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Photograph - Trackwork at Flinders and Swanston Sts, c1930

  • Shows the grand facade of a large, ornate building with multiple domes and a central clock tower. In front of the building, several vintage cars are parked on a street, and a group of men appear to be working on road construction. A large banner across the building reads "DON'T USE THE WORD 'MAGNIFICENT' UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN MT. BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK."

    Trackwork at Flinders and Swanston Sts.

Historical information

Black and white photograph showing a group of men working on the tracks at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Sts, c1930. In the background is the Flinders St station building advertising the Mt Bufalo chalet. The railways took over the operation of the chalet in Oct. 1924, see reference.
Notes from RJ 1/8/2027
T'he motorcycle on the right is a BSA single 1928-32 – this was the most popular type of motorcycle in Melbourne at this time. The car turning left into St Kilda Rd is a Ford Model A coupe 1928-31. The safety zone sign was introduced by the MCC circa 1927.
The ad for the Orange and Lemon fruit juice indicates that the photo was taken between Nov 1926 and 1935 – when the fruit juice bar on the concourse of the station was rebranded as the Health Drink Stall – that was when they broadened the offerings from just freshly squeezed Lemon or Orange juice to coffee and other beverages. Nowadays it would be a Boost Juice. Unfortunately, the detail isn’t good enough for the large American saloon in front of the station – all I can tell is that it is American. If there was more detail of the grille I could do better – it might be a Dodge, though I can’t say for certain – but I’m not sure it would give a narrower date range. Therefore, the date range is 1928-35, but I would plump for 1929 or 1930, primarily due to the lack of newer cars. Thus, the maintenance work is just maintenance work – not involved with the conversion from cable to electric traction. My guess it is a Sunday morning (11:10 am) due to the lack of traffic and trams and people – Sunday morning trams weren’t brought in until 4 Oct 1936 – and any other day there would be hordes of people at this time of day. It also makes sense from a work perspective, as this would be the least disruptive time to perform maintenance on the H crossing at this location."

Significance

Yields information about track work at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Sts, c1926?

Physical description

Black and white photograph with a plain back, copy print.

Subjects

References

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