Port Melbourne History – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

Bigamy and a Good Turn 120 years later

People, Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 22, 2024

by Robyn Watters Last year my daily walk took me past the walls of memorial plaques in the Springvale Botanical Cemetery and I would look sadly at the bright orange ‘expired’ stickers on many of the plaques. This ominous warning sticker meant the deceased estate had only paid for a limited tenure for the plaque to be displayed. When the time was…

Frank Winwood, the Wizard of the Lamps

People, Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 7, 2024

by David Thompson At the meeting of the Port Melbourne Citizens’ Patriotic Committee held on the evening of Monday, 23 Sep 1918, a vote of thanks was accorded “Mr Frank Winwood, ‘the wizard of the lamps’, and his company of electrical craftsmen”.[i] On the previous Thursday, the Committee had held “a Night in the East”, a fund-raising event at Port…

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…

A Modern Woman from Garden City

People, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 20, 2024

by Robyn Watters Norma Madeline Watters Born: 7 June 1924, Albert Park (at home) Died: 23 April 2021, Brighton We often imagine that women born a century ago saw their destiny only as wives and mothers fleshed out only by the necessity to bring in money if they were from the working class. My aunt Norma Madeline Watters born in 1924…

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…

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 30, 2024

Melbourne’s Sewer Mains in Port Melbourne Instalment 3 of 3. The “Hobson’s Bay Main” by Richard Olive A previous instalment in this series described how sewage flowing towards Port Phillip Bay from the eastern suburbs was intercepted by the Hobson’s Bay Main, and redirected through Port Melbourne towards the Spotswood Pumping Station. Initially, in the 1890s, the main started at…

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 30, 2024

Melbourne’s Sewer Mains in Port Melbourne Instalment 2 of 3. The “Melbourne Main” by Richard Olive RECAP The initial instalment of this series provided some basic information about sewers in general and the layout in Melbourne in particular. It explained how two of the city’s main sewers, “The Melbourne Main” and “The Hobson’s Bay Main” run right through Port Melbourne. …

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 23, 2024

Melbourne’s Sewer Mains in Port Melbourne (instalment 1 of 3) by Richard Olive It may surprise you to know that some of this city’s major and most vital pieces of infrastructure run right through the heart of Port Melbourne, silently serving their function for over 130 years. In fact, not one but two of the city’s sewer mains quietly execute…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians