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Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne
Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne

O’Brien’s Terrace

by David Thompson O'Brien's Terrace, Bay Street, 2024. Photograph by David Thompson. O’Brien’s Terrace, an impressive row of five double-storey shops and dwellings, stands on the west side of Bay Street. The date inscribed on the façade of the building under the pediment indicates it was built in 1886. But who was O’Brien? The Port Melbourne Conservation Study from July 1979…

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Captain James Renton Watters – The Truth

by Robyn Watters Captain James Renton Watters Born: 14 October 1838, Longhope, Orkney, Scotland [1] Died: 4 February 1919, Prahran, Melbourne [2] Captain James Renton Watters, master mariner, settled in Port Melbourne and surrounds in 1875, bringing his Cockney bride with him.  Ancestral pride swelled his reputation as a capable and adventurous seafarer but The Truth newspaper filled me in on…

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Brewster’s Lane

by David F Radcliffe Brewster’s Lane disappeared from Port Melbourne twice. First, it was erased from local memory after the name of this small roadway changed in 1889. A century later, all traces of the laneway were lost when the area was redeveloped. The aerial photograph below shows the location of the former Brewster’s Lane. Former Brewster's Lane (1946), State…

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Chainmaking – A Woman’s Occupation

by Robyn Watters Gertrude Brown (nee Duncan), Moorabbin, Victoria, c. 1964-68. As a child I had a horrified fascination of a piece of metal lodged under one of my grandmother’s fingernails.  I was told it was from an industrial accident when she was a jeweller’s assistant. Years later when I investigated this claim, the electoral rolls for my grandmother Gertrude Duncan in…

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PMHPS acknowledges the generous support of the City of Port Phillip.

 

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Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians

We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work, the Bunurong Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation and pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.