So, you're not a Melburnian?

History needs to be preserved. This is gold

@@Scotty-P Beat me to it but I'm late to this party. That was the first thing I noticed. P.S. - I live and work in Melbourne, I'm a Melburnian.

That's fascinating, thanks for sharing! The Boomerang was certainly an interesting aircraft, and an important historic moment for Australia.

@@philipmallis as a side note / bit of trivia to add to that story, my Dad died in 1985 from a very rare cancer of the salivary gland - about two years following his death notice was placed in one of Melbourne's newspapers notifying that people who had worked at Fisherman's Bend during the war years "may" have been exposed to cancer causing radiation and should make contact with the health department. Mum never followed it up as Dad's passing was horrific ... to this day we never found out any further information as to what the type / nature or source of the radiation was and whether it affected my father! I'd say there's a lot more story to be revealed about Fisherman's Bend's involvement in world war 2 yet to be revealed! As a Melbourian, I love you passion and knowledge of our great city! You really should do a video on the old Car Ferry which crossed the Yarra from North Road, Newport to Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne! There's so many wonderful stories to be told about Melbourne..... you've got a smorgasbord to choose from!

For sure, it's a very nice spot. Obviously lots of great work there!

Love that spot!

Some of the rail remains as does parts of a crossing.

Ya, i worked round the corner at australian gypsum, made plasterboard,and had no waste. Back in the 70's it was all recycled.

Yes, there were old parts left over from the Lincoln, Canberra, and Mirage. I worked at GAF in the late 70s to late 80s and one of the blokes I worked with did some sort of inventory on the parts. And a floor above the Library in the Main Assembly Workshop held microfiche full of Beaufort and Beaufighter drawings, which I did see.

I used to work there and saw many interesting things.

My job there was to arrange to clear away excess machinery etc that had bern sitting around since WW2 and I found some I n threshing things about the working lives of previous generations of workers at the factory. Eg some beautiful paintings of aircraft, ships etc and models some workers had made that were stashed away from view (probably of bosses supervising them doing paintings instead of work???). But they were artistic masterpieces. I found old work uniforms the few wonen working there wore. These would have been the working class type women who were the beginnings of feminism that had its birth in Melbourne, only these working women, on the 'Cipher' someone said they worked on, would not have viewed themselves as feminists, just working women doing their bit for Australia, to help defend our country, whilst our men were at the front, overseas. They were very drab, humble, practical type uniforms, lap over fronts style, easy on and off, to avoid wasting time dressing before/after your work shift, I guess. As I wandered about doing my own job there, I wondered what the previous generations of workers there were like, what they chatted about etc. I saw strange desks with these glass inkwells and thought 'No way you could work sitting at one of these desks. They must have had very high chairs' . But they didn't . Public Servants did their work standing upright and wore a sort of clerical uniform garb. I saw old paperwork, accounting entries etc on yellowed paper printed in handwriting that looked like perfect calligraphy. Then I found a strange note with 'Public SERPANT, no servant. See you up in Annie's Room' scrawled on it it, very old. I laughed at the witty 'Public serpant' pun but wondered about 'Annie's Room'. 'Oh, upstairs in this pokey little hideaway. Some reckon it used to be an opium den. I think they exaggerated and embroidered the story somewhat, as there was very tight, high security there.Evidently they'd hide there, to sneak off and do a bit of dope, take a few swigs of grog, have a smokeo, get through the hard work day grind', that was Annie's Room, they say named after some slacker they called Annie, who liked to sneak off to take a puff or two, a swig of her bottle she kept stashed away to get through the long afternoon until knock off, clock off time' someone said. They passed these stories down through generations of factory workers. It was interesting taking a trip back in history. These were just anonymous working class nobodies, yet 'famous', legends in their own way, immortalised by generations of workers who passed down these stories. 'Oh,so all these slackers even did booze, dope etc back then?' I mused, reading the HAZCHEM, 'FLAMMABLE', 'No Smoking' etc signs, pics of skulls with crossbones warning signs.It was fascinating.

I think the only CAC building that went to Boeing was the old toolroom which GAF took over beforehand and extended their fence around it. The GAF maintenance department was sold off and ended up outside the perimeter at the Westgate Bridge end, probably after ASTA. The CAC engine plant had a sad end when the government refused to sell it as a going concern.

yes, but its not called that anymore. to have arl on your resume was a gold pass to a job at any aeronautical research facility in the world. having dsto on the resume wouldnt carry the same weight. did you notice how, in spite of excellent research, the arl/csiro building was misidentified at 8:34?

