Rosie Bray (Thrupp) wrote this piece on 15th August 2020.
Yes, August 15th 1945 was Victory in the Pacific day, and I remember it well. It meant Peace at last, and we all let out a sigh of relief when we heard Prime Minister Ben Chifley officially announce that Japan had at last surrendered.
The news was not unexpected as…
by Ray Jelley
As the name suggests the objective of this study was to compare the occupations, and therefore indirectly, the social status of people living worlds apart, but with a common link; the names of the streets in which they lived. The methodology was an examination of the United Kingdom census documents from 1881, 1891 and 1901 for the…
These three streets in Port Melbourne are named after the Bay excursion paddle steamers that traveled from Station Pier down the Bay to Mornington, Sorrento, Queenscliff and Portarlington from the turn of the 20th century to the Second World War.
There are only 8 houses in Ozone St, 8 in Hygeia St and 11 in Weeroona St. The short streets…
In 2016, Janet Bolitho wrote about Archibald Todd, State President and Federal Vice-President of the Timber Workers' Union, Port Melbourne Councillor and Mayor, and Member of the Victorian State Parliament so it's no secret that Todd Road is named in his honour.
Todd Road does not appear on the Port Melbourne landscape until the 1970s but what was there before…
by Margaret Bride
Emery Street is one of the shortest streets in Port Melbourne. It runs between Williamstown Road south to Edwards Avenue opposite Letts Reserve, Garden City. It is named in honour of George Emery, General Manager of the State Savings Bank of Victoria from 1897 to 1929.
Bankers are not often seen to be people of imagination but…
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…
Pool Street (detail) from Plan of the Township of Sandridge, 1855. PMHPS Collection.
The early growth of Sandridge had to take into account several swampy areas, pools and, of course, the lagoon. From the 1855 Plan of the Township of Sandridge (above) where the lagoon is shown on the right, it is self-evident that Pool Street took its name from the…
David Radcliffe
For Victorians, Spring St is synonymous with the seat of government. Similarly, Spring St in Port Melbourne runs past our historical seat of local government, the Town Hall. What makes our Spring St unique is that it has four parts each named after one of the cardinal directions. However over the years the names of these four parts have…
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…