Baby Health Centres in Coburg in 1953

(Ruskin's 1953 All About Coburg)

This would have been just around the time my mother was taking me to what one of my waggish friends calls the 'Baby Elf Centre'. I even have the little book that was kept recording my progress. (Mum kept all of our books. They make amusing reading.) Our family was living in Kerang in the Mallee then, so I was a pretty long way from Coburg where we moved in the 1960s.

Coburg Television Centre, Sydney Road, Coburg, 1953

Ruskin's 1953 All about Coburg

I'll leave you to decide why this shop was called Coburg Television Centre. Television broadcasts didn't begin until November 1956, although there had been earlier demonstrations. You can read about the history of television in Australia here. 

Venetians blinds were all the go in 1953

(Ruskin's 1953 All About Coburg)

I rather liked the old wooden Venetian blinds in the parsonage at Coburg when we arrived in January 1962. My mother didn't - dust traps and oh so difficult to keep clean. The same could be said of the new 'modern' blinds in a range of pastel colours to suit any decor that are advertised here.

My across the road neighbours in Bendigo liked their venetians, though. They were forever pulling them slightly apart to see what was happening in the street!

Charles Marshall's house, 80 Bell Street, Coburg

Charles G. Marshall's home, 80 Bell Street, Coburg, pre1915. Next to the Town Hall. Photograph by Dr Thomas Beckett. Image courtesy Melbourne Museum, Image MM 1730.

This house, called 'Montrose' by the Marshall family, has gone now. Next door, though, is the only house left in this strip of Bell Street - 82 Bell Street, known as The Bluestone Cottage Museum and home of Coburg Historical Society. It's well worth a visit, and open Fridays from 12 til 2pm and the first Sunday of the Month. It closes over the summer (December and January), so you've still got a few weeks of 2019 to visit.

Several years ago I researched (with the help of many others) and wrote a World War One history of Coburg entitled The Old Boys of Coburg State School Go to War.

One of the old boys featured was Charles Marshall's son 39670 Gunner David Ronald Marshall, 2nd Field Artillery Brigade.  

Charles Marshall, like his son, attended Coburg State School. He was a Trustee of Coburg Cemetery and of the Coburg Presbyterian Church. He worked for 50 years as an accountant and was a notable local athlete and sportsman in his younger days. 

If you'd like to find out more about any aspect of Coburg's history, why not contact the local historical society. You can check out the contact details here. 

If you'd like your own copy of The Old Boys of Coburg State School go to War, they are still available at the bargain price of $20. Details of how to purchase a copy can be found here.

And the Society's Facebook page is always worth a look. You can see that here. 

Sam Gandolfo's service station

At the moment everyone's very interested in the Gandolfo Gardens situation now that the Upfield Line's upgrade is getting closer to reality. You can read about that here. 

And I've already written about the Gandolfo Gardens and Sam Gandolfo in a previous post, which you can read here. 

From the Ruskin's 1953 All About Coburg

Today, though, I thought I'd feature Gandolfo's Service Station, corner Sussex and Gaffney Streets, Pascoe Vale. I'll bet there wasn't a roundabout there in those days. And I'll bet it wasn't the tricky intersection it is today.

Those of you who live in the area know that Shedden Street runs parallel to Gaffney Street, off Sussex Street. Street Names of Coburg states that it was named after A.P. Shedden, a Brunswick real estate agent who sold much of the land in Pascoe Vale.

This is quite a 'new' area of Moreland, with most building occurring after the end of World War Two. There's a terrific photograph of an unmade Shedden Street in 1948 in the Moreland Leader, 28 October 2019 issue, page 8. It's of a very wet and muddy street. Construction had started but had definitely not finished. I wouldn't want to try and drive my car down the street in that state!

Prowse Street, Brunswick, 1940s

Weatherboard cottages and factory, c1940-60. Photographer Lyle Fowler. Part of the Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. Image H94.150/123.

Today, Prowse Street is a long street running parallel to Sydney Road (it's to the west of Sydney Road). It starts at Albion Street and after a few dog legs ends up in Cameron Street which runs parallel to the Upfield Bike Path and ends up at Woolacott Street in Coburg.

The street is named after William Prowse who lived in Sydney Road, Brunswick as early as 1863. He is listed as a slaughterman working from his Albion Street abattoirs by 1865. Prowse Street first appeared in the Sands and MacDougall Street Directories in 1890. 

