In 1928, increasing delays to traffic traveling to and from the city to Northcote and Preston and points further north via Queen’s Parade and High Street were alleviated when the level crossing just on the south side of the Merri Creek was replaced by an overhead railway bridge (pictured below). The original plan was for […]
Tag: Darebin
Darebin : 1881 Victoria Derby winner
“Darebin, the winner of the blue ribbon of the Victorian turf, of whom our artist has drawn a very correct likeness, is a brown colt, of great substance, but slightly deficient in quality, by the imported horse Peer, from the New Zealand mare Lurline, who was one of the best and gamest horses that ever […]
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 […]
Fairy Hills between 1940-1950
Every day between 1940 and around 1950 my life was full of activity due to a constant stream of people who were like shops (before supermarkets) coming to our front door with just about everything we needed. They came in trucks or carts of all shapes and sizes. Most of them were drawn by horses. […]
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 […]
World War 1 Casualty : William Michael McDonald (Preston)
From 12 Regent-street, Preston, McDonald was alternatively listed as an agricultural student and a cheese-maker on embarkation. Somewhat unique in our archives in that he served in Egypt and Palestine with the Camel Corps rather than a Light Horse unit, McDonald died in the 14 General Hospital, Cairo on 8 May, 1917 from a septic haemorrhage […]
World War 1 Casualty : Nurse Amy Vera O’Grady
Nurse Amy Vera O’Grady (Roman Catholic Presbytery, Clifton Grove, Preston) Nurse Amy O’Grady was one of around a dozen women from Darebin that served in the Medical Corps, and the first of just two that died, in her case of cholera in the Sisters Isolation Hospital, Calaba, Bombay There were around a dozen local nurses […]
Shadows On The Screen
—Bullant 17:59, 22 September 2011 (EST) The author did not identify himself by name but is easily identifiable as William McIntosh, the son of Andrew McIntosh, a long serving councillor and prominent baker in High Street. As the article reveals, William and his great friend James Morris were stalwarts of the cricket club and although […]
World War 1 Casualty : William George Vincent Williams (Australia’s First Fatality)
Few will be aware that the first Australian casualty of the Great War on 1914 was William George Vincent Williams from 36 Beavers Road, Northcote. Williams had spent five years in the Naval Reserve and had just a week left to serve out his time when war was declared and he was commanded into full […]