Port Melbourne History – Page 32 – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

Remembering the Westgate Bridge disaster

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 9, 2014

photograph Doug Smallpage On 15 October, people will gather at a memorial at the Westgate Bridge to honour 35 workers who were killed when a 120-metre span of the bridge collapsed on that day in 1970. Another 18 were injured, with many crippled for life. The day before Victoria’s worst industrial accident, a worker, hearing creaks in the structure, commented:…

19 October 2014 – First Convoy Embarkations Commemoration

News and Notices, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 5, 2014

One hundred years ago, thousands of Victorians embarked from Port Melbourne bound for the battlefields of World War One. By the end of October 1914, 17 troopships had left Victorian shores carrying almost 8,000 troops as well as nurses, technicians, horses, supplies and weaponry. This was Victoria’s First Convoy. To mark the centenary of this historic departure, the State Government of…

Station Pier Welcomes Liners

Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 25, 2014

Crowds welcome the Empress of Britain Imagine an MCG Grand Final crowd thronging around Station Pier. That is what occurred 6 April 1938 when one of the Golden Age of ocean liners, the Empress of Britain, berthed there. This crowd estimate was published in The Argus the following day. At 42,500 tons (43,181 tonnes), it was the biggest vessel ever to…

Port’s eye sees inside ‘the silent ANZAC’

Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 18, 2014

Port Melbourne played a part in allowing scientists and historians to film inside “the silent ANZAC”* - the historic submarine wreck HMAS AE2. Discovered in 1998, the submarine was scuttled during the Gallipoli campaign. The hulk sits on the bottom of the Sea of Marmara. AE2 Australian War Memorial Researchers from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, in Lorimer Street, Port Melbourne, developed…

Flinders St Station to Sandridge – the first journey

Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 12, 2014

Museum Victoria c1907 Although a later image, chosen for its 'birthday' feel At 12.20 pm on 12th September 1854, the first journey of the first steam powered passenger train in Australia left Flinders Street for Sandridge. The gold rush had made the long and convoluted journey up the Yarra River increasingly untenable. Goods had to be transferred to lighters which was expensive…

Finding J Budd

People, Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 28, 2014

The Ship Inn in Bay St (3) where J Budd and others were farewelled . Port Phillip City Collection The Port Melbourne Standard of 19 September 1914 carried a story about a send-off for three Port lads who had enlisted for the war. On Friday 11 September 1914 about 150 friends and workmates assembled at the Ship Hotel in Bay Street to bid…

McCormack Street

People, Places, Port Melbourne HistoryAugust 20, 2014

Member Dr Robyn Clinch explored the history of 26 McCormack St and learned about its very close connection with the Cricketers Arms Hotel. McCormack St is a short, angled street that runs between Esplanade East and Bridge St. McCormack St is so narrow, making it difficult to get a good picture Thomas McCormack began accumulating property in the Sandridge area from his…

Keeping Warm in Port

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 23, 2014

South Melbourne Gasworks It is one of Port’s often told stories - how people ‘knocked off’ coal from the trucks taking coal to the Gasworks from Town Pier at the end of Bay Street. Emily Lock remembered "The different cargoes were a source of wonder. Some of them brought coal for the Gasworks. It was a dirty job unloading the coal into small…

Unhappy Ending

Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 17, 2014

Roland Thomas Rose c1925 Roland Thomas Rose, Licensed Grocer of 168 Ross Street, Port Melbourne, the proud owner of his 'company' car. In the mid 1930's, some ten years after this photograph was taken, Roland was tragically killed in a car accident on the corner of Ross and Graham Streets. The small boy standing on the running board is his son, Frank William (Bill), who was…

Lost Shops of Graham Street

Places, Port Melbourne HistoryJuly 10, 2014

Shirley Videion recalls the shops in Graham Street before the construction of the Graham Street overpass: Graham Street was blessed with milk bars. The two most preferred by our group when walking on a Sunday were McCarthy's next to the double storey house on the corner of Graham Street and Evans Street or McKenzie's on the other side of the Graham Station…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians