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Living by the Bay (Content Warning: Maybe Distressing)

You’d think I would be used to this by now, he thought.
He trudged along the pavement towards his home in Esplanade-west, Port Melbourne. His feet sloshed in his rubber boots. Across his back flapped two fish hitting him as he swayed to and fro.
His wife greeted him at the kitchen door.
“Hello dear,” she said.
“Hello, my dear Alicia,” as he leaned in towards a kiss, “We’ve got dinner for tonight.”
“This will feed our hungry lot.” She took the fish and laid them on the table. “Is there something troubling you, dear”.
“I found a small baby this morning.” He sank into a chair, “There was nothing I could do for her.”
“Oh my, how ghastly, may her soul rest in peace,” she said. Her hands motioned the sign of the cross across her body. “Where did you find her?”
“In Albert Park, on the beach at Beaconsfield parade. About one and bit miles away from here. She was wrapped in two sheets of brown paper and newspaper from The Age. You’d think I’d be used to this by now. But, I don’t know. This one hits harder at home.”
She put her arms around him.
“I just can’t imagine how the mother is feeling right now. We’ve been so blessed with our lot.”  

The building that now stands over the space where
my great-great-grandparents once lived in Esplanade-west. 

The former Australasian Sugar Refining Company stands at the end of Esplanade-west. 
Jennifer Empey
Photographs by Jennifer Empey

Notes
Births Index of children of Richd (Richard) Lovett and Alicia Cairns/Kearns/Keirns, Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Victoria, 1892-1909.
‘Child’s body on the Beach’, The Bendigo Advertiser, 24 September 1908, p. 3, Accessed 19 July 2018.
‘Child Murder’, The Age, 31 August 1908, p. 4, Accessed 19 July 2018.
‘Found on the Beach’, The Argus, 24 September 1908, p.6, Accessed 19 July 2018.
‘Infant Mortality’, The Ballarat Star, 31 August 1908, p. 4, Accessed 19 July 2018.
‘Inquests’, Victoria Police Gazette, 4 September 1908, p. 4.
‘Somebody’s Child’, The Herald, 23 September 1908, p. 1, Accessed 19 July 2018.

Bibliography
Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria.
The Age.
The Argus.
The Ballarat Star.
The Bendigo Advertiser.
The Herald.
The Standard.
Victoria Police Gazette.

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