Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

The Clocktower building, in Mount Alexander Road Moonee Ponds, has a colourful history. Originally built over 140 years ago, the structure has been remodelled, badly damaged, revived and reimagined so many times the tower is the only original piece that remains. Even that is different, as it didn’t gain the clock until 1930. Throughout its existence, even as the façade has changed, and whether it’s been known as the Mechanic’s Institute, the Town Hall, the Community Centre or the Clocktower Centre, the building has always been a local landmark in Moonee Ponds, and central to community life. Learn more – and see wonderful historical images – in the new video and a webpage that have been created to mark the Centre’s twentieth anniversary as Moonee Valley’s performing arts hub.  On the Clocktower history webpage you can slide back and forth to see the building as it was first imagined, and in recent times.

Try our self-guided history walk through Queens Park in Moonee Ponds. Download it , then print it or use it on-screen to guide yourself through some of the history of this beautiful reserve that has been part of Moonee Ponds since 1839. It is a lovely, flat circuit along pathways that wind from the War Memorial near the main entrance, through the oak trees, along the edge of the lake, along one of Moonee Pond's finest streets, back into the park and through the fernery, past a beautiful stone cottage, and back to the start. The Fernery, Queens Park, Moonee Ponds, c.2018 Hope you enjoy your history walk!

Moonee Ponds Court House Museum has been beautifully repaired and renovated after the devastating fire of mid 2016. If you want to take a sticky-beak, this weekend, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 January 2020 is your chance as the Court House will be open to the public. Come and see how the 1890 building has been restored, view the History Reclaimed exhibition which tells the story of the courthouse building and other local buildings which have been reclaimed, and find out about the Essendon Historical Society. Moonee Ponds Court House Musuem is at the corner of Mount Alexander Road and Kellaway Avenue (opposite Queen's Park) in Moonee Ponds. For more information, see the Essendon Historical Society website: https://esshissoc.org.au/the-courthouse-opens/

A year has passed since a fire caused by a faulty light transformer caused significant damage to the Courthouse Museum in Moonee Ponds.  27 June 2016. Photo by Suzanne Balding, Moonee Valley Libraries. A year after the fire, 26th June 2017. Photo by Julia Marshall, MVL. The great news for local heritage enthusiasts is that $1.5 million dollars has been secured to restore the 1890s building.  27 June 2016. Photo by Suzanne Balding, MVL.  The Society has shown great resilience, continuing to operate out of the basement of our Niddrie Library branch. It will be wonderful to see the Courthouse renovated, operational and open to the community as Essendon History Society HQ once again.      The courthouse in the 1970s or 80s.   T ax deductible donations to the Historical Society are welcomed, as are new memberships . All the photos in this post are in our collection and can be found online via the library ...

This image shows the Moonee Ponds Methodist Football Club of 1914. Two players, Sid Latimer and Cecil Seccombe, have been identified , but Lenore Frost is trying to identify the rest of the players, particularly any who may have enlisted in the First World War, for her database of local volunteers, The Empire Called and I Answered . The team were most likely drawn from the congregation of the Moonee Ponds Methodist Church, (formerly the Wesleyan Church) of Gladstone Street, pictured below. Picture from The Building and Engineering Journal , November 22, 1890. Julia

The National Trust's Heritage Festival is running nationwide through-out April and May, with talks, walks, tours, train trips, exhibitions and all sorts of other events. For example, the Essendon Historical Society are running a couple of heritage walks in Moonee Ponds. I've done some of their heritage walks in the past, and I highly recommend them as a great way to discover all kinds of historical secrets about the area that you would never guess. Check out the Heritage Festival program online . Julia

If you've noticed these commemorative tins of Anzac biscuits around you may be interested to learn that they feature the image of a local soldier. Robert Allan Bunning was born in Kensington and later lived in Moonee Ponds. He is pictured having Christmas Dinner at Mena Camp in Egypt in 1914. Thanks to Lenore Frost's Empire Called and I Answered blog for sharing this information. Julia

Do you have any photographs or stories of the old Essendon Drill Hall? We have an inquirer who wants pictures or information relating to the history of the Army Drill Hall in Pascoe Vale Road, Moonee Ponds. Information about the current building would be welcomed, but we'd especially like to find photos, documents or stories relating to the previous building that stood from 1914 until 1962, which was opened on 17th October 1914 by the Mayor, Cr J Goldsworthy (you can see an article from the time on Trove ). If you can help, please let me know (you can comment below, send me an email using the link to the right, or call/visit Sam Merrifield Library and ask for Julia). Julia

For the past few months we’ve been encouraging people to identify the people in photographs from our Local History Collection. You can see the pictures online here . Recently someone told us that the woman in this photograph is probably Nancy Capicchiano. Apparently Nancy, the Australian born daughter of parents who immigrated to Australia from the Italian Aeolian Islands in the 1890s, lived with her family in Shuter Street Moonee Ponds, near Puckle Street. Later she married Felice Marturano who worked at the Morabito Italian grocer in Margaret Street. Alternately, online we've been told that it might be Ethel Verdun May, daughter of local shopkeeper Albert George Tuckerman. Ethel married John "Jack" Fisher. So is it Ethel or is it Nancy? Or someone else entirely. Can anyone confirm who is in this picture? If you knew either Nancy or Ethel, and can confirm that this is (or isn't) either of them, or that it is somebody else, please let us know. You can use th...

This January the Essendon Historical Society will be conducting two free guided heritage walks in Moonee Ponds. Queens Park & the Civic Triangle, Saturday 11th January 2014, 2pm Vineyards & Back Lanes of Moonee Ponds , Saturday 18th January 2014, 2pm Both will begin and end at the Moonee Ponds Courthouse Museum (corner of Kellaway Avenue and Mount Alexander Road). Afternoon tea is provided. No bookings are needed. Gold coin donations are appreciated. I went on two of the Historical Society's heritage walks last summer and would highly recommend them to anyone interested in local history and/or architecture. (Plus the afternoon tea provided was delicious!) For more information contact the Essendon Historical Society . Julia

The Walter Burley Griffin Incinerator in Holmes Road, Moonee Ponds was built in 1929 from designs by W. Burley Griffin and is one of the few surviving examples of his work. In the 1920's, incinerators were seen as a solution to shortages of suitable waste lands within municipalities for the tipping of household refuse. The decision by Essendon Council to build one caused much controversy, mainly due to the perceived unsightliness. The method of waste disposal was developed by local Moonee Ponds engineer John Boadle and produced pollutant free emissions. It ceased operations as an incinerator in 1942. For more information go to Sam Merrifield Library 's Local History Room where the vertical file contains newspaper articles, journal articles about the iconic Incinerator.