Margaret Bride – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

James Graham: was Graham Street, Port Melbourne named after this man?

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryFebruary 5, 2021

by Margaret Bride Detail, Plan of allotments marked at Sandridge in the parish of South Melbourne / surveyed by Lindsay Clarke Assit. Surr., 1849. State Library of Victoria. In 1849 the government surveyor published a Street Plan of Sandridge showing a simple grid of streets with six blocks bounded by the newly named streets of Rouse, Graham, Stokes, Nott and Dow, names that have remained…

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…

I Wish I Had Been There …

Port Melbourne History, PresentationsJuly 28, 2020

The Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation made history on the 28 July 2020 when, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hosted our first meeting via Zoom. Eight members spoke on the theme "I Wish I Had Been There ..." Margaret Bride wishes she had there when Wilbraham Liardet had ridden up and down Bay Street proclaiming the separation of Victoria…

Family secrets

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryFebruary 20, 2019

Margaret Bride writes: Are there any secrets in your family? Do you even know whether or not there are any? We are all aware that many families have their mythologies, based sometimes on fact, but myths never the less. Families pass on their stories from one generation to the next. Many of us were brought up from a young age…

Telling more than the time

People, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 14, 2017

Margaret Bride writes of the stories locked up in this handsome clock on the wall of her dining room. I inherited this clock from my mother. It hangs on the wall of our dining room and is constantly referred to when we want to time ourselves. It is a source of pleasure to all our family but it is also…

Wool washing on the Yarra. Photograph by Charles Nettleton, courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Meeting – Mon 24 July 2017, 7.30pm

MeetingsJuly 5, 2017

Society member Margaret Bride will speak at our July meeting on the topic of "Melbourne and its Suburbs". Between 1851 and 1891 Melbourne experienced an amazing growth in population and wealth.”Melbourne and its Suburbs” will explore five factors that shaped this development: geography, land occupation, land sales, transport and municipal government. The period ends in 1891 when the depression of the…

Mr Webster’s Brother

People, Port Melbourne HistoryJune 29, 2017

Mr Webster's Brother Margaret Bride writes Our house in Evans Street was built by John Webster in 1886. He and his wife Mary lived there until his death in 1916. John Webster was a carpenter, working on the docks and at sea. This is a photo of his younger brother whose name we do not know. He was a friend of Emily Lock’s…

Meeting – Mon 22 May 2017, 7.30pm

MeetingsApril 24, 2017

Chart of Hobson's Bay by H L Cox (1864) The landscape of Port Melbourne has been hugely changed by human intervention since white settlement. The shape and course of the Yarra River has been changed, the swampy terrain is now covered with roads and other hard surfaces, and there is a new land mass at the mouth of the river. Janet Bolitho's presentation, Mapping…

An Almost Forgotten Man

People, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 17, 2015

Margaret Bride writes: This is a story told to me by my Grandmother and also by my Mother. The period is some time in the ten years before the First World War, perhaps about 1910. Johnny was a young man with a moderate intellectual disability who lived with his mother in Port Melbourne, I think in Graham Street. Johnny was paid…

An Invisible Woman

People, Port Melbourne HistoryMarch 6, 2015

Brought to light - the story of Janet Adams Margaret Bride writes: International Women’s Day is an opportunity to reflect on the many women who have influenced my life yet of whom there is little or no documentary evidence. Janet Adams is one of these women, though I never met her. In the early years of the 20th century Janet, a…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians