Bay Street – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

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…

Tom Griffin

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 3, 2023

by David Thompson Thomas Griffin's grave at Lancefield Cemetery, 2024. Photograph by Daniel Brueckner. On Sunday, 8 Nov 1953 Port Melbourne Mayor, Cr E J Purchase with Crs J P Crichton and T G Douglas accompanied by the Port Melbourne Municipal Band attended the grave of the late Cr Tom Griffin at Lancefield. [1] This had become an annual pilgrimage since…

Port Melbourne Recollections by Jack Porritt

Free DownloadsOctober 16, 2023

Port Melbourne life as remembered by Jack Porritt of Princes Street: a few reflections written in 1991 for the Vintage Port - Worth Remembering Project, with comments added in 1998 for publication by the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society. (PDF 4.8 Mb) Download Port Melbourne Recollections

Port Sayings – What we heard in Bay Street

Free DownloadsOctober 12, 2023

Port Sayings 3rd edition, 8pp. Booklet of expressions remembered as common around the Borough. (PDF 671 KB) Download Port Sayings

Back-to-Port Melbourne Celebrations 1932

Port Melbourne HistoryMay 5, 2023

by David Thompson After months of meetings, planning and a rearrangement of dates and events, April 30, 1932 marked the first day of the Back-to-Port Melbourne festivities. The Age that morning promoted the event with the inclusion of an illustration of the tent used by the Holy Trinity church in 1853 under the heading Glimpses of Old Melbourne.[1] Glimpses of Old Melbourne,…

Now and Then 2021 – Corner Bay and Beach Streets

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Bay Street at Beach Street (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. For more than 150 years Morley’s Coal Depot has stood on the south-east corner of Bay and Beach Streets. William Morley was a prominent local merchant in Port Melbourne in the years of the gold boom. In 1860 he was elected as the first chairman of the Sandridge Council. The…

Now and Then 2021 – Corner Bay and Spring Streets

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Bay Street at Spring Street (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. Bay Street has always been both a route and a destination. Vehicles now, as then, travel north and south, but in 1840 it was no more than a dusty track leading to Melbourne. Port Melbourne Town Hall (1883). City of Port Phillip Collection. By 1900 it was a broad thoroughfare lined…

Now and Then 2021 – 108 Bay Street: Bianca Apartments

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Bianca Apartments (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. A Hotel by many Names Scott's Hotel and National Bank of Australasia, Bay Street (c. 1878). Photo: Charles Nettleton, City of Port Phillip Collection. In 1854, Henry Charles Farrell opened the Sandridge Inn located on Bay Street where Bianca Apartments now stand. This early pub deteriorated and in 1871 it was described as…

I’m Glad I Was There

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 31, 2020

On Tuesday 28 July 2020, unable to meet in person due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place in Victoria at the time, the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society held its first ever online meeting via Zoom. The topic, 'I Wish I Had Been There', was conceived by Margaret Bride and resulted in eight PMHPS members each describing an…

The Freame Families of Port Melbourne

People, Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 24, 2020

by Ray Jelley ‘there was a sheep dressed up to represent Carbine II with his jockey; Bunny Hare all ready to run for the Port Melbourne Cup; saddles of mutton in fanciful designs; poultry and geese formed from the shoulders of mutton; pigeons, made of suet, flying about the windows …’ proclaimed the Standard on 18 May 1895 when describing the display in…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians