High Street Berwick - 1870s to 1950s.

This is a look at some photographs of High Street in Berwick, from the 1870s to the 1950s.

Berwick 1877.

This is the earliest image we have of High Street. It is from the book Early Days of Berwick and they describe it as 'From a woodcut, by courtesy of Mr Bert Luke, Beaconsfield'. The original image was published in the Australasian Sketcher of October 27, 1877. See it here.  The Berwick Inn also called the Border Hotel was built for Robert Bain in 1857 as a single storey building. The later two storey additions were added in 1877 (and can be seen in this image ) and 1887.

Berwick 1887 (28 miles from Melb.)

Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria photograph album, State Library of Victoria Image H2012.114/2

In the ten years since the woodcut, above, development had extended to the other side of High Street. That is St Andrews Presbyterian (now Uniting Church) at the top of the hill. This building was completed in 1879 or 1885, depending on which source you use.

Berwick,  1906.  This is looking up the hill form the Berwick Inn.

Casey Cardinia Libraries image.

Berwick, 1907. This is looking down the hill, towards the Berwick Inn.   The house on the hill was built in 1902 by William Wilson (1830 - 1907) the founder of the Wilson Quarry. The Wilson's called it Liskie Brae, it was renamed Rheanva and is now called Kilkirean.

Casey Cardinia Libraries image

High Street Berwick in the 1920s,  looking up from the Berwick Inn.

Casey Cardinia Libraries image. 

High Street Berwick in the 1920s,  looking to the Berwick Inn.

Casey Cardinia Libraries image. 

Berwick1930s. The building on the right hand side is the Berwick Picture Theatre which was built in 1928. 

Casey Cardinia Libraries image  

Berwick 1950s. The Berwick Inn is on the left.

Casey Cardinia Libraries image.

Berwick, 1950s. This postcard was purchased in 1955.  The Tudor style buildings were erected in the 1920s, by Sir Sidney Sewell. 

Casey Cardinia Libraries image.

Tweet

City of Berwick celebrates the sesquicentenary of Victoria in 1984

When Victoria commemorated 150 years of European settlement in 1984 many local councils and towns celebrated by holding street parades and other festivities. The City of Berwick had a parade on November 24, 1984 and here are some photographs.

Lady Murray (in the pink hat), the wife of the Governor of Victoria, Rear Admiral Sir Brian Murray with the Hon. Robert Maclellan, M.L.A.,  the Member for Berwick. 

The Mayor of the City of Berwick, Cr Doug Miles, with the Governor of Victoria, Rear Admiral Sir Brian Murray. The man on the left is the City Manager, Patrick Northeast, in his Town Clerk robes.

The official party in front of the Post Office.

City of Berwick, Cheese Factory float.

The Cheese Factory Arts & Crafts project float 

The Brownies

This could be the Scouts

Berwick Show Society float

Home Pride Bakeries carts

Horse riders 

 

Vintage cars

 

A line up in a back street of fire engines

Tweet

Local shopping strips

These are  photographs of local strip shopping centres, taken mainly in 1990s, by the City of Berwick. This is how we all used to shop before the arrival of the large shopping centres - if you grew up in Victoria, then you would know that Chadstone was the first of these big centres, it opened in 1960 and it is apparently so big now that I wouldn't be surprised if you can see it from the moon.  Locally,  the Centro Shopping Centre in Cranbourne  and the Endeavour Hills Shopping Centre both opened in 1979 and Fountain Gate Shopping Centre in 1980.

This is Autumn Place in Doveton, 1992.

 This is Spring Square in Hallam in 1992.To see another photograph of Spring Square, click here.

Webb Street in Narre Warren, taken 1992.

Webb Street in Narre Warren. I am not sure of the exact date of this picture, but it is around the early 1990s. You can see the old Railway signal box in the background.

High Street in Berwick, 1992. To see more photographs of High Street click here.

This is an earlier shot of High Street, taken in 1975.

