View towards Sandridge from the Esplanade, St. Kilda c1870. National Library of Australia

Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping A HISTORY OF THE FORESHORE AND

LOW-LYING LANDS OF THE CITY OF PORT PHILLIP

A CITY OF PORT PHILLIP TOURING EXHIBITION

DEVONPORT GALLERY AND ARTS CENTRE

4 5 - 4 7 STEWART STREET, DEVONPORT, TASMANIA

26April-26 May 1996 1 0 A M - 5 PM M O N D A Y TO SATURDAY, 2 PM - 5 P M S U N D A Y S

Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping is dedicated to the memories of

Olive Zakharov 1929-1995 Tom Hills 1904-1995 Federal Senator Waterside Worker

members of the

Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

well loved and sorely missed

© City of Port Phillip 1995

Foreword Introduction

The City of Port Phillip, Victoria and the City of Devonport share a mutual desire to strengthen friendship and trade opportunities through understanding and co-operation between our two communities. The Sister City Friendship and Trade Agreement was officially signed on 13 December, 1995.

Developing knowledge and awareness of art and culture is a key program objective of the Sister Cities program. This exhibition, a celebration of the very different early histories of the three communities which have come to make up the City of Port Phillip, has been designed to present the history of the foreshore and low lying lands of Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda for all citizens and visitors to the City of Devonport.

It is a rare opportunity to view original maps, photographs, works of art and memorabilia from the City of Port Phillip. The exhibition of Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping in Devonport has been made possible through Sister City program funding and our City's concern for its heritage. Special thanks to the City of Devonport for the opportunity to exhibit at the Devonport Gallery and Arts Centre, to former Gallery Director Fiona Christie and to Joan Winter, Curator of this exhibition and the Port Phillip City Collection.

After exploring the history of Port Phillip I invite you to travel across Bass Strait to the City of Port Phillip for your next holiday.

Jon Hickman Chief Executive Officer City of Port Phillip

This exhibition is a celebration of the three very different, early histories of the communities which have come to make up the City of Port Phillip, created a City on 28 June, 1994. It draws together for the first time the rich and varied moveable heritage of Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda. It selects from the six thousand strong holdings of the Port Phillip City Collection, where objects, photographs, works of art and ephemera have come -by accident and design, through ad hocery, donation and official acquisition policies-to be the lynch pin of Port Phillip's commitment to its own unique history.

In travelling to Devonport, Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping celebrates the beginnings of our Sister City cultural exchange program.

The exhibition begins with a landscape and foreshore inhabited by roaming Kulin hunters and gatherers, water-birds perched on scrubby, littoral growth; soft, white sand ridges, treed knolls and dense groves of beautiful ti-tree swiftly transformed by the quickening pace of a developing colony into a sense of Europeaness. Effluent and rubbish discharged into the swamp regions of the low lying lands...filled up, transformed, rendered into a new urban design on a not so ancient part of this southern land mass.

Playgrounds, pleasure domes, theatres, rockeries, exotic gardens, promenades and hot seabaths on the southerly shores give way to grand working piers in deeper dredged waters, and industry on the Yarra Yarra banks in the north; the level of the hinterlands raised, drained, to house the many living near the metropolis, and to ward off the flooding on the plains of our river delta.

The strategically placed townships of Sandridge (Port Melbourne), Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) and St Kilda were instrumental in the development of the struggling colony of Victoria, and of Melbourne, its metropolis.

Joan G. Winter Curator, Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping March 26th, 1996

Acknowledgements

Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping was made possible through the contributions of

Pat Grainger Adair Bunnett Members of the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

George Morris The St Kilda Historical Society

City of Port Phillip Local History Librarians Kay Rowan and Ruth Crutch

And with thanks to the following collecting institutions and individuals who lent objects and/or gave permission for reproduction of original objects

within their collections: Public Records Office

LaTrobe Collection, State Library of Victoria Port of Melbourne Authority National Library of Australia

Polly Woodside Maritime Museum National Gallery of Victoria

Royal Historical Society of Victoria Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

St Kilda Historical Society South Melbourne Cricket Club

Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron Don Taggart Jack Simmons Daryl Maybourne

Joan McClelland Frank Renton Power Janet Bolitho Adair Bunnett Tom Ingram Perce White Emily Lock Luna Park Ltd Laura McGill

Alison Kelly

Notes on catalogue numbering, listing and changes for Devonport As the exhibition is based on the former collections of Port Melbourne,

South Melbourne and St Kilda, numbering generally follows these collections: Port Melbourne 1 to 90 South Melbourne 91 to 174 St Kilda 175 to 274

Objects acquired since the creation of the City of Port Phillip are indicated by their acquisition date.

In 1995 the exhibition toured within Port Phillip to Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda. In 1996 it will travel to Devonport, Tasmania.

Some objects which were on loan to the City of Port Phillip will not travel to Devonport. These are indicated in the catalogue by an asterisk*.

However objects from the Tasmanian Maritime Museum, Devonport, will provide a new link for the travelling exhibition in a supplementary catalogue,

thus extending the exhibition's scope across Bass Strait.

* 1 Original Survey, Site of Melbourne, 1803 Charles Grimes Copy of original map Reproduced with permission of the Keeper of Public Records Susan Priestley writes: The present landscape of the lower Yarra emerged during the last 5500 years, as the bay slowly retreated from its most recent flooding of the Yarra delta when a tongue of sea water had reached inland as far as Essendon, and the ridge along which St Kilda Road now runs was one of its shores... The old volcanic core that became Emerald Hill was first an island, then a landmark as the Yarra delta plain emerged...The delta was then built up with deposits of silt and gravel brought down in the voluminous stream of the ancient Yarra. Overlying the silts in bands which define the retreating bay shore are medium to fine sands containing shell beds, shaped into low dunes by wind and tides. Known as Port Melbourne sands, the thickest beds were in the Garden City area and the bay side of the hill...

The ancient river channel on the eastern side of the hill remained low lying, being regularly scoured during Yarra floods, when the water resumed its old outlet to the sea. Depressions there and elsewhere in the delta plain retained and collected water to become swamps, the largest being the basis of the present Albert Park... Flooding remained endemic...whenever there was an even moderate rise in the Yarra.

2 Corroboree at Emerald Hill Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799 • 1879) Reproduced from the original watercolour LaTrobe Collection, State Library of Victoria-Aboriginal people have lived in the south east coastal area of Victoria for at least forty thousand years, adapting to and manipulating their environment during the massive geographic and climatic changes which have occurred over that time.

The earliest inhabitants of the area now covered by the City of Port Phillip were members of the Kulin nation. The Yalukit-willam were one of the five clans of the Bunurong, known as the coastal tribe. They roamed the swampy areas below Emerald Hill and the sandy ridged coastline thickly covered with shells and fringed with a dense growth of ti-tree and brushwood, extending from St Kilda to what is now Fishermen's Bend. Up-river the Wurundjeri clan of the Woiworung were dominant in the area which in 1837 became known as Melbourne.

These tribes altered, shaped and managed this area through periodic firing, harvesting, hunting and travelling. Firing was used to produce new plant growth, to attract game and to flush it out. It also served to clear specific areas to allow well regulated movement between the

affiliated tribes of the Kulin, who as highly mobile hunters and gatherers followed the movement of game and the seasonal availability of various plant and marine foods in their territories. Middens along the changing foreshore, lagoons and river beds give archeological evidence that Aboriginal people harvested shellfish. They also feasted on the proliferation of water birds and eggs.

There were traditional social and ceremonial meetings between the tribes. Emerald Hill was a favoured site. In Liardet's version of a corroboree, painted from memory, the many European settlers who turned out to watch these last ceremonial festivities are not depicted.

3 Surveyor Darke's Camp Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799 -1879) Reproduced from the original watercolour LaTrobe Collection, State Library of Victoria. The Port Melbourne foreshore, originally known as the Beach, is depicted at the time of the Liardets' arrival in 1839. The two men were Davis and Storey, watermen of dubious character who camped on the beach in a hogshead cask. The barrel up the pole is a marker indicating to ships the direct overland track to Melbourne. It was put there by the owner of the van, William Darke, who after losing a hut to squatters while out surveying preferred to take his home with him as he worked. (Legend declares it was equipped with a piano.) It was he who coined the name 'Sandridge' after sighting the enormous sand dunes on Fishermen's Bend.

The Beach was described as dazzling white, the dense bush as a source of game and the land beyond as carpeted with wildflowers. The Liardet children hunted waterfowl at the saltwater Lagoon and brought their mother sugar manna and the wattle gum from which Caroline made jelly for her family and guests.

4 Liardet's Beach Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799 -1879) Reproduced from the original watercolour LaTrobe Collection, State Library of Victoria Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet, his wife Caroline and their nine children were en route to New South Wales to pioneer a sheep station when their ship put into Hobsons Bay. Impressed by the look of the beach where they came ashore, they put up their tents and remained to become the first settlers of Sandridge.

Military officer, adventurer and eccentric, Captain Liardet having squandered an inheritance brought his family to the new colony to regain their fortune.

Forced to buy a boat to bring their goods ashore, he immediately put it to use by establishing a ferry service to Williamstown. In the following months, with the help of his sons, he laid a timber plank road along the rough track to Melbourne, constructed a ti-tree jetty, erected a

watch-tower for spotting arriving ships, dug a well for water to share with thirsty travellers and established a daily mail run to Melbourne. Later he added a passenger coach service.

Within a year of his arrival he had opened his Pier Hotel on the Beach - which he liked to refer to as 'Brighton', resort area to Melbourne. Everyone else called it 'Liardet's Beach'.

Hospitality at the Pier Hotel was unsurpassed. A continuous round of events was advertised in Melbourne papers: horse races, fishing parties, regattas, carnivals, archery competitions. Unfortunately this flamboyant entrepreneur hadn't an ounce of business sense, neglected to charge for his hospitality and was soon bankrupt and selling watercolours to make a bob. The Pier Hotel was sold and rebuilt and stands to this day at the comer of Beach and Bay, as the Cafe Amphlett.

Liardet painted his memory of the Beach, depicting his guests on the verandah of the Pier Hotel, the stables and watchtower, the bush beyond the beach, transport awaiting passengers arriving at the jetty and a dray being loaded with their goods, fishermen casting a net, cattle in the holding pen, a coach arriving from Melbourne and Koories sitting on the comer of what would soon become Bay Street.

The painting was so popular that Liardet was encouraged to paint an entire series on the Melbourne he had known in the 1840s. These watercolours were painted in 1875, and purchased by the LaTrobe Library in 1913.

5 Monument to Liardet, 1990 Alison Kelly Colour photograph Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection The Port Melbourne contribution to the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988 was this memorial to Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet, constructed on the foreshore. Designed by local architect Peter Christoff, it incorporates bluestone from the Harper's factory complex demolished four years earlier.

6 Port Melbourne Centenary Souvenir, 1939 Newspaper Port Phillip City Collection One hundred years after the Liardets landed at The Beach, Port Melbourne held the 1939 Liardet Centenary celebrations, an entire month of events during which members of the Liardet family assembled on the beach for a re-enactment of the famous landing. Festivities were detailed on the souvenir paper produced for the occasion.

7 Surveyor's Sketch of TVack from Liardet's Beach to Melbourne Punt, 1841 Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records

8 Surveyor's Sketch of Liardet's Beach, 1841 Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records Evident are both Liardet's Pier and Alfred Lingham's Marine Hotels. Note that a Customs service was already operating from a tent near Liardet's jetty, and that the Marine Hotel had its own jetty as well. Across the Lagoon, artillery was already in place for the colony's protection.

The Sandridge Lagoon The prominent sand hills west of The Beach and a large saltwater lagoon on the east were those features of the Sandridge area most noticed by first European arrivals. The Lagoon, once believed to be the mouth of the Yarra River, stretched northward for a mile from just beyond the foreshore, its upper reaches lost in marshland which dried up in summer. Several small creeks drained into it from Sandridge and Emerald Hill. Although it was described as originally teeming with bird life and fringed with bush, no hint of plant or animal life appears in any known photos.

In 1868 the Lagoon was as large as the developed area of Sandridge, 9 to 10 feet at its deepest. Bridges crossed at Rouse, Graham and Bridge Streets. Plans for either dredging or filling it in were numerous. In September 450 residents prepared a petition calling on the Sandridge Council to convert the Lagoon into a dock. One resident wrote to the local paper The Inspector of Nuisances would be doing the inhabitants of North Sandridge a great favor by bringing before the Sandridge Council the filthy and disgraceful state of the north end of the Sandridge Lagoon, and the urgent necessity for having the evil remedied before the hot weather sets in a stop should be put to the filth and off-scouring of Emerald Hill draining into the lagoon as it is mainly from this source that we derive the evil. The Council, still hopeful of improving port facilities at Sandridge, surveyed the Lagoon with a view to making it accessible to ships of shallow draught, but the government public works department would not provide funds. The Council began talks with the Borough of Emerald Hill regarding the drainage of its effluent into the Lagoon. Although in 1871 the latter agreed to divert their drainage, the bitter squabble continued into the late 1880s. Emerald Hill attempted to redraw the municipal boundary to the centre of the Lagoon to achieve a share in its control.

Meanwhile pollution worsened. In 1875 the local Record published: [the scavengers] were knee deep in a mess of putrid matter throwing it out of the drain on to the side walk of pedestrians coming to and from Sandridge to Emerald Hill the stench of which completely taking away the breath of all who happened to be near. If this state of things is allowed to go on what with the Lagoon in its low state with dead dogs and goats just above the water and seething matter on the side walls an epidemic approaching cholera will soon be amongst us.

In 1877 an act of Victorian Parliament gave the Melbourne Harbour Trust control of the Lagoon area, and two years later Sir John Coode offered his opinion on its management:

I would suggest that this area might be advantageously reclaimed by the disposal therein of such dredgings as may be necessary for raising it to a level that would render it fit for building or other purposes... By 1890 the Lagoon had been filled in to Rouse Street and the remainder dredged and lined with wharves for a small boat harbour which, in its turn, was filled in 1929.

9 Soundings for Sandridge Lagoon and the Beach, 1870 Map on linen Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection

10 Plan of the North End of the Lagoon, March 1872 Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection Despite a vocal group on the Sandridge Council who had hoped that the Lagoon would become the sight of the major dock area for the colony, sand was dredged from the mouth of the Lagoon and deposited in the north east comer.

11 Plan of the New Graham Street Bridge 1878 Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection The low level bridge over the Lagoon at Graham Street was rebuilt in 1879.

12 Sandridge 1874 Nicholas Chevalier Hand coloured steel engraving Australia Illustrated 1874 Acquired in 1995, Port Phillip City Collection Sandridge and the Victorian Sugar Works can be seen beyond the Lagoon. The artist's view is from the grazing area to the south, part of an early pastoral lease of land from Elwood to the Yarra, granted to Benjamin Baxter.

13 The Lagoon from the Southwest c l872 Black and white photograph PDrt Phillip City Collection A view of the Lagoon from the top of the Sugar Works, which stood in Rouse Street. The Rouse Street bridge is on the right, the Graham Street bridge on the left. Across the empty swamp beyond. Emerald Hill is visible.

14 The Lagoon, Port Melbourne, Victoria Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection This shows the gasometers. Gas was first produced here in 1873 and gas illumination provided in Port Melbourne on 22 March of that year.

15 The Fire at the Sugar Mill 7 July 1875 Engraving Illustrated Tasmanian News Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection The Victorian Sugar Works was opened near the Lagoon in 1859. A bluestone tower with distinctively shaped roof, the building was the Borough's most prominent landmark. Manager Frederick Poolman was a Port Melbourne Councillor and inventor of a safety device for steam boilers. In 1875 the Sugar Works burned down in a spectacular blaze. The fire took rapid hold, defying men with poor water pressure who vainly attempted to put it out. The event marked the end of an era in Port. The Sugar Works was never rebuilt and many men lost their jobs. The company relocated to Yarraville, and Harper's starch factories later took over the area and its role as a major local employer.

16 Melbourne Harbor Trust Improvements: The New Sandridge Dock Engraving Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

17 Port Melbourne Lagoon Improvements Drawing No 1319/3,17 May 1888 Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority In 1889 the Port Melbourne Lagoon Act was passed, and as a result the Lagoon was filled in to Rouse Street. The wharves on either side were extended past the beach to achieve more area for the fishing fleet which would moor between the distillery and Harper's. An irregular portion of the Lagoon south of Rouse Street was filled as well, creating the rectangular boat harbour.

