Flemington Heritage | Community organisation

Flemington Heritage

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23.01.2022 From 1.05 to 1.45 in this clip posted by 20th Century Melbourne Video Memories you can see the Arden St pedestrian bridge, bits of Bellair St and a backdrop of Barastoc and Kimpton’s Flour Mills in 1979. Who remembers Kensington then?

22.01.2022 Don't expect to see anything quite this interesting if you join us for a heritage walk this Sat 27 March from 11am. But we will be checking out a few places of interest around Flemington & Kensington as part of Rotary's Arts Show this weekend. The walk will start from outside Kensington Town Hall, where you can also see and buy the art inside, and we'll meander back there before 1pm. This undated Victorian Railways image shows a few locals on Macaulay Rd watching a munitions transportation.

19.01.2022 Footy fans can this morning can pay homage to our little bit of Richmond in Flemington and Kensington. The old Punt Rd pedestrian bridge was built in 1899 to cross the Yarra River. It was dismantled in the 1930's. From 1941 to 1985, the transported bridge allowed stock to cross between the Newmarket Saleyards and the Angliss Meatworks. Much loved during Covid times for walks across the Maribyrnong!

16.01.2022 Eight years ago we posted this photo of the winning post that was on display outside what was described in more recent times by many in Princes St as the Party House. Built in 1978 by a successful bookie, the 2-storey house - with a swimming pool - replaced three Victorian homes, one of which was the milk bar next to the laneway. This week the house was demolished to make way for 23 townhouses.

15.01.2022 If you have walked up near Old Man Drew, there’s a nice historical display outside the apartments on Mount Alexander Rd where the new Express Woolworths is. The information, from the Essendon Historical Society, is worth reading. Did you know, for example, that Burke and Wills started their tour up Mount Alexander Rd but detoured along Princes St to Geelong Rd (Racecourse Rd)?

13.01.2022 It’s as close to Sydney Harbour Bridge as we’ll get for a little while longer. The magnificent trusses we see now on the Saltwater River Bridge replaced the earlier span from 1911, completed in 1914. By 1976 our side was obscured by a new, somewhat less impressive-looking bridge. More recently another ho-hum bridge hides the other side. They don’t make bridges like they used to!

12.01.2022 Railway negatives from the PTC (mainly held by PROV)

12.01.2022 If you find yourself wandering along the Maribyrnong River on this sunny Melbourne Cup Day, you might pass part of the old Meggitt factory. It’s heavily graffitied on the river trail, and part of the writing is gone, but you can still see remnants of the original 1920’s lettering. Meggitt’s set up in South Kensington in 1924. Who remembers it?

11.01.2022 Canterbury St, of all the Flemington streets marked out in the 1872 subdivision, has possibly the least number of 19th century houses. But that’s partially because it had the least number at the time! Most of those built pre-1900 are in fact still there. It’s just that there was a lot of pasture land for horses in those early days!

05.01.2022 The other local big iron girder bridge is just outside Flem Ken, on the North Melbourne side of Moonee Ponds Creek on Racecourse Rd (in what was Barwise St at the time it was built). This week the cranes have been out again fixing the Upfield Line. In 1929 it was a massive effort lifting the 360 ton railway bridge into position. In this Victoria Railways photograph, you can see not just the bridge but the Kensington skyline of the time.

02.01.2022 The Maribyrnong Railway Bridge just beyond the Stockbridge is now partially hidden by a new bridge. But the massive bluestone abutments, erected in 1858-59, are still evident. They are one of our oldest surviving man-made local structures. At the time, the span structures were the largest of their type in Victoria, if not Australia. This etching by Arthur Willmore (held by the State Library) shows the bridge in 1862.

01.01.2022 Despite the best intentions of advertising this heritage night at Old Man Drew on Mount Alexander Rd, the Food & Wine Festival event has now sold out. Sorry. We could try to encourage another night. Or suggest a similar thing in Flemington & Kensington. Any ideas of local places where you'd like to eat and learn about the history of the restaurant?

01.01.2022 Railway bridges were clearly worth documenting. Here's a 2013 album, mainly from Victoria Railways (held by PROV), with a couple from eBay and elsewhere. Any local bridges missing?