An old home makes way for modern flats - The Grove, May 1961

Coburg Courier, 16 May 1961. 

The caption reads:

This graceful old home on the corner of The Grove and Barrow Sts., Coburg will soon make way for a block of modern flats. A number of applications to build flats have been received by the Coburg Council within recent months.

I've checked Google Maps and this is what I found - it's 46 The Grove.

So, what price modernity?!

Shamrock Street, Brunswick West

Barry York, who spent his childhood and youth in Brunswick, wonders whether anyone can help him with the following:

Factory next to 83a Shamrock Street, West Brunswick, possibly early 1980s. Photo courtesy Barry York.

The factory was sold at Christmas 1983 or 1985. Photo courtesy Barry York.

Anyone remember, or know anything about, this engineering factory in Shamrock Street, West Brunswick. It was sold in 1983 or maybe 1985, was demolished, and replaced with townhouses.

Cooper Street ran into the back of the factory. 

 It was number 83. My parents resided next to it - 83a Shamrock Street - for many years.

I'm fairly sure it was a working factory from the 1950s, maybe earlier, to the early 1980s.

You can read more about Barry's memories of living in Brunswick on his Facebook page.

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! 

Barry Cable at the Pascoe Vale Pool

I've now found another image taken at Pascoe Vale Pool, this time taken on 22 January 1974 and published in the Coburg Courier. 

It combines two great Aussie loves - summertime swimming and wintertime footy.  

Sorry. I cut off the final paragraph. It says that 'during the winter months he will join Coburg Council's surveying department.' 

Cable, a West Australian, and considered one of the greatest rovers ever, had already played one season for North and was about to play three more seasons, including the Premiership seasons of 1975 and 1977. He later returned in the early 80s to coach the team. Even I, who know next to nothing about footy, know about Barry Cable, probably because most of my family are mad, keen North Melbourne supporters. 

There's another great photo of Cable at the Paco Pool in this Sydney Morning Herald article from 13 June 2016 when he was named the 24th Legend in the game's history at the Hall of Fame Induction Dinner held in Melbourne. 

There's a fantastic gallery of photos, including photo 19 at the Pascoe Vale Pool. Photo 5 shows him on a training run in Coburg with his sons. I wonder whether anyone recognises the location?

I would love to hear your memories of Barry Cable at the Pascoe Vale Pool.

Pascoe Vale Swimming Pool

Courier, 5 February 1974. Mayor Alan Lugg

chatting to Robyn Tunchon of Sefton Street 

and Michael Hinton of Wicklow St., Pascoe Vale.

The article goes on to say that the pool manager Mr Mal Parker held swimming classes every summer and more than 1,000 youngsters had attended that summer.

This is the only photo I've ever seen of the Pascoe Vale Pool. I don't have any of my own as I only ever went there for school sports in early 1965 when I was in Form One at Newlands High School. After that the Coburg Olympic Pool was built in Murray Road and the days of venturing over to Pascoe Vale for a swim were well and truly over.

Don't suppose anyone out there has any photos they'd like to share? 

What's in a (street) name? Olive York Way

'Olive York Way' is a street off Albion Street in West Brunswick. But who was Olive York? Why did the Moreland Council decide to name a street after her?

The York family (Olive, Loreto and Barry) shortly after their arrival in 1954.

During her second period as Mayoress of Brunswick, Olive York began to write a column for the local newspaper, the 'Brunswick Sentinel'.

She continued to write a column for a number of years. She and her husband divorced in 1990 and eventually they both moved to Canberra where son Barry still lives. Although divorced, they remained close.

Olive died in 2003.

Barry York has produced a 20 minute YouTube documentary paying tribute to his mother Olive. She was born Olive Turner in London in 1916, came to Melbourne in 1954 and settled in Brunswick with her Maltese husband Loreto and son Barry. She lived in the same house in Shamrock Street, West Brunswick for 40 years and was deeply interested in community affairs.

You can see the documentary here.

Note: the images and text in this post all come from Barry's documentary. Thanks for sharing, Barry.

If you are interested in reading more about Brunswick's past through Barry's eyes, you can find his Facebook page 'Memories of living in Brunswick, Melbourne' here. 

Loucas and Christoforou boomerang, Lygon Street, Brunswick

If you're heading north along Lygon Street and have just crossed Blyth Street, you might have noticed the Loucas and Christoforou boomerang sign on a now empty shop front. It's on the left hand side, just before you get to the Abruzzo Club - 367 Lygon Street, Brunswick.

Some not-very-good photos I took on 30 July 2012.

Disappointingly, the sign (and the shopfront) is covered in graffiti now and with developers moving in all over Brunswick East, I wonder how long this evocative echo of the suburb's past will survive.

Photo taken 1 February 2018. 

I've been trying to track down more details about the shop and about Loucas and Christoforou. I think they might have been Cypriots, but I'm not sure. Perhaps someone reading this can set me right. They certainly embraced Aussie culture, choosing the iconic Aboriginal boomerang for their logo - hoping that their customers would always return to their shop, perhaps? Or suggesting that they should return!

What I have been able to discover is that 367 Lygon Street was once a neighbourhood grocery shop and from 1967 until at least 1980 it was run by Michael and Terry Christoforou, who had previously lived in Traralgon. 

I would love to know more about the shop, the people who owned it and the people who shopped there, so please get in touch if you can  help.