The weather settled briefly at midday on Thursday 3rd November for the Allan Whittaker commemoration. A bank of clouds over Williamstown edged closer but no rain fell.
Kevin Bracken tells the Whittaker story photo Janet Bolitho
In front of the recently named Allan Whittaker Centre, Kevin Bracken re-told the now familiar story of the…
Port Melbourne's beacons, also known as the leading lights, define the centre line of the Port Melbourne Channel. The light was visible for 14 nautical miles. Until superseded by more recent technology, the beacons guided vessels safely to the piers.
In 1923 once the new Railway Pier, later Princes Pier, was fully operational, the Melbourne Harbor Trust wrote to…
Win May (nee Smith) and Janet Bolitho worked together on this interview during lockdown in August 2021.
Where did you grow up?
My parents moved into our house in Griffin Crescent when it was brand new.
My mother, Mary, worked at Swallows before marrying.
My father, Alex, was a waterside worker who worked in gang 48 as a winch driver. He would walk…
Swallow & Ariell viewed from Princes St 1987 PMHPS Collection
The National Trust has argued that the smell of Vegemite, produced at Fishermans Bend, warrants recognition as part of the heritage of the place. This has prompted a post on how many Port stories are associated with smells.
The fetid Sandridge Lagoon gave rise to virtually a whole vocabulary of smells…
Crockford St is more of a street section than a street in its own right, connecting Bay St to City Rd. It runs for a mere 300 metres between Raglan St and Boundary St.
Marking the place where Bay St and Crockford St divide is the Fountain Inn at 1 Crockford St.
The Fountain Inn
Brothers John Edward and Edward James…
This piece is assembled from material on the PMHPS website and publications. The authors are gratefully acknowledged. You will find links to the posts at the end of this article.
In response to the call put out by organiser Janine Hendry, thousands and thousands of women (and supportive men) turned out to March 4 Justice on Monday 15…
These three streets in Port Melbourne are named after the Bay excursion paddle steamers that traveled from Station Pier down the Bay to Mornington, Sorrento, Queenscliff and Portarlington from the turn of the 20th century to the Second World War.
There are only 8 houses in Ozone St, 8 in Hygeia St and 11 in Weeroona St. The short streets…
Portrait of Mayor Joe Bertie
Bertie St is named after Joseph Bertie but he was always known as Joe.
Bertie's family originally came from Teglio in Italy near the border of Switzerland. Bertie was born in Bendigo in 1885. His father was killed in a mining accident there.
Bertie had been working as a stevedore in Port Melbourne for seven years…
In the welcome shade cast by the now formally named Allan Whittaker gatehouse, people gathered for the annual commemoration of his life on Princes Pier.
Kevin Bracken photo Simon Kosmer
No one can tell the story of Allan Whittaker and 1928 as Kevin Bracken can. He speaks with the authority of a former Victorian secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia…
When the Housing Commission of Victoria built a new estate at Fishermans Bend, open space was a critical part of the health oriented design. Although the roads were named, the open space reserves were not named at the time.
Layout of the Housing Commission estate at Fishermans Bend State Library of Victoria
In the seventies, or thereabouts, the…