Places – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

The Pumping Station – The Beazley Family Connection

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryDecember 13, 2024

For many years the Beazley family were fisherfolk, working the Bay and selling their catch from the garage next to their home in Dow Street. Leonard 'Dugga' Beazley was the last of the fishermen retiring in 2016 after participating in the buy-out of the Port Phillip Bay commercial fishing licences. But the Beazley family also had a close association…

Johnston Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryDecember 6, 2024

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.…

McCormack: A Slender Street in Two Parts

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 1, 2024

by David F Radcliffe In her 2014 article on McCormack St, Robyn Clinch sketched the life of publican Thomas McCormack, after whom the street was named. The McCormack family lived on the southern part of this slender street between Bridge Street and Esplanade East. McCormack Street also extends northward from Bridge Street to Spring Street East. Each part has a distinct…

Growing up in Port Melbourne

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 18, 2024

Jim Sinclair extracts from an interview conducted by John May and Janet Bolitho on 30 June 2020. Where and when were you born Jim? I was born in 1924 in Cruikshank St, in Port Melbourne. My father was a fireman at Eastern Hill Fire Station. I don’t know what my mother did when she was working. She must of…

Little Cruikshank (aka Little Pickles) Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 4, 2024

by David F Radcliffe Little Cruickshank Street runs between Liardet and Bridge Streets, providing access to the rear of properties on Cruickshank and Pickles Streets, Port Melbourne. This right-of-way was formed when the Crown Land on the eastern shore of the Sandridge Lagoon was surveyed and sold in the 1870s. Entrance to Little Cruickshank Street from Liardet Street It was never…

Melville (aka Malvery) Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 6, 2024

by David F Radcliffe Melville is a difficult-to-find street near the Port Melbourne Tennis Club; blink and you miss it. When the Crown Land south of Graham Street between Ross and Clark was surveyed and sold between 1868 and 1869, Albert Street was the only internal access road.[i] Melville was created as a private right-of-way in the late 1870s when…

O’Brien’s Terrace

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 9, 2024

by David Thompson O'Brien's Terrace, Bay Street, 2024. Photograph by David Thompson. O’Brien’s Terrace, an impressive row of five double-storey shops and dwellings, stands on the west side of Bay Street. The date inscribed on the façade of the building under the pediment indicates it was built in 1886. But who was O’Brien? The Port Melbourne Conservation Study from July 1979…

Drysdale Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2024

by David F Radcliffe Drysdale Street runs between Graham and Seisman Streets near Lagoon Reserve. It is named for the Drysdale family who resided in this narrow right-of-way from the 1860s to the 1930s. The name came into common usage in the late 1880s.[1] Drysdale Street off Graham Street There are many parallels between Drysdale Street and Brewster’s Lane. Both were created…

Heath Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 5, 2024

by David F Radcliffe The eclectic range of architectural styles and the pleasant canopy of trees along Heath Street conceal its part in the shaping of Sandridge in the gold fever fuelled 1850s. Apart from its residents, few traverse this quiet street except if they are going to or from the Port Melbourne Town Hall and Library via Spring Street, North…

Brewster’s Lane

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryJune 7, 2024

by David F Radcliffe Brewster’s Lane disappeared from Port Melbourne twice. First, it was erased from local memory after the name of this small roadway changed in 1889. A century later, all traces of the laneway were lost when the area was redeveloped. The aerial photograph below shows the location of the former Brewster’s Lane. Former Brewster's Lane (1946), State…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians