RESTORING a LITTLE of CYCLING HISTORY

As most of the readers out there, you would be aware my passion is the two wheeled man powered beast, the bicycle. Sometimes its a beast (on the good days) and at other times a lamb. It takes you places with the wind in your hair (if you have any) down hill - up hill and along the flat with friends that you enjoy a coffee or cold drink afterwards.
The bicycle has rewarded me with many wonderful experiences and gained me many friends, both locally and overseas. It's a bit like being in the Freemasons or Rotary in a way.

As I grow older, I tend to appreciate what is old rather than new. The new technology leaves me a little cold when compared to the bicycles of the past. The photograph below is a frame I've rediscovered after it went missing 40 years ago. A friend returned it to me after remembering it belonged to me only this year.


The basis of a restoration of cycle racing history.
Researching this frame's origin is all part of joy. To date I know it is an Australian built frame and did compete at the famous saucer Melbourne Motordrome track.
Most probably built by Paddy Hehir of Ixion Cycleworks, a Melbourne frame builder with an illustrious racing history in his own right, but more on that in another post.
The Motordrome was bulldozed to make way for more modern facilities for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.



The bike was one that was used to pace behind the big motorbikes on the huge banked velodromes between the two world wars. This discipline of the sport was very popular all over Europe, the USA and Australia as was 6 Day bike racing.

Cyclists would reach 60 MPH tucked in behind the motor bike with the smaller diameter front wheel glued against the spinning roller at the back of the Pacer Bike.

The frame is actually in rather good condition and is currently with the enameller for a new paint job - most of the components are sitting in boxes in my garage awaiting refurbishment. The bike will be rebuild with wooden rims as they were of the era.



This is what I expect my finished bike will look like complete with wooden rims.

Looking down on the Melbourne Motordrome which was about 1/4 mile in distance.



This photo shows how steep the huge track was - the Pacer would scream around the banking with the cyclist tucked in its slipstream at speeds up to 60 mph.

I found some posters and photographs from the era - These riders were Gladiators on wheels, and so fearless.

A French postcard - note no helmets.



Our very own Hubert Opperman was a popular rider of the Melbourne Motordrome during the 1930s. He later rode the Tour de France among many other prestigious events in France.



AUSTRALIA DAY from a different perspective

Australia Day is celebrated on January 26 to celebrate the landing of the First Fleet in Sydney Cove, Port Jackson. The fleet headed by Captain Arthur Phillip firstly dropped anchor in Botany Bay but he established that this was not the place for a settlement so after sailing up the coast to discover Port Jackson, he returned to sight two ships flying the French flag. One of these ships contained the French Commodore Laperouse, never to return to France. In desperate weather conditions, Captain Phillips returned to claim Australia for England.

Captain Arthur Phillip orders the raising of the English flag in Sydney Cove - January 26, 1788.

Although we celebrated Australia Day in honour of the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, our Indigenous population and sympathisers, call it Invasion Day. I guess it's from your own perspective. I think our original Australians might just have a point.


The below words are not mine - they came from an article on Pastor Doug Nicholls. I mentioned in a previous post that his son and I attended the same school in the 60s.

AUSTRALIA DAY SPEECH IN BATMAN PARK
The following speech was reported on the front page of the Northcote Leader on Wednesday Jan 30th-1957. 'Northcote had provided a very large crowd to take part in the Australia Day celebration arranged by aboriginals and friends on Sunday afternoon at Batman Park. The crowd soundly applauded Pastor Doug Nicholls when he suggested, as his theme, that the bridge between white and aboriginals should be bridged'.

Pastor Doug Nicholls

PASTOR DOUG NICHOLLS said:“Would you take Aboriginals into your home and make both friends and workmates of them? They do it in New Zealand, even if to a limited degree”. Doug Nicholls, footballer, curator, fighter for the race of which he is a full blooded member was on Sunday afternoon, the orator. He had prepared one speech, forgot he was carrying notes, embarked upon a whimsical oration which none of his hearers could have bettered had they been white or black."

THINK ABOUT
“This is a great day, this birthday of yours. We come to share it with you. Someone said to me recently that we should go to the Yarra Bank and organise a day of mourning for what happened 169 years ago. The mourning would be in memory of a great people. Those who were the old Australians. But we are happy to come here today. This place is ours you know. It reminds us that Captain Cook met our ancestors. But it also reminds us practically on this very spot they also met John Batman and signed a famous agreement. I don’t want to embarrass our councillors, but what we are thinking of is that in 1837 Batman made an agreement by which he and his undertook to make a return for a perpetual lease of 5000 acres in the Northcote vicinity."

