From Port Focus to Port Places

Graham St, Port Melbourne

Dear people who come across Port Focus
It's one year since I finished up on Port Phillip Council.  Its taken a while to find a new place for my  interest in Port Melbourne and blogging. Port Places brings Port Focus and Port Houses blogs together into one site. Port Places is still centred on Port Melbourne but now includes forays into Montague, Westgate Park, Docklands and the lower Yarra.
Hope you will visit Port Places.
Janet Bolitho
27 October 2013
facebook.com/PortPlaces
@PortPlaces
janet.bolitho@gmail.com

Beacon mosaic

Plastic bottle lids collected along the Port Melbourne foreshore - the blue ones are from bottled water. To see where these lids can land up, click here.

Autumn turning to winter in Port Melbourne

Heritage Overlay review - towards implementation

Why is this so important? In a Heritage Overlay area, a permit is required to demolish a dwelling. Without this protection, Council has no ability to refuse the demolition - unless the dwelling is significant in its own right. Council has written to affected property owners to let them know of the preparation of  Amendment C89 to the Port Phillip Planning Scheme. The amendment is about implementating the Review of Heritage Overlay 1 Port Melbourne - Outcomes and Recommendations (Lovell Chen, 2011). If you, or anyone you know, has received this letter and don't understand it or want further clarification, please don't hesitate to ring or email the contacts provided on the bottom of the letter. The Review's purpose was 'to ensure the continued relevance and comprehensiveness of the Heritage Overlay controls in Port Melbourne'. [p1] A tiny snippet from the Review: 'HO1 is ... important for its ability to demonstrate the layout and subdivision patterns of the suburb as a whole, including referencing the specific topographical and other constraints which shaped its development. Development was for many years confined to the area between the Lagoon in the east and the railway line in the west. In summary, it is the diversity of the area which is also one of its key attributes and strengths.'[p24] The amendment also proposes tree controls for the Railway Reserves and Edwards Park.

Murphy Reserve and trees



I want to make sure you know where to go for information about proposed tree removals and tree plantings at Murphy Reserve. There are signs on site as well as a page of information and  links on Council's website. A mail out has already been done. In addition, the brochure will be hand delivered to residents surrounding the Reserve. There are two main things to say about the trees: some trees are being removed along Williamstown Rd [within the Reserve] to create an avenue of trees alongside the newly created walking path, and some large trees are being removed to make way for the re-located baseball field. These actions arise from the consultation and are described in the masterplan. The most important things identified through the consultation were

• the need for water security for the playing fields - hence the wetland and water storage proposed for the corner where this photograph was taken
• identifying Murphy Reserve as primarily a sporting precinct - hence the new soccer field that will be added. The baseball field needs to be re-located to accommodate the new soccer field
• making the Reserve more attractive and useable for people who do not play sport. Early on in the consultation period, a community member of the reference group was especially passionate about providing opportunities for more trees - exotic and native - trees that would look spectacular in Autumn and large, specimen trees that can't be planted in footpaths. That is what is proposed.

Stothert & Pitt Crane reassembly and relocation

image courtesy of Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society, used with permission

The Port of Melbourne Corporation has applied to Heritage Victoria for a permit to place the former Stothert & Pitt cranes on the finger pier at Station Pier. All the documents relevant to the permit application are available on the Heritage Victoria website. According to the submission 'On 6 March 1996, Heritage Victoria issued Permit No 2662 for works to the deck at Station Pier and as part of those works permitted the removal of the two Stothert & Pitt Cranes which were located at the southern end of the pier. Condition 2 of the permit required that the PoMC seek funding for the repair, restoration and reinstatment of the cranes on the pier ...' There is an interesting photo of the cranes, installed around 1950, on p7 of the submission. Since the cranes cannot be put back in their original location, the alternative location on the finger pier is proposed. The documents are available for inspection at Heritage Victoria at 55 Collins St.
The Public Records Office blog shows an interesting picture of one of the cranes  under construction - interesting since they are about to be reconstructed. Click here to have a look.

26th consecutive win for Port

Port beat North Ballarat 26.10.166 to 12.10.82 at North Port Oval today. Top goal kickers were Cain 4, Dwyer 4, Grice 3 and Galea 2.

Its all happening around Williamstown Rd this weekend

Autumn Plant Sale tomorrow at Skinc - the indigenous nursery - from 10 to 4 - at 525 Williamstown Rd [opposite Derham St/Williamstown Rd] Charles Saffroy gives great plant advice. I go there to admire this incredible bonsai that he has nurtured from an indigenous tree. Port Melbourne Football Club plays North Ballarat at 2pm next door at North Port Oval. Amazing stories, pictures and objects from the Club's history will be on display on Sunday at the Open Day at North Port Oval from 10.30 to 3.30.

