A brief history of our office, fondly known as the Sausage Factory, by its inhabitants

These days, the junction of Preston and Thornbury in Melbourne’s inner north is full of cafes, restaurants and boutique beers. There’s artisan ice cream in a former shoe-maker’s shop, arthouse movies in what used to be a corner service station and mechanic, yoga in a former dancehall with soaring ceilings, Melbourne’s best Portuguese tarts in what was once a two-dollar shop (and a bank before that), and finally, a storytelling company in an old sausage factory.

Hyphen has been resident of the old heritage-listed Otto Wurth factory for almost ten years now, buying after developers had to leave it be in the sea of new apartment blocks springing up like mushrooms. It looks like a child’s drawing of a factory building.

Otto Wurth emigrated to Australia in the 1920s from Germany. He opened his first smallgoods store in Richmond in 1934 and was so successful that his operation outgrew that place the same year. He moved to Johnson Street, Fitzroy, until the need for even bigger premises precipitated a move to ‘pork town’ – Preston – in 1958. There, he stuck his name on the building that had had previously been a ham and bacon curing factory, Watson and Paterson, which had been in the area since 1862.

Originally, the building was a small, weatherboard construction, but by the time Otto took possession of it, it was the same solid red-brick factory you’ll find today if you come and visit us at Hyphen HQ.

Hyphen operates out of one quarter of the remaining old slaughterhouse, producing books and films where once bacon and cured meats were made. The other three quarters of the building are residential apartments. As Otto Wurth residents, we live and work in a building and a place that has had a buzzing, interesting previous life. High Street has changed almost unrecognisably over the years, and the repurposing of what had become a derelict building is our part in that. For storytellers, there’s no better place to work.

Neil Montagnana-Wallace

Hyphen has been resident in a part of the old Otto Wurth factory for almost ten years now, buying after developers had to leave it be in the sea of new apartment blocks springing up like mushrooms in the area.