Our Town
	Preston up until the 1920s remained very much a country village, in fact, the first aerial photograph of the area taken in 1918 showing just seven or eight buildings (including the Town Hall and Council Club Hotel) in High Street between David Street and Murray Road and beyond.   But there was plenty of local activity, both on and off the "sporting fields" ...	Visit the Darebin Historical Encyclopedia ... just click below

NOTE : Undated archives were loaded mid-June 2007 as part of a major upgrade to the sites.  Archives created or substantially update after then show the latest modification date

Like every city, suburb and town, Preston was caught up in the initial excitment and later tragedy of the Great War.   This sub-section of our Town archives tells the story of some of the around 100 Preston men (and one woman) who died in the conflict, several of who are not recognised on the official Honour Roll outside the Town Hall ... 

The articles under this section are derived from a database compiled of around 540 servicemen (and one servicewoman) either from or with close connections to the Darebin that died in service during the First World War.   The database includes Northcote, Preston, Epping, Fairfield and Alphington is awaiting web publication by the Council on their Historical Encyclopedia website.    The pages on our site are enhanced versions of the summaries awaiting publication.

If it hadn't been for a small group of followers of the Baptist Church from Sussex in England, the O'hAilpin boys could well be playing for the Irishtown Football Club rather than the Northern Bullants ...    Top      

1848    The Playgrounds of Mill Park

Despite later meetings at the two Preston (or Irish Town) hotels of the 1850s, the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock and the Preston Arms, both were "left in the shade" in terms of both the establishment of the premises and the organisation of a much earlier race meeting by their cousins even further to the north ...    Top

1857    The Irish Town Races

A race meeting at the Preston Alms Hotel in 1858 attracted rather more attention, but some recent research reveals that it was not the first to be held within the boundaries of the old City of Preston,   although you would need to have known a little of the earliest history of the district to identify the locality …     Top

1858    The Sport of Kings in Preston

Preston has a long history of involvement with many sports, but horse racing is not one that many people would associate with our area. But there were a couple of attempts to establish the sport in the area, the most promising of which came at Thomastown in the late 1880s ...      Top

1860    The Preston Cricket Club      

A cricket team representing Preston played as early as as 1860, when the area was little more than a handful of loosely connected hamlets.    Just how long the team lasted is unknown, but it made a lasting impression on The Brunswick and Pentridge Press after it played a Brunswick-based club, Phillipstown, early in 1860 ...   Top

Preston (or Irishtown depending on exactly where you lived) was hardly more than a country hamlet, but it staked its claim to racing fame with the Irishtown Grand National Steeplechase.   "A capital afternoon's sport was offered on Saturday to the lovers of racing which came off on a course laid out in the undulating valley lying on the right hand side of the Plenty Road at Irishtown …"  The Argus. May 22 1865

The 1880s saw the birth of a number of sporting clubs around the Preston area, and although The Preston Football Club was the only one to survive, the one that captured the interest of the local newspapers was the Preston Rifle Club ...     Top