Warrnambool’s harbour was never a great success commercially but until the arrival of the railway in the 1890s it was the speediest means of getting goods and people into and out of the town. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
This grainy picture shows an unidentified baby at the wheel of Chas and William Downing’s 1906 De Dion Dorney. SOURCE: Warrnambool and District Historical Vehicle Club.
This photo taken from the newly-built T&G building in 1940 came from photographer Merv Dowd and shows Liebig Street looking south-east. The dark verandah at the bottom left belonged to the Beardsley Building, which housed Ray Barne’s bakery and alongside Mary Brian’s Nella Maris Cafe (now Materia Bros). SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
This 1928 procession on Koroit Street (near Ryot Street) was to celebrate Warrnambool’s (population 7000) win in Victoria’s first Ideal Town competition. The competition was sponsored by the Sun News Pictorial and Warrnambool won the Large Town category. The win was used widely as a tourism promotion vehicle. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
A crowd watches a dive attempt at the Technical School Swimming Sports in 1956 at the swimming baths in Gilles Street. The oval baths edge is still visible at the site but the area is grassed over. Mozart Hall is the building on the left of the photo. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Based purely on the haircuts, fashions, the mini-bus and those nifty Gladstone bags, this image appears to date to the mid-1950s to mid-’60s. The lads appear to be trade students/trainees at an educational institution. SOURCE: Warrnambool Library.
The bridge at Woodford was completely washed away by the 1946 floods. The height of the water can be seen on the wall of the police station shown in the photo. The floods followed nine inches of rain over the weekend of March 16 -17. Seven lives were lost and there were significant stock and crop losses. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
An official tour of dignitaries and local farmers at the opening of the new Grassmere Butter Factory in June 1905. On the way to Grassmere a visit was made to the Warrnambool Cheese & Butter Factory and then to CH Uebergang’s Briarwood farm at Cudgee for a demonstration of the LK milking machine, the first milking machine in the Allansford district. SOURCE: Warrnambool Cheese & Butter.
Bakery on the corner of Fairy and Lava Streets, in front of what is now Monaghan's Pharmacy. The odours wafting from H. H. Smith’s bakery must have been difficult for peckish pedestrians to resist. Henry Smith began his career at Davis’ steam biscuit factory on Timor Street, opposite the post office, but in 1885 established his own Warrnambool City Bakery. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
The tender for the construction of the Warrnambool breakwater was let in 1884 for a 1033 foot breakwater made of concrete blocks. This photo from 1890 shows the concrete blocks used in the construction located in the railway reserve beside the Merri River. The Stanley Street bridge (now renamed Edwards Bridge) is in the background. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Audrey Coleman (later Anderson) was Warrnambool’s first visiting nurse, posing here in 1947 at the base hospital gates in front of a Ford Prefect.
People gather along Liebig Street and Raglan Parade for the Anzac Day march in 1920. The photo was taken from what is now a doctor's surgery, looking over to the corner McDonald's currently occupies.
The two young palm trees pictured on the Civic Green are there to this day, only much larger. The occasion was a visit by the Governor of Victoria Winston Dugan (seen walking mid-picture with Warrnambool’s robed mayor), possibly for the city’s centenary. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
This 1902 three-cylinder Argyll was bought new by Mr Ritchie of Blackwood, Penshurst, but later sold to William E. Downing. SOURCE: Warrnambool and District Historical Vehicles Club and the Downing family.
Pictured is the earliest known image of the Warrnambool Cheese & Butter Factory in 1900. The company recently celebrated its 125th birthday. SOURCE: Warrnambool Cheese & Butter.
Taxis returning to town after picking up boat passengers from the breakwater, pictured on Viaduct Road in 1914. The front car is a 1907 Beeston-Humber, bought new by prominent Warrnamboolian Walter Manifold, MLC. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Vehicle Club.
This photograph of some men sitting at the Warrnambool breakwater dates back at least a century and captures a moment in the evolving history of the harbour. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Construction workers in Dennington, October 1912, build the foundations of Nestles, which became the world's largest condensed milk factory. The site is now operated by dairy co-operative Fonterra. SOURCE: Warrnambool and District Historical Society. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
The bluestone Western Brewery was started by Edmund Wheeler in Timor Street in 1866. The site is now the location of The Last Coach. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
This Arthur Jordan photograph of St John's bowling greens has no date but hats and fashions stamp it unmistakably as the1920s. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Watching the band of the British Army’s most senior guards regiment, the Grenadier Guards, in full flight is an experience not easily forgotten. Adorned in their trademark red tunics and towering bearskin busby hats and with their instruments polished to perfection, it was a sight to thrill the patriotic sons and daughters of the Empire, especially in such a far-flung outpost as Warrnambool. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
A view over Warrnambool in the early 1880s by young English artist Albert Henry Fullwood (1863-1930), who parked himself on the hill bordered by Lava and Ryot streets in Warrnambool and made a marvellously detailed sketch of the view south-east across town to Lady Bay. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Young folk of Warrnambool (and some of more senior years) gathered at the Palais Royal in Koroit Street for their fortnightly Merrymakers dance. This photo was taken on April 4, 1938. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
A large crowd gathers on May 1949 at the Warrnambool Racecourse for the second day of the May Racing Carnival. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Bus groups from the mid-50s to 1960 period gather outside the Tattersalls Hotel, known for its familiar art deco shape on the corner of Liebig Street and Raglan Parade. The site is now the location of McDonald's. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
These buildings in 1868 were located on the corner of Liebig Street and Timor Street, now the site of the Civic Green. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Liebig Street, March 27, 1947. The city’s centenary celebrations brought an estimated 20,000 people to watch the parade of flats and horse drawn vehicles. Pictured is a seaside-themed float, decorated with seaweed, deckchairs and bronzed bathers, promoting Warrnambool as a tourist destination. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
1945 Warrnambool procession celebrating the end of World War II, at intersection of Koroit and Kepler streets. In the foreground is a Ford semi-trailer owned by local transport operator Harry Johnson, carrying characters in costumes. In background is McMahon’s Service station, built in the 1920s and site of a motor business until the 1980s (now Ishka). SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Warrnambool racecourse aerial image from 1920s, taken by visiting Melbourne photographer Charles Pratt, aka Airspy. This image shows a mere handful of houses amid the paddocks beside Moore Street (along bottom corner), Tozer Road, McGregors Road and Grafton Road. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.
Biplane at racecourse in the 1920s. Given the rarity of aircraft anywhere outside big cities back then, it is possible the pilot is photographer Charles Pratt, who took an aerial snapshot during the racing carnival. The Great War veteran brought four war-surplus aircrafts with him from New Zealand to Melbourne in late 1919. SOURCE: Warrnambool & District Historical Society.