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

Back-to-Port Melbourne Celebrations 1932

by David Thompson After months of meetings, planning and a rearrangement of dates and events, April 30, 1932 marked the first day of the Back-to-Port Melbourne festivities. The Age that morning promoted the event with the inclusion of an illustration of the tent used by the Holy Trinity church in 1853 under the heading Glimpses of Old Melbourne.[1] Glimpses of Old Melbourne,…

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Now and Then 2021 – 108 Bay Street: Bianca Apartments

Bianca Apartments (2021). Photo: David Thompson, PMHPS Collection. A Hotel by many Names Scott's Hotel and National Bank of Australasia, Bay Street (c. 1878). Photo: Charles Nettleton, City of Port Phillip Collection. In 1854, Henry Charles Farrell opened the Sandridge Inn located on Bay Street where Bianca Apartments now stand. This early pub deteriorated and in 1871 it was described as…

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I’m Glad I Was There

On Tuesday 28 July 2020, unable to meet in person due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place in Victoria at the time, the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society held its first ever online meeting via Zoom. The topic, 'I Wish I Had Been There', was conceived by Margaret Bride and resulted in eight PMHPS members each describing an…

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The Freame Families of Port Melbourne

by Ray Jelley ‘there was a sheep dressed up to represent Carbine II with his jockey; Bunny Hare all ready to run for the Port Melbourne Cup; saddles of mutton in fanciful designs; poultry and geese formed from the shoulders of mutton; pigeons, made of suet, flying about the windows …’ proclaimed the Standard on 18 May 1895 when describing the display in…

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An Exciting Incident

by David Radcliffe On Saturday evening, 7th February 1903 a series of robberies took place in Esplanade East followed by a high speed chase down Spring Street East culminating in a dangerous collision with a cable drawn tram in Bay Street opposite the Town Hall. The unfolding drama was captured by an unnamed staff reporter at the Argus under the headline An Exciting…

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Pool Street

Pool Street (detail) from Plan of the Township of Sandridge, 1855. PMHPS Collection. The early growth of Sandridge had to take into account several swampy areas, pools and, of course, the lagoon. From the 1855 Plan of the Township of Sandridge (above) where the lagoon is shown on the right, it is self-evident that Pool Street took its name from the…

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