I would have just read past information about Whelan the Wreckers yard in Brunswick without a pause had not LiD at One Little Detail mentioned it a couple of times. Click here for her first post and here for an update.
I had already borrowed the St Kilda Road book from the library a few years ago, but I am still enjoying it a second time around and it is good to have my own copy for reference.
The Whelan the Wrecker book, A City Lost and Found is a fantastically interesting book. It is a not a dry history but full of anecdotes, information and social context. If you are even just vaguely interested in Melbourne's buildings and its history, you must get a copy, around $30 new.
Whelan I've read and loved but have only flicked through Grand Boulevard in the past, must make more time to read it properly.
ReplyDeleteThe cover of MGB looks very terrific. I am in Melbourne early in NOvember to see Leonard baby and Hairspray.
ReplyDeleteDidn't Boulevard have an 'e' at the end when I was at school?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm losing it.
I am with you on that one Victor.
ReplyDeleteJayne, I suppose you need a special interest really, to read through the whole book. I would have done the same as you if I did not have a personal interest.
ReplyDeleteJulie, Mirandahhhh.
I was at a Melb University college attended by a son (I think) of old Whelan. He was wrecked in a gay bondage blackmail/extortion incident with some oiled and buffed up lads in the 70s or 80s (Calendar years - not ages!) which ended up in court and the newspapers.
ReplyDeleteLS, don't say he was one of those homosexual types! A building wrecker! Impossible.
ReplyDeletewell your Lordship, it was TERRY Whelan. I sat next to him at a fashion parade once. He was with Jenny*Ham. It was at Georges and the model is now married to David Frost.
ReplyDeleteand, that St.Kilda Road book was designed by our cousin Lauren.
When I read it, I thought of stuff that was left out.
Well done HighRiser.
All interesting Ann. I guess some stuff had to be left out. I found a few mistakes in it too.
ReplyDeleteTerry (no relation) was toweled by the lads.
ReplyDeleteThe Whelan book is a great read. What we have lost is astonishing. Love the bit about the fence and corrugated track found under one site - Bourke St ish.
ReplyDeleteI remember that too LiD. Amazing to learn how people were protesting about the loss of good buildings back in early part of the 20th century.
ReplyDelete