A community is built up through shared experiences, during these twenty years there were various experiences that led to Port Melbourne becoming the close knit community that people often describe. There were also places where people gathered in good times and bad, particularly the pubs and churches.
There were still many small corner pubs, although it was never true that there was a…
by David F Radcliffe
Have you ever wondered what all those nails with coloured markings around them are on footpaths? Or have you come across an odd metal disc lurking in the grass or an unusual cover plate amongst the shrubs on the nature strip? If they look like any of the following, then they are part of the system…
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…
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…
About 7.30pm on Monday 11 Nov 1918, around the time the Bay steamers were returning from their day’s excursion, the news that Germany had signed the armistice reached the port. Suddenly a 'powerful whistle on the Port Melbourne shore echoed across the Bay'1 and for the next half hour the Bayside resounded to the grand chorus of sirens and ship’s whistles.…
Bay Street, Port Melbourne.
As I drive around Melbourne
Along its freeways and across its bridges
Through its endless suburbs
When I round this bend, I’m home
Back in Port
David Thompson