When William Prowse died in March 1911 aged 86, he was living at 60 Cassells Road, Brunswick. It was said that he had lived in Brunswick for 60 years and been in Albion Street West for nearly 50 years. (Coburg Leader, 24 March 1911)

Originally from Newton Abbot in Devonshire, William Prowse was one of nine children, eight of whom came to Australia to live. 

Prowse and his wife had only one son - Thomas William - who reading between the lines of his will was unable to live independently. (He left £2,000 to be invested and the income was to go to the maintenance of his son Thomas William Prowse who was to live with Thomas Edward Cowell (a plumber) and Louisa Ellen Cowell of Cassells Rd., Brunswick. If they died the money was to go to a trustee who would decide where son would live. Prowse hoped he’d go to a respectable person in the country (preferably a farmer)’.)
 
So when he died, Prowse left most of his considerable estate (worth £15,000) to his nieces and nephews (23 of them, 17 of whom staked a claim to his estate.) They were only eligible, he said, if they lived in Victoria and were not involved in the Roman Catholic Church. This ruled out his brother Charles's nine children. He had married an Irish Catholic and three of children were in religious orders. These provisions were contested and a judge ruled that the claimants did not need to live in Victoria, but he upheld the Catholic clause.

Probate papers include a description of Prowse Street in 1911: 

Public Record Office of Victoria, VPRS 28/P3 Unit 216, item 120/511. 

It tells us that ‘Prowse Street ... is little more than a right of way being only about twenty feet in width.’ And this is a pretty good description of the street as shown in Lyle Fowler's photograph, taken some time between 1940 and 1960.

Ferguson's Cake Shop, Coburg

From the Ruskin's All About Coburg, 1953.

Ferguson's Cake Shop was a go-to destination for my family in the 1960s. We didn't have far to go - we lived diagonally opposite. Regular buys were vanilla slices, apple slices, Boston buns and chocolate eclairs. Yummo. And all because my mother went to work at Myer in the city and no longer had time to bake. Oh yes, and my father had a very sweet tooth!

There was also a fish and chip shop just down Bell Street (same side of the road) somewhere near the railway line. Lots of kids from Coburg State School went there on Fridays to buy potato cakes and chips. This must have been in pre-decimal currency days because I'm pretty sure I was given sixpence to spend on lunch on those rare occasions when I didn't go home for lunch. (Lived right next to the school, so no excuse, really.)

Does anyone else have their own favourite memories of Fergusons? 

Corner of Blyth and Nicholson Streets, Brunswick East, 1949

Intersection at corner of Blyth Street and Nicholson Street, Brunswick, c1949. Photographer Lyle Fowler. Part of Harold Paynting Collection, State Library of Victoria. Image H92.20/3329.

What a wonderful photograph! So many things to grab the 21st century viewer's attention. The photographer, Lyle Fowler, was facing north-east in Blyth Street. To the left is the Lomond Hotel. There's a vacant block on the right foreground. Today this is the home of radio station 3RRR. 

On the right hand side of the intersection you'll see a 'clock' style traffic control signal. I don't think I've ever seen one before. The vehicle you see moving along Blyth Street is travelling west towards Lygon Street. Just behind the telephone box (red, of course) you can see the MUFSD (Melbourne United Friendly Societies Dispensary) building. It was built in 1935, so had been there over a decade by then. It's now a multi-storey building.

You can just see a bus travelling south along Nicholson Street in this close up. Today it's the 96 tram terminus.

The shop on the corner of Nicholson and Blyth Streets. It's McAlpin's Grocers shop. And if you look at the advertising you can see they sell Lipton's Tea, Peter's Icecream, Irish Moss, daily newspapers such as the Argus, the Sun and the Herald. This is the closest you'll get to the modern-day supermarket in 1949.

Next door to McAlpin's is Alf Roberts business. Unfortunately I can't make out the details of his business. Written across the window is 'Streb...' but there's a truck in front of the building, obscuring the rest of the word. 

The school children walking south down Nicholson Street have come from Brunswick East Primary School, just a little further down the road in Stewart Street. It's summer, but whether it's the start of the school year or the end is impossible to tell. If you look closely, you can see children on each corner of the intersection, reminding us that these were the days when kids walked to and from school without adult supervision. 

And if you'd like to see some great photos of Brunswick East Primary School taken a few years later, a selection from the Public Record Office of Victoria can be seen here. 

Finally, just so you can do a bit of now and then comparison, here's the original 1949 photo again followed by a photo taken in November 2017 (from Google). I couldn't quite get the angle right, but it's close.

1949

2017

Providing water, Fawkner, 1955

Hard to believe now, but in the middle 1950s, Fawkner residents were collecting water from a central point by bucket. Walking half a mile (0.8 kilometres) to get water to drink, to wash yourself or wash your clothes was quite a commitment. I like the ingenuity of the methods of getting buckets home - I can see a wheelbarrow, a billy cart (?) and a baby's pram here. 

Someone commented to me once that there's so little written on the history of Fawkner, so I've been trying extra hard to find material. It's not that easy, and I've relied mostly on newspaper reports, but of course the TROVE newspaper collection only goes to the middle 1950s, so after that it's a bit more difficult. 

So, if you've got any Fawkner-related material or memories of your own that you'd like to share, please let me know. (gcheryl52@gmail.com)

Moonee Ponds Creek, 1915

Two boys at the Moonee Ponds Creek, Brunswick West, circa 1915. 

Courtesy Museums Victoria. MM 111126.

It's hard to visualise now, when the Moonee Ponds Creek has been reduced to little more than a concrete channel in places, but since the first land sales in the area in the 1840s the Creek has been an important feature of this western perimeter of Brunswick and Coburg (and beyond). 

Perhaps you've never thought about why it's called Moonee Ponds Creek but it was actually a series of marshy ponds when European settlers arrived and this area was a large floodplain. Near its entry to the Yarra River (in the area known as Batman's Lagoon) its salt water marshes were extensive and early next year this area will be the subject of a major exhibition at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. But more news on that later.

If you're interested in reading about the history of Moonee Ponds Creek, you will find more in Moreland Council's Thematic History of the area. You will find that here. It's a searchable document, so just search for Moonee Ponds Creek. There is much else of interest in this document, so beware - it's a bit of a rabbit hole!

The other resource you might find interesting is Moonee Valley Council's Our Moonee Ponds Creek website. You can look at that here. It doesn't just look back at the history of the creek, but outlines future planning possibilities and asks people to get involved. Well worth taking a look.

And if you'd like to read a little more about the saltwater lagoon I mentioned earlier, you could do no better than to seek out David Sornig's new book Blue Lake: Finding Dudley Flats and the West Melbourne Swamp. It's a terrific read and won the 2019 Judges' Special Prize at this year's Victorian Community History Awards. There's a bit of social history there, as well as the geographic. It's a neglected part of Melbourne's history and this book is a well worthwhile addition to your reading list. You can read more about the awards here. 

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297 Lygon Street, Brunswick East has been sold

Not long ago, on one of my walks around the area, I took these photos of the side wall of Carbone Master Tailors at 297 Lygon Street, Carlton. 

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Robur Tea advertisement still visible on the side of the building and it brought to mind the days when our family were almost exclusively tea drinkers and our preferred brand was Robur. 

Our neighbours were dedicated Lipton tea drinkers. It was always tea leaves, of course - I'm talking about the days before tea bags. They collected the cards that came with the packets of tea and I'd spend hours going through them and working out which were missing and try to organise swaps with kids at school. I wasn't a dedicated swap carder like my sister, but I did love those little cards (they were quite a bit smaller than swap cards).

Back to 297 Lygon Street ...

The building was erected in the late 1920s in what Heritage Victoria call the Interwar Greek Revival style. It is located on the west side of Lygon Street between Albert and Victoria Streets. It is now Carbone's Master Tailors, but from 1929 when it was built, until the mid-1930s it was the home of the Perfection Knitting Mills (previously in Rathdown Street, Carlton and later in Peel Street, Collingwood). It's hard to believe now, but there were quite a few knitting mills in the Brunswick and Coburg area. It has also been the premises of a shirt manufacturer and a paper bag manufacturer.

I only found a few references to Perfection while it was based in Lygon Street, a reminder that the 1930s Depression years were terrible times and that ladies' hosiery (stockings) were a valuable commodity - easily hidden and there must have been good black market opportunities.

 Age, 30 July 1931

I noticed the Robur tea ad that sparked my interest in February 2018, mostly because it was being painted over to make way for Carbone advertising and it seemed to me a metaphor for what is happening all around our suburb. This photograph tells it all - no words needed.

The building was sold in June 2019, and we can only hope that it won't be the victim of yet another high rise development in this corner of Brunswick. 

And by the way, as I write, a building is going up in the space next to Carbone, so the ad on the wall is now well and truly gone.

Making your Deb - Coburg, June 1946

Age, 21 June 1946

They look happy, don't they? Debs were a big deal in the 1930s right through to the 1960s, although by my era (late 1960s) they were a bit old hat. Still lots of girls made their debut and still do.

Don't suppose anyone recognises any of the faces?

And here's a photo from the Coburg Historical Society collection of the Deb Ball held in 1937. (ID number 15789)

You can find more Coburg images from the Coburg Historical Society collection here and here.

Housing Commission dwellings go up in East Coburg, January 1946

Age, 12 January 1946

The State Library of Victoria has some interesting images of the newly constructed buildings in this Housing Commission Estate, all by photographer Lyle Fowler and all donated in 1994 by local man Harold Paynting. They include:

Newly completed houses, c1945-1949. 

Image H94/150/96. Courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Kitchen interior. Note the ice chest to the left of the sink. 

Image H94/150/18. Courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Bathroom interior. Note the gas bath heater and the pedestal basin. All the mod cons! 

Image H94/150/19. Courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Barkly Brick Company chimney demolition - 1946

Herald, 10 January 1946

Long before the days of Barkly Square there was a brickworks on the site. Established in 1909, it closed altogether in 1962. As you can see here, a one hundred foot (30.5 metre) chimney was demolished in January 1946. 

It would be great to hear from anyone who remembers those days, or has any stories to relate about the site in its various incarnations.

DIY veggie growing - Brunswick, 1946

Herald, 14 March 1946

Biographical note: Frances Charlotte White was the wife of Robert John White, a plate layer. They married in 1914 and lived in the Kew/Auburn/Glenferrie area for a number of years before moving to West Brunswick where they lived at 67 Whitby Street. In the late 1960s or early 1970s, Frances, then widowed, moved to Lower Templestowe where she died in April 1976 aged 87. (Sources: Victorian BDM indexes and Victorian electoral rolls)

A note on Whitby Street: Whitby Street runs parallel to Victoria Street, near Pearson Street. It is named after Edward Whitby, who lived in Brunswick from the 1840s and built the house known as Whitby House, now #28 in the early 1850s. It has changed over time with alterations and additions, especially in the 1920s and later on it was subdivided into flats. Even so, it is one of Brunswick's earliest surviving houses and a rare example of the Gothic Revival style homes built in the Melbourne in the 1850s. You can read more about Whitby House here.

Whitby House, December 2010. Courtesy Tim McKenna.

1956 views of Pentridge from the air

Argus, 8 May 1956

It's a pity this image is so dark, but at least the labels help you work out where everything is located. 

The reporter mentions the waves from the prisoners from the 'painfully tidy' grounds of Pentridge, but my attention was caught, too, by her description of the 'miles of washing - the housewife's banner - [that] billowed on the line.' 

Those were the days. I wonder how many of the lines were those new-fangled Hills Hoist, introduced a decade earlier. 

Or perhaps (and possibly more likely in the older areas) they were the old prop washing lines, strung out along the back yard.

Monday morning in New York City, 1904.

I had a prop washing line in my tiny miner's cottage backyard in Bendigo in the early 1980s and then again in the late 1990s when I moved to Brunswick. Now I just have drying racks that I move near the heating in the winter and put outside in the sun in the summer. Thank goodness I don't live in an area where hanging my clothes out to dry is controversial or illegal. Read about that here and here. 

Brunswick's Gillbrook Pottery

From the catalogue for the Royal Melbourne Show, 1895. 

Royal Agricultural Society website.

Recently, while I was doing something else altogether, I stumbled across this advertisement for Brunswick's Gillbrook Pottery in a wonderful catalogue for the Royal Melbourne Show of 1895.

As well as noting all the entrants, their addresses and the animals etc that they have entered, it's full of such fantastic advertising of the era that I'm sharing some of them with you here, even though they're not related to Moreland.

So here we go. Enjoy! 

And if you want to explore the history of the Royal Agricultural Society - or just indulge in a bit of nostalgia, check out their fantastic Virtual Museum here.