DO YOU REMEMBER ?
"Do you remember what we were to get? Each year the rental was to be 100 blankets, 100 knives, 100 tomahawks, 50 pairs of scissors, 50 looking glasses and 50 suits of clothes. Bless me, I could do with a suit, but I don’t know about those looking glasses and tomahawks. Then there was 50 tonnes of flower. I can’t see any flour about. Perhaps Mayor Spain will do something about it next week” (laughter). Mr Nicholls said that since Captain Phillips landed with his cargo from the gaols of England, Australians had made great progress. The nation had become great. The cities were hives of industry and wheat and wool grew in the great open spaces.
“You are a great nation he went on. A great people. You have bridged the gulf between the old and the new, between the gaols and thriving success. But you have not bridged the gulf what Harold Blair calls the Old Australians and those who came in the middle. As I see you here today supporting the only Northcote celebration of Australia Day at a function run by Aborigines. I ask myself why this gulf between the two peoples remain. Is it because you are making it racial discrimination? You may be, you are a great people, but is there any reason why we should not march beside you?"

'WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO BE TREATED LIKE YOURS'
"Is there any reason why we should be relegated to river-bank shacks instead of being helped to rise above our present ‘degradation’ (applause). Is there any reason why one of us should not go on the council which controls the land which once was ours, or even to Canberra? A voice: Why not? We want chances, opportunities, our children to be treated like your children” the Pastor went on

'You know there is quite a difference between 1914-18, 1939-45 and 1957. Do you remember how they came to us in those terrible years and asked, "Aboriginals can you fight?" and we said, "Try us", and our blood flowed with yours in Gallipoli, Tobruk and New Guinea. But have we been asked anything since? We are different from you only in colour. Are we encouraged?"

THE HAND OF FRIENDSHIP
"Do you extend to us the hand of friendship? It is these things which on this day of your birthday, we ask you to give to us after all these 169 years." Among those who supported Mr Nicholls were the Mayor, Councillor Mr A Spain, other councillors and there wives; Mr D Clancy, President of the Aboriginals Girls Hostel Committee; the famous Aboriginal singer, Mr HaExert from The Northcote Leader - Jan 30th 1957rold Blair, and the Aboriginal Moomba Choir with Isabel Kuhl and Merv Williams as soloists.

OWED A DEBT
Cr Spain said Northcote owed Doug Nicholls
"The Prime Minister, the other day, claimed that Australia was a land without class distinction. We know how wrong he is. We know not only what happens here, but we have reports about other Australians in Western Australia.
In two wars, in industrial and primary development we have shown that we have courage, initiative, skill and leadership.
I can only join with Doug Nicholls in asking "When we have all these things - is the little matter of doing justice to our relatively few Aboriginals too big a task us?
Surely it would be rubbish to suggest such a thing."(Applause.)
"This afternoon shows that this is a cause which has caught the imagination of the people," Cr. Spain said
"Let us hope this is the beginning of wiping a blot off our splendid record."

HIGH STREET NORTHCOTE

Saturday morning I decided to go to my track training session early and take a ride on my road bike. The indoor velodrome is in the municipality of Darebin. I grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in Preston. It now comes under the district of Darebin. (pronounced Darrabin)
Recently it was commented by one of our fellow bloggers that we seem to have a lot of our suburbs named after English towns. That's true and both Preston and Northcote are such suburbs. Friends in the Loire have connections in the UK and Michael showed me his book on Preston, (G'day Mikee)

From the Darebin historical website
The social history of Darebin begins with the Wurundjeri people - the traditional owners of all the lands and waterways in Darebin. The Wurundjeri are part of the Kulin Nation & one of the 8 clans that form the Woiwurrung language group.
1839/40 � Government land sales in Northcote area. Early purchasers included William Rucker, (Ruucker's Hill) Thomas Wills, Job Smith, Michael Pender (Penders Grove and Penders Grove Primary School) and other speculators.

