An Aerial View of Alphington and Darebin

Posted on Monday, 9th November 2020 by Janine Rizzetti

Here’s an aerial photo of the Alphington and Darebin area taken by Charles Pratt in 1950. Three diagonal lines bisect the photo from the bottom left to the right.

Reading from left to right, you can see Heidelberg Road on the left. The double storey Art Deco newsagency is visible about 1/3 of the way along, and you can see the former Darebin Bridge hotel over the Darebin creek, both on the right hand side of Heidelberg Road. You can see the Tower Hotel further along Heidelberg Road on the left hand side.

Then you can see the railway line and Darebin Station in the middle, with the Ivalda Masonic Temple along Salisbury Ave.

The clearly visible road to the right of the railway is Rockbeare Grove.

The river in the top left hand corner seems to have broken its banks.

There’s no sign here of the high rise buildings that line Heidelberg Road in Darebin today! It’s certainly much greener today, as the trees have grown and the Darebin Parklands have been revegetated.

If you go to the State Library of Victoria entry for this photo at http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/383018, you can download a high resolution of the image that provides amazing detail.