Ever wondered what it was like to be in Cremorne way back in the past? Living and working in Cremorne one can have unique experiences on a daily basis. Whether it was working at Bryant & May or visiting the Pleasure Gardens, these untapped histories are the basis of what Cremorne is today. The streets walked on today by so many residents and employees in Cremorne were once a part of a whole other world.
How do we get a  sense of what Cremorne used to be in the past and share this among everyone? Considering there is a lot of rich history, which is still unknown to many, we want to use this opportunity to uncover these hidden stories through conversation with the very people who make Cremorne a community. We would thus make visible, what is currently invisible to everyone, through a series of oral histories for everyone to hear.

About Cremorne

By Hamish Abbott

And it wasn’t until my mother came around, when we first bought this house and it was a very old, dilapidated house, 1890. And I never realized the extent until my mother and father came around, and I showed my mom the house. And it was a very old, dilapidated house, and it still had an outhouse in the back. And at the outhouse in the back there’s a lane way and the toilet was at the back of the house. And it was like this, because there was a horse and cart that would come and collect stuff. When you talk about stuff, back in the day, Cremorne was a bit of a slum. →Read more

Bryant & May

By Hamish Abbott

I’ve always known that I’ve had some family links to Cremorne, but I didn’t, I never realized how deep these roots went and my grandfather wasn’t born in 1900, he was born in 1890. His story probably more relevant that my mother’s growing up here but he had my mother when he was 55 but he lived to the ripe old age of 90 something. There’s a lot more anecdotal stories about grandfather who worked in a company called Bryant & May.→Read more

21st Century City

By Matt

It started of I guess as the artisans that moved into various warehouses and live in the warehouses. One guy who does bookbinding and another guy who fixes up old Brass pots. When creatives move into an area, the next ones who follow go “We want to be creative”. We want a creative identity. We’ve become the notion of what’s public space. Or where can I go to hang out. Everything is changing. I think that Cremorne is going to be Melbourne’s first 21st Century Suburb. 

Aboriginal History of The Yarra

Dan Stewart who is the education manager at Koorie Heritage Trust tells the story of the Yarra. Adapted from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkMhehS-iqo.

This is one of the places I really love. But at the start and again it really sets the tone for trying to get people a sense of where they are and what’s been here before them and what they’re walking across as well because if we were sitting here where we are right now but two centuries ago and we’re looking out in in that direction out there this is what we’d be looking at right here. This was a image drawn in 1841 by a European colonist and you can see all the eucalyptus trees all lining the banks here. They’re the bullrushes everywhere but here you’ve got a waterfall a reef of rock that completely dissected this this river into two and four.→Read more

Stephenson Street Mural

Cremorne.co talked with Simone in September 2017 about her role and some background on the mural.

“So the way it all started was, there was an action group [Cremorne Residents Action Group] and one of the original people in the group lived it the area, Ann Hurley. Ann lived in Wellington Street and probably still does. I did art under her [at secondary school].→Read more