In spite of the opening of the pumping station near Rouse Street which pumped sewerage to the new Board of Works farm at Werribee, there were still complaints about the smell of the remaining part of the Lagoon.

18 Fishermen in the Lagoon Sepia photograph Courtesy Doug Beazley A view showing the western jetty and Esplanade West, with Harper's on the left and the pumping station at right. Protection of the fishing fleet was a major concern when plans for reclamation or drainage were put forward. Jack Porrit remembers: In my time it was a great place for the fishermen to tie up their boats and sell their catch direct to the public. They sold beautiful fresh fish of all kinds.

19 Improvements to the Port Melbourne Lagoon Pumping Station Architectural drawings Port Phillip City Collection

20 Proposed Layout of Lagoon, 1928 Copy from original plan Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority In 1929 the last section of the Lagoon was filled. This plan shows the joining of the old Military Road (now Beaconsfield Parade) with Beach Road to create for the first time a continuous road along the foreshore from Port Melbourne to St Kilda. The west and east jetties were preserved from the low water mark out.

21 The Lagoon Filled C1931 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection This view over Harper's factory complex and the infilled Lagoon shows the 1928 plan was modified. The eastern jetty (known today as Lagoon Pier) has been extended by a curved arm to provide additional protection for the fishing fleet, which is moored between the jetties. The smaller jetty will be demolished decades later, as will the Pickles Street jetty at upper left. The original Port Melbourne Yacht Club founded by the fishermen is seen on the beach. The Lagoon itself is still there. It's under the road. The wharves and all are still there.... Four or five years ago they were doing work over at the Lagoon Oval, and digging down they found timber....You know, I reckon there'd be old boats and everything there; they've just covered them up.

22 Aerial View of Port Melbourne, 1931 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

* 2 3 Early map c l840 Robert Hoddle Copy of original map Reproduced with permission of the Keeper of Public Records Early settlement was determined by finding a safe anchorage as at Sandridge and suitable high ground as at Emerald Hill and St Kilda.

24 Plan of allotments marked at Sandridge in the Parish of South Melbourne, 1849 Lindsay Clarke Reproduced with permission of the Keeper of Public Records Robert Hoddle had planned streets for Sandridge as well as Melbourne, but his layout was not strictly followed when these first streets were finally made. Here is the tiny, ten year old settlement in 1849. A scattering of buildings has been added and the Government's new jetty has replaced Liardet's original. Existing tents and humpies are not depicted. There are sand dunes to the west, and on the east the Lagoon - not yet opened to the bay. There were about 40 residents in Sandridge at this time.

25 Plan of the Township of Sandridge, 1855 Photocopy Reproduced with permission of the Keeper of Public Records By 1855 the Colony of Victoria had been transformed by the gold rush. The first railway was completed in 1854. The bay was jammed with ships (many abandoned for the goldfields) and Sandridge the bustling port town had a population nearing three thousand. The price of land rose even more steeply here than in Melbourne. At the first Sandridge land sale in 1850 the impoverished Liardet, whose applications for a land grant had been denied, was required to bid for his own hotel and many other improvements. Observe how the growth of the Borough has been confined by the Lagoon and the railway. The many swampy areas, ponds and lagoons were gradually infilled and built upon.

26 Sandridge Foreshore and Piers from the Sugar Works, c l872 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection As early as the 1850s the trees had gone, the Lagoon was polluted, the clean, white beach was a mess of abandoned furniture, anchors and bits of old boats and jetties. When this photo was displayed in the Melbourne Exhibition, maritime activity had quietened somewhat and the area, though barren, seems to have been cleaned up -perhaps by the new Borough Council established in 1860. Looking down over Town Pier from the top of the Sugar Works the Pier Hotel is on the right, and two of the Borough's smaller jetties and Railway Pier are to the west. Beyond, faintly visible, is the long enclosure of Watson's Baths.

27 Bird's Eye View of Port Melbourne, c l885 Reproduced from original wood engraving LaTh)be Collection, State Library of Victoria This 1880s bird's eye view of Sandridge, renamed Port Melbourne in 1884, is full of intriguing detail. Emerald Hill's new Town Hall is visible at far right, and housing

28

fills the formerly empty swampland between it and the Lagoon. On the foreshore among the port's ubiquitous hotels and busy shops is the little timber Bethel replaced in 1888 by a grand new Seamen's Institute. Across from the Pier Hotel (with verandah added) is Morley's bluestone Coal Depot. The government morgue just to the left of the Town Pier sheds had become a nuisance to the Port Melbourne Council. It was dismantled in 1897.

Sandridge Street Plan cl880s Ink and wash on paper Port Phillip City Collection

29 Port Melbourne Drainage Works 1893 Photocopy of article Argus, 14 March 1893 Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection Extensive street and drainage works financed by an 1893 Municipal Loan are detailed in this clipping from the scrapbook kept by E.C. Crockford, Port Melbourne's Town Clerk.

30 Liardet's Jetty Hand coloured engraving Sutherland: Victoria and its Metropolis Past and Present, 1888 Acquired in 1995, Port Phillip City Collection John Batman had noted the area of deepest water where Liardet was to build his jetty in 1840. Nine years later Liardet's simple jetty was replaced by the Government with a larger working pier which survived into the 1950s as the 'Town Pier'.

31 Town Pier Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection Town Pier was not built to cope with the onslaught of ships which choked Hobson's Bay once word of the 1851 gold strike was out, but for three years it served until Railway Pier was built.

Warehouses for storage sprang up along the bay, and innumerable goods drays travelled the rough road between the pier and Melbourne.

As passenger shipping shifted westward to newer piers, Town Pier continued as a goods-particularly coal and timber-pier. Demolition of the old Town Pier took place in the 1950s. New quarters for the Port Melbourne Yacht Club were later built over its remains.

32 Town Pier from Bay Street, 1926 Black and white photograph Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records

33 Plan Showing Horse Tramway, 1894 Copy of portion of Board of Works plan Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection Black coal arriving from Newcastle was loaded onto a horse-drawn tram travelling between Town Pier and the Gasworks across the Lagoon. Many older residents have strong memories of chasing the tram to gather scattered lumps of coal for their families' hearths when times were hard.

* 34 Chusan c l860 Black and white photograph Courtesy Polly Woodside Maritime Museum Australia suffered the worst mail service of any British colony; but after 1852 it improved when the arrival of the first mail steamer launched a regular service. She was the P&O's barque-rigged paddlesteamer Chusan, which regularly berthed at Sandridge piers. Colonists separated from home by time and vast distance most eagerly awaited and welcomed the mail steamer.

35 Port Melbourne Yacht Club Members, 1909 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection - Port Melbourne (original photograph burned in Yacht Club fire 1990)

The first sailing and rowing regatta at Liardet's Beach was organised by the Liardet family in 1843. Around 700 people attended. Regattas were exceedingly popular in the young colony and a number of sailing clubs were eventually formed. A group of local deep sea fishermen who were refused membership in existing yacht clubs because club rules excluded professionals were forced to form their own club. They established the Port Melbourne Yacht and Sailing Club in December of 1889. In its first season, with a membership of 103 and eighteen sailing boats, it won ten races. The club was subsequently excluded from various regattas because its membership consisted mostly of watermen and fishermen, not amateur yachtsmen. The club continued to prosper and in a single year in the 1960s built a new clubhouse on the old Town Pier site, conducted the National Moth titles and built thirty-one Jolly boats. At present members are rebuilding their clubhouse following the tragic 1990 fire.

36 Crowds Farewelling the Ceramic, cl915 Sepia postcard dated 23 November 1915 Acquired in 1995, Port Phillip City collection Departure of troops on the Ceramic is depicted on this evocative postcard, symbolic of many emotional wartime farewells from the Port Melbourne piers. Over one third of all Australians who went off to fight World War I departed from Port Melbourne.

37 Railway Pier, 1886 Hand coloured engraving Acquired in 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

38 Railway Pier, 1871 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The destiny of Sandridge was changed forever when in 1854 the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company opened their railway and the pier onto which it ran. The first steam railway in Australia, it carried both goods and passengers directly between Melbourne and the bay, bypassing the ambitious port settlement.

In this engraving and the photograph upon which it was based, notice how the 2171 ft Railway Pier curved slightly westward. The apparatus seen just in front of the goods train is used to truck container carriages, such as the one seen in the middle distance, sideways from the train to ships alongside the pier.

Ownership of Railway Pier passed to the Harbor Trust in 1913 and they subsequently renamed and rebuilt it.

39 A Sandridge Pier on a Sunday Afternoon Hand coloured engraving The Australasian Sketcher, 5 Sept. 1874 Port Phillip City Collection

40 Australia's First Steam Railway, 1854 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The celebrated 1854 opening of the Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway, which ran straight across swampland and river to Flinders Street, was a triumph for Victoria, as the first steam line in the colony.

The first locomotive to run on the historic Sandridge line, the 2-2-2T, was proudly Melbourne made - though only by default. It was built in a hasty ten weeks when the units originally ordered from Britain failed to arrive in time for the opening.

There were extensive yards, sheds and workshops around the pier and as far north as Bridge Street. Many Sandridge men found employment on the railways.

In 1987 against vigorous protest from residents and heritage advisors the historic railway was closed and converted to a tramline. Three stations along the line were demolished; only the Port Melbourne station building, an 1898 replacement of the original, remains.

41 Victorian Industries: Messrs Swallow and Ariell's Biscuit Works, Sandridge Engraving The Australasian Sketcher 1882 Acquired in 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

Thomas Swallow, arriving from the goldfields in 1854, spotted the potential in the port at Sandridge. A baker by trade, he launched production of Victoria's first machine-made ship's biscuits in the year that the railway and new pier opened just a stone's throw from his rented premises at Rouse and Stokes Streets. 'Swallows' is an outstanding example of Port Melbourne industry that developed and prospered through proximity to shipping and railway.

In his first year Swallow displayed his product at the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition. Within four years he was able to build the impressive three storey bakehouse that still proudly stands on his comer. (The Swallow family home originally occupied the top storey.) The firm's immense significance in Australian industry is sometimes overlooked. Always at the forefront of technology, it was described in 1883 as fifth largest in the world, a factory with no equal outside Great Britain, and in 1880 as one of the sights of Victoria - we should say Australia - which no visitor should neglect to visit. It was unique among its competitors, diversifying to produce its own ingredients: growing, milling and refining its own wheal and sugar, growing and processing fruit and vegetables, making its own biscuit tins and barrels. It supplied Mawson's Antarctic and the Bourke and Wills expeditions, and was kept particularly busy during the Boer and two world wars providing rations for the troops, into which employees tucked little notes of encouragement. In the 1880s boom when Victorians bought fewer basic foodstuffs and developed a preference for more expensive delicacies such as fancy biscuits, Swallow & Ariell obliged with over seventy different biscuit styles, plus nineteen types of cakes and puddings and a range of lavishly decorated presentation tins. Operations were shifted from Port Melbourne in 1993. Most 20th century elements of the enormous factory complex were demolished early in 1995. But the evocative streetscapes created by 1858 to 1911 buildings are being preserved in a new residential development on the site.

• 42 Swallow & Ariell Employees, 1880s Black and white photograph Courtesy of Emily Lock Few Port Melbourne families were without one or more Swallow & Ariell workers, most local girls going directly from primary school into employment at the factory. For this reason, and also because you went in knowing nothing and came out knowing everything, the factory was known locally as 'S&A College'. In the earliest years when employees numbered five, they took meals with the Swallow family. Here is the staff in the 1880s, photographed in front of company-owned houses later replaced by factory buildings. Thomas Swallow is sixth from the right in the second row and his son-in-law Fred Derham, who became a partner after the death of Thomas Ariell in 1879, is tenth from the right in the third row.

Swallow & Ariell was a family business until Amott's took over in 1964. Derham, who became Swallow's son-in-law the year after he became his partner, carried on the business after Swallow died.

Both men were leading citizens of Sandridge, noted for their philanthropy. Derham, a Borough Councillor and Mayor, was elected to the Victorian Parliament and became Postmaster General. Swallow was on the first Borough Council and its second Mayor, and was a founding member and president both of cricket and football clubs.

43 Bay Steamer S.S. Weeroona Postcard Port Phillip City Collection

44 S.S. Hygeia at Port Melbourne Railway Pier Postcard sent 25 October 1907 Port Phillip City Collection The Ozone, Hygeia and Weeroona were three of the much loved paddlesteamers which from 1855 until 1942 provided summer excursions from Port Melbourne to the Momington and Bellarine peninsulas, and around the bay. These lovely little ships whose lines were like a poem berthed alongside the 'finger' piers of Railway - later Station - Pier, where their paddlewheels fitted into openings in the timbers.

Popular for nearly a century, excursions on the bay paddlesteamers varied from annual industry picnics to romantic moonlight cruises with dance music. Melbumians could buy a cruise ticket at Flinders Street and catch a boat train which would take them past the Port Melbourne station and directly onto the pier to board their steamer.

45 Railway Pier, c l900 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection Destination signs direct passengers to the various paddlesteamers alongside a finger pier. The Gem mentioned at right was for some time the Station Pier ferry to Williamstown.

46 Boat TVain, Railway Pier, cl890s Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection An early boat train on Railway Pier with the western finger pier visible on the right. Note the railway gates alongside the alighting passengers. These ran all the way from Port Melbourne station out onto the pier to control passenger flow.

47 Hygeia Binnacle Courtesy Polly Woodside Maritime Museum

48 Railway Pier, Port Melbourne Coloured postcard no. 20797 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

49 Port Melbourne Railway Pier Coloured postcard no. 229711 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

50 Railway Pier, Port Melbourne Coloured postcard sent 30 November 1907 Port Phillip City Collection

51 Port Facilities • The Want in Melbourne Photocopy of article from E.C. Crockford's scrapbook: Argus, July 18,1900 Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection

52 Drawing Showing Harbor Trust Boundaries and Site of Steam Ferry Contract No. 039, undated Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority

53 Harbor TVust Works Engraving Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection Dredging of silt and sand from river, bay, canal and pier areas to ensure that proper depth of shipping channels is maintained has been a challenging responsibility of the Trust. An unending struggle against nature's unpredictable drifts of sand and silt on the sea bed due to storms and strong currents, dredging is an on-going activity that sometimes creates undertows and shifting sands. Two main channels approach the Port of Melbourne - one to Port Melbourne's piers, and one to Williamstown and the Coode Canal. As ships increased in size, so were the channels dredged to greater depths. It was formerly customary to dump dredged silt into the bay, but much dredged material has been useful for filling the low-lying lands of the Port Phillip area.

54 Prince's Pier, 1924 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection West of the deteriorating Railway Pier work began in 1912 on a New Railway Pier and on branch rail lines to serve it. The first section was ready in time to serve troops departing for World War I. In 1921, after the visiting Prince of Wales had disembarked at New Railway Pier from HMS Renown, the name was changed to 'Prince's Pier'. The new pier took much of the shipping during the time that Railway Pier (renamed 'Station Pier") was being rebuilt in the late 1920s. Yet until Centenary Bridge was erected in 1934 no road crossed the railyards to access Prince's Pier, and passengers had to travel by horse cab from Graham railway station. The family-run taxi service shuttled between pier and railway station by way of Swallow Street. Taken not long after the rail lines onto the piers were electrified, this 1924 photo of Prince 's Pier reveals the rear, land-based beacon under construction in the distance.

55 HMS Hood at Prince's Pier, 1924 William Hegarty Sepia photograph Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection At over 42,000 tons and a staggering 860 feet (262 m) in length, British battle-cruiser HMS Hood was one of the largest warships ever to visit Princes Pier, attracting thousands of sightseers in 1924.

56 Station Pier under Construction, 1925 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection Station Pier is the largest timber structure in the southern hemisphere. It was built at a straight angle directly over the top of the older, slightly curved Railway Pier, so this photo taken during construction in 1925 shows it as strangely double-headed. Note the busy bay cruisers Weeroona and Hygeia at the eastern finger pier and the lofty timber footbridge which crossed high over the pier's four rail lines for pedestrians to reach the other side ('tookyou ten minutes to walk across!'). At the western finger pier the seventy year old paddle-steamer Ozone is being broken up.

57 Station Pier, 1927 Black and white photograph The Argus, 24 February 1927 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection In the centre photo taken in 1927, you can just see the remaining pilings of the old pier between the HMAS Success and HMAS Yarra on the right. They have been lifted from their clay moorings and await removal from the water. The Light Cruiser HMAS Melbourne is docked at outer eastern berth.

58 Aerial View over Port Melbourne Piers Black and white photograph Herald and Weekly Times, 21 May 1963 Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority The 1963 aerial view shows:

» the sweep of the branch rail line servicing Prince's Pier at upper right

I Station Pier and its two finger piers » Centenary Bridge and the railyards » Swallow Street, leading to the Missions to Seamen

building at the foot of the bridge » the offshore beacon between the piers with its

timber approach still in place > industrial complexes including the huge Commonwealth

Engine Works I storage tanks of the Commonwealth Oil Refinery

(BP) » the land-based rear beacon (Sightline between

the two beacons was always kept clear.).

This entire area will soon be redeveloped with housing and tourist facilities.

59 Blue Boat Train on Station Pier, 1936 Black and white photograph Courtesy of Laura McGill Port Melbourne's Irving family celebrates opening day of the modern blue and silver Boat Train in 1936. The new train, topped by bold, red lettering lit up at night, is shown under the Station Pier gatehouse. The Boat Train ceased operation in 1939 and the paddlesteamers three years later as World War II wrought dramatic changes to Melbourne's way of life.

* 6 0 The Cutty Sark, 1850s Ship model Courtesy Polly Woodside Maritime Museum One of the sleek clippers that made the distance between England and Melbourne in less than 65 days, the Cutty Sark is representative of the many cargo ships that crowded into Hobson's Bay during the frenetic gold rush period.

• 61 The Oranje Ship model Courtesy Polly Woodside Maritime Museum Passenger liner Oranje, used in wartime as a hospital ship, was the first to return to Melbourne with World War II wounded. From bay cruises to the great passenger liners of the 1930s and the post-war migrant ships, there was always something to draw crowds to Station and Prince's Piers, especially at weekends. During the 1938 visit of the Empress of Britain, for example, 150,000 people visited Station Pier. In post-war years as Australia experienced the greatest of its four major waves of immigration, a third of all migrants arrived at Port Melbourne. Over sixty-two thousand passengers disembarked here in the peak year of 1966, but with the advent of jetliners the era of passenger shipping was soon to end. The last migrant ship, the Australis, arrived in Melbourne in 1978.

Those exciting days of brass bands and streamers are still fondly remembered, not just by the locals but by most Melbumians.

62 Comments on the State of the Port Melbourne Foreshore Montage of newspaper articles

63 Foreshore Improvement Scheme, January 1942 Drawing on paper Port Phillip City Collection A planning proposal covering the Bay Street to Pickles Street foreshore, including filled Lagoon area.

64 Port foreshore - as it is and as it will be Photocopy of newspaper article, Argus 31 March 1950

65 Aerial View of Centenary Bridge and Piers, cl984 Colour photograph Port Phillip City Collection Centenary Bridge was built by the Melbourne Harbour Trust for Victoria's Centenary in 1934. Designed to create an impressive gateway to Melbourne, the new bridge linked the piers with the road system, carrying motor and pedestrian traffic over the rail lines or onto the pier via an unusual third approach.

The Duke of Gloucester duly disembarked at Prince's Pier and proceeded in state over this stylish, art deco monument to celebrate the State's first hundred years. Centenary Bridge was demolished in January 1991. Even though it had been built by apparently inexperienced 'susso' labour during the Depression, it was so well constructed that demolition was very hard going. Strong protests against the loss of Victoria's Centenary monument caused the Government to leave a single pylon as token memorial.

Also seen are the leading light beacons installed in 1924. The concrete inland lighthouse is 26 metres high, its red light visible for 14 nautical miles. Although with modem technology this is the only light now required, its 17 metre timber companion offshore will be restored for its heritage value.

66 Proposed Arrangement of Leading Lights Diagram based upon drawing No. 4116,23 Sept 1918, Melbourne Harbour Trust Since 1866 the two leading lights guiding ships directly up the channel to Port Melbourne had been positioned one at the end of Railway Pier and the other on the foreshore (at points indicated in blue). The 1918 drawing proposed alternative positions for a new inland tower. But in 1924 before rebuilding Station Pier at a different angle from the original pier, the beacons were repositioned as indicated in yellow, in the towers which exist today.

67 Beach Street, Port Melbourne, 1925 Black and white photograph Reconstruction from three early photographs arranged by Jim Hillis for the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society No 6 of200 Acquired 1995 for the Port Phillip City Collection On this day in the winter of 1925, forty-two units from the U.S. Pacific battle fleet were berthed in the Port of Melbourne. At Prince's Pier battleships Pennsylvania, Nevada, Seattle and Oklahoma can be seen; paddlesteamer Weeroona is at Station Pier.

68 The Missions to Seamen, 1987 Alison Kelly Colour photograph Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection A nineteenth century English concept that spread world wide, seamen's missions were places where ships' crews could enjoy both recreation and worship as an alternative to the rowdy pubs of a port town. By 1857 such services were provided in Melbourne, firstly in a hulk at Sandridge and later in various on-shore facilities at Port Melbourne, Williamstown and Melbourne. In the city two are still in operation.

Motivated by compassion for the seamen and concern for the safety of their own wives and daughters, leading citizens of Sandridge supported a bethel for seamen in the 1850s to offset the wide choice of pubs. The little bethel located at Beach and Nott Streets near Town Pier was replaced in 1888 by a brick Seamen's Institute, which served for five decades. When maritime activity shifted westward to newer piers a modem mission was built at the foot of the new Centenary Bridge.

A gift to the Anglican Church from Aspro magnate Alfred Nicholas, it was designed by Melbourne architect Harry Norris, once considered an upstart but increasingly lauded as instrumental in Melbourne's Modem architectural movement. His Mission is an internationally noted example of the Dudok style, but its purity of form and architectural significance remains unrecognised by the general public, and by the two successive State governments which have condemned it against the recommendations of the Historic Buildings Council.

69 Missions to Seamen, Port Melbourne Black and white postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection One of several Rose Postcard views of the 1937 Missions to Seamen. These were best sellers at the Mission shop, requiring frequent restocking by the Rose representative. In a single year volunteers at Melbourne missions posted over 24,000 items for the men.

70 A Shilling a Year Many people in Melbourne remember giving their shilling during school days to help with the work of the Missions to Seamen. Activities received no funding from the Government. They were partially supported by the Anglican Church, but mainly depended upon the donations of the community through the group of volunteers known as the Harbour Lights Guild. Ladies of the Guild were rostered together with local girls to run the canteen and entertain the men who were so far from home. As one volunteer explained,

It was just generally talking to the men, and dancing. Just

listening to them. You had a variety of men; some of them were a bit rough, but...actually, 1 never had any problems with any of them. I think they were so glad to have somebody they could sit and just talk to naturally.

There were billiards, library, coffee shop and games rooms, cinema, music hall and dances. In the chapel, ecumenical services were held and weddings and baptisms were celebrated. (The first couple to be married at the Mission were migrants, the bride having just arrived by ship.) School children who subscribed a shilling a year to become members of the Guild also sent flowers, magazines and knitted items to the seamen.

The Mission served as a World War II Pacific command centre and later provided newly arrived migrants with food parcels during the post-war immigration period. With passenger shipping in decline, Port Melbourne's Mission ceased operation in 1972. The building was later used successfully as a community arts centre, closed by the Victorian Government in 1990.

71 Waterside Workers Union Membership Badge, 1930s Courtesy Perce White No single event affected Port Melbourne as did the 1928 Waterside Workers' Strike, which barely preceded the Great Depression. On the 10th of September 1928 Mr Justice Breeley handed down a new industrial award providing for no wage increases, no smokoes except for freezers, no allowance for working obnoxious cargo - and also for two pick-ups: one for recognised and established unions and the other for a newly formed 'Permanent and Casual' union.

Members of the latter were considered strike breakers by the general Port Melbourne community. The result was predictable and inevitable. Prime Minister Stanley Bruce legislated the Transport Workers Bill, dubbed the 'Dog Collar Act', proclaiming those ports refusing to work under the Breeley Award. The Act, which made it illegal to refuse to work in unsafe conditions, banned the right to strike and made sackings much easier to achieve, was eventually repealed in 1942 by the Curtin government. Hogan's Flats Events reached crisis point following implementation of the Dog Collar Act. On the 10th November 1928 during a confrontation between the strikers and the Permanents and Casuals at Hogan's Flats (land on the foreshore between the railyards and Princes Pier, so named after the Victorian Premier EJ. Hogan), the Police opened fire. Four strikers were wounded and one, Alan Whittaker, later died of gunshot wounds. Whittaker, who was wounded tragically during the Great World War of 1914-18, had his life terminated on the land he defended.

72 Walking Stick Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection This walking stick was carved by a convict associated with the barque John Murray, which was purchased by the government in 1910 and for some time anchored in the bay at Port Melbourne as a training ship for boys. In those days naughty boys were threatened with, 'Behave, or they'll put you on the John Murrayl'

73 Freedom of Entry to the City of Port Melbourne, 1982 Dluminated Address Port Phillip City Collection In 1912 the Navy occupied the former Mail Exchange at Rouse and Bay Streets and built their Drill Hall next door. During World War II the Naval base HMS Lonsdale was positioned on the last portion of Lagoon infill, on the bay between the East and West Esplanades. The base remained in operation until 1992 and enjoyed a close relationship with the City of Port Melbourne, which in 1982 extended this Freedom of Entry to the City.

74 Watson's Baths and the New Drill Hall, 1901 Black and white photograph City of Port Phillip Collection This photograph offers a rare glimpse of Watson's Baths at the turn of the century. They were built in 1853 and along with Mrs Ford's Bathing Establishment on the St Kilda fore-shore, were the first baths established in Port Phillip Bay. Watson's Baths attracted people from all over inner Melbourne, including Collingwood and Fitzroy. One patron later wrote, Nearing the baths, a sight worth seeing were the hundreds of towels which fluttered in the breeze, and the thousands of boys within and without... At the entrance to the baths was the usual shop, where one if he had the money paid for admission, and if funds were sufficient received a towel... By the turn of the century, however, they were in a dilapidated state, and after the failure to have their license renewed in 1905, demolition was completed in the hope of rebuilding the dream. But a cat and mouse game ensued between the harbour authorities and the Council over the priority of works for the Port Melbourne foreshore, in particular the location and construction of further docking facilities. Plans came to nothing and funds were scarce. At the end of the day, invasion of the open beach by increasingly impatient and less inhibited bathers put the hope of rebuilding the baths to rest.

75 Fishermen's Bend, cl920s Black and white photograph Reproduced with permission of the Keeper of Public Records

Fishermen's Bend was so called for its westernmost portion, shaped by a tight bend in the Yarra's meandering course to the bay. Although cut off in 1879 by the Coode Canal, that piece of land known since as Coode Island remained a part of Port Melbourne until 1994.

The future of this vast, snake-ridden area of sand and swampland west of the Sandridge railway has been the subject of endless wrangling since early European settlement. Melbourne, Emerald Hill and Sandridge councils, the Harbor Trust and various State and Federal authorities argued its possession and use. Hopeful proposals for harbour facilities, straight-cut canals to the city, suburban paradise for workers, tunnels, tramways, bridges, industrial waste dumps and international airports surfaced for over a century and a half.

Meanwhile the land was being continually degraded. Enormous dunes of fine, white sand along the foreshore (the area's only prominent feature) were mined away, illegally and by license, for use in building Marvellous Melbourne. The sand loss was so extensive the area was not only flattened but in places gouged out below water level, leaving large ponds that subsequently required reclamation. Until then they were used as tips and convenient receptacles for toxic industrial waste.

There was swamps over there. We used to make rafts, in dirty, murky, swampy water. Half the time you'd sink and come up to here in mud....it wasn't controlled play, it was adventure! Now, it just wouldn't happen, 'cause it wouldn't be allowed.... The smell, on hot days...there was no EPA readings at all, no....

Once sparse tree growth, scrub and grasses were removed there were serious problems with drifting sand on the Bend and on the streets of Sandridge. In 1879 a temporary tramway was required for removing tons of sand covering Albert Street!

The seemingly empty desolation of Fishermen's Bend supported bird life, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, odd cows and dairy herds. It was also popular for fishing and picnic excursions, and the rifle butts, trotting track, golf club along the Yarra and infamous two-up game were some of the entertainments it offered.

76 Regulations Governing Use of the Sandridge Borough Common, cl861 Proclamation Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection

77 Bend Shack, 1966 Rev. D. A.Langford Colour photograph Port Phillip City Collection This hut was demolished by the Harbor Trust in 1966.

78 Hut on Fishermen's Bend Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

79 Hut on Fishermen's Bend, Interior Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection With loose sand to the west of the railway and no roads across, settlement didn't seriously begin on the Bend side of Sandridge until the first Evans Street houses were built in 1868. But from early days till as late as the 1970s, fishermen's huts and ramshackle tin dwellings such as this one were scattered along the foreshore and river on the Bend, in surroundings remarkably rural so near to the city.

80 Lancaster Bomber over the Bend, 1940s

81 Assembly Line, Beaufort Front Fuselages, 1940s

82 Aerial View of Fishermen's Bend, 1950s Black and white photographs Courtesy ASTA Corporation Prior to the advent of jet flight Fishermen's Bend was proposed as the site for Melbourne's first international airport It has been a major Australian centre of aircraft design and manufacture since the 1930s. The earliest airstrip was Graham Carey's Melbourne Air Service, established 1920 in a perilous position beside the rifle butts and featuring joy rides in the bi-plane known locally as 'Carey's chaffcutter'. In 1921 Melbourne's first Aerodrome Licence was issued to the Shaw-Ross Aviation Company, whose aerodrome was replaced in the 1940s by Garden City housing (seen at upper left in the aerial photo). Others were on Coode Island (foreground, aerial photo) and elsewhere on the Bend.

In 1936, the same year GMH established operations near by, the government set aside 140 acres for the new Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation and its aerodrome, pictured here. CAC together with Aeronautical Research Laboratories and the Government Aircraft Factory established during World War II researched, manufactured, assembled and tested both local and overseas designs for the RAAF. Activity was especially frenetic during the war ('the Bend was a spotter's paradise'). The aerodrome disappeared in the 1970s, but these factories under different names and management are still producing aircraft parts on the Bend.

83 Proposals for Fishermen's Bend, 1917 Plans Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Collection Port Melbourne Council tried for decades to obtain some of the crown land on the Bend for desperately needed housing, but government continually refused and Clark Street remained the outer edge of the suburb. Promises

were made in 1913, but war intervened. These were two of the many schemes proposed for Fishermen's Bend land, presented to a 1920 town planners' conference at Adelaide. One envisions extensive harbour facilities, the other a modem suburb.

84 Aerial view of first Bank Houses, 1927 Photograph, black and white Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority Finally action occurred when the State Bank of Victoria purchased 45 acres of Bend land just south of Graham Street in order to construct a suburb of low cost, two-storey semi-detached houses, which workers could purchase on a £50 deposit. Between 1927 and 1948 nearly three hundred houses were built. They were laid out with open spaces and narrow streets to discourage traffic, after the English garden city concept. The 'garden' aspect was not immediately apparent as early owners continued to suffer drifting sands. In the foreground of the photo of the first of these houses is the unmade Williamstown Road, described as a dusty, country road until its surfacing by 'susso' labour in the Depression years. Due to constrictions on Bend development, the 1889 Graham Street School (at left) had remained at the edge of the built up area until 1927.

85 Aerial view of Prince's Pier and Shaw-Ross Aerodrome, c l930s Black and white photograph Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority During the war years Garden City was extended by another first in housing development The aerodrome between the bank houses and the bay (top of photo) was replaced by government housing for dispossessed inner urban slum dwellers. Open spaces and a variety of homes designed through a competition were features of this first model project for the newly established Housing Commission. Preference was given to larger families, and 1078 children came to live on the estate.

86 Coode Canal Works, 1879 Engraving Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection The first proposal for a straight cut canal from the Sandridge piers to Melbourne was made as early as 1851. It was a sensible suggestion. Smaller vessels could navigate the tortuous nine-mile passage up the Yarra to Melbourne, but larger ships were forced to anchor in the bay and send goods and passengers to Melbourne on lighters. This tedious process cost as much as bringing the ship all the way from England. A straight cut would bring shipping directly to the city, and also assure the city of Melbourne that Sandridge would never compete with it as a port.