At 7.15 Saturday morning I took the road bike out of the car and started riding towards High Street, Northcote.
I had in mind to see how much High Street had changed since my teenage days. I remember times of going to the matinee sessions at the local theatres. From memory I can count maybe five in the 7 kilometre stretch along High Street from Westgarth to Reservoir.
There was the Westgarth Theatre that still operates to this day. At the top of the hill (Rucker's Hill) going north was the Northcote Theatre and although the grand building still exists, it  is now a reception centre as is the next one in Thornbury.

The Northcote Theatre, THEN.....



Today - yesterday really.............

 As I rode towards Preston, I was searching for the theatre that I went to often. In my teenage years it became a dance hall. It seems to have been demolished as I could not locate it. High Street then rises again towards the suburb of Reservoir where the last movie house used to be. As kids, we often went here when we moved from Preston to Reservoir. It was fun to roll our Jaffas down the aisles.

The Westgarth still going strong almost a century later.

A closer view. The Westgarth has take on a bit of a cult Culture these days and does the occasional specific festival - I can't explain how many times the Blues Brother have played here.
A Woody Allen festival would be an annual happening.

It's strange to revisit your roots. You get a feeling of both a certain belonging yet not belonging as you've moved on. Still the memories are still there.


Further up the road in Thornbury was this grand Movie house now a reception house,
restaurant and cafes below.

Some further facts about Northcote:
In my primary school years I met kids of my own age from many different nationalities. Not far from home was a migrant hostel and the children went to my school in Preston.
Many were from Italy, Greece and the UK. Several of the Italian kids joined our cycling club when we were teenagers. Some are still my friends today.

From the Northcote Historical Society website.
DAREBIN'S ITALIANS http://www.decc.org.au/eleven.htm
Today Darebin’s Italians have a range of organisations such as clubs, senior citizen clubs, Churches, cultural, sporting, social and welfare groups. It is common to hear Italian spoken in the street and the language is taught in many local schools. There are numerous Italian shops and businesses all through Darebin. The children of the ‘50s and’60s immigrants now walk many paths in life from trammies to pasta manufactures to doctors, concrete magnates, lawyers, accountants, teachers, politicians and artists.

After Primary School I went to study fine art at the Preston Technical School - One of the Prefects was Ralph Nicholls, an Aboriginal boy and son of Pastor Doug Nicholls. Australian Rules Football drew his father, Doug Nicholls to the local area from the Murray River region, then to religion and he became an advocate of black/white relations. His achievements would require a post of its own and still not do him justice. He is still looked upon as a son of Northcote.

DOUG NICHOLLS COMES TO NORTHCOTE - PREMIERSHIP PLAYER
It’s here where Doug’s association with Northcote began. In his first game for Northcote against Brunswick 9000 people turned up to see an aboriginal play footy. He had the spring of a kangaroo, the speed of an emu and the battling strength of a murray cod. In no time the crowd was on its feet. Doug played exciting high marking ‘marn grook’ style footy and everyone forgot that he was black. Doug always played the game and not the man, his opponents were his friends. In 1929 Northcote won its 1st premiership with Dougie the star recruit.

It was a great little ride through memories of my childhood. I'd really like to take Sue back to show her the environment I grew up within. Could I go back to live. No, I like where we are now.
But those memories still linger.

MISSING IN ACTION

My apologies for not posting since Friday. I really enjoy blogging, to me it's a form of relaxation, a bit creative, but as well as that, I enjoy the feedback from readers.

Since returning to the workforce after the holiday leave, the workload has been quite heavy with some burning of the midnight oil. I don't want to wish time away and I've probably mentioned that retirement looks good. Especially when I read the blogs of those already enjoying retirement.

What's the point of all of this - Well I hope to get back on schedule with the regular posts soon. But until then here's a few scenes of our local area on postcards.


I ride down this road at least four times a week. It once had some lovely old beach style homes built in the 1890s to the 1940s before the War. It recent times so many of these quaint and sometimes grand homes have been demolished to make way for the Nouveau Rich to build their concrete and glass two and three level homes overlooking the bay.
I guess if we had the finances to do the same we might consider it but I feel that the area is losing some of its charm.
The building in the foreground of this postcard no longer exists.



Next beach down from Hampton is Sandringham which now is home to a grand Marina housing some of the best sailing boats in the state.

Further down from Sandringham is Brighton Beach. This postcard looks like it might be from the late 1800s or early 1900s from the clothing depicted.

