A number of people have kindly sent my images over the last few years. I have gained permission to post them, but ask you respect these are the property of the provider and shouldn’t be used without their permission.
Background
The old racecourse was used as a migrant hostel from about 1949. Rob Medlen’s father ran a business there and sent me scanned images with some very valuable hand written text, which I have manually transcribed.
Rob Medlen’s Images
The source of this is a handwritten letter to me from September 2015. Rob’s father “had his business” [a ‘kiosk’- more later on this] here at the old Racecourse, “from 1950….up until the late 50’s when the migrant hostel was consolidated north of the Kororoit Creek & numbers of immigrants dropped significantly from the hostel system” He adds “Dad also had the catering contract with Braun Transworld Corporation when they were building the refinery & pipelines. This was run from the same premises…”
Here are some of photos. You can click on each one to enlarge.
Rob also posted me an annotated version to explain what’s what:
Notes on the above “This area was the hub of activity in the Racecourse area from 1950 on. The rest of the Racecourse was out of bounds & mostly fenced off with slow amounts of demolition progressing. * Public Grandstand was intact & undamaged. Kitchen in undercroft (sic) was used for meal preparation in early days of displaced persons camp before further development of migration hostel on other side of creek”
An overview image from August 1950 (assumed, based on similar image – below). “Taken from Grandstand” :
The above, hand annotated:
Cut-off text on RHS “Seating area Tables & Chairs for coffee/drinks etc”
Lastly an Overview, but from closer up:
“Canteen” ?
From Rob: “…’Canteen’ misleading as business sold everything necessary for new arrivals…
- soft drinks
- ice cream
- confectionery
- personal items razors, soaps, pen knives, clocks, radios, bicycles, clothing etc
- continental food, sauerkraut (by barrel), smoked sausage etc rollmops (herrings)
- …
- Tea/coffee – seats & tables provided indoors
- biscuits, snack foods etc
- cigarettes, cigars etc”
I HAEVE HAD A BIG INTEREST IN THE WILLIAMSTOWN RACETRACK SINCE I WAS A KID.REGARDING ITS SLOW DEMOLITION FROM 1949 AFTER THE FIRE I BELIEVE THE PUBLIC GRANDSTAND WAS THE LAST STANDING BUILDING UP TO THE EARLY SEVENTIES AND IT DIDNT GET DAMAGED IN THE FIRE.I THINK IT WAS DEMOLISHED IN 1972 OR 73 BECAUSE IT DEVELOPED CONCRETE CANCER AND WAS STARTING TO CRUMBLE ANDCONDEMMED UNSAFE AND UNSTABLE.THEY BLEW IT UP TO BRING IT DOWN . I WAS A RESIDENT OF ALTONA IN THE 70S 80S AND SINCE 1982 I HEARD SOME THINGS ABOUT THE GRANDSTAND AND WAS TOLD THAT IT HAD BEEN GONE IN THE LAST 10 YEARS BACK THEN, SO IT WAS CONCRETE CANCER THAT DEEMED IT UNSAFE NOT THE FIRE.
I HAVE DONE BIT OF HOMEWORK ON THE OLD WILLIAMSTOWN RADETRACKIN THE LAST 17 YEARS AN LOOKING AT THE 1945 AERIAL VIEW AND THE JANUARY 30TH 31ST 1947 PICTURES TAKEN OF THE GRANDSTANDS ABLAZE IT WAS THOSE TWO STANDS THAT WERE DEMOLISHED IN ABOUT 1948 49 ALL THE REST OF BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES WERE SLOWLY GONE BY 1964 65 AND IT WAS THE TALLER TWO TEARED GRANDSTAND ON THE EASTERN END OF THE COURSE AS I MENTIONED THE PUBLIC STAND SUVIVED UP UNTIL THE EARLY SEVENTIES.
Photo of My younger sister at Wiltona Migrant Hostel 1964 with the old grandstand in the background.
Hmmmm can’t add image