Thursday 17 May 2018

Salisbury Avenue, Coburg is modernised - 1960s style

A while ago I was looking through old copies of the Coburg Courier on microfilm at the State Library and happened on a number of articles about changes taking place in Coburg - old houses being demolished to make way for shops and brick pavements making way for asphalt.

This photo and article give a glimpse of what the pavements were like before the bricks were removed and the street was modernised.  (Apologies for the quality. I took photos of the articles - which were on microfilm.)




Coburg Courier, 4 July 1961 

As you can see, the reporter suggests that brick pavements were built throughout the suburb between 1917 and 1933 and that in this period about five and a quarter million bricks were used. 

I'm assuming they're all gone now, but if you're reading this and you know of a brick pavement in the Coburg area, please let me know.

Oh yes, those of you who remember the shopping ritual of the day will not be surprised to see that our Salisbury Avenue housewife is wearing a hat. My mother always left home wearing a hat, with gloves on her hands and her handbag over her arm. My father always wore his hat when he went out and raised it in greeting to those he knew as we walked along Sydney Road. He'd also walk on the outside, closest to the cars, because 'the gentleman always walked on the outside to protect the lady he was with'. He'd also stop, take off his hat and hold it over his heart when a funeral went past. I'm guessing many of you have similar memories! 


2 comments:

  1. Great report. Captures what is now a bygone era. The avenues of Coburg were always special.

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  2. Thanks. It all seemed so ordinary then, but now newspaper reports like these remind me that big changes were taking place 60 years or so ago.
    My family came to live in Coburg about 6 months after this article was published. As we lived in Sydney Road (near corner Bell Street), it was a bit different from living in the 'suburb' of Coburg. We were surrounded by bluestone churches and Pentridge plus the state school next door and the town hall just down the road. Plus all the Sydney Road shops, of course. Having come from a quiet street in Ballarat, it was quite a change!

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