An Education Department 1920 publication commemorating teachers and staff that had served in the First World War had appendices showing how much each school had raised for the Department’s War Relief Fund. This was Metropolitan District Area 4; the complete list is given as an indication of the schools and their approximate size during the […]
Category: Darebin
The thriving Darebin shopping centre in the 1940s
In the 1940s the small group of shops clustered around the Darebin Station on Heidelberg Road was a thriving shopping centre, in the days of one car and no car families. The trek to the Ivanhoe shops from the Fairy Hills-Darebin area was a major exercise up the hill and beyond – especially for people […]
Duplication of Railway Line across Darebin Creek 1950-4
The year was some time between 1950 and 1954 in the days when I was catching the train to Northcote High School from Darebin to Westgarth Stations. The then single line across the Darebin Creek, through Darebin Station to Ivanhoe Station, was to be duplicated over a single weekend. A miracle, we thought at the […]
South Preston State School : A History
South Preston School 824 is believed to be the oldest continuously functioning State School in Victoria. Originally established as Gowerville State School in 1865 in a small wooden building on land lent by a local farmer near the corner of Albert and Raglan streets, the school moved to its permanent location in Hotham Street in […]
James George Membrey, M.L.A.
James George Membrey was born at Scotchman’s Lead, near Ballarat in 1862 and he resided for 20 years in the mining town of Napoleons where his parents carried on business as general storekeepers and post office. Membrey moved to Northcote in 1884, originally working as a plasterer and briefly as a builder before becoming Valuer […]
Darebin’s Boer War
The Preston Contingent ”Three Musketeers” in the persons of Messrs Chas. Patterson, Steve Prowse and Fred Michell – all Preston boys – called at this office in a high state of jubilation on Thursday, having been picked the day before to go with the Victorian contingent and fight for the liberties of their fellow Britishers […]
Merri Creek
Merri Creek is one of five major north-south flowing tributaries of the Yarra River, flowing perennially from its source in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range to its junction with the Yarra River in present day Collingwood, just east of Dights Falls. The creek is approximately 60 kilometres in length, the lower 20 of […]
Preston Market
Construction on the Preston Market began in October 1969 when Preston Mayor W. K. Larkins drove home the first stake in the site of the former Broadhurst Tannery. The original investment in the site was $2 million. The market opened in 1970 and by 1976 the market had grown to include 46 green grocers, 15 […]
Darebin – Sydney Cup winner and Thoroughbred Sire
Darebin (thoroughbred sire) “Darebin” (by “The Peer” (imported) from the colonial mare “Lurline”) was bred at Bundoora Park just north of Melbourne by Samuel Gardiner in 1878 and numbered amongst his victories went on to win the Victoria Derby, Sydney Cup and Adelaide St. Leger. His Sydney Cup victory in 1883 was a bitter-sweet weekend […]
Cricket In Preston – the Early Days
“… the Preston players went in first and during their first innings repeated and not uncalled for complaints were made about the decisions of the Preston umpire as being in favour of the club he represented …” … the Phillipstown players had the good sense to go when they were given out and many and […]