Now and Then – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

Now and Then 2021 – Bridge Street Light Rail Crossing

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Bridge Street Light Rail Crossing (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. The light rail service from the city to Port Melbourne opened in December 1987 replacing the railway that had operated along much the same route since 1854. In that year the Hobson’s Bay Railway Company opened the first rail service in Australia from the city to the beach. They were…

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 – HMAS Apartments and Lagoon Pier

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Completed in 2001, the HMAS Apartments were designed by the renowned architectural firm of Fender Katsalidis, who also designed Eureka Tower, Australia 108 and many other striking buildings. The towers of this apartment complex are visible from many parts of Port Melbourne. The name reflects the history of the site which was the location of the naval base HMAS Lonsdale…

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 – Albert and Alfred Streets

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

The rows of modest, cheek by jowl, Victorian cottages, in many streets in Port Melbourne, provide a glimpse of what it would have been like to live here in the mid-to-late 1880s. What was then is now intermingled with 21st century vehicles and a growing city skyline. Albert Street (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection This intermingling of then and now…

Now and Then 2021 – Lagoon Reserve

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Lagoon Reserve is a popular place for dogs and their owners to meet up especially in the late afternoon. The reserve is lined on its eastern side by the Park Apartments and across Graham Street by the Portside Apartments. Both art deco inspired designs were developed by Becton Pty Ltd during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Lagoon Reserve (2021).…

Now and Then 2021- Beacon Cove Towers

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Shrouded in Controversy Apartment Towers at Beacon Cove (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. This peaceful waterfront has been a centre of controversy many times since it was first occupied by Europeans in 1836. Surveyor Darke’s Camp, Sandridge. Watercolour by W.F.E. Liardet (1875) State Library of Victoria William Darke was one of the surveyors given the task of surveying the district…

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…

Now and Then 2021 – Bertie Street

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 2, 2021

Starward Distillery now produces whisky at 50 Bertie Street in a building where, previously, Malcolm Moore Industries fabricated large cranes. Starward Distillery, Bertie Street (2021). Photo: David Thompson. PMHPS Collection Bertie Street is named after Joseph (Joe) Bertie, a stevedore, World War One veteran, and long term Port Melbourne councillor who served as Mayor in 1943-44. At its intersection with…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians