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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Thomas Ambrose Gaunt (1829–1890) built a prominent Melbourne business that ranged from watches and clocks to scientific instruments, jewellery and ecclesiastical metalwork. Its public clocks did more than decorate civic buildings: some helped distribute official time across the city, while a railway clock supported the coordination of train departures.
From a Little Bourke Street shop to the Royal Arcade
Gaunt arrived in Melbourne in 1852 and had established his own business in Little Bourke Street by 1858, according to Museums Victoria’s account of his life and firm. Around 1869, he moved to Bourke Street at the corner of the Royal Arcade, where his shop became a Melbourne institution. The University of Melbourne’s 2008 account of the city’s clock and watchmakers gives a different arrival estimate—around 1856—and dates the Royal Arcade move to December 1869.
Gaunt entered a growing trade. The University of Melbourne notes that Melbourne’s 1851 Directory listed 17 clock and watchmakers, and that the number had more than doubled by 1854. The firm’s prominence is clearer in its range of work and commissions than in any single label: Museums Victoria describes it as Melbourne’s leading watchmaking, optical and jewellery business during the second half of the nineteenth century.
A business beyond clocks and watches
Gaunt’s firm sold and serviced watches and clocks, but it also supplied instruments used for scientific and practical work. Museums Victoria says the business made or supplied thermometers, barometers fitted with imported glass tubes, telescopes, surveying instruments and microscopes. It had an electroplating department and made ecclesiastical goldware and silverware, including work for St Patrick’s Cathedral.
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This breadth helps explain how a clockmaker’s premises could become a substantial Victorian-era enterprise. The shop joined retail and repair with instrument-making, metalwork and specialist commissions; its public clocks were one visible part of a much wider operation.
Public clocks for civic Melbourne
Gaunt’s civic clocks served different places and purposes. The Eastern Market clock was a gift to the Melbourne City Corporation; the Customs House clock was connected to Observatory time; and the railway clock was tied to the practical business of departures.
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| Clock | Setting and function | What is documented |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Market turret clock, 1879 | Civic market | Made by Gaunt and presented to the Melbourne City Corporation for the Eastern Market; demolished with the market in 1960, the clock is now in storage. Museums Victoria’s record says the displayed plaque is a replica and the original is held by Melbourne City Council. Object record |
| Customs House wall clock, installed 1877 | Administrative building and official timekeeping | Electrically controlled by signals from Melbourne Observatory; one of nine public clocks controlled by electrical impulse to maintain Observatory time. Object record |
| Victorian Railways No. 1, or “Main Line Starter Clock” | Spencer Street Station and railway operations | Used by railway staff to coordinate country train departures; later connected by telegraph to Observatory time, with signals sent to country and suburban stations at 10 a.m. daily. Object record |
The Eastern Market gift
The Museums Victoria record transcribes the clock’s inscription as: “This clock was made & presented to the Melbourne City Corporation for the use of the Eastern Market by Thomas Gaunt, Clockmaker, Royal Arcade, Melbourne 1879”. The museum identifies the plaque now on the object as a replica, not the original. The clock itself survives in storage, though the market building was demolished in 1960.
Customs House and a citywide time signal
The Customs House clock illustrates a system larger than an individual mechanism. Museums Victoria says it was one of nine public clocks receiving electrical impulses to keep them to official Melbourne Observatory time, and that Government Astronomer Robert Ellery worked with Gaunt on designing these controlled clocks. In effect, Observatory signals helped distribute a shared time standard to public places around the city.
Timekeeping for the railways
The Victorian Railways No. 1 clock shows why shared time mattered operationally. Staff used it to coordinate country train departures; later, a telegraph connection linked it to Observatory time, and daily 10 a.m. signals carried time information to country and suburban stations. Museums Victoria received the clock in 1964.
Its installation date is uncertain. The object record cites an account placing it at Spencer Street Station in 1858, information suggesting 1859, and the possibility that it dates from around the introduction of Observatory time in 1871. None of those possibilities should be treated as settled.
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Other commissions and technical work
Not all of Gaunt’s notable work survives as a public time network. Museums Victoria says the Melbourne Post Office lobby clock was made to a design by Government Astronomer Robert Ellery. Gaunt’s turret clock for Emerald Hill Town Hall received an award at the 1880–81 Melbourne International Exhibition. At Flemington Racecourse, a chronograph installed in 1876 showed race time to a quarter of a second, according to the museum’s historical account, which displays no publication year.
The firm also installed the clockwork and figures for Gog and Magog in the Royal Arcade. Taken together, these projects show the range of its work: civic and administrative clocks, railway timekeeping, sporting timing, and mechanical figures in a prominent commercial setting.
What a “T. Gaunt” name on a dial does—and does not—tell you
A clock or watch carrying Gaunt’s name is not necessarily a complete object manufactured in Melbourne. Museums Victoria cautions that few such items may have been locally made: Gaunt produced some watches for exhibitions and perhaps a few expensive watches for wealthy customers, but the name alone is not proof of local manufacture.
The University of Melbourne explains the broader trade practice: clocks and watches were commonly imported complete or in components, then assembled, retailed and repaired locally. A circa-1890 wall clock in Museums Victoria’s collection bears the T. Gaunt name, but its movement is described as probably imported. The distinction matters when interpreting a dial: the name can identify the retailer or business associated with the object without establishing where every part was made.
Museums Victoria also records that Gaunt advertised himself as “The only watch manufacturer in the Australian colonies.” That is evidence of his marketing claim, not proof that all watches sold under his name were locally manufactured.
The business and its legacy
Museums Victoria reports that workers remained with Gaunt’s business for 15 to 30 years and that his estate was valued at £41,453. The museum’s historical article does not display a publication year for these figures, so they are best read as institutional historical records rather than contemporary measures.
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Gaunt’s significance rests in the firm’s breadth and the civic role of its timekeeping. Its work connected the Royal Arcade shop to markets, government buildings, a racecourse and the railway system; its Observatory-linked clocks helped make public time more consistent. The surviving clocks document a Melbourne business whose influence extended well beyond the clock face.
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