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Brisbane’s City Hall clock has been silent for months, as the historic timepiece undergoes yet another round of work.
Last year, our horological investigation revealed the almost century-old analogue clock was chiming more than one minute late, and the council was trialling a new electric motor on it.
The motors were upgraded in early 2024 to ensure accurate time-keeping on the clock face, separate to the bell motors, which were “functioning as expected” at the time.
The Museum of Brisbane offers free tours of the inner workings of the City Hall clock tower, built in the 1920s.Credit: Museum of Brisbane
However, people who work or shop near King George Square might have noticed the City Hall tower chimes have gone quiet.
The chimes were turned off in May.
A council spokesman this week said the clock faces were working, and the chime system was being upgraded.
The City Hall clock has been silent for months.Credit: Adobe Stock
Work has begun to install a new GPS-synchronised system on the heritage-listed clock.
“Because of the age of the clock, many original parts are no longer available, so this has been a major upgrade,” the spokesman said.
The project includes fitting six new motorised gearboxes, specially designed to work with the clock’s hammer weights and carefully installed in the tight space inside the tower.
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The work is due to be finished by the end of October.
The clock was built in the late 1920s and was described in a brochure as the “most modern and complete electrical time-keeping system in Australia at the present time. The whole system is automatic”.
The clock face is the largest in Australia, and when it was unveiled, many people did not wear watches, let alone have phones in their pockets that told them the time to the second.
The City Hall clock is one of Brisbane’s most recognisable icons, and a feature of Trent Dalton’s internationally acclaimed book and Netflix series Boy Swallows Universe.
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