22 August 2007

Today Spirit of Tasmania will host the launch of the City of Port Phillip’s two audio tours exploring the history of Port Melbourne and St Kilda’s foreshore.

Both audio tours include narration, dramatisation, sound effects and ambient sound. They can be downloaded onto an iPod or MP3 player from the council’s website – a feat believed to be a first for local government in Australia.

Mayor Janet Bolitho will do the honours but her speech is likely to be interrupted by actor and singer/songwriter Alyce Platt reprising her role as Dulcie Markham from another of St Kilda’s walking tours.

According to Cr Bolitho, both audio tours capture the feel and sound of yesteryear St Kilda and Port Melbourne.

“A Sense of Place was written and produced by Gerald Mair, and takes listeners on an hour long audio tour of the Port Melbourne foreshore. It also includes an interview with Captain Con Eliades from Spirit of Tasmania.

“Port Melbourne’s history has been dominated by shipping and rail from the moment in 1839 when its first white settler, Wilbraham Liardet, build a ti-tree jetty and started a ferry service to William’s Town.

“Starting the tour at Station Pier, where so many of Australia’s six million post-war immigrants arrived, you discover the transformation wreaked by the gold rushes in the early 1850’s. Railway Pier was built to cope with the resultant explosion in shipping and in 1854 boasted Australia’s first railway line. The more modern Station Pier replaced it in 1930.

“Only the old hands now remember the Centenary Bridge which once arched over Station Pier. The sole remaining pillar was restored in 2002. Form there, the audio tour takes people to the beach, the Swallow and Ariel Steam Biscuit Manufactory, now converted to apartments, and down Bay Street.

“Along the way you get to hear about the amazing history of wharfie militancy, the strike of 1928 and how ordinary working-class folk survived the Great Depression. Once, when times were particularly tough, the local quoits club disappeared the night before it was due for demolition. Apparently, many a Port home was warmed by the fine quality of its firewood...”

“The tour also takes in Graham Street to Esplanade West, once a stinking lagoon which would bubble up with rotting seaweed, before it was filled in completely over 1929. After a walk down Rouse Street, the tour finishes up at the Port Melbourne Yacht Club and the Pier Hotel, originally build by the Liardet family.

Cr Bolitho said that the podcasts were a great way of imparting history. “The audio tours take only three minutes to download and then you can take the tour whenever you feel like it,” she said.

“You can do the tour as many times as you like and don’t have to rely on the St Kilda Historical and Preservation Society running the tour you want when you want. At the same time, you get to know the area and you don’t have to be a resident to gain some satisfaction from that.

“The other plus is that the audio tours gets everyone walking – and that’s doubly pleasurable when you know the interesting stories associated with a particular place of building.”

Melindy Green, Director Passenger Sales, Marketing & Communication, said Spirit of Tasmania is delighted to be involved in the City of Port Phillip’s audio tour program aimed at increasing tourism and generating more public interest in the region.

“Spirit of Tasmania constantly strives to provide new and exciting entertainment and recreational activities for our guests. And the new podcast audio tours enable guests to partake in interesting local activities when they arrive at Station Pier either before or after sailing with us.

“It is yet another way to make our guests association with Spirit of Tasmania and Station Pier an immensely enjoyable and memorable experience.”

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Released by:

Carolyn Neill

Corporate Communications Coordinator

Tel: 03 9206 6220 / 0438 393 898

cjn@spiritoftasmania.com.au