Wednesday 19 January 2011

High Street Cranbourne in the 1960s.

Cranbourne has grown in the past fifty years from a country town to an outer suburb of Melbourne. In this blog post we will look at some photographs of High Street in the 1960s, when Cranbourne was still a county town. If you have any information about any of the buildings featured in the photographs, then I would love to know.

This is an aerial shot of Cranbourne taken February 3, 1964. (Click on the photograph to enlarge it). On the bottom right is the Cranbourne Racecourse, above the sandpits. The South Gippsland Highway travels past the Racecourse, and up through town, the last major cross-road is Clarendon Street. To the right of the Highway, bordering Clarendon Street, are the three empty blocks where Cranbourne High School was built in 1976. As you can see there is very little development in High Street, the Shopping Centre opened in 1978. On the left of the highway is the subdivision bordered by Clarendon Street and Fairbairn Road and includes Campbell Street, Cranbourne Drive, Cochrane Street and Taylor Street, Lurline Street and Lorna Street.

This is a hairdressing salon, with a big advertisement for Turf cigarettes. Take off the tension with Turf filter tips, it says. These type of prominent cigarette advertisements are as much a thing of the past as vacant blocks of land in High Street are.

In the foreground is a 1960 FB Holden, I am reliably informed. Across the street is a BP garage.

This is taken just a bit further up the street than the previous photograph. The car is thought to be a 1961 EK Holden.

Finally, Kelly's Motor Club Hotel. This building is still a land mark in High Street. A hotel has been on this site since the Mornington Hotel was established in 1860s. The Kelly family operated the Cranbourne Hotel, which was located where the Shopping Centre now is, from around 1917 and at one stage operated both the Cranbourne and the Mornington Hotels. This building was erected about 1926.

3 comments:

Linda said...

Hi Heather,
Yet another excellent post. Which is why, when asked to nominate ten blogs for the "Ancestor Approved" Awards, which Lenore Frost was so kind to pass on to us, I could think of only two - one of which is your blog.
Should you wish to take the opportunity to pick up the award, and pass it along (ten is rather hard work!), please feel free to drop over to
http://gipps-heritage-park-cataloguers.blogspot.com/2011/01/we-have-been-nominated.html

Regards

Linda

Heather said...

Thanks Linda,
What a great idea. I shall put my thinking cap on to get to ten blogs but I am thinking of 10 Casey Cardinia places named after people (some-one’s ancestor’s) e.g Bayles, Pearcedale, Garfield, Lang Lang (previously called Carrington) Catani, Doveton, Pakenham, Officer, Beaconsfield, Hallam, Cranbourne, Cannons Creek, Lysterfield South, Lyndhurst. Watch this space!,
Thank you for your lovely comments,
Heather

Unknown said...

Hi, I am the venue manager of Cranbourne Public Hall. Cnr Clarendon and High st. There is an aerial view top right of 1st photo. I am wondering if you have any information regarding the hall. I would like to do a history on the hall. email 'cranbournepublichall@gmail.com