Finally the newly formed Harbor Trust commissioned British engineer John Coode to design a port for Melbourne. His option for cutting off the difficult bend in the river resulted in the building of the Coode Canal in 1879, at a time when extensive dredging of bay and river channels was also in process.

Despite the construction of Coode's canal, propositions for the straight-cut from Port Melbourne piers to the city remained under consideration well into this century. Eventually as ships grew ever larger and the necessity for berthing them at bay piers became more obvious, the straight cut was abandoned in favour of new piers (Prince's and Station), freeing for development land previously held for straight cut purposes.

87 Fishermen's Bend Proposed areas to be Reclaimed with Materials Dredged from Widening of Coode Canal Drawing No. 7898/9A, 26 June 1940 Drawing No. 7986/59A, undated Reproduced with permission of the Port of Melbourne Authority

88 The Reclamation Work at Sandridge Bend Wood engraving Australasian Sketcher 1 July 1882 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection As a bonus, canal excavation and subsequent widening provided sand for the on-going reclamation of swamps and depleted Fishermen's Bend land. During the 1930s Depression, 'susso' labourers complained that they were kept busy shifting sand from one hole to another. Today although much of the Bend has been reclaimed and developed for industry or converted to parkland, there are still remaining areas marked for future landfill.

89 Aerial View over the Bend, 1973 Colour photograph Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Victoria Port Phillip City Collection

Areas yet to be reclaimed can be seen in this 1970s photograph showing Garden City, and Webb Dock under construction. Begun in the late 1950s, the developing container dock at the mouth of the Yarra is itself a landfill reclamation project of enormous proportions.

90 Clean-up of the BP Tank Farm Site Alison Kelly Colour photographs Port Melbourne Historical land Preservation Society Collection Over a century of noxious industries, manure pits and waste dumping into the swamps on the Bend, together with fifty years of oil storage on the Anglo-Persian/BP leasehold resulted in serious contamination of

groundwater and the development site around the Port Melbourne piers. Protest arose in 1987 against Bayside Project plans to dig canals through the worst of the polluted land, and in the early 1990s Australia's biggest ever clean-up project sought to decontaminate the area. Scope of the operations can be seen in these views.

91 Geological Survey, 1864 Coloured map Alfred R C Selwyn, Chief Geologist; J Wilkinson, Draftsman; J D Brown, Engraver Department of Public Lands Port Phillip City Collection

This very old map shows the high ground at St Kilda and Emerald Hill, illustrating the reasons for first settlement and why Sandridge developed, where people could come ashore and travel to Melbourne along the driest overland route.

92 Geological Section of Emerald Hill, 1861 Engraving Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

The physical origins of Emerald Hill are indicated clearly in these cross-sectional drawings. The top section is from the Bay to the Domain, while the bottom is from Batman's Hill, across the Yarra, through Albert Park to St Kilda. The South Melbourne Town Hall was built on the original orphanage site.

93 City of Melbourne from the Base of Emerald Hill S. T. Gill (1818-1880) Reproduction of original lithograph La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

Planked footways were built over the low lying soggy lands to facilitate movement around the Emerald Hill locality and to the Yarra River crossing. In this lithograph the planked footways from both Moray Street and Park Street to Prince's Bridge are evident.

Emerald Hill was joined to Sandridge by wooden bridges across the lagoon.

94 Canvas Town Hand coloured engraving Port Phillip City Collection

Fortune seekers in the Gold Rush era would disembark at Sandridge, then take the forty minute walk across the open country to this temporary but very substantial town of tents laid out approximately where Hoddle's plan (1840) had originally indicated a South Melbourne settlement to be.

This engraving created for the publication Victoria and its Metropolis: Past and Present 1888 by Sutherland, remembers the Canvas Town of the early 1850s.

95 View from St Kilda of Melbourne, Emerald Hill and Part of Sandridge, 1862 George O'Brien (1821-1888) Reproduction of original watercolour Picture Collection, Mitchell Library, N.S.W.

96 View of Melbourne, Australia, c l870 Hand coloured wood engraving Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

97 View of Emerald Hill from the Military Barracks in 1881 Handcoloured engraving Port Phillip City Collection The swampy land shown here, between Emerald Hill and St Kilda Road, was under the control of the Army Barracks. The drains of both the Army Barracks and the Homeopathic hospital discharged into it. By the 1880s it was a stinking mess.

98 The Falls Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799-1879) Reproduced from the original watercolour La TVobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

The Yarra was prone to flooding after very heavy rain. The rock obstructions at and near the Falls blocked flood waters and caused severe flooding up-stream as far as Dight's Falls and south of the river around Emerald Hill. At low tide people stepped across these rocks. The Falls helped to define the site of Melbourne They marked the limits of navigation and the beginning of fresh water.

The cottage was originally owned by surveyor Robert Russell, who passed it on to William Le Soef, Protector of Aborigines. The Le Soefs set up a ferry service here in 1840.

99 The Flood of 1849 Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799^1879) Reproduced from original watercolour La TYobe Collection, State Library of Victoria The first recorded severe flood in the fledgling Colony of Victoria occurred on Christmas Eve 1839. South of the river was flooded by many feet, and Emerald Hill was temporarily an island. Flooding occurred again in 1842 and 1844. In 1849 the flood waters flowed through the swamps of Albert Park and Sandridge Lagoon to the bay. Liardet's memory of the flood (for it was painted some years later), is one of the earliest images of flooding on the swamp plains of Port and South Melbourne. It shows the chaos caused by this very severe storm, as many households lost all they had

Two days of continuous rain and a fierce southwest gale caused floods again in December 1863. Floodwaters

several feet deep poured across St Kilda Road, and flowed by Albert Road through the park to the sea, rendering Emerald Hill an island yet again..

* 100 General Plan Shewing Harbour Improvements as Recommended by Sir John Coode in his Report of 17 February 1879 Lithographer: Thomas Kell Courtesy Royal Historical Society of Victoria

In the 1879 Report of Sir John Coode, renowned English engineer, recommendations for flood prevention measures included the complete removal of rock barriers at the Falls and Prince's Bridge, the widening and deepening of the river, and the substantial embankment of the river margin from the Botanical Gardens Bridge to the sea.

The Melbourne Harbour Trust (founded in 1877) acted on Coode's recommendations. With the 1887 opening of the Coode Canal, and the reclamation of low-lying land using silt dredged from the river, the threat of flooding was greatly reduced. Dock facilities were greatly improved. Below the Falls Bridge the river was widened to provide a swinging basin in which ships could turn around.

101 Sandridge Train and Floods 1890 Wood engraving Illustrated Australian News Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

Even the railways were disrupted by the floods of 1880, when the Yarra River rose at least 50 feet (16 metres). The Railway Bridge above the Falls was in danger. There was no lighting for two nights as the Melbourne Gas company was under four feet of water (1.3 metres). There was a fatality when a reckless cart-driver ignored warnings and was drowned in Buckhurst Street.

102 Floods in March 1878 Sepia photographs Port Phillip City Collection

The major modifications to the Yan-a River that Sir John Coode recommended did much to ease the threat of floods, but by no means eliminated the problem in the low flat lands of South Melbourne and Port Melbourne. They collected the run off from the higher ground and these areas' drainage as well, but they could not in their turn dispel these waters.

The problem was compounded by the availability of cheap water from the Yan Yean Reservoir. The land had never before had to absorb so much water. It waterlogged the already high water-table lands of the Lower Yarra flood delta.

The need for continual improvements to the drainage systems in these local government areas remained an irritant for many years.

103 The Great Flood of 1891 Black and white photograph Reproduced from Jubilee History of South Melbourne, 1905 Port Phillip City Collection

104 Flood Damage in Clarendon Street Black and white photograph The Herald, 13 July 1963 Port Phillip City Collection Flood damage remains a problem in the low lying areas.

105 South Melbourne's Flood Areas a Disgrace to the City, 1934 Newspaper report The Record 13 Jan 1934 Port Phillip City Collection

106 The First Punt Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799-1879) Reproduced from the original watercolour La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

The first punt across the Yarra River, roughly where Princes Bridge is today, was launched in 1838. Large enough to carry a dray and bullock team, it was operated by pulling a rope tied to a tree on either bank. A second punt was launched within a year.

107 Last Spencer Street Ferry Black and white photograph Royal Historical Society of Victoria

In 1912 representatives of the Cities of Melbourne, South Melbourne and the Melbourne Harbour Trust discussed the desirability of a bridge linking Clarendon and Spencer Streets. But nothing was done. After years of negotiations, a 1927 Act of Parliament authorised the construction of a bridge at Spencer Street which was officially opened in February 1930.

108 Launch of Clarendon-Spencer Street Ferry Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

The Melbourne Harbour Trust launched its new steam ferry for the Spencer Street crossing in 1883. The increase in population and the development of industry on the south bank of the Yarra in South Melbourne made this necessary. Using ferries was feasible in the days of low traffic volumes. It saved having to build bridges high enough for ships to negotiate.

109 Williamstown-Port Melbourne Punt, 1960s Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

110 Princes Bridge, cl875 Charles Nettleton (1826-1902) Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

In 1845 Balbimie's Bridge, a wooden structure 120 feet in length, was erected at the Prince's Bridge site.

In October 1850 it was replaced by this stone bridge. It had one arch and a span of 150 feet.

In October 1888 the current Prince's Bridge was opened. It was 400 feet long and 99 feet wide. The river was now 316 feet wide at this point.

111 The Pool, Queen's Bridge and Queen's Wharf Black and white photograph Courtesy Vic Image

In 1861 a wooden Fall's Bridge, opposite Market Street, was opened. A traffic census in January 1862 showed that in one week 27,271 pedestrians and 1,915 wheeled vehicles had used the bridge.

In 1890 the new Queen's Bridge was opened, replacing the old Falls Bridge. Owing to opposition to the raising of South Melbourne railway line by the Railway, the bridge was at such a low level that nearly all river traffic now ceased upstream of it.

112 Elwood Photocopy of map Port Phillip City Collection

Shows the site of the old battery and main drain near the St Kilda and Elwood district boundary.

113 New Plan of Melbourne and Suburbs, Sands and McDougall, c l865 Map Port Phillip City Collection As well as indicating the location of the Sandridge and Emerald Hill batteries, the swampy land between Emerald Hill and St Kilda Road is also shown. Albert Park has not yet assumed its modem shape.

114 Melbourne and Suburbs Extract, 1876 Photocopy of map Port Phillip City Collection When Britain fought Russia in the Crimean War in the early 1850s, the colony of Victoria felt vulnerable. Placed on the foreshore in a protective position to the southwest of Melbourne Town, the Boroughs of St Kilda, Emerald Hill and Sandridge expressed their patriotism by raising and mobilising volunteer rifle corps, and establishing numerous rifle butts on their foreshore lands. They were perceived as a key element in the defence plan for the colony. The Albert Park railway station was originally called

The Butts station, as many of the volunteers arrived by train to practice at the Rifle range down by the sea. Both short and long rifle ranges were to be found at almost regular intervals from south of Point Ormond to Fishermen's Bend The Emerald Hill Battery was the first battery to be erected, in 1855. A military road (now Beaconsfield Parade) linked the three gun emplacements on the beach at Sandridge Lagoon, Emerald Hill and West St Kilda. These batteries stayed on the beach until the late 1870s.

115 Care of Vegetation, 9 October 1863 Handwritten letter Port Phillip City Collection Acknowledge receipt of letter of 29th Ultimo, and in reply to inform you that an additional opening (two wickets being in existence) in the fencing of the Batteries at Emerald Hill will be provided to give the inhabitants better access to the Baths on the Beach. In forwarding this intimation I should be glad if the Council of the Borough would be good enough to use their endeavours to prevent persons passing these gates, from injuring the scrub; it being of the greatest importance that this scrub should be permitted to grow as rapidly as possible for the purpose of masking the Batteries.

116 Access to Beach, 31 October 1863 Handwritten letter Port Phillip City Collection

Sir, In Acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 27th inst. I have the honour to inform you that I regret there is a difficulty in acceding to your request - contained therein-for a gate in fence of the Sandridge batteries large enough to admit carriages until the scrub and vegetation is sufficiently advanced for defence purposes.

I have the honour to be Sir etc.

117 Mock Battle, Elwood Swamp Photocopy of Army map Courtesy Don Taggart

Point Ormond and the Elwood Swamp were areas of major military activity. There were trenches, batteries and other military engineering devices. The tents of the artillery men and volunteers could often be seen along the Elwood foreshore.

What was considered to be the finest review of troops ever held in Victoria took place at Point Ormond on 1 July 1862, to celebrate the separation of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales in 1851. Twenty thousand people were estimated to have attended on a day that was considered perfect for such a martial display. Point Ormond was attacked by a landing party from the steam

sloop of war Victoria, bearing the Austrian flag. She was assisted in the assault upon the land forces by the steamer Lioness.

Another party was landed on the north side of Point Ormond, but they were quickly dislodged by a company of Melbourne Rifles hurrying from the Railway station for the review, who opened fire upon them. The Victoria shelled the Rifles, but they displayed the utmost valour and refused to take the shell fire seriously.

In 1874 when the Government was reducing its military presence in Emerald Hill, it permanently reserved 54 acres at Elwood, clearing most of the remaining groves of ti-tree in the process, to the concern of the residents.

In 1884 the Victorian Volunteer Rifle Corps was disbanded, and the Elwood Butts were closed in 1907. The reclamation of beach lands commenced in 1926 with wire fencing, grassing and ti-tree planting.

118 Beaconsfield Parade, St Kilda, 1906 Coloured postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

119 Beaconsfield Parade, South Melbourne Coloured postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

120 Beaconsfield Parade, South Melbourne Coloured postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

121 MacGregor's Family Hotel Blue postcard Port Phillip City Collection

MacGregor's Hotel Victoria (1889) and to a lesser degree the Bleak House (1883) provided accommodation for the genteel, who were either holidaying or in permanent residence along the foreshore.

122 Bridport Street from the Beach Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

123 Kerford Road Pier Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

124 Construction of New Military Road, 26 August 1879 Handwritten letter Port Phillip City Collection

The variation in handwriting between the signature and the body of the letter makes clear the fact that 'official' handwritten letters were in fact copied out by clerks, just as we use typists today.

The letter reads: Sir, I have the honour to point out that in order to carry out the works of the New Military Road from Sandridge to St Kilda it will be necessary to remove a Cottage near the Emerald Hill Baths, and as it is believed to be under the control of the Emerald Hill Borough Council I am directed to request that steps may be taken for its removal.

I have the honour etc. Construction began in 1878 and on completion the New Military Road was renamed Beaconsfield Parade.

125 Beaconsfield Parade Looking South to St Kilda Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

In 1878, with the closure of the old Emerald Hill foreshore battery the first work on lengthening and improving the Military Road in South Melbourne began, using a Government scheme for unemployed labour.

In 1887 St Kilda, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne Councils waited upon the then Minister for Public Works, the Hon. John Nimmo, to request him to persuade the Government to match pound for pound the works necessary to reconstruct the road and turn it into a major boulevard of national, not just local, significance.

The panoramic sweep of a grand road by the sea and the potential for its beautification were evident. The deputation pointed out that the new road would provide access to adjoining Crown land which could be sold to offset the cost of the Government's contribution.

In early 1890 the Councils of South Melbourne and St Kilda were given a grant, and the works proceeded, again employing out of work labourers. The Military Road was renamed Beaconsfield Parade and proclaimed in June 1890.

Beaconsfield Parade became a major promenade area and holiday destination with many amusements along its foreshore.

The placement of the unifying row of palm trees in 1988 was assisted by Bicentennial funding.

126 Aerial View of Beaconsfield Parade, Looking South Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

127 The Pier Road, St Kilda Black and white postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection In 1936 this road was built from St Kilda Foreshore Committee funds, to link Beaconsfield Parade with the St Kilda Pier.

128 Beaconsfield Parade Looking South from the Bleak House Hotel Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

To add to the attractiveness of the foreshore and to prevent sand drift, construction of a stone sea wall was commenced in 1896, and extended until the St Kilda foreshore boundary was reached in 1911. Here the stone wall had already been extended, and land reclamation and beautification works were already being undertaken in the Catani Gardens.

129 Kerferd Road Pier Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

130 Kerferd Road Pier Black and white photograph: Real photograph series Port Phillip City Collection

The Kerferd Road Pier was built in 1881 especially for promenading. It became so popular that by 1887 it had been renovated and extended to double its original length. Further extensions were requested by the newly formed Albert Park Yachting and Angling club in 1909, who wanted a boat harbour for their yachts and rowing boats. This was rejected as a facility already existed at St Kilda. With the grand commercial working piers of Port Melbourne, the three communities covered all forms of jetty function.

