Graham Street School – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

‘Roar Like a Bull!’

People, Port Melbourne HistoryOctober 20, 2023

Growing up in Port Melbourne in the middle of the 20th Century by Albert Caton I was born in 1942 in the maternity ward of the Women’s Hospital in North Melbourne, the son of Edward Harold (‘Ted’) Caton and Muriel Lily (Reed) Caton. Soon afterwards, my mum and I moved to Sydney where my father was stationed in the Navy…

Back-to-Port Melbourne Celebrations 1932

Port Melbourne HistoryMay 5, 2023

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,…

School Sports & Physical Training Display – 7 December 1918

Home Front Stories, WWI CentenaryDecember 7, 2018

Just because the war had ended didn't mean that the work of the local patriotic organisations was finished. In all probability, preparations for the Combined Schools Sports and Demonstration advertised in the Port Melbourne Standard newspaper on 30 November 1918 would have been well advanced before the Armistice was signed but even so there was good reason to hold the event…

Welcoming the Returned Soldiers

Home Front Stories, WWI CentenaryNovember 23, 2018

Some three thousand people gathered along the roads leading from the New Railway Pier (Princes Pier) on the morning of Saturday 23 November 1918 to welcome the first contingent of returned soldiers.1 Barriers along the route restricted the roadway to 12 feet to allow the cars carrying the soldiers to proceed to the city. At the foot of the pier, two strong…

My Mum, Joan Dawson

People, Port Melbourne HistorySeptember 22, 2016

Joan Dawson with her Graham Street School Grade Prep class, 1939. Young Teacher Graham Street Port Melbourne 1939 My mum was just 18 when she began to teach this class at the Graham Street School. She lived nearby at 174 Buckhurst Street. Her father was a carter and they lived in a double fronted timber home with stables at the back where…

State Schools Benefit – 31 July 1916

Home Front Stories, WWI CentenaryJuly 31, 2016

On the evening of Monday 31 July 1916 a State Schools Benefit Night was held at Port Melbourne Town Hall to raise funds for providing comforts for the wounded soldiers at the Caulfield Base Hospital. Tickets were sold through both the Nott Street and Graham Street State Schools and. according to the Standard newspaper, the hall was provided on very generous…

Reflections on Anzac Day 2016

Home Front Stories, WWI CentenaryApril 24, 2016

As we approach the 101st anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli it is interesting to look back at how the news of the first Australian campaign of the First World War was received in the Port and how they commemorated the first Anzac Day in 1916. The First Casualties In the weeks and months that followed 25 April 1915, as the authorities…

Graham Street School Honour Board

Home Front Stories, WWI CentenaryNovember 6, 2015

An article in the Standard under the headline "Answered Country's Call - Roll of Honor - Graham Street State School Old Boys" published on 6 November 1915 lists 61 names, Graham Street pupils who had enlisted for the Great War. The piece concludes by asking parents or friends of other "old boys" who have enlisted to send the soldiers' names, rank, dates of…

Anzac Day in Port Melbourne 2015

Port Melbourne HistoryApril 23, 2015

A wet Anzac Day in 2015 Anzac Day 2015 On Saturday 25 April, people gathered at the World War 1 Memorial Fountain in Port Melbourne to commemorate Anzac Day. The tradition has been upheld in Port for many, many years though the form it has taken has changed over time. The scene below is at once familiar and unfamiliar to current Port eyes. Anzac Day…

Stories from a Postcard

CollectionFebruary 5, 2015

From the collection - a postcard showing Nott St school in Port Melbourne This postcard was found by one of the PMHPS founding members at a Postcard swap meet. A simple old postcard, but what a story it tells. On the front is a photo of the State School Port Melbourne and on the back is a letter from Percy to his…

Acknowledgement of Traditional Custodians