Lagoon tales

There are endless stories to tell about the former Sandridge Lagoon and environs. And there will be many more to come on the PMHPS blog. But you've got to begin somewhere.
I am infatuated with this account by Josephine Liardet, daughter of Wilbraham Liardet, who recalled that in the early days* 

“The lagoon was covered witsth wild ducks and in the trees were cockatoos, plovers, pigeons. Hector and Jack used to get up between 3 and 4 in the morning and would return in two or three hours with as much game as they could carry. We often had a game breakfast. The sea was full of fish for there was no traffic to frighten either the game or the fish away. It was indeed a lovely place in those early days, just fresh from the hands of God.” 

The photograph below shows the bridge over the lagoon at Graham St# some fifty years later with the Gasworks in the background. It well expresses Town Clerk Crockford's sentiments - that 'when the tide was out, the effluvia arising from this little spot was something abominable'. (1895)

Charles Nettleton
reproduced from a copy held by the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society

* looking back on the 1840s

#from a vantage point approximately on the corner of the footpath outside the Graham Hotel