The Kerferd Road Pier was refurbished in 1988 as part of the Bicentennial programme.

131 Aquatic Entertainment at the Emerald Hill Sea Baths February 1883 Reproduced from original print Port Phillip City Collection

132 Emerald Hill Sea Bathing Company's Baths, 1871 Reproduced from original engraving Port Phillip City Collection

Emerald Hill was later than Sandridge and St Kilda in making provision for sea bathing, not only because of the distance of the town from the beach, but because of the presence of the military on the foreshore.

In 1856, one year after the Emerald Hill battery was first erected, the Council prohibited bathing in front of it. An extra gate was put in the fence surrounding the battery reserve in 1863 to give the inhabitants of Emerald Hill better access to the baths on the beach, but residents could still be exposed to a hail of bullets from the nearby rifle butts.

The Emerald Hill Sea Bathing Company lobbied the Emerald Hill Council to seek permission from the Government to build a bathing establishment. The request was granted with one proviso,' that during the times the guns were fired from the battery there should be no bathing or that, if there was bathing during that time, and an accident should occur, the government should not be held responsible'. They opened their Baths in 1873, advertising them in the Argus newspaper as having fresh-water shower baths, sprint boards, rafts, ropes.. .for the comfort of bathers'. From 1873 to the 1890s, such baths were the last word in comfort and style. Women took up swimming with enthusiasm, and by the 1890s the Ladies' Baths could not cope with the numbers. The women then had to share the baths with the men, swimming at different times; the ladies swam when a white flag was displayed.

133 Screen Fences for Ladies, 1861 Handwritten letter Port Phillip City Collection

In 1857 after representation to the Emerald Hill Council about using the beach for bathing, a 'Beach Committee' was formed and three plankways over the foreshore swamp were constructed for the convenience of bathers. They also erected three screen fences on the beach at the designated women's bathing ground. A rudimentary female baths was erected in 1858, and males bathing or lingering near the ladies' baths were liable to a fine of £10.

Gentlemen, We the undersigned beg to offer you our warmest thanks for the very convenient Screen fences erected on the Beach for the Accommodation of Females. They are everything we could desire. While we enjoy the pure air and bright sunshine overhead we have all the privacy we wished. We beg especially to present our thanks to councillor Service for the interest he has taken in this matter, not only at this time, but also last summer when he was the means of getting the ground marked off and finger? posts put up to prevent any intrusion.

134 Map of South Melbourne and St Kilda Foreshore, 1896 Photocopy of MMBW map Port Phillip City Collection

There were several baths along the foreshore. Tait's Middle Park baths were at the end of Armstrong Street (middle of the map). Next were the Emerald Hill Baths (or Tramway Baths) at the foot of Victoria Avenue. Further north were Stubbs' baths for Gentlemen and Ladies. The Hot Sea baths were between Stubbs' Ladies' and Gentlemen's baths.

135 Plan Showing Position of Piles of Baths in South Melbourne, c l960s Plan Port Phillip City Collection

Having earlier acquired the Emerald Hill Company's Baths, South Melbourne Council acquired the Middle Park Baths in 1911, and Stubbs' Baths in 1928, and then leased them out The baths became so run down that their removal was necessary, and this plan formed part of the brief for the demolition tender document.

The Tramway Baths and Stubbs' Gentlemen's Baths had been removed by this time so the plan refers to the Middle Park and Stubbs' Ladies' Baths, even though they were quite separate.

136 Beach Scene and Hot Salt Water Baths Black and white photograph

A hot sea bath for therapeutic purposes was erected in 1885, situated between Stubbs' Gentlemen's and Ladies' Baths. These Baths drew protests from nearby residents who complained that the three foreshore buildings spoilt the beach views from their homes. The baths were large structures stretching in excess of 500 feet into the sea.

137 Hot Sea Baths Sepia photograph Courtesy Jack Simmons

Never happy about living over the water, the wife of the proprietor of these baths, Mrs Simmons, was always fearful of the danger that storms posed. As a result, she would make sure that her family was ashore as soon as the waves began to rise. Her son Jack gave this photograph to the Albert Park Local History collection.

138 Re: Rating of Baths, South Melbourne Beach, 5 January 1897 Typed letter Port Phillip City Collection

This letter indicates the complexity of defining responsibilities for the baths.

The development of the St Kilda, South Melbourne and Port Melbourne foreshore highlights the difficulties in planning and managing this area as a recreational resource. For nearly 100 years there were demarcation issues between the various authorities regarding responsibilities for the water, beach and promenade areas, together with the related management and financial issues. These authorities were the Harbor Trust, established in 1877, the Board of Lands and Work, and the respective councils.

The Harbor Trust was responsible for the water and the beach up to the high water mark and therefore controlled the baths and dressing sheds. The Board of Lands and

Work was responsible for the beach between the high water mark and the southern side of Beaconsfield Parade (in 1910 this was transferred to the newly formed Foreshore Trust), and controlled the kiosks. Councils were responsible for the area inland on the southern side of the Parade and enforced the local government regulations and by-laws, as well as leasing the baths and kiosks for the other authorities.

The division of responsibility that had dogged the management of the foreshore continued to create confusion until 1967 when the Government, bayside municipalities and the newly created Port Phillip Authority made serious financial commitment to co-operative foreshore redevelopment and improvement.

139 Middle Park, Municipal Baths Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

140 Storm Damage, Middle Park Baths, 1920s Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

141 Storm Damage, Middle Park Baths, 1920s Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

The last of the baths to be built in South Melbourne were those opposite Armstrong Street Middle Park and leased to the Tait family. In 1911 these Baths were acquired by the Council.

The maintenance costs of baths were high because of the incessant movement of the water and the periodic storm damage, but funding these necessary repairs was complex, as they were technically under the jurisdiction of the Harbor Trust The reality was that they were leased to the Council, who in turn arranged for the sub-leasing. Responsibility for structural improvements and repairs over the years was confusing.

142 Steamer Aground in Swimming Baths Newspaper article The Herald, 18 November 1926 Port Phillip City Collection

143 Malaita Stranded in South Melbourne Baths Newspaper article The Herald, 29 November 1926 Port Phillip City Collection The problem of responsibility for maintenance and repairs to the baths was highlighted in 1926, when the steamship Malaita broke its moorings and crashed through Stubbs' Gentlemen's' Baths. Damage done to the baths was so severe that they were subsequently removed, but only after the ship had lain there for nearly six months.

Council was left in sole control of all the Baths on the foreshore after they purchased Stubbs' Ladies Baths and the Hot Sea Baths in 1928.

144 Albert Park School Boys' Swimming Club, 1917 Black and white photograph Weekly Times, 23 March 1917 La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

This montage illustrates the inside of Stubbs' Baths.

145 Grouped Swimming Clubs on South Melbourne Beach Black and white photograph Courtesy Daryl Maybourne

146 South Surfers Football Club, 1925-26 Black and white photograph Courtesy Daryl Maybourne

The concentration of swimming clubs was a distinguishing feature of South Melbourne's use of the beach. By 1915, they were located at the bathing establishments as well as being formed around beach locations. Many of the streets running down to South Melbourne's foreshore boasted their own club, the Wright Street Swimming Club was one of these.

The highly organised swimming and life saving clubs also provided fun and entertainment. This played an important part in fostering membership and support, and a cohesive community spirit-especially once the bans on mixed bathing were lifted. The South Melbourne Swimming, Park Street Surfing, Albert Park Surfing, Middle Park Baths Swimming, and Wright Street Swimming clubs, all held carnivals and demonstrations.

Some clubs provided other sporting activities such as the Surf Life-Saving Club who fielded the South Surfers football team. Numerous other clubs all connected with aquatic recreation were formed, including dinghy, rowing, yachting and angling. The Albert Park Yachting and Angling Club was formed in 1909.

147 Cuthbertson Cup Silver Donated to the Port Phillip City Collection by Frank Renton Power In the 1920s there were a number of flourishing foreshore bathing clubs on Hobson's Bay, including Williamstown, South Melbourne (Foote Street), Albert Park (Mills Street), Wright Street, Middle Park Surf Club (Nimmo Street), Middle Park Baths Club, Park Swimming Club (Mc Gregor Street), West St Kilda (Cowderoy Street), Melbourne Swimming Club (St Kilda Baths), Esplanade Life Saving Club and the Elwood Life Saving Club. All these clubs conducted carnivals on summer Saturdays, and the rivalry was intense. The Mi.A. for Albert Park,

Mr Robert Cuthbertson (who was also a South Melbourne Councillor 1912-33 and Mayor 1918-19), donated this trophy to the Victorian Amateur Swimming Association, to be contested by the swimming clubs annually. Like the Davis Cup it was to be a perpetual trophy.

There was to be a teams race from St Kilda Pier to Kerferd Road Pier-a team consisting of six swimmers from each club, each of whom had to complete the course. The winners in 1929 were the Park Swimming Club (amalgamated with the Middle Park Baths Club in 1930). However at a yachting carnival held off Middle Brighton Pier in 1930 (just prior to the second Cuthbertson Cup race), a young man was taken by a shark when he dived off Brighton Pier. This was the end of competitive long distance swimming in the bay.

The cup passed between each of that first winning team, the last holder being Mr Frank Renton Power.

148 Middle Park Swimmers 1929-1930 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

• 149 Arthur Gaskett and the 'Strand' Cup Black and white photograph Courtesy Daryl Maybourne The proud captain of a winning team.

^150 Swimming Team and the 'Strand' Cup Black and white photograph Courtesy Daryl Maybourne The victorious team, each wearing their medals.

151 Inside Men's Dressing Sheds, c l920 Black and white photograph Courtesy Frank Renton Power In the early 1900s bathing facilities were constanUy being renovated and upgraded- the Council erecting new bathing shelters for men and women, and modifying the baths at various times to ensure women's modesty. In 1910 free dressing sheds were erected for the use of open sea bathers.

During the 1920s foreshore improvement and beautification was spasmodic through lack of funds. The Foreshore Trust funds were about £300 pounds ($600) per year compared to that of St Kilda Foreshore Trust, which received £3,000 pounds ($6,000) plus £2,000 pounds ($4,000) government subsidy, and rents.

The bathers needed more amenities but all the Council could afford to build were the brick locker sheds at Mills Street. The Government refused to allow private enterprise on the foreshore, thus depriving the Council of much needed revenue.

A number of swimming and life-saving clubs in the 1930s applied for permission to erect club houses along the beach front. Although permission was finally given, there had been some debate between the swimming clubs, the Government, the Foreshore Trust, the Council and residents about the number of structures on a limited and exposed foreshore.

152 Learn to Swim Certificate Certificate signed by Frank Beaurepaire Courtesy Daryl Maybourne

A product of the South Melbourne foreshore and a graduate of the swimming clubs was champion Olympic swimmer Frank Beaurepaire, who was bom, raised and married in South Melbourne and was instrumental in bringing the 1956 Olympic Games to Melbourne.

153 Proposed new Bathing Pavilion, 1941 Architectural drawings Port Phillip City Collection

In 1950 South Melbourne Town Cleric Harold Alexander, in his position as Honorary Secretary of the Foreshore Trust, wrote: Conditions along the foreshore are wretched: the public baths are antiquated and in a bad state of repair and the only remedy is early replacement. Comfort station facilities are likewise sorely needed... hitherto the Council had maintained bathing facilities and undertaken beach cleaning with the aid of the Harbor Trust and Foreshore Committee, no assistance whatsoever has been forthcoming from the Government in this regard despite the fact that the reserve is 'national' in character as distinct from being of 'local' significance.

Alexander had been agitating for years for a new beach pavilion similar to this one located at the end of Pickles Street on the South Port boundary.

154 Beach Bivouacs Blue and white print Port Phillip City Collection The Beach Bivouac Company operated near the Kerferd Road pier, renting out change tents with a chair and portable locker.

155 Letter About Bathing Costumes, 1920s Port Phillip City Collection

156 Albert Park Beach, 1930s Airspy Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The Convent of the Good Shepherd's impressive building complex is seen in this summer photograph, as are the brick locker sheds.

157 South Melbourne Foreshore Committee Regulations, 1933 Proclamation on cloth Port Phillip City Collection

158 City of South Melbourne, Notice Under S 539 of Local Government Act, 8 February 1936 Proclamation on cloth Port Phillip City Collection

159 Beach Cleaning, 1960s Black and white photographs The Herald Port Phillip City Collection

Keeping the beaches clean was a continuing problem for all the authorities concerned - it was always some one else's responsibility. Two major problems were the discharge of drainage into the bay and the huge deposits of mussels which were washed up on the beach after storms. In 1897, the local newspaper reported that the drainage outlet near Kerferd Road Pier had become so offensive that:'some of the visitors at the Hotel Victoria left on account of the bad odours emitted from it'. (Record 6/2/1897)

The joint purchase by South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and St Kilda of more modem beach cleaning equipment in the late 1980s was another example of mutual co-operation between the three municipalities.

160 Map of Lagoon in Albert Park, 1871 Drawn by H. E. Ward, signed by Clement Hodgkinson Port Phillip City Collection

To early settlers the lagoon was an attractive place - a reedy swamp, thick with native birds. In the early 1860s it was known as the South Park lagoon. After winter rain it was a mile long stretch of water, 3 feet at its deepest, but after summer evaporation it retreated to only two small lakes at the northern end. Soon it was being spoiled by domestic drainage and sewage from parts of Emerald Hill, Prahran and St Kilda.

Disappointed by the Government's refusal to finance lake improvements, concerned nearby residents opened a subscription list for funds to carry out dredging work. The first dredging works were done by William Buckhurst, who, at his own expense, employed workers to deepen the narrowest part of the lake.

Further Government-subsidised dredging work in the 1870s created the three ornamental islands in the lake. Only one remains today.

161 Albert Park Lagoon in 1877 Reproduced from original engraving La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

To the left of this engraving is Pagoda Island, so named

because of its ornamental pagoda.

By June 1871 there were twenty-seven sailing boats using the lake, most of them hired from boathouses then run by 'Jem' Edwards, W.T. Greenland, and Charles Smith.

In September 1872 the Albert Park Yacht Club was formed with 50 members enrolled. Buckhurst and others continued to agitate for much-needed improvements. One writer commented:

The present state of the lake is simply an abomination, with sewage allowed to run into it from various drains,... unheeded and now remaining there to be stirred up with every passing boat.

Although improvements were made, the water level was very low, water weed was flourishing due to cesspool drainage at the St Kilda end, and there were fears of a typhoid outbreak.

By 1878 fresh water was being pumped from the Yarra, although not always effectively for, by September 1880, the pump was in disrepair and the engineer had been dismissed.

In 1880 further improvements were made, including piles and red gum breastwork around the lake. Water depth was increased, although in August 1881 it was still no more than 3 feet over-all.

However, sailing and rowing continued to provide recreation for all who wished to participate, regardless of class or creed. Working men could, for a shilling or so, take part in a yacht race alongside wealthy members of the community.

In the 1930s depression years, the timber breastwork was replaced by a concrete edge around the lake. Meanwhile, the surrounding park was developed with numerous sporting fields and various ancillary buildings.

The recreational uses of the lake increased to include speed boat racing, canoeing, fishing and sailing of model yachts while the long-established rowing and sailing traditions continue to flourish.

162 Albert Park Lagoon on a Saturday Afternoon, 1877 Australasian Sketcher, 27 December 1877 Reproduced from original engraving La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

This view is from the St Kilda end of the Lake. The schooner on the left is Mr Glen Knight's Marianne and the one in the middle probably Mr Reddish's Martha. On St Kilda island in the centre is one of the two Chinese sampans originally imported for sailing on Port Phillip Bay. Behind it is Obstruction Island. The two men in the foreground are dressed in the blue uniform of the Albert Park Yacht Club.

163 Plan No 20, Albert Park, 1894 MMBW map Courtesy Adair Bunnett In 1853 the Melbourne City Council requested the Government reserve 790 acres between Emerald Hill and St Kilda as a public park for the increasing population in the neighbourhood. The Governor declined.

In 1862 the Government did temporarily reserve 745 acres originally known as Home Park, then South Park and eventually Albert Park, after Queen Victoria's Prince Consort. The boundaries were St Kilda Road (east), St Kilda railway line (west), Fitzroy Street (south), and Albert Road (north). It included the Alpaca Reserve of 21 acres vested in the St Kilda council as trustee in 1864.

