Skip to main content

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 a 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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

8 January 1969 Fires in Victoria. (Content Warning: May be Distressing)

On 8 January 1969, the temperature climbed to a century . Sixty miles per hour winds swirled in a west-northwesterly direction. Percy and Ivy, my grandparents, left Bookaar and travelled home to West Footscray. Outside of Geelong, they rattled along the Geelong-Melbourne highway and neared Lara. ‘Look at the dark black smoke, Perc,’ exclaimed Ivy. ‘Something must be wrong,’ said Percy. Sweat ran down his face. ‘Cars are turning back. There must be a fire.’ He made a U-turn and headed back in the direction they had come. They pulled up on the side of the road, got down low in the car, and covered themselves with the blanket. A knock at the driver’s window startled them. Percy peeled back the blanket and wound down the window. ‘Are you alright?’ said the policeman. ‘Yes, thank you. We are fine, said Percy. Ivy peered out from under the blanket. ‘The fire has moved on. You can move out now. Be careful! Electric wires have fallen along the road. Up ahead, a pole...
Post a Comment
Read more

Panmure Cemetery Victoria

On the way to Warrnambool, I made a detour at Panmure. I was looking for the final resting place of my great-great-grandparents. I didn’t know so many Bants were buried there together. Imagine my surprise when I had driven past a dirt road named Bant St. [1] I turned off the highway in Panmure, the town where my granny, Ivy Bant, was born.  [2] I headed down a street, drove over a bridge up a hill, across the railway track and parked near the white wooden fence. I stepped onto the crushed bluestone path into Panmure Cemetery, which was surrounded by trees of different sizes. It was a dull, cloudy, cold day. My feet sloshed in the patchy wet grass, breaking the silence that prevailed. Near the entrance, I stood at a row of graves of my granny’s uncles. William and his wife had a stone slab with an engraved headstone. [3] William’s son, John, had a grave with an inscription etched in stone. [4] An orange-brown coloured headstone with a white painted wrought iron railin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vikings

The next season of the TV series Vikings is nearly here.  And, it reminds me of my family history research. S omeone traced my family tree back to the brother, Sigurd, that Ivar killed in Vikings.  I don't know if it's been verified or not!  So, I don't know if it's true or not!  I just find it interesting that someone could trace a family line back to Ragnar and his sons, whether it's true or not.  So, it makes it a bit eerie to watch, especially Ragnar's sons doing battle.  But then, if I weren't interested in my family history, I would never have known and followed the breadcrumbs that someone left in tracing it back to them. Whether it was a true or false claim.  It just leaves me to wonder.  And, it makes history even more fascinating to me cause of all the ancestors that I stumble across. And, I want to learn about the kind of lives that they might have led.
Post a Comment
Read more