Northern Lights : braybrook and maribyrnong

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

braybrook and maribyrnong

Perry and I went for a long walk around the Maribyrnong at Braybrook. The bit between Ballarat Road and the Maribyrnong River is largely industrial, still, and obviously has been since at least the Second World War. I don't feel very empowered to figure out the story of this building/site right now but it is presently Peerless Holdings, which changed its name from Rothfield & Company in 1958 (according to an announcement in the Age 21 Feb 1959 p. 8). Rothfield & Company made sewing cotton and thread; Peerless also made buttons and slide fasteners. According to its website 'Peerless Foods began its life in the 1950s as a small business, recycling and rendering meat by-products in Melbourne, Victoria. Over the years, the refinery was upgraded and expanded with state-of-the-art technology and systems.' I mean, apparently, kind of. Peerless was purchased by Smorgon - which manufactured and exported canned and frozen meats and canned fruit - in late 1959 (according to an article in the Age for 23 December 1959, 'Smorgon's bid for Peerless').

This is what's around the corner also I think a part of the same block though it's not entirely clear. This nice building...

...and this even nicer one which has the words 'String Factory' on it (this bit just says 'Factory', the word 'String' is on the other side but I couldn't even begin to find a good place to photograph it).

This business has been Klipspringer Pty Ltd for at least my lifetime; it used to be a tennis 'gut' manufacturer. Maybe that's the 'string'? I am not sure.

This building, which is at the corner of Evans and Ballarat Rd, really intrigues me. It appears that this was an aluminium factory of some sort, under a few different names (starting I think with the name Ocal, which the Sands & McDougall 1965p. 185 suggests is an acronym) but that doesn't explain why it has the word 'Novelty' written very plainly at the top.

It's now a Go-Kart place as you can see, though I gather it used to be known as Fun City,* a name I would tend to take with a grain of salt - how about you.

I don't know what this ever was or currently is - I'd like to though.

These nice birds were hanging around a garbage truck, The one on the left is called Shitz, the one in the middle is Gigglez, the one on the right goes by Li'l Shitz.

This is when we finally ('finally!' said Perry) got to the river and crossed the bridge. I mean, this is an amazing house.

Can you imagine. It's like living in 15th century Italy somewhere.

I noticed that the bridge here had a sign on it proclaiming it as from 1970, so I had a quick check on what used to be there. Interesting (?):

Now, it's:

Have to go back and retrace that old bridge line sometime.

I have to admit that by this point we were starting to wonder if we had bitten off more than we could chew as it was getting kind of stupidly hot. But we didn't actually have much choice at this point. Here one might almost feel one had reached the end of the road...