Northcote Links,
Bibliography & Resources
In the 1980s coinciding with Australia's Bicentenary there was a rise in Local History Groups. With the advent of on-line resources and digitisation. These groups no longer provide a single stop access.
With diverse range of resources one has to work harder to find resources.
Heidelberg Historical Society & Brunswick History Group still function with events and resources. Both with limited online resources.
Note both Northcote Historical & Conservation Society & Preston Historical Society no longer exist. Most of their collections are with Darebin Heritage at Darebin Libraries.
Quick Local Online Links - Brief List - Many More Below:
Darebin Heritage - sourced from Local History Collection of Darebin Libraries.
Facebook has some very good Pages including:
Preston in History
We Grew Up in Thornbury
I Grew Up in Clifton Hill
Books & Publications PDF here:
Highlighted titles indicate good basic background information on Northcote.
* indicates online copy at Darebin Libraries Heritage Collection.
Multi collections originating from diverse sources: Northcote and Preston councils (pre 1994), the defunct Northcote Historical & Conservation Society’s collection, ongoing donations. Much (not all) of this online.
http://www.heritage.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au
+ indicates online copy elsewhere
Primary Resources:
* History of Northcote: from its first settlement to a city, W G Swift. 1928
Subject Index to Swift's book here.
Northcote Side of the River, Andrew Lemon. 1983.
Glimpses of Our Past, NHCS ed Lobert & Ruffy. 1988
* Northcote Jubilee Celebrations 1883-1933, W G Swift & R J Whalley. 1933
* Darebin Heritage Review 2000, Andrew Ward. (3 vols) 2001. [online available at ….] There is an earlier work - City of Urban Conservation Study (3 vols), Graeme Butler. 1982.
Voices from the Archives: Northcote People talking, NHCS. Green & Michell. 1998
Heidelberg Since 1836: A pictorial history. Heidelberg Historical Society. 1971.
Heidelberg: the land and its people 1838-1900, Donald Garden. 1972
Coburg between Two Creeks, Richard Broome. 1987
* + Northcote / Preston Leader Newspaper
The Preston Leader is now online at Trove.
Kew - Jubilee History of Kew, 1910 by F G A Barnard is now online here.
Secondary Resources:
Mother superior, woman inferior, Josie Arnold. 1985. (She lived in Northcote and went to Santa Maria.)
An Australian Story: 1867-1907, Maie Casey. 1962. (Wife of Lord Casey. She grew up on west bank of Merri Creek in Brunswick. Early chapters deal with this area and Northcote just over the Merri.)
Doing Time in Northcote, SPAN. 1991 (Remembrances of Northcote.)
Past, Present & Future, SPAN. 1986 (Remembrances of Northcote.)
Northcote Lives: oral history project compiled by students at Northcote High School. NHS. c1996. (Remembrances of Northcote.)
Northcote’s Old Nursery, Stephen Simpson. 1990 (Remembrances of Northcote.)
Preston: Lands and People, Harley Forster. 1968.
Surviving the Six O’Clock Swill: A History of Darebin’s Hotels, Gary Edge. 2004.
+ Darebin’s Australians: Immigrants to Citizens, DECC & The Connies. 2004. (A collection of cards. Used to be online at DECC. Sadly no longer.)
Chinese Settlement in Darebin, Arthur Yong. 2004 (Focusing on early Chinese.)
The First Twenty: Recalling 1928-1948, Robert J Lewis. 2002 (Some remembrances of Northcote.)
Brave and True: From blue to khaki – the band of the 2/22 Battalion, Lindsay C Cox. 2003. (Many band members were from Northcote and Preston.)
Alphington Swimming Pool, Richard Broom. 2002
History of Whittlesea Railway, Robert Aqualina. 1999. (Introduction of the railway. Hard to come by.)
We were so Simple Then: Growing up in East Preston [and Thornbury] in 1920-1940. (Chapter 1 of But Nothing Ever Happened to Us: Memories of the Twenties and Thirties). 1986 (Remembrances of Northcote.)
Northcote Pottery: A story of survival and prosperity over 110 years, Laura Doanti. 2008. (Iconic Northcote industry now moved to Brunswick and Thomastown.)
Taking a Punt: first stop Bonegilla: stories by Darebin residents. Ed Merilee Moss. 1997. (Many migrants who settled in Northcote lived in this internment camp near Lake Eildon.)
Some fictional books include Northcote as the setting, especially The Slap.
ABORIGINAL
The Melbourne Dreaming: A guide to the Aboriginal places of Melbourne, Meyer Eidelson. 1997
People of the Merri Merri: the Wurundjeri in colonial days, Ellender & Christiansen. 2001.
A Bend in the River: A history of the Merri Creek protectorate station and Merri creeks aboriginal; school 1841-1851, Clark & Heydon. 2004
ORAL HISTORIES
Heritage Collection at Darebin Libraries:
Greek Project (mid 1980s)
Italian Project (mid 1980s)
* Northcote Historical & Conservation Society (1983/4)
Darebin Libraries’ Interviews (2000s)
SCHOOLS & CHURCHES:
All produced centenary / special publications. Here are some examples:
Holy Sprit Parish East Thornbury: Celebrating Forty Years 1953-1993. 1993
Fairfield Primary School 2711: The Langridge Street knowledge emporium, Emma Russell. 2010.
GENERAL
Note many volumes pre 1970s lack indexes.
Victoria & Its Metropolis: Past and Present, Sutherland. 1888. (Two mammoth volumes presenting a ‘glorified image' of Melbourne in late 1880s.) Mini blogs of people and suburb summaries. Has terrific index.
