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.…
Beverley Stephens (nee Dredge) remembers growing up in Port. She takes up the story after her grandmother and uncle were tragically killed in a house fire as told in Part 1.
After the fire, Uncle Bill decided to bring his daughter Val to 82 Evans Street so that the brothers could bring up their children together.
Shortly afterwards my eldest…

Cambridge Street (highlighted). MMBW Map, 1894
Passers-by today would find it difficult to identify the street highlighted in the above 1894 MMBW map. That's because it doesn't exist, although that is not strictly true. Part of the street is still there but it no longer intersects with Farrell Street.
This is Cambridge Street. The origins of the name are unknown, but…

Beverley Stephens (nee Dredge) remembers growing up in Port
Our family came to live at 82 Evans Street when Mum and Dad
were struggling through the depression. Around the time I was due, Dad was
trying to earn a living selling Jelly Crystals door to door - and anything else
he could sell. They were living at that
time in the house three doors…

Seisman Street runs between Dow Street and Esplanade West near Liardet Street. Originally known as Clark Street, but unproclaimed as an official street, Sandridge Council at their meeting on Thursday 22 November 1883 approved that it be renamed Seisman Street, after the immediate past Mayor, Cr Frederick Seismann. The reasoning being that a Clark Street, already proclaimed, existed in the west of…