Johnston Street

by David F. Radcliffe

Johnston Street runs from Graham Street to Beaconsfield Parade, one block back from Pickles Street. It was gazetted in 1865 along with many other streets on the eastern side of Sandridge Lagoon: Rouse Street East, Graham Street East, Liardet Street East, Esplanade East and Pickles Street. This was before any bridges crossed this dominant water feature.

Over the years, the spelling of the name on maps and directories has vacillated between Johnston and Johnson. It is said to have been named after an old identity who was a fisherman. The 1861 Sandridge Electoral Roll lists nine men named Johnson – Alfred, Alexander, Frederick (x2), Peter (x2), James, Samuel and one with no first name recorded. There was also Kerr Johnston, but it can’t be him as he was the chaplain to the Bethel Seaman’s Mission. The occupations of the others are not listed, so take your pick.

The location of Johnston Street, on the far side of the lagoon and close to the bay, condemned it to become an industrial area. Only a handful of cottages were built along it during the 19^th century.

Its industrialisation intensified in the early part of the 20^th century. The Otto Schumacher Mill Furnishing Works expanded from a narrow brick building to a facility occupying a whole block (Esplanade East, Graham, Johnston and Danks Streets). In 1902, CSR built a large, corrugated iron sugar shed on the corner of Johnston and Rouse Streets, later used by the two distilleries. The gas holder on the block formed by Graham, Johnston, Danks, and Pickles streets went up in a ball of flames on Easter Sunday, 1920, highlighting the risks of living in this neighbourhood. 

However, as industry receded in the late 20^th century, Johnston Street transformed into a dwelling place with many residences and apartment buildings popping up. Schumacher’s factory, latterly Knox Schlapp, was replaced by an architect-designed, infill public housing development in 1985. The Sugar Apartments (33 Johnston Street) replaced the sugar shed in 2000. The site of the gasholder, demolished in the 1980s, became Portside, a complex with 130 apartments, in 2001. A year earlier, a cluster of three-story residences, Oceana, was built on the eastern side of Johnston on part of the site of the former Federal Distillery.^[i]

A series of apartment buildings sprung up on the western side, north of Rouse Street, where a row of cottages once stood: 55 Johnston Street in 2001, Gallowgate (53 Johnston St.) in 2006 and 47 Johnston in 2007. South of Rouse Street, Alumina (9 Johnston St.) appeared in 2018, completing this avenue of beachside apartments.

The sign pointing to Sugar Lane is one of the few reminders that for nearly a century, Johnston (or Johnson?) Street was a place where products were manufactured. 

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^[i] The information about the apartment comes from Biggin & Scott’s website on Port Melbourne Apartment Buildings. https://www.portmelbourneapartments.com.au/apartment-buildings/