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The Second Storey

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24.01.2022 A fascinating day 1 at Open House Melbourne. I visited an explosives storage magazine, a boatbuilder, a morgue, a town hall, and a waste water pumping station. Quite the mix of sites. Will post some more photos over the coming week.

22.01.2022 Any guesses on what household item this is? Answer in the comments.

21.01.2022 Here's a video of the engine in action.

19.01.2022 Tasma Terrace is a wonderful old terrace house I visited recently. It’s currently the head office of the National Trust of Australia in Melbourne and well worth a visit if you’re ever nearby. The building is a 3-storey terrace house constructed in 1879 as the family house of well-to-do grain merchant, George Nipper. Incredibly, this stunning building was slated for demolition in the 1970s with the intention to replace it with hi-rise towers. Fortunately the National Trust got involved and was able to save the building.

18.01.2022 Williamstown Morgue The Williamstown Morgue was built in 1860 and is the oldest surviving morgue in Victoria and possibly Australia. The morgue was built out of locally quarried bluestone by convict labour. The symbol of the convicts can still be seen on one corner. In the 1800s, the site was a beach (now filled in) with the morgue situated near the high water mark. This allowed the after effects of autopsies to be washed away with the outgoing tide. I imagine that would ruin... your Sunday picnic by the seadside. Today I discovered another use for the Coolgardie Safe that I posted about last week. Turns out, before mortuary cold chambers were introduced they would hang bodies from the rafters covered in wet hessian to keep them fresh.

16.01.2022 Today’s historical job: A wool wheeler. A wool wheeler was a spinning wheel attendant in the textile industry.

11.01.2022 Today’s historical job: a clicker. A clicker was often someone who worked in shoemaking. Their job was to cut out the leather uppers by hand. A clicker could also refer to someone who counted the number of customers to a business using a handheld counting instrument. ... The term also referred to someone who worked in the printing industry and was responsible for accounting and laying out the type.

09.01.2022 Today we have a combined "what household item is this" and "historical job post". Any thoughts on what the green item with the rollers in the corner of the photo is? It's called a mangle and it was used in the laundry to wring out wet clothes, linens etc. The rollers were turned using the crank that you can see on the left of the mangle, and wet items were fed between the rollers which squeezed out the water. Which brings us to today's historical job - a mangle keeper. A mangle keeper was someone who took in laundry for a fee. Take a look at the newspaper article about a man who mangled under the employ of his wife and ended up in court as a result. And if you need advice on how to care for your mangle, take a look at these other articles.

09.01.2022 Spotswood Pumping Station When I was in grade 5 and learning about local government, our school took us on an excursion to the local sewage treatment plant. No one enjoyed that excursion. However, my recent visit to the Spotswood Pumping Station, which pumped raw sewage from Melbourne to a treatment plant at Werribee, was fascinating though equally as malodorous. Construction of the pumping station was completed in 1897 and it is a stunning building complex in French classic...al revival style. You might think that this was a little extravagant considering the purpose of the buildings. However, according to our knowledgeable guide, Melbourne residents were levied the equivalent of around 2 months wages for the average person to fund the construction of the pumping station. In order to justify this, it was thought best to make the building look particularly impressive. This ended up being one of the most interesting tours I went on. The guide started up two of the massive engines, as well as the air compressor that runs one of them now the steam boilers have been put out of service. It was mesmerizing watching how smoothly and precisely the engines worked. A coin was placed on its side on a moving part and there was not even a jiggle. Even more amazing, considering the parts were all hand forged.

08.01.2022 Williamstown Town Hall Williamstown Town Hall is a beautiful 1920s building and an excellent example of a municipal building from the interwar period. The building is designed in the Greek Revival style.

07.01.2022 Another great day at Open House Melbourne. Not quite as quirky a mix of sites today but just as interesting. Visited Tasma Terrace, the Supreme Court of Victoria, an old sly grog shop, Donkey Wheel House, the East Melbourne Synagogue, and the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection. More photos to come.

06.01.2022 Interesting read: https://www.abc.net.au//battle-to-save-melbourne/11378710

02.01.2022 Can you guess what the household item in the red circle is? Answer in the comments.