The Marshalite was the Melbourne made traffic signal that never took off

Australia’s first traffic signal was introduced in Melbourne in the late 1920s. This manually operated contraption captivated the burgeoning city as horses gave way to motor vehicles. By the early ‘30s, the city had upgraded to an electric operated light signal, similar to the ones we use today. These early traffic lights gave no warning before they changed which did cause some heart-stopping moments as cars rushed through an intersection before being hit by other vehicles in the opposite direction.

Charles Marshall worked as an engineer in Melbourne in the 1930s and drove his car through intersections controlled by these pre-historic traffic signals. The brakes on his car were not good, and on one occasion he could not stop in time when the light changed from green to red. He was fined by the traffic police. This experience got him thinking about the problem of lights changing without warning and decided to get to work on a solution.

Marshall believed drivers and pedestrians needed to know how much time they had to cross the intersection, especially children because currently, they did not have any true indication. The resulting invention was an unusual traffic signal which he called the Marshalite.

In the mid ‘30s, Marshall designed and manufactured his traffic signal alternative at his manufacturing engineering firm in Fitzroy. The traffic signal looked like a clock with two large discs, each around a metre in diameter set at right angles. There was a dial face on either side of the discs to face the oncoming traffic on all four intersecting roads.

The signal sat at the top a 4.5 metre high post with the whole dial illuminated by an overhead lamp. A large white pointer arm on each the dial faces rotated clockwise through red, yellow and green sections of the face to indicate stop and go intervals. This evolved from the original design of red and green sections at the request of the Traffic Police. By adding the orange section, this assisted motorists approaching the intersection at higher speeds to known when an impending change from green to red was to occur.

The first Marshalite prototype unit was installed at the intersection of Gertrude and Brunswick Streets in Fitzroy, in 1937. The company foot the bill for the light and installed it with the permission of the Fitzroy City Council. The Marshalite only lasted a short period at the intersection before being removed due to a complaint by a local Fitzroy councillor. He had been booked for driving through a signalled red period and contested his fine in court. He had won his case on the grounds that the signal was not the property of the Council and therefore was operating without legal jurisdiction.

It wasn’t until 1945 that a second Marshalite was installed, with the appropriate approvals on the corner of Johnson and Brunswick Streets in Fitzroy. Over the next 15 years, the Marshlite would be rolled out to around 35 intersections across Melbourne. The locations included Fitzroy, Northcote, Coburg, Malvern, Richmond, and Camberwell. Along the Nepean Highway, Marshalites were installed at Chelsea, Bonbeach and Aspendale and worked in conjunction with traditional traffic lights.

The Marshalites were retired from service by 1970, surpassed by the now-standard three-light traffic light. Today they sit as historic reminders of Australian inventions from early in our country’s automotive history.

A Marshalite was donated to Melbourne Museum and was restored to operating condition and repainted in 1991 for use in the first Scienceworks exhibition. It is now displayed at Melbourne Museum.

A set of Marshalites had been sitting in the Chelsea council depot for many years before a restoration project took place to get them operational. They were altered to have the 'WALK/DO NOT WALK' lettering and now sit in the Bicentennial Park carpark in Chelsea, Victoria.

There is also a Marshalite Signal is in the courtyard of the RACV Club on Burke Street in Melbourne's CBD.

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