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

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…

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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…

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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…

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Captain James Renton Watters – The Truth

People, Port Melbourne HistoryJune 21, 2024
by Robyn Watters Captain James Renton Watters Born: 14 October 1838, Longhope, Orkney, Scotland [1] Died: 4 February 1919, Prahran, Melbourne [2] Captain James Renton Watters, master mariner, settled in Port Melbourne and surrounds in 1875, bringing his Cockney bride with him.  Ancestral pride swelled his reputation as a capable and adventurous seafarer but The Truth newspaper filled me in on…

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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…

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Chainmaking – A Woman’s Occupation

People, Port Melbourne HistoryMay 10, 2024
by Robyn Watters Gertrude Brown (nee Duncan), Moorabbin, Victoria, c. 1964-68. As a child I had a horrified fascination of a piece of metal lodged under one of my grandmother’s fingernails.  I was told it was from an industrial accident when she was a jeweller’s assistant. Years later when I investigated this claim, the electoral rolls for my grandmother Gertrude Duncan in…

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Buckingham Reserve

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryMay 3, 2024
by David Thompson Buckingham Reserve [highlighted]. City of Port Melbourne map (detail), Amended June 1983. PMHPS Collection. Cat No 704.02. Buckingham Reserve is near the western edge of Garden City. It is named for former Councillor and Mayor Theodore Thomas Buckingham. Tom Buckingham was elected to Port Melbourne Council on 21 January 1961 and served until 1986. He was Mayor on…

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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.