Port Melbourne History – Page 25 – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

Talking Tennis

Port Melbourne HistoryJanuary 29, 2016

This year the Port Melbourne Tennis Club has entered its 127th year, but it has not always been at its current location in Swallow Street. The tennis courts used to be in Garden City Reserve, where the Sandridge Community Centre and Trugo Club is now. This photograph c1929 dates from that time. A recent report in the Age about Henry Young from Adelaide,…

Albert Jacka VC and Port Melbourne I

People, Port Melbourne HistoryJanuary 15, 2016

Albert Jacka was the first Australian to be awarded the Victoria Cross in World War 1. He was recognised for his most conspicuous bravery at Gallipoli and also on the western front. He later served as a Councillor and Mayor of St Kilda - an office he used to support the unemployed, many of whom were former soldiers. Albert Jacka was…

An Extreme Day in Port

Port Melbourne HistoryJanuary 14, 2016

It was a dramatic end to a record breaking hot day when the Spirit of Tasmania broke from its moorings in high winds at around 6pm on Wednesday 13 January. Winds of up to 100 kph accompanied a cool-ish change from the day's top of 41.9 degrees. The Spirit looked in danger of running aground and the beach was evacuated. It took two…

Answering the Call

Port Melbourne HistoryNovember 29, 2015

Gusty winds of around 90 kph on previous days had whipped off the covers to give a premature glimpse of the Answering the Call sculpture which commemorates the Navy's association with Port Melbourne going back to 1859. The Navy is back in Port. Projects such as this have a long gestation and call on patience and dogged perseverance. As early as 1997, Don Boyle and Elizabeth…

First Flush at the All England Eleven

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 29, 2015

corner Princes and Rouse Streets, Port Melbourne, October 2015 This unprepossessing corner was once the site of the All England Eleven Hotel. The hotel was demolished in 1953 according to this account in The Herald of this week's date: "If you stand in Princes Street, Port Melbourne and look in through the windows of the derelict All England Eleven Hotel, you…

Walking the War in Port

Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 23, 2015

This week, PMHPS received a commendation for its Port Melbourne First World War Centenary Project at the Victorian Community History Awards. This article draws on the resources created by the project. Chance, rather than conscious choice, led to a walk on Port Melbourne and the Great War coinciding with the 21st October – the final day of the departure of the first convoy from all…

Cruising

Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 16, 2015

Melbourne’s cruise ship season starts on 27 October when the Noordam berths at Station Pier. Over almost the next eight months there will be 83 other liner visits the pier. As the Noordam is a regular visitor, you will not expect the chief of its owner, Holland America Line, to send a message to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thanking Australians for…

Loss of a tree

Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 9, 2015

Tasmanian blue gum on Liardet Street, December 2007 Not a trace remains of the huge Tasmanian bluegum that was such a presence on Liardet Street for many years. Tasmanian bluegums are not indigenous to this area, of course. Perhaps the tree was planted in the eighties when there was renewed interest in Australian trees. Earlier this year, I spoke with the arborist who…

Redevelopment sites in Port Melbourne

Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 24, 2015

Sandridge Motors, near the Graham Street overpass, is for sale by Exrpession of Interest. According to the board, the land is zoned General Residential with a maximum height limit of 18 metres (6 storeys). The Clare Castle Hotel on the other side of the overpass is also for sale. It too is on land zoned General Residential "offering excellent future development…

An Almost Forgotten Man

People, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 17, 2015

Margaret Bride writes: This is a story told to me by my Grandmother and also by my Mother. The period is some time in the ten years before the First World War, perhaps about 1910. Johnny was a young man with a moderate intellectual disability who lived with his mother in Port Melbourne, I think in Graham Street. Johnny was paid…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians