Then and Now. Northbourne Avenue

switch said :

MERC600 said :

Would like to see some piccys of where the train used to run into , or near Civic , in the early days.

Not to be confused with the rail from the brickworks.

http://narrabundah.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Civic-Railway-Platform-c-1920s1.jpg

That’s it, brilliant. The photo is taken from what is now Bunda Street looking North. The big building on the left is the old Civic Theatre on the corner of Bunda and Mort. Bunda only went as far as the rail station. The next building North across Bunda is Freebody’s Garage. The 2 story building is Grant’s Bakery, then the Capital Cordial Company and the last one visible is the Canberra Times office. All of those buildings back onto what is now Genge Street named after the Genge’s who operated a garage next to the bakery. There were at least 4 garages and three bakeries in Mort Street in the 40’s and 50’s.

MERC600 said :

Would like to see some piccys of where the train used to run into , or near Civic , in the early days.

Not to be confused with the rail from the brickworks.

http://narrabundah.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Civic-Railway-Platform-c-1920s1.jpg

MERC600 said :

Would like to see some piccys of where the train used to run into , or near Civic , in the early days.

Not to be confused with the rail from the brickworks.

As far as I know the train line from Kingston to Yass was never used and was never finished. The rails stopped at Civic where there was an earth platform between Bunda Street and the Bega Flats. Once the rail bridge over the river collapsed during a flood it was never rebuilt.

What isn’t really clear from the pic on the left is that the East and West lanes of Northbourne Avenue are both two way. The western side stopped at the end of the Melbourne building and joined up with the East side road to become one road leading North and most of it was gravel. I reckon that photo was mid to late1940’s or earlier. I used to ride my bike along that track over City Hill to link up with Commonwealth Avenue.

If you squint hard enough, you can just make out the squeegie guy.

Certainly looked better back in the 1920s!

These old pics are awesome. I love seeing the rural background from which we developed into a soulless metropolis. Thanks to history geek for sharing, I’m looking forward to the next few.

Would like to see some piccys of where the train used to run into , or near Civic , in the early days.

Not to be confused with the rail from the brickworks.

Hi all,

The ‘then’ image is taken from the National Archives of Australia website ‘Discovering Mildenhall’s Canberra’, and comes from a collection jointly owned by the National Archives, and the Museum of Australian Democracy. The collection consists of more than 7,700 images on glass plate negatives.
http://mildenhall.moadoph.gov.au/photo/7277

You can also see more early Canberra images from the 1920s up to the early 1990s over on the Vintage Canberra Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/vintagecanberra.

Thanks to johnboy and Historygeek for sharing!

dungfungus said :

beardedclam said :

Just enough room for light rail

But not enough money to make it happen.

plenty for drawing it