Port Melbourne History – Page 29 – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

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Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne

Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

Town Hall, 333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne

Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation SocietyPort Melbourne history

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…

Fire at Port Theatre, Bay Street, Port Melbourne Sunday 30 August 2015 - Courtesy MFB Facebook Page

Part of Port’s history up in smoke

Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 3, 2015

3 September 2015 Fire at the former Port Theatre, Bay Street, Port Melbourne Sunday 30 August 2015 - Courtesy MFB Facebook Page Another piece of Port Melbourne’s history may have been claimed by fire. The building that was once the Port Theatre, on the corner of Bay and Liardet Streets, was severely damaged by fire last Sunday. Around 80 fire fighters…

Electric Sparks

Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 27, 2015

I've been reading a lot of newspapers recently but not the Leader or the Weekly Review that appear in our mailboxes each week these days, I've been reading the Port Melbourne Standard from the time of the First World War. The National Library of Australia have digitised all the weekly editions of the Standard from those war years and added them…

Port’s Woman Test Cricketer

People, Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 14, 2015

Peggy Antonio was born in Port in 1917. Her father, Francis Antonio, died when she was 15 months old. He was a Chilean docker of French and Spanish parentage. She learned to play cricket with boys in the streets around her Port Melbourne home. In 1930 after completing a shorthand and typing course, she got a job making boxes in Raymond’s shoe…

Barry’s Ideal Dairy

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 6, 2015

Helen Barry writes: "My father’s family dairy was at 68 Ingles Street, Port Melbourne from about 1931 to 1972. The property consisted of a two-storey dwelling with a milk bar in the front where Dad’s mother Nellie Barry and sister Bernice sold milk into jugs customers brought with them. The dairy was at the rear of the long lane that separates…

Ibis

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 23, 2015

Geoff Deed, who grew up at 41 Nott Street, offers this story from his boyhood in the fifties: 'There was a family called Fletcher that lived in Rouse St - just the mother and the son. His name was Jeffrey - with a 'J'. There was no father. (Maybe he was killed in the war?) Through the window of their place you could…

Biscuits in boxes, butter in pats

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 16, 2015

Judi Groves (Rose) writes about her grandfather ‘R.T.' Rose (Roland Thomas) My grandfather – or ‘R.T.’ as he was commonly known – owned the licensed grocer at 168 Ross Street. He was born in Brunswick in March 1893 and signed up for World War 1 in July 1915. At the time he was a carpenter living at 105 Graham St. He served on…

The Leading Lights

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 10, 2015

'I think that there’s a whole lot of symbolism—iconography even—about what a lighthouse means and we use that as a metaphor in all sorts of language: beacon, lighthouse, navigation aid and so forth.' Peter Marquis-Kyle, Heritage Architect The Port Melbourne Leading Lights were built in 1924, and in conjunction guided ships by marking the centre of the Port Melbourne Channel from…

Marking World Refugee Day

Port Melbourne HistoryJune 20, 2015

Princes Pier, Port Melbourne was the point of arrival for the first refugees to Victoria after the Second World War Arthur Calwell was Australia's first Minister for Immigration in the Chifley government. He drove the policy and its implementation. The sense of urgency is conveyed in this speech: 'without immigration the future of the Australia we know will be both uneasy and brief. As a…

The Empire Cruise

Port Melbourne HistoryJune 18, 2015

The photograph in the window of the Photo Shop on Bay St records the visit of the 'Empire Cruise' to Melbourne in March 1924. Here is the photograph in the Museum Victoria Collection Reg. No: MM 111120 - but the image is reversed. Which is correct? From 27 November 1923 to 28 September 1924, a fleet of six warships led by the flagship 'Hood'…

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