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…
The Hilaria, a 1,500 ton ship from New York caught fire at Town Pier on the morning of the 7th July 1895.
Earlier it had been ordered to an outer anchorage away from the pier as its manifest included a case of detonators as well as the usual general cargo including kerosene, rosin and other flammable materials. The Captain had no knowledge of…