Places – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

J Kitchen and Sons: maker of industrial chemicals

History Displays, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryFebruary 20, 2026

Over its long history the company used a range of titles, but to the residents of Port Melbourne it was never anything other than 'Kitchens'1. Kitchens meant Velvet Soap and a memory of candles, but to the wider manufacturing community it had quite another connotation: as a major manufacturer of fatty acids. In the early 1960s Kitchens produced a folder,…

Woolboard Road

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryFebruary 6, 2026

Woolboard Road, 2025. Photograph by David Thompson. In the lead up to Christmas 2025, during some idle time selling Historic Calendars outside Woolworths at the corner of Plummer and Graham Streets, the question was raised of what previously occupied the site. The answer was not immediately forthcoming however Dale Dawson was able to say that it was the Wool Board or…

Thackray Road

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryDecember 5, 2025

Street Signs, 2025. Photograph by David Thompson. Thackray Road, off Woolboard Road, is a short street closed at the Westgate Freeway with a few light-industrial properties on one side and rear access to properties in Salmon Street on the other. It is named for William Andrew Thackray who was City Engineer from 1968 until his retirement in 1988. William Thackray,…

73 Ingles Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 21, 2025

by David Thompson Ingles Street between Bay and Heath Streets, 2012-13. Photo by Robyn Clinch, PMHPS Collection. 73 Ingles Street may not be an address that immediately springs to mind but, although modest, it is one of the more distinctive buildings in Port. You can just about make it out in Robyn Clinch’s photograph above from around 2012-13. That’s it, the brown…

Allan Whittaker Commemoration 2025

People, PlacesNovember 7, 2025

Former Supreme Court judge Frank Vincent's address to the Whittaker commemoration: “Allan Whittaker was no hero because he was shot on landing on the beach at Anzac Cove. He came back with a limp, no money and very poor. And this whole area at that time was poor. When he was eventually shot he was moving away from the police.…

Peckville Street

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 7, 2025

by David F Radcliffe Peckville is a small street with a big backstory. It is narrow as you enter from either end but then widens in the mid-section to reveal a cluster of Victorian cottages. This symmetry suggests a level of forethought and planning not evident in many other parts of Port Melbourne. In June 1869, the government auctioned the…

Dairies in Port Melbourne

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 24, 2025

by Margaret Bride Until the 1940s most milk consumed in Port Melbourne did not come from dairy farms on the city fringe but rather from dairies that pastured their cows on Fisherman’s Bend. Before the widespread use of refrigeration the distribution of milk, cream and butter involved a constant battle to get the products to the consumer before they turned…

Life and Death in a Secluded Laneway

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 10, 2025

by David F Radcliffe On Friday morning 6 July 1894, Frederick Jordan went to the police station in Bay Street to report the death of Minnie Hicks, the young woman with whom he lived. In the quaint language of the day, he was described as her paramour. Jordan said he found Minnie dead alongside him in their bed in the…

Sydney Place

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 3, 2025

by David F Radcliffe Sydney Place is an L-shaped laneway off Princes Street between Spring Street West and Bridge Street; blink and you will miss it. Initially formed in the late 1870s to provide access to a cluster of three wooden cottages built on small parcels of land (shown in yellow below) in the interior of Section 26, the neighbourhood…

An Inauspicious Beginning: S.S. Chitral

Places, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 19, 2025

by Peter Munro In August 1925, the British Seamen's strike erupted while the P&O mail steamer Chitral was making its maiden voyage to Australia. Overnight, and without warning, crews on British ships learnt that their monthly wages had been cut by 10%. This unforeseen action by the ship owners prompted a massive snap strike of British seamen stationed in all…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians