Archive for October, 2020

TV stations saving money by sharing content

It costs a lot of money to keep a television outside broadcasting unit on the road, waiting for something newsworthy to happen. So with advertising revenue drying up, thanks to dropping TV audiences, TV stations will do anything to cut costs – including using the same content as their competitors! I found the first example […]

1880s land boom houses in Sunshine

Melbourne’s inner suburbs are full of terraced houses dating back to the 1880s land boom, but there is an unexpected suburb where they can also be found – the back streets of Sunshine. Tracking them through time The Benjamin Street, south of Sunshine railway station, the row of single-fronted brick cottages appears on this 1934 […]

‘Blaze it’ on Melbourne’s route 420 bus

Everyone loves to chuckle when the route 69 tram is mentioned, but there is another Melbourne public transport route with a number worth a smirk – route 420 from Sunshine to Watergardens via Deer Park. Melbourne’s first route 420 bus route ran from St Albans to East St Albans, and was operated by the Footscray […]

Off to work at the Sunshine Harvester Factory

For decades the Sunshine Harvester factory dominated Melbourne’s west. Established in 1904 as the Braybrook Implement Works, in 1906 industrialist H.V. McKay moved his Sunshine Harvester Works to the new township, expanding it to become the largest manufacturing plant in Australia. SLV photo H2016.33/103 Around the factory In the early years employees had to trudge […]

More COVID-19 related public transport observations

Time flies when you have to stay home, but it’s been a few months since my last round of COVID-19 related public transport observations. So here goes another collection. Cleaning ‘We’re deep-cleaning and disinfecting this vehicle every day’ stickers have appeared on buses. V/Line trains. And Metro trains. At stations ‘Keep your distance where you […]