This reserve adjoining Fitzroy Street was enclosed as a run for six llama alpacas, part of a flock imported in 1859 from Bolivia and located at Royal Park. As the llamas did not thrive, St Kilda Council returned them to Royal Park. The area remained known as the Alpaca paddock for many years.

Between 1859 and 1867 part of the south end of the park was used for a loop railway line linking the St Kilda and Windsor railway stations. The line crossed the Albert Park swamp on a wooden viaduct 400 metres long.

In 1875 J. J. Casey, Minister for Lands, announced the sale of park land bordering the west side of St Kilda Road for building allotments. A new road (now Queens Road) was to be made parallel to St Kilda Road, and the blocks, large and expensive, would have frontages to either of these roads as this map shows. The Warehouseman's ground (now the Albert Ground) was reserved from the sale.

There was a public outcry with protest meetings held at several venues, including the St Kilda and Prahran Town Halls, but the auctions were rushed through. The Government also intended to sell the Park frontage along Fitzroy Street, but public protest led to this plan being abandoned. Albert Park had already , for many years been considered a much needed open green breathing space for an increasingly populous and industrialised metropolis.

Albert Park was reduced to 570 acres. In March 1876 this area was permanently reserved as a public park. In 1878 an area in the north-west comer was excised for the South Melbourne Technical School, and in 1933 in the north-east comer for the MacRobertson Girls' High School.

In 1917 an area north of the lake near the South Melbourne Cricket Ground became the Albert Park Army Depot.

During World War n, 45 acres on the northern side were occupied to develop three large storage warehouses. In the 1950s these were converted into centres for basketball, badminton and table tennis. Forty acres in the southern end not far from St Kilda Railway Station was taken over for army offices. This area was rehabilitated as parkland in 1982.

164 Albert Park Lake, c 1880 Artist unknown Oil on canvas Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

165 Dinghy Race, Albert Park Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

166 Albert Park Lake, 1912 Coloured postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

167 Lady Rower, Albert Park Lake Black and white postcard Port Phillip City Collection

168 Albert Park Lake, South Melbourne 1907 Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

169 Entrance Gates, Clarendon Street Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

170 Queens Avenue, Albert Park Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

171 Bowling Green, South Melbourne, 1909 Coloured postcard Port Phillip City Collection

172 Lord Sheffield's Match at the Lake Oval, 1892 R Wendell Oil on canvas Courtesy South Melbourne Cricket Club

The South Melbourne Cricket Club was founded on 20 February 1862. It was granted permissive occupancy of six acres of scrub land in South Park at the foot of Clarendon Street. The land was soon cleared and enclosed ready for cricket to begin the 1862-63 season. The club occupied this ground until 1994.

South Melbourne Cricket Club members and administrators were instrumental in the development of cricket in Victoria. John Conway organised the first Australian tour to England in 1878, and Sam Morris, the ground curator (1887-1907), was the first coloured cricketer to play for Australia.

The South Melbourne Cricket Club has a remarkable record for producing Australian captains and players. Nine Test captains represented South Melbourne at some stage of their careers: Tom Horan, P. S. McDonnell, J. M. Blackham, Harry Trott, Warwick Armstrong, Bill Woodfull, Lindsay Hassett, Ian Johnson, and Graham

Yallop. In all, 42 South Melbourne cricketers have played for Australia, the latest being young pace bowler Damien Fleming.

The club's second ground, located at the northern end of the Lake, was named after the legendary Harry Trott who, in 1897-8 led Australia to a 4-1 win over England, and also led Victoria to victory in the Sheffield Shield competition. This ground has been the home of the Collegians Amateur Football Club for many years.The South Melbourne Football Club, formed in 1879, began playing at the South Melbourne Cricket Ground remaining there until 1981 when the Club moved to Sydney.

This painting depicts the match in progress between South Melbourne and Lord Sheffield's XI, captained by the illustrious Dr W. G. Grace.

173 South Melbourne Cricket Ground, Occupation by American Army and Marines, 1942-1944 Black and white grouped photographs Courtesy South Melbourne Cricket Club

Sporting Clubs in Albert Park

In 1857 the St Kilda Cricket Club was permitted to select a site at the southern end of the Park and this became its permanent ground.

The St Kilda Cricket Club has been very successful having won 13 First XI premierships. Among its most famous players have been the great Australian opening batsman, Bill Ponsford, spin bowlers Bert Ironmonger and Don Blackie, batsman Ross Gregory, and current leg-spin champion Shane Wame.

The club's second ground, at the southern end of the Lake, was named the Ross Gregory Oval after this young Test batsman was killed during the 1939-45 War while serving with the RAAF in England.

The St Kilda Football Club played for many years at the St Kilda Ground before moving to Moorabbin in the mid 1960s.

In 1865 the St Kilda Bowling Club was granted a site fronting Fitzroy Street.

In 1903 the Middle Park Bowling Club was established near the Middle Park Station.

In 1947 the private golf course, earlier established on the eastern side of the Lake, was taken over and has been the Albert Parte Public Golf Course ever since.

From 1953 to 1958 occasional motor races were held in the Park until the Bolte Government imposed a ban.

In 1959 the Hellas Soccer Club (now South Melbourne) was permitted to enclose a ground in the Park near Canterbury Road, opposite West St Kilda. The club occupied this site until 1994.

Many other amateur sporting clubs have used grounds in the Park over the years, including football, soccer, rugby, hockey, cricket, baseball and tennis clubs.

The 1961 Board of Enquiry into the use of Albert Park noted that the Park was regarded as ' the home of amateur sport'.

174 Aerial Photo of City of Port Phillip Colour photograph Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

175 Plan of 22 Urban Allotments for a Village to be Called St Kilda, 1842 Map Port Phillip City Collection The first land sales in St Kilda took place in 1842, earlier than in Emerald Hill and later than in Sandridge.

The land was on what was called the Green Knoll which became St Kilda Hill. This hill was surrounded by the West St Kilda swamplands, the Albert Park lagoon to the north, and the Elwood swamp lands to the south.

It was moderately wooded with oak gum and wattle. The largest of these trees were used as markers for the comer stakes of the new allotments.

In the 1840s and early 1850s this hill was used to quarry hundreds of tons of red sandstone taken from its surface by contractors making roads for the Central Road Board. When St Kilda became the centre of village development its residents protested at the road makers stripping stone from the hill lands, the beach front and most especially from their Esplanade.

In 1854 four men before the City of Melbourne Police Court were charged with damaging crown lands and found guilty of quarrying stone near St Kilda Hotel. The story was very different in Port Melbourne where sand carters continued to remove sand into the twentieth

century, further degrading the already low lying lands of Fishermen's Bend.

176 St Kilda Beach and Esplanade seen from Old Royal Baths, c 1862 Sydney W. Smith Albumen print Port Phillip City Collection This is believed to be the oldest photograph in the collections of St Kilda, Port Melbourne and South Melbourne, which merged to form the Port Phillip City Collection. It was taken by the municipal surveyor for the Borough of St Kilda, Sydney W. Smith, in about 1862. In 1857 the newly formed Borough of St Kilda recorded a

motion for the placing of seats and the planting of trees on the slope of the Esplanade between the Royal Hotel and the Bathing Ship. In 1858 the Council chose to finance permanent improvements to the shore face of the Esplanade by forming an upper and lower roadway and beautifying the slopes between. In 1861 the Council placed two flights of wooden, redgum steps on these slopes. They were worn out in seven years and replaced in 1868.

177 View of St Kilda Foreshore from Port Phillip Bay, c 1861 Henry Easora Davies, (1831-1868) Watercolour Port Phillip City Collection

Henry Easom Davies was one of those artists commissioned by the British Government to record, in words and pictures, the progress of the fledgling colony of Victoria.

178 Bird's Eye View of St Kilda Beach to the Red Bluff, 1862 Wilbraham F. E. Liardet (1799 -1879) Reproduced from the original watercolour La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

179 The Coast Near St Kilda Thomas Clark (1814-1883) Reproduced from the original oil painting National Gallery of Victoria

180 Esplanade St Kilda, 1888 Wood engraving Sydney News, Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

181 Cable Ttams on the Upper Esplanade, c 1898 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection In 1891 when cable tram tracks were being constructed on the Upper Esplanade it was found necessary to increase its width. The road was widened by building an embankment wall and filling the space between the wall and the existing road with thousands of loads of sand and soil. This embankment was secured by a relay of bricks sloping towards each end north and south. The designs for all were made by W. B. Downe the then surveyor of St Kilda. Provision was made under the embankment for ten shops, the rent from which the Council had hoped would repay the interest on the capital expended to improve the Upper Esplanade.

In 1924 parts of the Upper Esplanade had to be widened again because traffic congestion was becoming dangerous in those parts which were not of uniform width.

182 The Esplanade St Kilda Black and white postcard Printed in Saxony Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

183 Scene at St Kilda from Esplanade Coloured postcard Courtesy Don Taggart

184 St Kilda Beach, Melbourne Coloured postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

185 Esplanade St Kilda, 1907 Coloured postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

186 Esplanade St Kilda Black and white postcard 'from Myra Greig' Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

187 St Kilda Bandstand c l918 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection By the mid 1860s St Kilda's Esplanade was Melbourne's most popular promenade. A band played regularly on Friday evenings in summer. In 1877 four new gas lamps were added to the two existing ones to beautify the Esplanade and "be of benefit to respectable people who might wish to walk there after dark." In 1894 a number of prominent St Kilda residents met in the Esplanade Hotel to discuss the placement of a band stand on the Esplanade.

There had been a public subscription to improve Alfred Square but as this scheme had been abandoned the monies were put toward the bandstand. Placed on the edge of the Upper Esplanade where the Catani Memorial clock now stands, it overhung the bank to the Lower Esplanade. It was removed to the Catani Gardens in 1918 where this photo was taken.

188 Reclaimed land between Captain Kenney's Bathing Ship and the Pier c l895 R Clark Ink and watercolour Port Phillip City Collection

The extent of land reclamation and foreshore beautification within the municipality of St Kilda was a major achievement for the council. Land was reclaimed along almost the full length of the foreshore from West St Kilda beach to the Elwood reserves for "the Recreation, convenience and amusement of the people". As early as 1860 beautification works had started. In the late 1870s the level of the Lower Esplanade was raised as the waves used to wash over it. The swampy land where Luna park now stands, once a municipal rubbish dump, started to be filled in.

The first major foreshore reclamation works commenced in 1895 when the area between Captain Kenney's Bathing Ship and the pier was increased and a stone wall built to prevent any further erosion.

St Kilda Foreshore Committee St Kilda pioneered foreshore reclamation and beautification. Its continuing success was principally due to the creation of the St Kilda Foreshore Committee.

In 1906 the St Kilda Council waited on the then Minister of Lands, The Hon. John Murray to propose a joint trust, the members of which would be representatives of the Board of Lands and Works and St Kilda Council, to control the whole of the foreshore from Fraser Street at its Northern Boundary to Head Street on its Southern one. The Honourable Member was most sympathetic.

The first secretary of the committee was Henry Octavius Allan, Under Secretary of the Lands Department whose knowledge of reserve questions, permissive occupancies and regulations was unparalleled.

The St Kilda foreshore was a Government Reserve and the Minister of Lands was responsible for its condition. The expertise of Committee members meant that no monies had to be expended on professional fees so that the funds which became available through St Kilda Council, the Government, private donations and receipts of rentals from tenants on or near the beach, could be spent on the actual reclamation and beautification works of the St Kilda Beach for which this committee was established.

When in 1923 the Government sought to withdraw its contribution towards the work of the St Kilda Foreshore Committee, the Council protested that the beautification of the St Kilda Foreshore was national in character, and not merely a local concern.

In October 1937 an 'Argus' newspaper investigation concluded that while other bayside Councils were indifferent to or incapable of surmounting the difficulties encountered in waterfront improvements, the St Kilda Foreshore Committee provided the finest facilities and best cared for beaches anywhere, and praised Elwood as well, even though swimmers had to take a cross country hike to reach Council facilities there.

189 Land for Reclamation in Catani Gardens, c 1910 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

190 Reclamation Works in Catani Gardens, c 1912 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection An early major project of the Foreshore Committee was the reclamation and transformation of the degraded wastelands between Captain Kenney's Bathing Ship and

the West St Kilda Beach. The Catani Gardens became the place for fountains and statues, concerts, picnickers and promenaders-those who liked to take the fresh sea air on the lawns and in the shade of the new gardens.

191 St Kilda Foreshore Plan 'A', 1932 Map Port Phillip City Collection This map shows the positions of all the monuments, and the relative status of all St Kilda's foreshore reserves.

192 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda Coloured postcard No 20 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

193 Cleve Gardens Black and white postcard Rose series, P. 3339 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

194 Fountain in Catani Gardens, c l924 Black and white postcard Port Phillip City Collection

195 Unveiling of Edwin Knox Memorial Drinking Fountain, 1902 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

196 Great War Monument: Unveiling the Memorial, 12 March 1905 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The Esplanade at St Kilda and its environs became the place for monuments and memorials. Of those still surviving the first to be placed was the Edwin Knox Memorial Drinking Fountain. Drowned while on active service in the Boer War in 1901, public subscriptions raised enabled the unveiling of his monument in 1902 in what was to become known as the Cleve Gardens on the comer of Fitzroy Street and Beaconsfield Parade. Only the pedestal remains today.

Relatives of other St Kilda men who died in the Boer War complained to the Council that they should not support the memory of one such individual when many had died. The Council responded with a decision to build the South African War Memorial in Alfred Square, for all men who had fought and died in the war. Public subscriptions raised £250.00. While Arthur Peck was commissioned for the job it is most probable that Robert Hadden, a seminal influence in the development of modem Australian architecture, then in Peck's employ, designed this distinctive Art Nouveau monument with its elaborate, finely glazed tiled surfaces.

On Sunday, 12 March 1905, the memorial was unveiled by the Governor, Major General Sir Reginald Talbot, amid a

huge opening ceremony of massed choirs, a 280-strong Regimental guard of honour, bands, buglers, dignitaries and a vast public, all in Sunday best.

197 Captain Cook Memorial, c l914 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The Captain Cook memorial was donated by St Kilda philanthropist Andrew Stenhouse who lived in Beaconsfield Parade, and was a member of the Foreshore Committee. The statue is a replica of the Sir John Tweed one found at Whitby, England. It was unveiled in 1914 by the Governor Sir Arthur Stanley in the Catani Gardens. In 1988 it was shifted to its present location near of the St Kilda Pier.

198 Sali Cleve Drinking Fountain Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The Sali Cleve Drinking Fountain was a public gift by Sali Cleve, a prominent St Kilda resident and benefactor. He was responsible for the elaborate landscaping of the Cleve Gardens where the urban Koori camp now is. This Beaux Arts classical style fountain features a tall Ionic column surmounted by a small bronze sailing ship. It is located on the foreshore lawns near the St Kilda pier. It is the largest of St Kilda's privately donated drinking fountains-a reminder of the era's civic pride and private philanthropy.

199 Unveiling Obelisk in Memory of Lt. J.M. Bennett, 25 April 1927 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection200

200 The Fountain in the Gardens, St Kilda Black and white postcard Rose series, P. 1346 Courtesy Don Taggart Two very different memorials stand in the O'Donnell Gardens. Lieutenant J.M. Bennett achieved national prominence when he accompanied Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith as engineer on the historic first flight from England to Australia in 1919. He was killed accidentally, with Sir Ross on a test flight in 1922. A public subscription contributed towards the cost of this simple, traditional memorial unveiled in 1927. The Edward O'Donnell Foundation is a memorial to Councillor Edward O'Donnell who served as a Councillor of the City of St Kilda for 44 uninterrupted years from 1888 to 1932, including six terms as Mayor. He was an original member of the St Kilda Foreshore Committee from 1906 and its Chairman from 1918.

Public subscription also contributed to the cost of this elaborate Art Deco fountain unveiled in 1935. As the centrepiece of the O'Donnell Gardens, it provides aesthetic cohesion evoking St Kilda's golden age as a glamorous

exotic resort of pleasure gardens and seaside amusements. It is a quintessential element in St Kilda's foreshore landscape and the last of St Kilda's important monuments erected at the end of an era of heightened civic pride. The fountain was restored in 1988 as a Bicentennial project.