Sands & McDougall Directories, 1850s til 1974.
One of the best resources. Now only at State Library. Five year intervals only.
(Microfiche only at Darebin Libraries and State Library. Books are 6-10 inches thick! Published annually. Were the credit checks of the period. One of the most used resources. Listings by suburbs (then street), trades, etc.)
Garyrowen’s Melbourne (all written by journalist Edumd Finn) – Melbourne Sketches, 1880 and Chronicles of Early Melbourne 1835 to 1852. 1888.
Yarra: A Diverting History, Krisitn Otto. 2005.
The Place for a Village: How nature has shaped the city of Melbourne, Gary Presland. 2008. (His PhD work. Specialist in Aboriginal history.)
Southern Invasion Northern Conquest; Story of the founding of Melbourne, 2001.
Car Wars: How the car won our hearts and conquered our cities, Graeme Davidson. 2004. (‘Father’ of public history in Australia.)
From Hamburg to Hobsons Bay: German Emigration to Port Phillip (Australia Felix) 1848-1851, Darragh & Wuchastsch. 1999. (Describes Wendish German settlement in Victoria organised by William Westgarth.)
Land Boom and Bust, Michael Cannon. 1972. (Good book on 1890s Depression.)
Brazen Hussies: A herstory of radical activism in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Victoria 1970-1979, Jean Taylor. 2009. (Somewhat limited to a decade. But gives an idea of a wealth of material available on Feminsim.
Old Melbourne Memories, Rolf Boldrewood. 1884, 1969.
Australian Pottery: The first 100 years, Geoff Ford. 1995. (Good and detailed book on pottery companies of the area.)
Beyond the Ladies’ Lounge: Australia’s female publicans, Clare Wright. 2003. (Excellent book describing why many publicans were female and how it stuited them at a time when women found it difficult to be financially independent.)
Northcote On-line Resources
Clickable links. Some can take a few minutes to load. Sometimes quicker way is to copy and paste address into the address line!
Much of Northcote material is somewhat scattered to the four winds. Below is a listing of online sites that have Northcote connections. Luckily David Wadelton has posted a whole batch of Northcote (and district) pics from the mid 1970s. The Argus is now searchable online at Trove. Preston Leader too. (The local Leader newspapers tended to print one week Northcote news then Preston news the second week.)
As I find more sites - they will be added.
Primary
Darebin Libraries – Heritage Database. Your main starting point. Sadly site is a little slow. Big microfiche & Heritage Collection at Preston Library. Brian Membrey’s WWI database. Contact Information Librarians. Much online, still quite a bit not.
http://heritage.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au
Library's website:
www.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au
Victorian Heritage Database with Darebin connections. Look up by street name.
http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/local/search/darebin
Full 4 vols Darebin Heritage 2000 Review online here. Need to scroll about ¾ way down.
http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Building-and-Business/Planning-and-development/Zoning-and-Policies
Oz Sports History. Maintained by Brian Membrey. Excellent collection including war casualties. Excellent sport coverage - cricket and football especially.
http://www.ozsportshistory.com/homedarebin.html
State Library. Huge collection including images including MMBW plans. Have Batman’s diary.
slv.vic.gov.au
Trove – online newspapers inc (Preston) Leader & The Argus and a whole lot more. Picture Australia is now part of Trove.
http://trove.nla.gov.au
Museum Victoria. Dr Thomas Beckett’s photographic collection from 1890s. He ran a practice on High St and lived in Westbourne Gve.
http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/locations/northcote-australia
Picture Victoria. Small selection of images.
http://www.picturevictoria.vic.gov.au
Australian Dictionary of Biography. Multi volume resource. ‘Major’ figures of Oz history only.
http://adb.anu.edu.au
Women’s Australian Register. Fantastic resource. Includes Joan Rosnaove.
womenaustralia.info
Victoria Online Newspapers
Google – includes The Age 1854-1989
https://sites.google.com/site/onlinenewspapersite/Home/aus/vic
Public Records Office – Gigantic collection of resources but tricky to use. Own special identifications. Check the handy guides.
prov.vic.gov.au
Royal Historical Society of Victoria. Have some publications, books, etc. Costs money to use the facility in person. Free online. Much of what they have is at State Library / Darebin Libraries.
www.historyvictoria.org.au
Secondary Resources
David Wadelton took many pics of Northcote in the 1970s. Posted on a number of sites:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-01/photos-show-northcote-before-gentrification/5708804
The photos are here at Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/northcotehystericalsociety/
Google pictures of Northcote
Google.com/images
Wikinorthia. General info with some quirky stuff.
http://www.wikinorthia.net.au/?s=northcote&istag=1
Wikiepdia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northcote,_Victoria
On MY Doorstep – ok for some statistics:
https://www.onmydoorstep.com.au/at/3070/northcote
Walking Melbourne (eg: Plaza Theatre):
http://www.walkingmelbourne.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=631
All Saints Church History:
http://www.allsaintsnorthcote.org.au/docs/All%20Saints%20150%20history%20summary.pdf
Church histories general site. Incomplete only lists one church for ‘Northcote’. All Saints not listed.
Most churches produced anniversary publications. Darebin Libraries have some. Otherwise contact church archives.
http://www.churchhistories.net.au
Cinema & Theatres Historical Society of Australia – best source for cinema history. Documetns cinemas and theatres in detailed articles. Most Northcote cinemas have been documented in ‘Cinema Record’. An excellent well researched magazine.
caths.org.au
page updated 27 Aug 2021