Where does your recycling go?

The yellow lid bin has been emptied - then what happens? The City of Port Phillip's recyclables are taken by the collection truck to SKM Recycling in Coolaro. On their website is a short movie 'A recycling journey' that tells a tale of what to put in and - more importantly - what not to put in to the recycling bin. Its informative and fun.

New heritage website

You can now access hugely more of the City of Port Phillip's heritage collection from the fantastic new heritage website. Just by way of example - previous exhibitions such as Beginnings of the Borough are now available on the website as an e-book. [I've found the e-books take a little getting used to but well worth it.] More material and resources will be added. I'll put the heritage website in the links section of Port Focus and bring you snippets from time to time. Enjoy your exploration!

ANZAC Day - a week away today

The Anzac Day Commemorative Service will be held here at the Beach St memorial at 9.45 am next Wednesday.

25th consecutive win

Port beat the Box Hill Hawks by 34 points yesterday.

What an afternoon!

26.7 degrees at 2 pm

Amazing Stories: Inventions and Innovation at Port Melbourne Football Club next Sunday

There will be amazing stories displayed in the social rooms of the PMFC for the National Trust Heritage Festival. You may be surprised to learn that numbered guernseys were an innovation of the PMFC. Club historian Terry Keenan explains: "Although it might be imagined that numbered guernseys were introduced by the club to assist spectators to identify players, in fact, they were introduced to prevent thieves stealing the guernseys of Port Melbourne players. In March 1905 ... it was announced that 'an unknown donor had presented the club with 18 new guernseys ... numbered 1 to 18 on the breast.' The innovation was described as 'distinctly novel'. It would, said the Standard, 'allow each player to have his own uniform and each Saturday 'play in a clean and presentable condition." Kicking into the Wind: A history of the formative years of the Port Melbourne Football Club 1874 - 1917, p94 Enter the PMFC on Williamstown Road [opposite Raglan St] 10.30 to 3.30 on Sunday 22nd

Very upset!

Peter Syrkiadis, appropriately called 'King of the Lagoon' by the Melbourne Weekly, is devastated. Last night, the dog drinking bowl [pictured here] that he designed and created was stolen. Every evening Peter would take the drinking bowl home, wash and disinfect it, before returning it to the Reserve in the morning. Since he has retired, he no longer has access to a workshop and materials to make a new one. It gives Peter joy to help others. Please thief - put it back! Anyone with information leading to the recovery of the bowl will be rewarded.

3207 Beach Patrol will be cleaning the beach on Saturday

will gather at Princes Pier/Pier St at 9 am on Saturday morning [14 April] to clean the beach. New people are always warmly welcomed. Recent rain has left the usual trail of plastic mixed in with seaweed. byo gloves, tongs and bag. Coffee after. I will be after plastic lids. The picture gives a status report at today's date of lids casually gathered over the last month or two. The greatest number, as you can see, are Mt Franklin bottle lids - another reason to give bottled water a miss.

Bridge St upgrade

After many long years on Council's to do list, improvements have been made to Bridge St west of the Railway Reserves. The works include a safer crossing at Ross St, a painted separator to better manage traffic speed and lane discipline on this busy road, new trees and landscaping. The trees - Angophora costata - went in today.

Bits and pieces from the papers: Princes Pier and football results

'Princes Pier in Port Melbourne will be promoted as a space for multicultural groups to hold events or festivals in a bid to create a new tourism precinct and recognise the area's contribution to Victoria. The move comes after a push from Multicultural Affairs Minister Nick Kotsiras, who said the events would start by the end of the year after minor works that would cost well under $1 million. To read more of this article by Reid Sexton, click here ...
Port Melbourne defeated Bendigo 19.10.124 to 14.12.96. 'Gold led ... at 3/4 time. Scores were locked on 93 all in the 10th minute of the final term, but the Borough then slammed on 5 unanswered goals, which included 3 by Dean Galea.' [Nathan Dole, Bendigo Advertiser]

The Easter weekend

Should your Easter weekend involve gardening, mulching, tidying, painting, or throwing away, the Port Phillip Resource Recovery Centre will be open on Saturday and Sunday between 9 and 1 [closed on Good Friday and Easter Monday] The South Melbourne Market will be closed on Good Friday and open as usual on Saturday and Sunday between 8 and 4. I'll take a break from Port Focus over the Easter weekend.

Bike path works

The renewal of the bike path through Port Melbourne is nearly complete. The surface is silky smooth and at night the white lines stand out like a runway. Only bike stencils and line marking remain to be done. Green paint highlights entry/exit points for pedestrians.