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Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne
Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne

GMH Social Centre

Former GMH Social Centre. Photograph by David Thompson. The former General Motors-Holden Social Centre is tucked away off Salmon Street. Constructed in 1945 by Richmond builder, E A Watts Ltd, the building hosted concerts, balls and all manner of GMH employee functions but, primarily, was their canteen. Typical fare in the mid-1990s included French Onion soup (70c), Beef Stroganoff ($3.50) and…

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Derham Street

Frederick Thomas Derham was born in Somerset, England, in 1844 and arrived in Melbourne with his family in 1856. Derham's first business undertaking was as a mercantile broker with Callender Calwell & Co. In 1864, he married Ada Anderson with whom he had three sons and a daughter. Ada died in 1874. Derham had met Thomas Swallow, founder of Swallow…

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The Mystery of Dubbeldan’s Lane

Research by David Radcliffe and David Thompson In July 2021, Allan Marshall posted a photograph of Doubledan's Lane, Port Melbourne from Building and Real Estate magazine, February 1916 (above) on the Born and Bred in Port Melbourne Facebook page stating that he had checked period maps but couldn’t find any mention of the location.   Allan posts old photographs of Port on…

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Crockford Street

Crockford St is more of a street section than a street in its own right, connecting Bay St to City Rd. It runs for a mere 300 metres between Raglan St and Boundary St. Marking the place where Bay St and Crockford St divide is the Fountain Inn at 1 Crockford St. The Fountain Inn Brothers John Edward and Edward James…

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Ingles Street

by David Radcliffe Ingles Street is parallel to, and a block south of, the northern boundary between Port Melbourne and South Melbourne. When gazetted in 1860, it only ran from the eastern boundary with Emerald Hill (South Melbourne), past the upper arm of the Sandridge Lagoon to Evans Street, just over the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay Railway. Pickles and Boundary…

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Bridge Street

by David Radcliffe Bridge Street is one of three streets that both traverse Port Melbourne from east to west, cross the light rail tracks and extend into Fishermans Bend, the others being Ingles Street and Graham Street. Originally it only ran from the western edge of Sandridge Lagoon to the Melbourne to Hobsons Bay Railway track. As there was no…

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A Corner Shop

In the days before supermarkets and large shopping centres the people of Port Melbourne and other inner suburbs shopped every day at small local shops located cheek by jowl amongst their own houses. One such shop was located on the corner of Esplanade East and Spring Street East. PMHPS has a digital copy of a photograph album compiled…

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Norma Barnett Lane

Norma Barnett came to Port Melbourne in 1953 to work at the Melbourne City Mission. The Mission had been established a century earlier to give aid to the thousands of immigrants who had flocked to Victoria in the gold rush, failed to make their fortune and were stranded, destitute. Just behind the Fountain Inn (now The Cornerstone) stood the…

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PMHPS acknowledges the generous support of the City of Port Phillip.

 

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Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation and pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.