If you want to see  photographs of the local shopping strip at Pakenham, then click here,  or in Cranbourne, then click here

Tweet

Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee

Queen Elizabeth celebrates her Diamond Jubilee this year and the main block of celebratory activities takes place  from June 2 to June 5. If you happen to be in England you could attend these events - check out the following websites.The official Royal Family website can be found at  http://www.royal.gov.uk  and the official Jubilee website is at http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/  

Casey Cardinia has various links to the Monarchy. Firstly, Lord Casey after whom the City of Casey was named, lived in Berwick and was the Governor General of Australia from September 1965 until April 1969. The Governor General is appointed by the Monarch and is the Monarch's representative in Australia. Secondly, some of our roads have a Royal connection -  the Princes Highway was originally known as the Gippsland Road but changed in 1920 after the visit of Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII, then the Duke of Windsor). Station Street in Berwick was changed to Gloucester Avenue after the visit of the Duke of Gloucester to Victoria in 1934. Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh and son of Queen Victoria, visited Beaconsfield in 1869 and stayed at the Gippsland Hotel. John and Margaret Doveton, who gave their name to Doveton are said to have been descended from Edward 1 and his wife Eleanor of Castille.

 

The Queen and Prince Phillip came to Australia in 1954, they arrived on February 3 in Sydney and left on April 1 from Fremantle. Whilst they were here they visited every state and many country towns. On March 3 the Royal couple were in Gippsland, they flew to Sale for  a reception, then went by the Royal Train to Traralgon for a reception, by car to Yallourn to see the open-cut coal mine, then they drove to Warragul for a reception and then took the Royal Train back to Melbourne.  Many towns along the way decorated their shop fronts including Berwick. These photographs, of High Street Berwick,  are from our Archive and show how Berwick celebrated the 1954 visit by the Queen.The photographs were donated by Mrs Julie Berry (nee Halleur)

If anyone knows the name of this gentleman, then I would love to know. He is presumably the Local Real Estate, replacing his sign with a banner.

My family actually has a connection to this Royal visit. My father, Frank Rouse, was doing his National Service at the time and they had to put in a certain amount of hours and one of his duties was being a Guard of Honour, along the route. Dad and his colleagues, spent about seven hours standing at their designated spot (in his case on the outskirts of Warragul) and the Royal motorcade apparently passed by in a second. He has his gun, but no bullets, however, he can (and does) say that he successfully guarded the Queen! 40,000 people were  in Warragul on the day of the Queen’s visit. 

In honour of the Diamond Jubilee, the Queen has made available the diaries of her great, great grandmother, Queen Victoria.  Queen Victoria also celebrated a Diamond Jubilee and this why they have been released at this time. The journals have been digitised, so you can  see Queen Victoria's own hand writing and also the illustrations she interspersed amongst the text. This one is a self portrait from August 21, 1850. These journals are  a great historical resource and even if you are not especially interested in the content, then this represents a great example of how history meets technology - not only can you read the diaries, you can follow Queen Victoria's thoughts on Twitter and you can 'like' her on Facebook. The journals can be found at http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org

Tweet

Post Cards of Berwick

In this post we will look at three Post Card views of High Street in Berwick. The card, immediately below, shows the north side of High Street in the 1920s, looking east. The Berwick Hotel, also known as the Border Hotel, was established in 1857 by Robert Bain. It was the venue for the first Police Court in Berwick and the Berwick District Roads Board was also formed in this building in 1862. The earliest section of the building, the triangular single storey part, dates from 1857. The double storey sections were added in 1877 and 1887. The Bain family owned the hotel until 1909, with Susan Bain taking over as licensee after her husband's death in 1887. At the time of this photograph, it is advertised as being under new Management, with Byrnes as the licensee.

Further up the hill, you can Loveridge's store, which still operates in Berwick. Alfred Ellis Loveridge and his wife Emma (nee Crean) operated a store in Peel Street from around 1912. This was a continuation of the Crean family store, which had been established by Emma's father, John, in 1877. The store moved to High Street in the 1920s.

This is the back of the Post Card, sent in 1924 from Maxie to
his 'dear Ma'.

The Post Card, above, was recently donated to us by Mrs Audrey Stokes. Mrs Stokes had taken a holiday in the area in 1955 and purchased this Post Card as a souvenir. It shows the north side of High Street, looking west. At the top are the Tudor shops built in 1937 by Sir Sidney Sewell (1880-1949) and designed by architects Ballantyne & Wilson. Sir Sidney was a doctor, and a lecturer on the central nervous system. After World War One he looked after soldiers suffering from 'shell shock'. He later took an interest in the treatment of tuberculosis and established a service to care for patients. With Sir Richard Stawell he established the Association of Physicians of Australasia in 1930, which later became the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. An early tenant of the Tudor Shops was the Blue Plate Tea Room and travelling library. Jan's Tea house occupied one of the shops in this photograph.


This Post Card is from the 1970s or early 1980s. It shows the Hotel, the Tudor shops and the War Memorial, erected in the 1920s.


The information on Sir Sidney Sewell comes from the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Tweet