Perth’s Swan Bells Tower

The overall plan for Perth’s Barrack Square was to provide Perth with a lively, family oriented destination which links the city to the Swan River, giving people more opportunity to enjoy this unique asset. While providing a friendly and relaxed environment it also offers a dramatic setting for the display and ringing of the historic bells of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The bells are housed in the purpose built landmark tower that is ranked as one of the largest musical instruments in the world. An 82.5-meter high glass spire, designed to be seen from all points of Perth’s waterways, dominates the Swan Bells Tower. Architect Bill Hames of Hames Sharley designed the Tower and the electrical consultants were Building Consultants Australia.

Illuminating the spire are three Martin Exterior 600s placed inside the glass spire itself and illuminating up through the framework. The framework itself has been painted silver to reflect the light.

Light Application of Perth was approached to provide ideas on lighting the Tower with quite a restricted budget.  “The glass spire section was the obvious “bang for your buck” section for effect lighting,” said David Sparrow, Managing Director of Light Application. The effects and house lighting systems were integrated into a single lighting palette.

The spire is lit each night from sunset until midnight. On the hour there is a five-minute "light show". The lighting sequence frequently matches a current theme – yellow for cancer week, green for St. Patrick’s Day - and is linked in with Perth’s “Australia Day Skyshow” where lasers, smoke and pyrotechnics add to the celebration. Fiber optic lighting is set into the top metal segment of the spire.

“All of the house lighting is part of the effects so we can make it do things like a Mexican wave from the bottom to the top and back again,” said David.

Using Martin ShowDesigner software Show Technology supplied 3-dimensional  visualizations of the lighting effects achievable with Martin Exterior 600’s on the spire. The renderings demonstrated the lighting concept well and were sent for approval to the architects, consultants and even the Premier’s office.

“They certainly helped sell the project because originally there was no budget to light up the spire,” said David. “Linked in with the [control system], the DMX512 controlled Martin Exteriors provide an excellent no fuss workhorse with excellent output and effects. As the Swan River is virtually at the doorstep, their waterproof aluminum construction ensures maintenance free operation which is good for the client and therefore good for us. Since their installation, the Martin Exteriors have been very reliable and the client is very impressed with them.”

The historic bells, dating back to the 14th century, were presented in 1988 to Western Australia as part of a program of activities to commemorate the Bicentennial year. The bells are the largest set of “change bells” in the world and are housed in one of the only bell towers in the world in which the public can view the bells and bell ringers from a gallery, as well as Perth’s skyline from a 360 degree viewing platform.