While Port Fairy's rich history continues to be a big part of the town's appeal, progress and change marches along.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Parts of Bank Street are a construction zone as work continues on the streetscape beautification project.
Coming at a cost of $850,000, the project will include upgrades of footpaths, curbing and the road, as well as the installation of new street furniture.
This is stage three of the streetscape beautification, following on from the first two stages which focused on Sackville Street and Fiddler's Green.
Not so long ago, 2016 to be precise, Fiddler's Green was the Village Green.
This public space is an important part of life in Port Fairy but it once had a very different look.
This photograph from the Port Fairy Historical Society was taken in the 1950's from the Bank Street frontage of what is now Fiddler's Green, but was then a location for a house and businesses.
The house was owned by the Gaynor family, with this photograph showing Pat Gaynor getting on her bike near the front door.
The Sackville Street frontage had been occupied by a range of businesses, which included a dentist and a chemist shop.
Fire hit the site in October 1959, with the Borough of Port Fairy then buying the land off its owner, a Mrs Robinson, and clearing it to a vacant site.
Port Fairy historian and author of the book Port Fairy - The Town That Kept It's Character, Marten Syme, said the borough had an interesting plan for the site.
"Despite a petition from ratepayers not to sell the site, council did put it up for sale," Mr Syme said.
"They had it for auction but didn't get a bid on it.
"They were very hopeful of someone buying it, with talk at one stage of the possibility of a service station being built on the site.
"That certainly would have changed the whole character of the town. There was some suggestion at one stage from the public to make the site into a memorial for the early settlers but that didn't gain any momentum."
Mr Syme said the Borough of Port Fairy had purchased the land off Mrs Robinson for 3000 pounds.
"The council was strapped for cash at the time so they saw it as a way to bring in some revenue, but that didn't eventuate," he said.