Old Canberran’s Old Photos - Part 4 - Mystery building and Black Mountain

p1 said :

I am really loving these old photo thread, Old Canberran, thanks.

Is this more or less the location of the building, and line of sight to Black Mountain?

If you drop that line down about an inch to start midway along the back of 21 Torrens Street then it’d be perfect. Glad you’re enjoying the photos.

MissPeaches said :

Disposable said :

sepi said :

downer shops / old csiro hq

Sorry to hijack but the “Satan House/animal experimentation place” definitely deserves a thread all of its own. I’ll try to remember to start one.

My guess on the photo is the site of the Melbourne building in Civic.

I would love to read that thread… went to Downer Primary school and used to do our sports on the oval in front of that place was always curious as to what when on there…

Cool, I’ll see what I can remember and try to post something up this afternoon.

Disposable said :

sepi said :

downer shops / old csiro hq

Sorry to hijack but the “Satan House/animal experimentation place” definitely deserves a thread all of its own. I’ll try to remember to start one.

My guess on the photo is the site of the Melbourne building in Civic.

I would love to read that thread… went to Downer Primary school and used to do our sports on the oval in front of that place was always curious as to what when on there…

I am really loving these old photo thread, Old Canberran, thanks.

Is this more or less the location of the building, and line of sight to Black Mountain?

caf said :

…so that means that the street in the photo is Lonsdale St, and the pines in the background are along present-day Mort St?

Yep. I’m not sure if the Mort Street trees are still there as it’s a while since I was in that area. In those days there were quite a few empty blocks in Mort Street and the trees had a bit of room to grow. From memory they were on the Western side of Mort Street backing the buildings in Northbourne Ave.

Wow. Thanks OC – that’s a really interesting history lesson. I’ve come over all patriotically Canberran filled with such knowledge…

…so that means that the street in the photo is Lonsdale St, and the pines in the background are along present-day Mort St?

Disposable said :

If the long building is Tammets car wash then the shed would have to be Cafe Pronto/Kitschen/Beaurepaires?

Right. The corner block and the one next to it were leased/bought by a market gardener from Sydney by the name of Cordner. He built that shed with used materials he brought from Sydney on his old post war Blitz Wagon. Every week he would bring a truck load of fruit and vegs and stay until he either sold everything or it went rotten. He used to sleep in the truck. He used to sell out in about 3 days because his produce was good and the locals could walk there and back.
The two blocks were eventually “bought” by Golden Fleece who built a service station on the corner block and sub leased the next-door block to Beaureparies which, apparently is still there. At one stage there were servos on each of the four corners. I used to work casual at the Golden Fleece as a bowser boy for a number of years after school and at weekends. The servo had a cafe at the Eloura Street end which became a late night eatery and upset the residents so much with the noise that it was shut down as the lease specified daylight hours only. I suspect that led to the emergence of food caravans.
Here endeth today’s history lesson.

If the long building is Tammets car wash then the shed would have to be Cafe Pronto/Kitschen/Beaurepaires?

Toilet block??

Was the shed a Centrelink?

Coggans bread! I used to have that delivered to the door daily by the bread man.

Ahh the things that slip your mind. 🙂

Well done Deckard and Cleverclogs as well for being so close. The bakery, Coggans, was behind the long building on the corner of Mort and Eloura. The long building is actually a series of small shops and was one of the first buildings in Lonsdale Street. It was L shaped and went around the corner facing Eloura St. It subsequently got demolished and made way for a servo and then a car wash.
This brings us to the small shed. I’ll see if the night shift has any comments before I tell you about it.
Lonsdale Street used to be 5 rows of pine trees which ran alongside the railway line that was going to connect Canberra with Yass. There used to be an earth railway platform at the back of Civic about where the Target car park now is. Lonsdale Street was built around 1946/7 and it didn’t take long for it to become Civic’s industrial area along with Mort Street. Alec Mildren, the racing car driver, had a garage there where REPCO is or was. At one stage it was nearly all motor dealers and servos.

sepi said :

downer shops / old csiro hq

Sorry to hijack but the “Satan House/animal experimentation place” definitely deserves a thread all of its own. I’ll try to remember to start one.

My guess on the photo is the site of the Melbourne building in Civic.

Ainslie Oval?

downer shops / old csiro hq

What about closer to the city like clevercogs suggested? Maybe Lonsdale ad Elouera?

Joker said :

Cnr of Ipima and Limestone

which is Merici College I suggested before, unless on the nortern side of that….

Cnr of Ipima and Limestone

corner of northbourne and ipima?

Ainslie shops perhaps?

There was a bakery on the corner of Elouera St and Mort St where the car dealership & Delissio are now…

A couple of you are getting quite close. ABC129 and Holden C.
I don’t expect anyone to know what the little shed was as it was demolished a few years later. The long building was also demolished years later and has been replaced with several different buildings over the years.
Clue 2: both the shed and the long building are corner blocks.

merici on Limestone?

My guess is Lonsdale St, although I have no idea what the shed is….early version of the Civic Pub, or Pizza Hut? 🙂

So maybe the trees are Northbourne Ave and the photo was taken from somewhere near Mort or Lonsdale Streets? Telephone Exchange maybe?

Clue No 1: it was taken from a location in Braddon. If you click on the photo you can see a larger image which may help.

not O’connor shops is it?

Chiefly’s outhouse, parliament house 🙂

is that turner primary on condamine street?

Ainslie Primary School?
Or perhaps the Old school on Elouera st, Braddon where Questacon used to be all those years ago?

Holden Caulfield said :

I was wondering if the trees are part of Haig Park?

If that is right, then Turner bowls club maybe? Or some old building in Braddon which has since bee replaced by an apartment building?

You are in the right general area HC. I took the photo from the Eastern side of Black mountain looking West. I would imagine that most on this forum would have driven along the street in the photo at some stage.

I was wondering if the trees are part of Haig Park?

If that is right, then Turner bowls club maybe? Or some old building in Braddon which has since bee replaced by an apartment building?

Don’t forget Lake Burley Griffin wasn’t there then.

I thought it was the original National Gallery.

Aranda, it turns out, wasn’t there till ’67, and Cook later, so it must be taken from the other side. Turner was developed in the ’40s and ’50. Did anyone go to the primary school there? Or is it a building that used to exist somewhere in Acton?

Scrivenir’s survey hut?

Black Mountain with the bigger lump on the right, so somewhere Northwest of it?
The site currently known as Canberra High?

Not living at that end of town, or getting a good look at Black Mountain everyday, I am just guessing and have no idea…

It looks like the Cook Primary School. But if it is I am surpised. I didn’t know it was there back then.

If it is, maybe the shed is where the kiddiwinkies were meant to go and smoke?

Yeah, the building behind the shed kinda looks like a school building. Although, did they build schools like that in ’48?

Are those buildings part of CSIRO? although Black Mountain looks a bit far away for that.

Or is it looking from the other side of Black Mountain? Aranda Primary school maybe?