercial building Radio War World War II

Buildings

AWA Building and Tower

Places

Wynyard Park

Footer

Home
About
Copyright
Contact

Footer Secondary

Contribute
Donate

State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria is contributing items from its multimedia collection

AWA Tower

Topping the Art Deco AWA building, the tower was modelled on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and once dominated Sydney's skyline.

Sydney

Founded by Europeans as a social experiment, Sydney's beginnings brought death and dispossession to the original inhabitants of the place, as well as surprising freedom and prosperity to many of the convicts. Over its history, the city's growth has been shaped by factors that are common to many cities, but also by unique forces. In the twenty-first century, for the first time, the idea of sustainable progress is itself in doubt.

Commercial building

Radio

War

World War II

Celebrations

AWA Building and Tower

full record »

Communications tower that was Sydney's tallest building from the time it was built in 1939 until the 1960s. AWA (Amalgamated Wireless Australasia) was a household name from the 1930s to the 1950s as both a broadcaster and a manufacturer of radios, record players and other electrical equipment. The tower was modelled on Berlin's Funkturm Tower, built a few years earlier, and both took inspiration from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The building is decorated with appropriate symbols of communication, including a winged Pegasus, and the light fittings in the entrance in the shape of radio valves.

Wynyard Park

full record »

Park in central Sydney, originally site of barracks parade ground.