Eyes on the sewers 1899 52/8/1

Eyes on the sewers 1899 52/8/1, a photo by Boroondara Libraries on Flickr.

In the late 19th century the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works commenced a massive undertaking which resulted in maps of metropolitan Melbourne essentially to map sewerage and drainage. These maps provide a wealth of information about areas, streets and properties at the time of their mapping.

I ended up on this 1899 map of Collingwood because I was searching for 36 Cambridge Street, Collingwood. From this map you can see that 36 Cambridge Street was on the eastern side of Cambridge Street, just opposite Cambridge Street Primary School and in the block just north of Victoria Parade which has the New Bendigo Hotel on the corner.


If you zoom in on the map and focus on 36 Cambridge Street itself, you can see quite a bit of detail. You can see that to the south there was a vacant block; that the house was a single fronted terrace with a small garden in front and a verandah indicated by the "v". There was another verandah on the side of house and a tap and the bath are also indicated. Buildings appear to extend to the back fence and there on the left (or south) is a closet (indicated by "c") conveniently located near the rear lane for collection by the night man.

And what you may ask has 36 Cambridge Street Collingwood to do with Boroondara? Government printer and stockbroker, Edward Khull (1804-1884) owned the estate "Tooronga" after whom Tooronga Road was named but by 1884 when he died he was living in 36 Cambridge Street, Collingwood. This terrace in Collingwood was certainly smaller than his estate in Hawthorn would have been and evidence of reverses he had on the exchange and insolvency.