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

Beginning and ending: Holden

Today, after weeks of uncertainty but with an increasing sense of foreboding, Holden announced that it will cease to make cars in Australia from 2017. Holden, Port Melbourne, Fishermans Bend - inseparable. This is where Australia began its journey into automobile manufacture and where it will end. There will be much more said, but PMHPS wanted to mark this sad…

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More Tales from the Bend

showing the location of the abattoir Whenever PMHPS speaks with people who grew up in Port, tales from the Bend emerge. It seems that the Bend offered the best kind of adventures a boy could have. (Girls seldom went down there). Boys roamed about in a way that would not be permitted in our safety preoccupied times. Many of these stories start…

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My Time at Engine Works

The Commonwealth Government Marine Engine Works was a recognisable landmark on Port Melbourne foreshore since it was built during World War II until the development of the Beacon Cove residential area.. In My Time at Engine Works, Glen Stuart details the making of marine engines during his 29-year career at the works. My Time at Engine Works is available for purchase…

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‘A sodden expanse’ – Fishermans Bend

Rootes Factory in Salmon St. Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria In the late 1930s Fishermans Bend was on the cusp of a major transformation to industrial development - a change that was anticipated with excitement and optimism. Charles Daley in The History of South Melbourne says: "The once-despised Fishermen's Bend - a no-man's land - under the pressure of economic…

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Three icons of Port

Sometimes you just can't find the right word. Take icon, for example. Many Port Melbourne people have had enough of the word 'icon'. 'Iconic' as new developments are often described, is almost guaranteed to get people's backs up. Port Melbourne foreshore from Princes Pier Three Port landmarks of Port are captured in this image: the beacon, the newly restored Stothert & Pitt…

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Fishermans Bend – the past and the future

Victoria-Australia Port Phillip Henry L. Cox, State Library of Victoria PMHPS's head is spinning with thinking about its submission to the Fishermans Bend Urban Renewal Area Draft Vision, so this week's post is about .... Fishermans Bend! PMHPS will argue that an understanding of the environmental/natural history of Fishermans Bend is fundamental to planning for its future. So lets look at this…

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Fishing business

Dugga Beazley In the late 1980s, with great change looming in Port Melbourne, Dugga Beazley spoke to documentary maker Richard Crawley of his fear that a time might come when he would no longer be able to run his fishing business from Dow St. That time seems to come every few years when newcomers complain about his business or his trailer.…

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Allan Whittaker Commemoration 2013

Frank Vincent Port in the twenties - a difficult, suffering place Former Supreme Court Judge Frank Vincent  spoke about Whittaker in the Port Melbourne and wider social and political context of the late 1920s. Here is a transcript of his speech: "Port Melbourne in the twenties was a place of considerable poverty.  It was a place where men were engaged in what…

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A Melbourne Cup Special

Rose with her future husband, Norman Barry Melbourne Cup Day prompts this recollection from member Helen Barry: “Mum was a milliner. She was busiest at racing time. I always went to the Melbourne Cup with her. We used to walk past the members’ enclosure trying to spot the hats she had made. Rose Welsh began her apprenticeship as a milliner at Susanne et Cie…

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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.