City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2built in 1859 to take the Melbourne Brighton Railway across the Yarra River (Broome,2001:88; Vines, 2005).For a long time the only access between Northcote and Brunswick was Sumner’s weir, whichwas used as a pedestrian crossing. After Arthurton Road was extended to Merri Creek in 1890,the Council built a bridge across to Brunswick (Lemon 1983:57, 113, 115). Over the years,Darebin was progressively connected with its neighbouring suburbs to the east and west bymore bridges, reducing Darebin’s isolation. Most of these bridges are now modern reinforcedconcrete structures. The construction of the John Curtin Bridge carrying Murray Road overthe Darebin Creek accompanied the establishment of the Northland Shopping Centre in the1960s. The bridge was partly funded by Myer, Northland’s owner (Carroll & Rule, 1985:197),highlighting the importance of bringing shoppers, thus establishing Northland as a regionalshopping centre.3.5 Providing postal and telecommunication servicesDarebin’s postal services, like those in many new towns in Victoria, were first provided by localgeneral stores. Northcote’s first post office was in Bastings’ store in High Street. The mailservice from Melbourne commenced in 1854, with the mail brought on horseback. At the timethere was some confusion over the name of the district, as Northcote was the official name ofthe township laid out on the Merri Creek, and a number of names were in use for thesettlement on Rucker’s Hill, such as Cawdortown and Upper Northcote. The name wasdecided when the Bastings brothers called their post office Northcote (Lemon, 1983:45, 50).At Preston the Wood family had opened their store in High Street and ran the post office from1856. The locality was known as Irishtown, but the Woods named their post office afterPreston, a Sussex village near their birthplace. Marshall’s store on the corner of Bell Street andPlenty Road served as a post office for the residents at South Preston (Carroll, 1985:26, 31).Although only situated a few miles from Melbourne, Darebin was isolated as far astelecommunications were concerned. Melbourne was in telegraph communication with Sydneyand Adelaide by 1858, but it was 1876 before the electric telegraph came to Preston and thetelephone was not connected until 1910, when the Northcote exchange opened (Lemon,1983:162; Carroll, 1985:98).Figure 17Post Office, built in 1908, Preston(image date unknown)[DHE, ID 783]By this time both Northcote and Preston had official post offices. Northcote’s wasincorporated within the Town Hall and Court House complex, built in 1890. The PostOffices moved to its own premises in High Street in 1926, presumably because Council neededthe space in the Town Hall. Preston’s Post Office was built at 350 High Street, next to theTown Hall in 1908, and was rebuilt on the same site in 1971 (Lemon, 1983:104, 204; Carroll& Rule, 1985:99).40