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24 October 2001
LINKING US TOGETHER - A HISTORY OF TRANSPORT IN THE PORT PHILLIP COMMUNITY
Mother and daughter team, Pat Grainger and Mary Mason, have joined forces to produce Linking Us Together, a remarkable 72-page history of transport in the City of Port Phillip since European settlement. As a leading light in the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society, Pat Grainger brought her formidable historical skills to the project while Mary Mason, of Mason Design, designed the lavishly illustrated book and oversaw the project.
Ms Mason said that South Port Day Links sponsored the Centenary of Federation project which was launched by local Federal MP, Michael Danby, to the verses of the ’tram poet ‘, Malcolm Just, and the tunes of the old advertising jingle, Holdin’ You in My Holden (Holdin’ you in my Holden/Life is simply divine/All the world is fair/I’m a millionaire . . . ”.) The project received a grant of $30,000 in Centenary of Federation funding and additional support from South Port Daylinks, General Motors Holden, Interprint and the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society.
“Linking Us Together does not focus solely on the mechanics of transport but rather explores how transport has contributed to the development of Port Phillip as a living community. It’s anything but a dry old tome and traverses everything from rowboats, buggies and billycarts to railways, cars and planes.
“On organisation which recognises the importance of mobility in people’s lives is South Port Day Links. For over twelve years, it has provided a service, the first of its kind, to help people get about. Its 300 volunteers do everything from taking older or frail people for walks to driving them to the doctor.
“Linking Us Together brings ‘straight’ historical research together with people’s personal stories, family histories and memorabilia. We’ve tapped into people’s memories of the camaraderie of travellers on the open cable trams, unique to Melbourne, the workplace annual picnics taken on the Weeroona paddle steamer down to Queenscliff, Australia’s first meals-on-wheels service delivered on tricycle in South Melbourne in 1953 and horse and buggy rides on a Sunday to the esplanade in St Kilda.
“We've explored the industries that were created as a result. Australia’s first car part plant and aircraft manufacturer was established in 1937 at Fishermens Bend which went on to produce Australia’s first car mass-produced in 1948 - the Holden 48/215, the famous FX. In 1920, the Shaw-Ross aviation airstrip near Fishermens Bend was issued with Melbourne first aerodrome licence. All modes of transport not only served a practical purpose but also influenced our social activities. They helped shape us into the people we are today,” she said.
Ms Mason said that Linking Us Together tapped into more recent memories.
“We interviewed people who've worked in the transport industry like Malcolm Just, the connie poet, who has written a book of poems about life on the trams. Horses were used for council services into the sixties. The last horse-drawn milk deliveries in Melbourne did not cease until the late eighties when Claude Butcher of Port Melbourne died – a fact which many older locals still lament. The only problem was that a lot of people thought their experiences are too ‘ordinary’ to be worth recounting. This was absolutely not the case,” she said.
Ms Mason said that Port Phillip has played a critical part in the development of transportation in Australia.
“In 1830s, Port Melbourne became a port of entry to Melbourne. Wilbraham Liardet and his family, who landed there in 1839, built the first boat jetty, a ferry service to Williamstown, a road along the footpath to Melbourne, and a passenger service from the beach to Melbourne. A huge proportion of new settlers to Australia from then on arrived at Port Melbourne.
“In 1966, the number of immigrants arriving in one year at Station Pier topped 101,000. Station Pier, which is the largest wooden-pylon pier in the world, is almost a sacred site to the Greek community. Every January, the Greek Orthodox archbishop ‘blesses the water’ and dozens of young men (and this year a young woman) dive into the water to retrieve the wooden cross he throws in,” she said.
In the 1850s’ gold rush era, bushrangers, some of them ex-convicts, still menaced travellers travelling along St Kilda Road to St Kilda. John Butler Cooper, in his two volume history of St Kilda, says their descent on Port Phillip District was likened “unto a rush of a horde of hungry rats stealing by night into a barge filled with a cargo of rich cheeses”.
Ms Mason says that the railways offered safer transportation.
“Australia’s very first passenger steam railway opened in September 1854 connecting Port Melbourne and the city. Three years later, another passenger service connected St Kilda to Melbourne, bringing with it the flood of day-trippers who transformed St Kilda into Melbourne’s first playground. St Kilda Station, now a light rail station, boasted a chandelier. By the 1880s paddle steamers travelled the bay, taking pleasure seekers to Sorrento, Portsea and Queenscliff. In 1890, the Hygeia was trialed on Port Phillip Bay and declared to be the fasted paddle steamer in the world.
“This same ship brought the Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall to St Kilda Pier on 6 May, 1901 to open the very first Australian Federal Parliament, an event which was immortalised in four minutes of film shot by the Salvation Army Film Unit,” she said.
Ms Mason has working with her mother on the project had been a bonus.
“My mother, an American by birth, has resided in Port Melbourne for the last 19 years and is undeniably smitten with the area. Like so many others, she emigrated to Melbourne and had chosen to stay here. With the work I've now undertaken, I can now understand her commitment.
“The City of Port Phillip is full of individuals like my mother - people who have a genuine passion not only for this community and its history but also a wealth of knowledge on the considerably large subject of transport. Our work has brought us into contact with so many small societies devoted to the recording of historical and transport information like the Australian Association of Timetable Collectors. It possesses a huge number of timetables for trains, trams and buses in Port Phillip,” she said.
Port Phillip mayor, Julian Hill, is full of enthusiasm for the book.
“Given the council’s passion to improve public transport in Port Phillip, it is perhaps a case of ‘Back to the Future’. Elwood used to be much better served by public transport. A tram crossed Fitzroy Street, went up Grey St, down Barkly Street, Mitford Street an onto Broadway, Ormond Road, St Kilda Road, terminating at the royal Terminus Hotel in Brighton. Linking Us Together is a ‘must read’ for any one interested in either local history or transport. It deserves to scoop the pools in any local history awards going,” he said.
Copies of Linking Us Together have been distributed to local schools and libraries and can be bought for a $15 donation to South Port Daylinks (Ph: 9646 6362) at Port Melbourne Town Hall.
Written by:
Carmel Shute
Media Officer
City of Port Phillip
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