201 Anzac Commemoration Service, 1937 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection The St Kilda War Memorial, more commonly known as the Cenotaph, is St Kilda's most prominent war memorial. After the trauma and dramatic social impact of the first World War, St Kilda Council approved £3,000-a considerable sum-and instigated a competition for a monument to remember its fallen. The War Memorial was unveiled on Anzac Day 1925 by the Governor General Lord Forster. St Kilda was then considered "the most patriotic of all Australian cities". Annual Anzac ceremonies were held at the Cenotaph into the 1970s, but the widening of the Lower Esplanade in 1968 and the increasing traffic rendered this ceremonial gathering site unsafe. Since 1984 Anzac Day services have been held at the new War memorial sculptured by Peter Shipperheyn in Alfred Square.The Cenotaph however still commands a central position in the landscape of St Kilda's foreshore, and in its body of significant monuments. On 25 June 1995 a programme for its restoration was announced by Port Phillip City Council.

202 Soldier's Memorial and Fitzroy Street, St Kilda Black and white postcard Rose series, P. 10845 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

203 Catani Clocktower Architectural drawings Port Phillip City Collection

204 Unveiling Catani Memorial Clocktower, 22 August 1932 Order of ceremony Port Phillip City Collection Carlo Catani was bom in Italy in 1852. He emigrated to Melbourne in 1876. In 1882 he transferred from the Department of Lands and Survey to Public Works where he rose to become Chief engineer. In this position he took charge of the drainage and reclamation of the vast Koo-wee-rup swamp, West Gippsland, for re-settlement by small farmers under a land for labour scheme he devised. In gratitude the nearby town of Catani was named after him. He supervised the widening of the Yan-a River from Princes Bridge to Hawthorn and the associated landscaping of Alexandra Parade and Gardens, and the Anderson Street bridge. He was responsible for the construction of the Elster Canal and many other such major works.

His best legacy is his reclamation, and the distinctive curvilinear landscaping of the St Kilda foreshore and the Catani Gardens so dear to him. He joined the Foreshore Committee in 1906, remaining a member until his death in 1918. His strong European and Italian roots influenced his vision and the committees to create a European style resort atmosphere for Melbourne's most famous foreshore area. Catani expressed a vision off a clock tower gracing the Esplanade embankment. Designed by Norman Schefferle, it was built in 1932 on the site where the old bandstand once stood. It commands a most spectacular site. At its foot a bronze bust commemorates this fine man lovingly remembered for his gentility, his generosity, his vision and his design genius.

205 Upper and Lower Esplanades St Kilda Black and white postcard Rose series, P. 13342 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

206 Gardens and Esplanade, St Kilda Black and white postcard Rose series, P. 10206 Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

207 Catani Clocktower, St Kilda Black and white postcard Rose series, P. 4137 Courtesy Don Taggart

208 Crowd Scene at Catani Arch, 1916 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection This foot bridge which came to be known as Catani Arch was constructed during Carlo Catani's term on the St Kilda Foreshore Committee.

209 Captain Kenney's Victoria Ladies Baths: Bathing Ship Baths Advertisement in Wimpole's Visitors Guide to Melbourne 1881 Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society In 1854 the bluff, choleric, good natured Captain William Kenny permanently moored the 150 year old brig Nancy on the north side of the St Kilda jetty which he fenced in and made FREE FROM FISH. He claimed it was the largest swimming area in the colony. Squatters and wool kings, men visiting Melbourne were said to wash off the dust of the hot plains by taking a dip in the sea at the old bathing ship. The ship was a meeting place for Melbourne's most important officials and professionals, and also the accepted place to hold marine sports and sea carnivals, especially at the beginning of the new year.

In 1859 all the papers of the day reported the trial of skill between two expert swimmers: Home and Stedman. Home was one-time commander of the Gold Escort in

Victoria, a territorial magistrate, a gold warden and at the time of his sporting display, a Commissioner of the Yan Yean Water Supply. Punch wrote: 1/ was with some surprise that Punch last Saturday afternoon beheld Mr. R. H. Home (Orion) in puris naturalibus, lying, on his back, in the water, outside Kenny's Bathing Ship, with about a thousand people looking at him, and admitted to the sight at eighteen pence and two and sixpence a head. Walk up! Walk up! Walk up! A real live poet, unsophisticated as when born into the world... Mr. Home's situation did not look epic in the new 'water commission.' In 1912 when the very decrepit Nancy was ear-marked for demolition, 4000 people petitioned the Premier of Victoria to no avail. The beach was cleaned up and more land reclaimed, providing more sand for the children to play on.

210 St Kilda Sea-Bathing Company's Bill 1856 Report from the Select Committee of the Legislative Council Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society

211 Petition to the Mayor of the Borough of St Kilda, February 11864 Handwritten letter Port Phillip City Collection From the beginning men usually swam naked in their all male bathing establishments. Some men refused to swim otherwise. They swam too near the fences, climbed upon the piles and exposed their nudity, to the obvious discomfort of those ladies swimming nearby as this letter attests. In 1865 the Council decided to issue notices to caution bathers about their conduct. In 1873 they had to strengthen this caution: In consequence of the proximity of the Esplanade, and the houses bordering of the same, gentlemen using these baths are particularly requested not to unnecessarily expose themselves. Instructions have been given to the police to take action against any persons who may offend in this way.

212 Hegarty's Royal Gymnasium and Baths, St Kilda C. Ramsey, London Poster Port Phillip City Collection Hegarty's Royal Gymnasium Baths, the finest and largest on the foreshore, were built in 1858 for the St Kilda Bathing Company. In 1862 Hegarty acquired the lease. The front portion was used as a private dwelling, offices and refreshment room. On either side of the interior two platforms each 300 feet long were fitted with 95 small dressing boxes each 4 'x4\ The baths were 200 yards

wide. There were freshwater showers, warm baths and dressing rooms for ladies.

The baths were open from daylight to 9 am and 3 pm to 12 pm for gents and 9 am to 3 pm for ladies.

The bathing ground had a soft sandy bottom with a depth ranging from 6" to 12 ft. In its heyday it averaged 1000 bathers per week and was open all day Sunday.

213 Illuminated Address to William Simpson from St Kilda Ladies Sea-Bathing Company Ltd, 3 March 1886 Reproduced from original address Courtesy Royal Historical Society of Victoria-

214 View from the Esplanade St Kilda, Looking Toward Sandridge cl870s Copy of original engraving National Library of Australia This engraving shows Kenny's Old Bathing Ship north of the pier, Hegarty's Royal Gymnasium Baths just south of the pier, Kenny's Victoria Ladies Baths and Hegarty's Railway Baths. Protected sea bathing was very popular in St Kilda.

215 St Kilda Baths Black and white postcard Printed in Saxony AGJ series Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

216 St Kilda Beach Improvement Plan, 1927 Architectural drawing by A.C. Leith Port Phillip City Collection After the destruction of the grand St Kilda Baths by fire in 1925 it was decided to remove the remaining two, now decrepit, sea baths from the beach and consolidate the facilities into one lavish complex. A competition was held and Leith's vision of the largest and most up to date swimming pool in the world was one of the entries. The cost however, was prohibitive.

217 St Kilda City Baths, cl935 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

218 The Opening of St Kilda City Baths, 1 October 1931 Sears Studio Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection In the end the last sea baths to be built on Port Phillip's foreshore at St Kilda were designed by the City Engineers Department, and controlled by St Kilda Council. The facilities included hot sea baths, men's and women's gymnasia, changing rooms, a cafe and two large bathing enclosures of 180 x 55 metres, one for each sex. The

women's section incorporated a sandy beach and shallow area for the children. Though it was dismissed by the Victorian Institute of Architects as an appalling piece of design., .banal and devoid of good taste, its Moorish towers became a much loved symbol of St Kilda's unique sea-side character.

As they did not regain popularity once open sea bathing became established, the baths never proved profitable. The sea enclosures were demolished around 1980. Plans, though, are now afoot to re-develop the old baths site, a move that may revitalise the bathing traditions of the St Kilda foreshore.

Open Sea Bathing Recreational patterns on Port Phillip Bay's foreshore began to change dramatically in 1908. The people had decided they wanted to swim in the open sea when and where they liked. This was an affront to late Victorian morals and those Councils who sought to restrict the public's behaviour on their foreshores. Council by-laws had controlled beach activity since the 1870s and continued to do so despite public outcry. In the nineteenth century bathing in the sea was only permitted in the established baths. Beach regulations however were in need of continual revision. Men and women must swim in separate restricted areas only between certain hours and not on Sundays. Children under 13 were allowed to swim anytime from 1908

In 1912 South Melbourne Council, and in 1914 St Kilda Council allowed all day mixed sea bathing till 5 pm on weekdays only. In 1920, Sunday open sea bathing was permitted before 1pm and after 5pm at South Melbourne, but not after 10 am on a St Kilda beach. The. Age newspaper of January 14th, 1921 held these regulations up to humourous ridicule when it stated: From early morning to lpm on Sundays the people of South Melbourne are broadminded and see nothing to shock them in the bare arms and legs of sea bathers. But at lpm precisely they become a community.. .to whom the sight of such parts of the human body as are left uncovered by a bathing costume is a disgrace and an abomination. This moral elevation lasts for four hours when the clock strikes 5 it suddenly collapses, and bathing costumes are again de rigueur on South Melbourne beach.

Regulations also included what to wear and how to act on the beach: No person in a bathing suit may, sit, lie, loiter or run along the beach or seashore and no games may be played - sunbasking on the beach is permitted only if the costume is covered by short knickers, overcoat, kimono or other suitable clothing. (Record 2/12/1921).

The control of open sea and mixed bathing was inseparable from the need for adequate facilities to be

made available on the foreshore for people to change into regulation swimming costumes. And the construction of change sheds and pavilions was inseparable from the problems of who controlled what on the foreshore and why. In St Kilda there was a battle between the Foreshore Committee and the Council, with the Government Minister of Lands officiating. Crude changing sheds had been erected around 1910 by the Councils of Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda. Not only were they ugly paling fence affairs, but they became totally inadequate.

219 Changing Pavilion Marine Parade, St Kilda Foreshore, cl930 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection In 1923 St Kilda Council invited competitive designs for adequate accommodation for open sea bathers. In 1928 the tender of Messrs T.R. & L. Cockram for the erection of open sea bathing pavilions at the West Beach, Beaconsfield Parade; Marine Parade, St Kilda foreshore and Elwood were finally accepted. Constructed of reinforced concrete, each portion provided for men and women included approximately 650 lockers, 8 cold showers and toilets for each. There was an office and store where towels and bathing costumes could be bought and hired. Of the three pavilions, two still stand today, this one on Marine Parade as the Pavilion Restaurant.

220 Beach Dress Regulations and Debate Montage of newspaper articles Port Phillip City Collection

221 Esplanade Life Saving Club March Past, State Championships 1951 Black and white photograph Courtesy June Hardcastle

222 Elwood Life Saving Club Girls, cl950 Black and white photograph Courtesy June Hardcastle

223 City of St Kilda Bathing Regulations, March 1915 Proclamation on cloth Port Phillip City Collection

224 Grand Aquatic Carnival Programme handbill Port Phillip City Collection In 1921 there were 600 members of the Open Sea Bathers League. They unsuccessfully appealed to St Kilda Council to provide adequate accommodation including storage for life saving appliances and portable refuse bins. In 1922 the West St Kilda Progress Association publicly demonstrated against bathing regulations and a deputation

of the Elwood and South St Kilda Progress Association presented a petition of 300 signatures to Council to protest against the Sunday bathing restrictions, again to no avail.

The myth of Australians as a sun-loving, beach-going people developed out of a long and bitter struggle for freedom of access to, and use of our beaches.

225 The Lawns St Kilda Coloured postcard Valentine and Sons Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection The Royal St Kilda Yacht Club building erected in 1926 seen on the left is currently being extended.

226 Opening of Yachting Season at St Kilda Club, 13 November 1920 Black and white photographs Courtesy Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron. In 1876 the St Kilda Sailing Club was founded. Foreshore redevelopment in 1895 resulted in the club obtaining its second site on the recently reclaimed land between the pier and Kenny's Bathing Ship and construction of the first slipway owned and operated by a yacht club in Australia. In 1904 the first club house was erected on the site it occupies today.

In 1928 the Yacht Club was granted the right to use 'Royal'. It was instrumental in the formation of, and used as a venue for the Victorian Yachting Council, and later the Australian Yachting Federation. Its members have won many State and National titles and in 1956,1960 and 1964 it was represented in the Australian Olympic teams, hosting the yachting events in the 1956 Olympic Games.

In 1961 the Royal St Kilda Yacht Club amalgamated with the St Kilda Fourteen Foot Sailing Club to become the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron. With their prominent position on St Kilda's foreshore just north of the pier, the club has not only been important to amateur yachting in Victoria, but assisted St Kilda Council in the many landings, ceremonial and other activities on its shores. The Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron is one of the oldest surviving sports clubs in St Kilda.

227 Looking towards the Bluff, St Kilda Copy of sepia postcard Rose Series P448 Port Phillip City Collection

The Brooke Brothers Boat Shed was built by George Frederick Brooke (1868-1940) and his brother Arthur (1871-1945). They were second generation St Kilda residents and lived in Marine Parade where the Brookly block of flats now stands. Not only were they fishermen, but they exercised horses on the beach and built boats from their shed. Their two story weatherboard shed was situated near where the changing sheds, now the Pavilion

Restaurant, stands on Marine Parade and abutting the jetty which is still called Brookes jetty today.

The St Kilda Sailing and Angling Club was formed in 1905. Its aim was to foster easily handled small dinghies (maximum size fourteen feet), which would not sink if capsized and could stand up to bay conditions. This unique club was instrumental in developing this type of sport in Victoria. Its members' boats were stored at Brookes Brothers Boat Shed. In 1918 eight club members including G.F. Brooke rescued several fishermen during a severe storm and were awarded Royal Humane Society Awards. In 1919 the club took over the assets and management of the St Kilda Life Saving Club.

In 1920 it bought Brookes Brothers Shed. Being built over the main storm water drain it was very vulnerable to severe storm damage, however, and in 1934 its ravaged shell collapsed in the severe storm of that year.

228 Sandcastle Competition, 1936 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

229 Prize Castles Decided Newspaper article The Sun, 24 December 1936

230 Dandies Black and white photograph From St Kilda by the Sea Annual, 1915-1916 Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society

231 English Pierrot's Pavilion Black and white photograph from St Kilda by the Sea Annual, 1915-1916 Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society

232 Cedric Johnson, Director of St Kilda Theatre Black and white photograph Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society

233 Leslie Austin (of the English Pierrots) Black and white photograph Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society

234 Miss Elsa Langley of the Pierrots Black and white photograph Courtesy St Kilda Historical Society Entertainments came early to St Kilda's foreshore. St Kilda Council and later the Foreshore Committee leased lands adjacent to the Lower Esplanade. Baxter's Merry-Go-Round was the first amusement on the first piece of reclaimed shoreland, between Kenny's Bathing Ship and the Pier, leased by St Kilda Council in 1899. In 1904 William Rob Thomas established an open air musical comedy show The English Pierrots on the beach in a small fenced enclosure. Its success led to their

building and leasing the first open air theatre. This was replaced by their Pavilion Theatre in the Catani Gardens, as you can see in the aerial photo in 1911. It was taken over by a company known as Pierrotland, who went bankrupt. Pierrotland open air theatre was demolished in 1926.

The rental of such sites and the many others which followed became a regular source of income for St Kilda's Foreshore Committee, enabling the most extensive beautification and reclamation works along Port Phillip's waters edge. While fun park style amusements congregated along the foreshore lands, live theatre and later moving picture shows established themselves inside or in the grounds of stately homes, or built their own premises on or near the Upper Esplanade. Summer seasons were held outdoors. Companies included The Dandies, The Serenaders, The Butterflys and The Diggers. These mainly vaudeville shows were most popular between 1910 and 1920.

235 Aerial View St Kilda, 1922 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection Pierrotland stands out in Catani gardens.

236 Robson's Figure Eight: The New Sensation, Esplanade St Kilda Black and white postcard Acquired 1995, Port Phillip City Collection

237 Luna Park Just for Fun Black and white photographs Courtesy Tom Ingram and Luna Park Ltd. In 1884 the land on which Luna Park stands was reserved for public recreation. In 1912 Luna Park Just for Fun opened her gates to 22,319 people. The Park was a unique international phenomena. Most of her attractions were specifically designed for her and not found anywhere else. The Park became St Kilda's central icon, the symbol for her entertainment and recreational heartland. Original attractions shown here include:

I the Scenic Railway, which defines the boundaries of the Park, under construction. It is the only original attraction which remains today.