My father was in his office at GAF on the day, felt the building shake and looked out the window seeing the bridge had fallen.

Same here with my grandfather who worked at CAC during the collapse. He recalls that the force was strong everyone and everything fell to the ground, and the sound of the explosion pretty much left everyone nearly deaf for at least a few hours. Interesting times to say the least

My father was in a workshop inside a huge electric motor putting the coils in when the bridge collapsed it lifted him and the motor when they got outside to see what happened he said the steel in the concrete was cherry red from were it tore the steel my mum's cousin died on the bridge that day my father always spoke of that day up until he passed such a sad part of history

Thank you!

Hi thanks for your feedback and further information! Just curious as to what mistakes you can see in the video? I've tried to be as accurate as possible and rely almost entirely on primary and secondary sources (I've listed them all here philam.github.io/videonotes/fishbendairport)

@@philipmallisThe mistakes I covered above . You did a very good job on this. Also you probably should have mentioned that CAC built engines for the Canberra bomber and GAF built the aircraft. Companies like Dunlop Aviation in Bayswater made landing gear for a range of the aircraft and lots of sub-contractors were involved in various aspect of production of Nomad.

The crossing of the Williamstown ferry went to North Rd Williamstown at the extreme northern end of the Strand not to Yarraville. Passenger ferries crossed from the CAC and Gac to Francis st Yarravile where a bus service connected to ther western suburbs.

@@romandybala yes you are right. Don’t know why I said Yarraville as it’s further down the river and not opposite.

Yes. I remember occasionally driving down Williamstown rd from Burnley with mum and dad on a sunday afternoon in the 1970s. I used to hate going across on that ferry. It was old and used to break down from time to time. Finally sank around 1980 I think it was.....

@@garynewton1263 , the punt had a few dramas. it also escaped its chains and floated out into the bay.

@@vsvnrg3263 Yes I remember that happening. Late 70s I think. As a family we'd go to Williamstown on a sunday occasionally in our EH station wagon. I hated getting on that ferry because to a young kid that Yarra looked so wide and deep and the ferry was old.

Amazing, thanks for sharing!

No worries at all, thanks very much!

That's fascinating, thank you for sharing!

No worries thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

No I hadn't, that's a great suggestion! I'll have a look at it and pop it on the list of future videos. Thank you!

I started driving in 1976, and promptly bought a copy of the then-current issue of Melways. I remember the map which included Fishermens' Bend featured what, if I remember correctly, was termed 'CAC Runways'.

The original Melways is actually online…

Interesting! Given the scale of the factories I can imagine that many tens of thousands of people worked there over many years

@@philipmallis Yes.

There isn't much information about it that I could find, the only real source I came across was this Victorian Heritage Database listing: vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/12650

Thanks I'll add it to the list!

Wow thanks for sharing, I had no idea. Do you know where it came from or what happened to it by any chance?

@@philipmallis it was 1982. I heard from Point Cook and it was going to the War Memorial in Canberra. Mr Ray Stephenson was the apprentice master.

@@philipmallis . This is it. www.awm.gov.au/collection/C111055

Ah yes, thank you!

That's fascinating, I had no idea about that one. Thanks for sharing!

Fascinating, thanks for the information!

Fascinating! Given what's happened at other industrial sites around the world, I would totally believe that...

msg, your story could partly explain the toxicity of the southern deeper lake. the epa refused to allow the deep lake to be pumped dry in the 1980's when the park was being built. the plan was to pump it dry then line it with clay so the water would be less hazardous. only black swans would inhabit it as i remember.

I went to RMIT aircraft trades building between 1968 to 1972 with other CAC, GAF, ANSETT, TAA and RAAF apprentices. When each one of these businesses trained and employed thousands of young people in quality, technical, highly skilled, worthwhile jobs. Jobs that are now all but extinct.

@@georgebronte840 it started diminishing when I was there in early eighties. Real shame.

It's getting underway soon and scheduled for completion by 2029: bigbuild.vic.gov.au/projects/melbourne-airport-rail

@@philipmallis Oh cool! 2029? Sheesh. Is the contractor Continental Drift Pty Ltd?

@@philipmallis 2029? Geez they digging it by spoon?

@@philipmallis Is it still getting underway soon?

GAF was definitely just as important as the CAC, unfortunately there's only so much I can squeeze into a sub-10 minute video!

@@philipmallis I worked at GAF and ASTA and we used to have a mail exchange ,every week, between CAC and GAF for mail that ended up at the wrong factory.

Still many benders there in the park Watch out.

and what a wonderful site it is too.