Just a little way of the beach area is Dendy Street, Middle Brighton. I'd say the postcard is from the 1920s maybe. I know this street well and the building to the left still exists. The railway gates have been replaced by modern automatically operated boom gates. Previously a man would come out from his signal box and manually open and close the gates.

Hopefully I expect to get back to our usual blog routine by Friday.

Melbourne's Oldest House

Melbourne is a young city compared to Europe but we do have buildings still standing since our settlement in the 1830s. One of my favourites is the Mitre Tavern that I stumbled across as a young man starting his working career in the city. I would take lunch time walks and wander the laneways and arcades to discover the hidden treasures of Melbourne.

The Mitre Tavern dates from the mid 1830s

Not that long ago I posted a picture of the oldest house in Willamstown on my sidebar - I did some research on it and found this article from our Melbourne newspaper "The Age".

"A RAMSHACKLE mess in Williamstown is the centre of a bitter conservation row because it is thought to date from 1842, making it possibly Melbourne's oldest house. It is also on a prime development site and has an owner who needs to sell to prop up his dwindling superannuation.
The weatherboard house, which has been unoccupied since at least the early 1960s, was listed in 2007 by Heritage Victoria on its heritage register after considerable debate.
This makes it technically one of the state's most significant buildings. But the owner said he had been told as little as $10,000 would be available as a grant from the State Government to restore it, despite an estimate that proper repairs would cost $200,000.
The 839-square-metre block has been estimated by the real estate agents who want to sell it to be worth about $1 million.
"This cottage represents the first settlement in Melbourne. Before it was built, more than likely there would have been tents. In America, Europe or England, remnants of first settlement are made national monuments."
But while Victoria's National Trust believes owners of such buildings should be given much more financial assistance to preserve them, its senior historian, Celestina Sagazio, said there was not enough evidence that this was Melbourne's oldest house. She said there had been considerable debate in Heritage Victoria before the building was finally listed on its register.
"What we do know is that the block was first gazetted in 1837. Its first owner was a James Cain who bought it in 1841 and then sold it to William Pope in 1842," she said.
"The first reference to a house on the site was the first local council rate book of 1856, which said there was a four-room timber dwelling occupied by Clara Pope, the widow of William Pope."
Mr Page said he did not want to see history destroyed. "Someone suggested it should just catch fire, but I don't want that to happen. I have been approached by someone who wants to restore the building, and if I get a demolition permit I will let him take it."
He said he was retired and living on superannuation. The imperative to sell had resulted from the decline in his super due to the economic downturn.
"I offered it to the council to rent it as parkland, but they rejected the idea, so here I am getting no rent and having to pay big rates on it each year."

It was hard not to feel some compassion for the owner and yet do we preserve our heritage to the disadvantage to this gentleman who initially saw this property as just an old house. I'd be interested in the opinions on these sorts of conflicts between heritage and financial gain.

Another building I pass almost daily on the way to work is this one. It has intrigued me for years and so I googled it to find the following information - a lovely story.

"A plaque in the wall says: 'This shop and dwelling built in 1850/1, by James Heffernan, is a reminder of Melbourne before the gold rushes. It has been owned by a single family since 1899, when V.S.Azzapardi established a newsagency and general store. His daughter and son-in-law, Beatrice and Georges Russell established the present business in the 1930's. The building was restored in 1989 by his grand-daughter and her husband."

These words came from another Melbourne blog that is well worth a look.

http://www.melbourneplaces.com/melbourne/russell-house-the-oldest-residence-in-melbourne%E2%80%99s-cbd/

A building of this history if lost to developers would be a travesty but how long can a family resist the financial gain from the sale of a such a prime piece of real estate?

Australia's first Saint

From Wikipedia

Blessed Mary MacKillop (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909) was an Australian Roman Catholic nun who, together with Father Julian Tenison Woods, founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.


Since her death she has attracted much veneration within Australia as a symbol of the strength of the early Catholic Church. She is the only Australian to be beatified (1995); on 19 December 2009 the Vatican announced the recognition of a second miracle attributed to her intercession. It is expected that her canonisation as a saint will occur in 2010. This would make her the first Australian saint. On 17 July 2008, Pope Benedict XVI prayed at her large tomb during his visit to Sydney for World Youth Day 2008.


Should MacKillop achieve sainthood, she will have the distinction of being the only saint ever to have been previously excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church.

Only this week Mary MacKillop made the team.
Only 2 more sleeps before the jolly fat man in the red suit slithers down the chimney………..