Metropolitan Planning 2: Entering Melbourne from Port Melbourne

The Town Planning Commission report of 1929 was very critical of the entrance to Melbourne from Port Melbourne. It reported that 'this approach to Melbourne is a drab and shabby one'.  The honorary secretary of the Commission, Frank Heath, said hopefully 'What a difference a tree lined boulevard, extending for several miles around the esplanade would make to the Port Melbourne waterfront.'
The appearance of Port Melbourne's foreshore also attracted a lot of commentary in the papers of the day along these lines: 'Run your eye along the waterfront scene, and you will realise that the overseas tourist's first impression of Melbourne is one of aesthetic horror.'  Perhaps there is just a hint of exaggeration in the following description: 'The scene which greets the visitor leaving Princes Pier might well serve as the background for a theatre set representing a specially unpleasant corner of American desert country'
So successive dignitaries and royals were taken from Port to St Kilda so they could proceed with appropriate dignity up St Kilda Road. This still rankles. However, the picture of Swallow St in the Town Planning Commission report suggests they had a point.

The Port Melbourne Council maintained that the land between the piers was the Melbourne Harbor Trust's responsibility. The MHT said what happened on the landward side was not their responsibility.Throughout the 1920s the Port Council lobbied the Government for improvements to the waterfront. Finally the Melbourne Harbor Trust proposed a bridge to link the two piers. Centenary Bridge was built for the Centenary of Melbourne in 1934 but roads connecting to it were not completed and open to the public until 1936.

All that remains of that unique structure is the lone pylon opposite the London Hotel. Look for the Melbourne Harbor Trust monogram on the pillar. Centenary Bridge was demolished to make way for the Beacon Cove development in 1991.

Once again the area around the Piers is the subject of discussion by the Council and the Port of Melbourne Corporation.

Cautionary tale: the quotes above are taken from a photocopied compilation of newspaper articles, some of them undated. If you ever cut anything out of the paper (an act that in itself may soon become a historical exercise) write the date and source on it in pencil straight away. Without accurate dating, they are less useful.

Sources, notes and further information
The Melbourne Harbor Trust is the antecedent organisation of today's Port of Melbourne Corporation

Please read the fabulously detailed account of the stories surrounding the construction of Centenary Bridge at

http://artdecobuildings.blogspot.com.au/2008/05/centenary-bridge-port-melbourne

G & M Bride The Borough and Its People, Port Melbourne 1839 to 1939

Beacon views

Do you remember that in a previous post I mentioned that the off shore beacon used to have a timber walkway connecting it to the shore?
These two great images from the City of Port Phillip's collection show this perfectly.
From the left looking towards the foreshore:  the Commonwealth Engine Works  and on the right the Missions to Seamen.

PORT PHILLIP CITY COLLECTION

PORT PHILLIP CITY COLLECTION

The citation says the photos were taken between 1960 and 1970. Can you assist with dating the pictures more accurately?
To view more images from the City of Port Phillip collection go to

http://heritage.portphillip.vic.gov.au/Home and search the heritage database

Got some information to add, some photos to show, some memories to share? Post a comment here, or write to janet.bolitho@gmail.com

Many more boxes ahead

This first blog post takes a Port theme, following the government's recent approval of the Port Capacity Project.  A recent Port of Melbourne publication says that

'In the 2011-12 financial year 2.58 million containers - 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) were handled by the Port of Melbourne and container trade is predicted to double over the next 10 to 12 years.'*

There was a time not that long ago when using containers for transporting  cargo still lay ahead. So for this first foray into the Society's collection, I took the container as the cue and looked at some articles in the 1966 issue of the Port of Melbourne Quarterly which discussed the imminent container revolution. 

‘A footloose warehouse, the van container is earthquaking the shipping industry. Rail, truck, water and even air carriers are in a literal frenzy of adjustment to what is happening.'(July to September 1966, p38)

 By 1967 the magazine was reporting that 

‘... a new era in the entire system of transporting goods by sea, road and rail between points of origin and destination in the two areas (England and Australia) will come into existence in 1969. The consortium concerned is Overseas Containers Limited, which includes the large P & O group of shipping companies....
An entirely new dock complex, the Swanson Dock is being built.  (April-June 1967,p16)

Member Glen Stuart has provided a picture of that very first container ship - OCL's Encounter Bay - which arrived in Melbourne in 1969 on her maiden voyage. The vessel was the first container ship to berth at no 1 West Swanson Dock. This picture shows the Encounter Bay in later life in the Yarra River.

Compare the modesty of this ship with those currently arriving at the Port of Melbourne. 

The contribution of the container to globalisation is the interesting subject of 'The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger' by Marc Levinson.

* source Statistics: Expanding Melbourne's Port Capacity 7-12