G A Heppner plaque set into the footpath in Main Street, Stawell. Photo by David Thompson
At very regular intervals along the footpaths of Main Street, Stawell there are small plaques recognising the winners of the Stawell Gift going back to 1878 like the one above featuring G A Heppner from Port Melbourne who won in 1892.
Gustav (sometimes Gustave)…
Ray Jelley, April 2020
Gustav Adolph Heppner was born on 24 October 1865 in Adelaide, South Australia to parents Johann Friedrich and Johanne Ernestine Heppner née Ermler and was the fourth of twelve children born to his mother by two husbands. Her second husband was Johan Carl Friedrick Schreiber who she married in 1873 after her first husband Johann was…
Portrait of Mayor Joe Bertie
Bertie St is named after Joseph Bertie but he was always known as Joe.
Bertie's family originally came from Teglio in Italy near the border of Switzerland. Bertie was born in Bendigo in 1885. His father was killed in a mining accident there.
Bertie had been working as a stevedore in Port Melbourne for seven years…
Lou Graham and Grace Patullo (nee Aanensen)
The end of the 19th and start of the 20th Century was a time of economic hardship and great suffering. Workers had few rights and there were virtually no social services available. If a man could not work due to injury etc. his family could starve unless helped by family or neighbours. …
23 January 2020
Ray Jelley writes
In somewhat of a coincidence I began this article on 20 December 2019 – a day that almost broke the record for the hottest Melbourne day in December for 143 years – the temperature reached 43.2 degrees Celsius at 6:00 pm. On 20 December 1946, the temperature rose to 104 degrees Fahrenheit or 40…
Cruikshank Street in 2019. Photograph by David Thompson.
Cruikshank Street and by extension, Little Cruikshank Street are named after William Cruikshank.
Cruikshank Street runs from Pickles Street in the north, across Bridge Street to Liardet Street in the South. Little Cruikshank to the east of the main street runs from Bridge Street to Liardet Street.
William Cruikshank came to Sandridge in…
LIardet? or Lee-ar-day? There may be some uncertainty over the pronunciation but anyone living in Port Melbourne would know this street running between Pickles St to the east and Princes St to the west. Liardet St has two quite different characters: heavily trafficked east of Bay St and quietly residential west of Bay St.
W.F.E. Liardet
Liardet St is named…
Walter St, Port Melbourne in 2019 image Rebecca Moore
Walter Street Port Melbourne runs north-east to south-west between Graham and Poolman Streets along the north boundary of the Port Melbourne Primary School.
It was named to commemorate Councillor George Samuel Walter who served on the Port Melbourne Council for 40 years from 1897 until his death in 1937. George Walter…
Matthias Larkin
This confronting headline was published in the Herald newspaper on 16 December 1891. It described the reaction of one very annoyed old lady who had lost her money by investing it in the South Melbourne Permanent Building and Investment Society and Deposit Institute (SMPB&IS&DS). The subject of her outburst was Matthias Larkin, the recently disgraced secretary of the…
Plummer Street near J L Murphy Reserve. Photo by David Thompson
Plummer Street runs between Bridge Street and Prohasky Street with a section running the length of J L Murphy Reserve.
Andrew Plummer was born in 1812 in Dalkieth, Scotland. He came to Australia in 1853 and established a medical practice in Bay Street having qualified in medicine at Edinburgh University.…