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27 February 2002
PLAQUE TO COMMEMORATE HMAS LONSDALE 1942 - 1992
Unveiling by Port Phillip mayor, Julian Hill – 11 am Tuesday 5 March
Bluestone Wall, Lagoon Pier, opposite HMAS Lonsdale, Beach Street, Port Melbourne
A plaque commemorating the former HMAS Lonsdale naval base will be unveiled by Port Phillip mayor, Julian Hill, at 11 am, Tuesday 5 March on the bluestone wall opposite the apartment block which now stands on the site.
The plaque is the first of over twenty-seven to be commissioned in the next three years under the City of Port Phillip’s newly adopted historical recognition strategy and reads:
“The HMAS Lonsdale Site
HMAS Lonsdale Naval Base, 1942 - 1992, was established on the entrance to the former Sandridge Lagoon, which had been filled in by 1928.
In the late 1990s Port Phillip Council and residents strongly opposed a State Government decision to allow high-rise development there, and some reduction in height was achieved.
In 1999 a new Government established absolute height controls along the foreshore.”
Cr Hill said that the former Minister for Planning, Robert Maclellan, had approved the eighteen-storey tower that now occupies the former naval site.
“The plaque is what way of ensuring that everyone will remember that the site once bore witness to the operations of a naval base established during the dark days of World War 11 when Australia was under the threat of a Japanese invasion. It would be a shame if it was simply seen as a testament to the planning excesses of the Kennett era. Various politicians have been invited to the unveiling but I don’t think Mr Maclellan’s name is on the invitation list,” he said.
Cr Hill said that the plaque on the sea wall would be the first of several stretching along the 1.5 k of the lagoon. The next two plaques scheduled for unveiling this year are at Port Ormond and the South Melbourne home of James Service, the first Chairman of the Municipality of Emerald Hill and twice Premier of Victoria (1880 and 1883 – 1886).
Cr Hill said that the distinctive round plaques designed in blue and grey by Tony Prysten and David Marc Marinelli of Igloo Design, Fitzroy Street, would eventually be recognised throughout the municipality as marking sites of historical importance.
“The plaques will signal to residents and visitors alike that something of historical importance once happening on the particular site. Many cities, such as London, have a similar policy. You can be walking along the street and suddenly discover you’re outside the home where the Pankhurst suffragette family once lived. It gives layers of meaning to urban life,” he said.
Cr Hill said that apart from the plaques at each town hall, there were about twelve other plaques installed by the former City of St Kilda in the eighties and a handful of other known plaques across the municipality.
“In Grey Street, St Kilda, for instance, there is a plaque outside the former home of Stanley Melbourne Bruce, Australian Prime Minister in the late twenties. However, under our new policy, the information on the plaque will be backed up by detailed information on Port Phillip on Line. Anyone wanting to find out more about any plaque or memorial will simply have to go to the council website,” he said.
Cr Hill said that, with some of oldest suburbs in Melbourne, the City of Port Phillip possessed an unusually rich historical heritage.
“Who knows where Melbourne’s first expresso bar was? Fittingly, it was in Fitzroy Street, No. 61C. Il Cappuccino was established on 1 May 1954. just before the Melbourne Olympics, though little evidence of its pioneering role remains today. It will soon be added, I hope, to the list of eighty sites already identified as deserving plaques by a working group including representatives from the council and local historical societies.
“This heritage recognition program has primarily an historic rationale and an educational focus, but it will work in with the Margins, Memories and Markers project which aims to capture memories and experiences by installing public art works. This project recently won $80,000 in funding from the VicHealth Promotion Foundation,” he said.
Sites earmarked for plaques include:
Port Melbourne: Site of lagoon and former HMAS Lonsdale navy base; Freemasons’ Hall; Morley Cottage (1850s); Port Melbourne Dispensary (1892); Pump House (1890); Port Melbourne railway station (1892).
South Melbourne: Sir James & Dr Edith Barrett’s family home (1867; founders of the Bush Nursing Association); James Service’s home (1854; Premier twice and first chairman of the municipality of Emerald Hill).
Middle Park/Albert Park: 72 – 82 Kerford Road where vegemite was first manufactured; Allan McLean’s home on Beaconsfield Parade (Premier of Victoria and Deputy Prime Minister in first Federal Parliament); Betty and Esther Patterson’s home on Beaconsfield Parade (artists).
St Kilda: “Wattle House” (c1850); terrace of houses at 47 Robe Street; St Kilda railway station; St Moritz site; Village Belle site; Scheherezade Restaurant (1958); galleon Café (1933); 3rd St Kilda Scouts Hall; St Kilda Pier Kiosk.
Elwood/Ripponlea: Port Ormond beacon.
The working group includes Cr David Brand, council officers Jim Holdsworth, Imelda Dover, Peter Boyle and Angela Wallace, Pat Grainger (Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society) and Vida Horn (St Kilda Historical Society.
Written by:
Carmel Shute
Council Media Officer
City of Port Phillip
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