» the River Caves, and I the Two Savolas, high wire performer seen here as the

elephant walking the tight rope.

New attractions each season were essential for the continuing popularity of the Park. For the reopening in 1923 the Big Dipper was built and Noah's Arch extended. The Carousel with its 60 wooden horses was lit for the first time with 6,000 electric lights. It is seen here decorated as a giant birthday cake for the Park's 25th anniversary in 1937.

The Dodgem was opened for the 1926 season and extended in 1928. Its eighteen cars were housed in a French Chateau style Pavilion seen here along with the River Caves. It still operates today.

238 Little Luna Park c 1930 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

239 Palais Pictures and Palais de Danse (Palm de Danse), c l923 Black and white photograph Courtesy Tom Ingram Luna Park's original owners, the Phillips brothers Herman, Leon and Harold, were entrepreneurs of exceptional skill. They also built and managed the Palais de Danse 1913, which became the Palais Pictures in 1915. A new Palais de Danse was erected when the Palais Pictures burnt down in 1926 and the Palais Theatre was built. It remains today, a dominating presence and a reminder of the inter war years when St Kilda's foreshore was alive with the dance music of the best orchestras in the land.

240 Sharks in the Bay Reproduced from original engraving Illustrated Australian News, 20 Feb 1878 La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

241 St Kilda Foreshore Plan 'B', c l932 Map Port Phillip City Collection Periodic shark attacks in St Kilda waters led to proposals such as this one for a very large open sea bathing but enclosed area.

242 Improvements at St Kilda: The Jetty Extension and Beaconsfield Parade Copy of original engravings Australasian Sketcher, 15 January 1881 La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria

243 Advertisement for Parer's Pavilion Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

244 St Kilda Pier c 1927 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection One of Melbourne's oldest and still most used promenades.

1853 A joint stock company, the St Kilda Pier and Jetty Company was incorporated by an Act of Parliament. Its promoters expected to receive pier dues from boats bringing timber and building materials to St Kilda, and loading firewood for their return journeys to Melbourne.

The original jetty consisted of wood palisading

filled in with earth, which formed the embankment leading to a small pier.

1854 On a stormy night the sea wall washed most of the jetty away.

1857 A new jetty was surveyed.

1858 The new but incomplete jetty proved dangerous to shipping and totally inadequate for the reception of materials it was designed to receive. St Kilda Council urged the Government to extend it.

1859 The Government agreed to place the newly extended but unsupervised jetty under Council's control.

1873 The pier was extended and gazetted as a legal quay or wharf for the loading and unloading offree and dutiable goods coastwise, though this rarely happened as the draft for shipping was only 8 feet at its deepest, and perilous when a south west wind scudded across the bay, for there was no protection.

1874 Again a request was made for a breakwater to protect local shipping. St Kilda was one of the older and wealthier suburbs of Melbourne yet it

had no pier at which a vessel could land or load passengers safely.

After bitter argument in Parliament, for some believed the breakwater was merely for the St Kilda Yacht Club, £1500 was granted.

1876 Seats were installed. 1884 The pier (including a breakwater) was extended by

1944 feet.

1893 The pavilion which now stands on the land end of the pier was built over its entrance.

1899 Two years before the first Royal landing, the pier finally attained its full length enabling a depth of 12 feet of water on low tide. It was 2,300 feet long, with an L-shaped end of 200 feet which finally enabled the bay excursion paddle steamers to come alongside.

1904 The refreshments Kiosk was built at the end of the pier. First known as the Pier Pavilion, it became Parer's Pavilion, then Kirby's in 1942. This was apparently the first continental pier pavilion built in Australia.

1913 The kiosk was used as a meteorological station.

1936 A roadway was built from St Kilda Pier along the sea wall to Beaconsfield Parade, from St Kilda Foreshore Committee funds.

1954 The present breakwater was constructed for the Melbourne Olympic Games. St Kilda hosted the yachting events.

1974 The current concrete pier replaced the wooden one.

1987 Restoration was carried out as part of Victoria's Bicentennial Programme.

245 Duke and Duchess of Cornwall Landing Procession Along Upper Esplanade, 6 May 1901 Frazer and Vallance Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

246 Landing of the Prince of Wales, May 1920 Monteath Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

Royal and Vice Regal Landings The first member of the British Royal family to visit the colony of Victoria was H.R .H. Prince Alfred on board the Galatea in 1867. Williamstown, Sandridge and St Kilda vied for the privilege of welcoming the Prince. While the beauty of St Kilda was extolled, it had no safe anchorage , for such a large vessel. It was decided the Sailor Prince should disembark at the principal entrepSt Sandridge and leave via Williamstown.

The Borough of St Kilda had widened Fitzroy Street in anticipation of Prince Alfred's hoped for landing there. It was 1901 when St Kilda first welcomed royalty to the State of Victoria. Port Melbourne people protested against the great injustice done to Port Melbourne, the entrance gate to United Australia, while St Kilda celebrated the greatest event it had ever hosted. The State Government had been swayed by the spectacular setting that St Kilda's pier, foreshore and Esplanades could provide.

Melbourne was the seat of Australia's Federal Government from 1901 until Parliament House was opened in Canberra in 1927. So royal visitors and representatives came to Melbourne first when commencing tours or taking up residency in Australia.

The St Kilda pier, owned by the State Government, was lengthened with these regal and vice-regal landings in mind, just prior to the first vice regal landing of Lord and Lady Brassey in 1895, and again for the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York when they came to Australia in May 1901 to open the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. The protocol, staging and grand orchestration of these events was organised by F. W. Chamberlain, St Kilda's Assistant (1897-1913) and Town Clerk (1913-1934). The Royal or Vice Regal Vessel would arrive from England in Hobson's Bay. The visitors would transfer to a smaller vessel, usually the paddle steamer Hygeia, before disembarkation.

On the pier they were welcomed by Commonwealth and State dignitaries before inspecting the Guard of Honour. They were escorted by St Kilda's Town Clerk to the foot of the pier where St Kilda's Mayor gave a welcoming address before accompanying them to the waiting carriages on the Lower Esplanade. The processions

travelled south along the Lower Esplanade, north along he Upper Esplanade, Fitzroy Street, through the junction and along St Kilda Road to the Mayoral reception at the Melbourne Town Hall.

247 Landing of British Special Squadron, cl925 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

248 Landing of Lord Somers, c l926 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

249 Welcome to Lord Huntingfield, Governor of Victoria, 14 May 1934 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

250 Arrival of Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, 18 October 1934 Invitation Port Phillip City Collection

251 Glenhuntly Pioneers Re-interment Service, 1898 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

252 Glenhuntly Pioneers Re-interment, 1898 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection In 1840 two years before the first Crown Land sales at St Kilda took place, the Government authorities established a quarantine station at the Red Bluff (now Point Ormond).

In December 1839 when the immigrant ship the Glen Huntly anchored off Williams Town the authorities learned she was a 'fever ship'. She was ordered across the Bay to anchor off the Red Bluff. Tents were set up and comforts provided for the poor emigrants, guards posted to prevent contact with other settlers. The weather was bitterly cold and the camp on an exposed site.

Ten had died on board the ship and three more at this first Melbourne quarantine station. They were buried in the crown of the Bluff, their graves surrounded by a picket fence. In 1898 the remains were exhumed, and the almost intact skeletons were placed in three new coffins and reburied at the St Kilda cemetery in the presence of their descendants, the Mayor and Councillors of St Kilda and many spectators.

Mrs. Bowman, a daughter of John Craig who was one of the three, was a child of eight at the time of the tragedy, and stood for the second time at the grave of her father. Public subscription allowed a suitable memorial to be erected. On November 7, 1985, a plaque commemorating the Glen Huntly Pioneers was unveiled at Point Ormond.

253 West St Kilda Swamp, 1864 Sepia photograph Port Phillip City Collection

254 Building Allotments, West St Kilda and Emerald Hill J Noone, photolithographer Map Port Phillip City Collection In 1870 the principal works undertaken by the Borough of St Kilda were the completion of the main drain and the part drainage of its Western swamp. This was done at the insistence of the Central Board of Health who contributed half the cost.

Building allotments on this reclaimed land became available in 1873. In 1875 a new drain was proposed, but the Government would not contribute towards the cost. In 1877 funds supposed to be used for the Western Swamp were spent on Albert Park Lake.

When the Council struck a higher rate in order to finance further drainage works the West Beach ratepayers became irascible. In 1879 they ceded to Emerald Hill. A new drain was built, but being no deeper than the first it was not successful. The penitent secessionists returned to St Kilda's fold in 1882.

255 Survey of Port Phillip, 1864 Surveyor Henry Cox Copy of original map La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria This map is invaluable in the context of this exhibition because it is believed to be the only one to define in such detail the extent of the actual swamps which predominated in the Lower Yarra delta flood plains of the City of Port Phillip region. Not only does it show the large Elwood Swamp but it gives a rare surveyor's interpretation of the swamp lands between Emerald Hill and St Kilda Road, and the many on Fishermen's Bend. Cox has represented these areas as swamp rather than swampy ground. One wonders if he surveyed the area after heavy rains.

256 Map of Elwood, 1857 Photocopy Port Phillip City Collection This map shows the swamplands of Elwood which creep up to the site on which Luna Park was eventually built.

The short range battery is marked next to an un-named street which became Shakespeare Grove. The roadway became Marine Parade.

The abattoirs which caused so much offense to later Elwood residents is marked on the southern boundary of what was then the Borough of St Kilda, before all of Elwood was included.

257 Part of the Parish of Prahran Map, Crown Lands Office, 23 June 1857 Port Phillip City Collection This map shows more clearly the unsurveyed area of the Elwood Swamp.

258 Proclamation Re: Elwood Swamp Town Hall St Kilda, 28 January 1888 Photocopy of document Port Phillip City Collection

259 The Von Schmidt Dredge, Elwood, cl889 Print from J B Cooper, The History of St Kilda 1840-1930, Vol 1 Port PhiUip City Collection In 1835 when John Pascoe Fawkner's schooner was looking for a place to land in Port Phillip Bay, his crew investigated the Elster Creek/ Elwood swamp. They described it as a water course hinged by wattle and small gums, with lovely knolls around the lagoons and with flocks of teal, ducks, geese, swans and minor fowls. But there was no fresh water so the party moved on. At its deepest the Elwood swamp was three and a half feet deep. It was used as a rubbish tip by early settlers, and as a night soil dump (as Melbourne was as yet unsewered). The military and volunteer riflemen used it, and its scrub timber was consistently removed for firewood. Nearby residents continued to graze their livestock around the swamp well into the 1920s. The occasional cow stumbled into the swamp, got bogged and drowned.

It was not until 1871 that the Borough of St Kilda was forced to give serious thought to this large swampy area of crown land within its boundaries. Brighton Borough cut a drain to St Kilda's borders, discharging considerable effluent into it. The Commissioner of Crown Lands requested that St Kilda continue the drain to the sea which it did in 1873. The grades of the drain were so flat however that it was tidal well past Glenhuntly Road, and it did not stop the noxious vapours still rising from the swamp.

In 1888 the Government let a contract to George Higgins CJE. to fill up 108 acres of the swamp adjacent to Barkly Street. Higgins went to America to buy a Von Schmidt suction dredging machine. As none were available he returned to Melbourne with Von Schmidt, and the machine was constructed here.

In 1887 Higgins had made a series of borings off Elwood foreshore. He found that splendid sand, and good clay, admirably suited for filling, could be obtained from below the high water mark north of Point Ormond. Elwood Swamp was, with the aid of Von Schmidt's machinery, filled with this. Silt dredged from the Yarra River by the Melbourne Harbour Trust was also used. The machine at the same time spread clay and sand.

The water, by means of chutes, drained into the bay.

The remaining 26 acres of the swamp between Barkly Street and the Beach belonged to private owners. The council served the owners with notices to raise their land and to dry up the swamp covering their property. Compulsion caused them to make arrangements with the Government to fill in the land under the general scheme of improvement, and to pay their share of expenses.

The reclamation of the Elwood Swamp was completed in 1905 when the surface of the reclaimed land was raised with earth from the Red Bluff. Roads were then marked out and partly made, and a plan of subdivision prepared by the Surveyor General. The first sales of Elwood Crown Lands were held in 1905.

260 Red Bluff, Elwood, c 1860 Thomas Clark (1814-1883) Oil on canvas Courtesy Joan McCeliand, Joshua McClelland Print Room

261 Report of Conference on the Best Means of Improving the Sanitary Condition of the Elwood Swamp, 21 March 1904 Document Port Phillip City Collection

262 Letters to the Mayor and Councillors, 28 ,29 ,30 October 1918 Handwritten and typed letters Port Phillip City Collection

263 Newspaper Articles on Elwood Canal, 1937,1938 Port Phillip City Collection

264 Plan of Land Required for Deviation of Elster Creek, Elwood, c l955 Ink on linen paper Port Phillip City Collection

265 Aerial View, cl980 Colour photograph Port Phillip City Collection The Elster Creek drained into the Elwood Swamp but because the Elwood Swamp was below the high water mark it could not drain into the sea. As the original drain was unsuccessful the Elwood Canal was built roughly along the bed of the Creek. In 1889, sixty men were employed to make the 54 foot wide, 11 foot deep, three quarter mile canal. The canal was supposedly designed to deal with floodwaters and serve as an anchorage for small boats. In 1891 the new Byron Street main drain diverted into the canal. The scheme was not a success, as the tides held the

water back, even after the canal was widened to 90 feet in 1905. The smell from the canal in the last section by the beach was particularly offensive in the summer months as sea-weed and other debris blocked its entrance. In 1923 the State Government introduced The Metropolitan Drainage and Rivers Act. Under its provisions the Elwood Canal was declared a main drain and St Kilda Council sighed with relief.

The Elwood Canal and Elstemwick Main Drain remained a problem, however. The centre channel was continuously being silted up, and for many years one man was employed full time to patrol and clear both the Canal and the Main Drain. There was serious flooding over the Elwood Swamp reclaimed lands in 1935, and again in 1954, as storm water and high tides flowed back up the canal. After much resident agitation the Elwood Diversion Drain was constructed in 1955.

266 When Barkly Street Was a Canal Newspaper article The Herald, 16 November 1934 Port Phillip City Collection

267 Elwood Citizens at Parliament Newspaper article The Esplanade Post, March 1955 Courtesy Frank Renton Power

268 Plan of Seaside Estate at Point Ormond, St Kilda, 1905 Rupert Nicolson and Co, Auctioneers Advertisement Port Phillip City Collection These were the first land sales at Point Ormond. Note the Government Electric Tramway route, and the proposed Point Ormond extension which opened in 1915.

269 Beach at Point Ormond Copy of sepia postcard Rose series, P. 1792 Courtesy Don Taggart

270 Horse Team Engaged in Levelling Works Point Ormond Black and white photograph. Port Phillip City Collection The shape of the grand Red Bluff was significantly changed in 1904 when its rock and soil was removed to raise the levels of the Elwood swamp reclaimed lands,. In 1915 the Point Ormond Tramway was opened to the public, and the Point Ormond Improvement Scheme, using a government scheme for the unemployed, commenced.

271 City of St Kilda Regulations, Elwood Reserves Proclamation on cloth Port Phillip City Collection

272 Elwood Foreshore Wastelands, 1906 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

273 Marine Parade, 1936 Black and white photograph Port Phillip City Collection

St Kilda Council first considered the construction of a fine boulevard along the full length of its beach lands from the South Melbourne to Brighton boundaries in the late 1880s. Development of St Kilda's foreshore was in stark contrast to the lack of it further south at Elwood. It was not until 1930 that the reclamation of 45 acres along Marine Parade was commenced, with the employment of 600 'susso' workers on a Government relief scheme.

The stone wall was completed just two weeks before the major 1934 and 1935 storms destroyed parts of it. The groynes seen in the 1939 photograph were placed to build up drifting sands in an effort to prevent further flooding. This was an unsatisfactory solution as it interrupted the natural sand replenishment that occurred further down the bay.

274 Flood and Storm Damage Newspaper articles Port Phillip City Collection

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Dredging, Draining, Dipping & Shipping a major project of the Port Phillip City Council Art and Heritage Collections Programme

Enquiries: Joan Winter, Curator Port Phillip City Collection Tel (03) 9209 6215