What are these mysterious markings on Melbourne's old street signs?

[@tdb7992]

Great video. I had no idea that Melbourne used a similar postcode system to London. When I first moved to Melbourne, I remember being so excited that my postcode started with a "3" as opposed to a "6" - I'm from Perth. It was just very cool and Eastern States to have a 3 there.

[@brucewilliams8714]

Thanks, Philip, for this blast from the past. In my student days (1950s) I first lived in N3, Carlton, then boarded in SE2, Toorak (the wrong end!) Re the latter, it was quite usual for residents of SE2 and SE1, South Yarra, when giving their addresses, to merely say the postal district, on the assumption that only the "right" people would immediately know. It was quite easy to use this postal district system because the compass letter gave a good initial direction of general location. Keep doing these interesting videos.

[@NeilJR]

Thanks. Very interesting. I’m 76 and grew up in Burwood but moved to Queensland when 10. While watching this I suddenly remembered E13 for Burwood. The memory is a weird and wonderful thing. Hopefully this publicity of the signs won’t lead to their ‘disappearance’.

[@philipmallis]

You're very welcome!

[@Water_Rabbit]

Great article Philip. Interesting bit of trivia- the British hop-hop group East 17 took their name from the postcode of the London suburb of Walthamstow.

[@chrisellis4400]

Great stuff. I would love to see a video on Glasscocks road in Clyde.

[@davidmccrory5604]

You did it again 👍 Interesting and informative I love learning the history of our wonderful city also love the way you present yourself well done mate 👍

[@jamesfahey4508]

My father worked for PMG, installing telephones. That part of PMG later became Telecom, then Telstra.

[@captaccordion]

Thanks Philip. I'm finding your videos to be of great interest. Keep up the good work!

[@johnlang4198]

Postcodes prior to 1968. The suburb I was in was SE11, and some signs like this were still around in the 1980s.

[@bury_the_elite65294]

Up until a few years ago, there was a North Road sign on the corner of North & Grange Roads, which was marked SE9. I often used to drive past it. Also, there used to be an Alexandra Parade sign (in Fitzroy IIRC?) which bore the postcode N6. That was probably removed at least 30 years ago AFAIK.

[@marnijay2486]

Love your work Philip, it's one of my delights to spot these small signs(!) of city history while exploring on foot.

[@philipmallis]

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it!

[@johnbiondo]

Great video, love the history of our city!

[@bryan3550]

A lovely blast from the past, Philip! I grew up in E2 and can remember seeing our postie walking past twice a day on weekdays and once on Saturday morning... And our telephone number started with WA followed by just four numbers!

[@gregmichael8473]

Occasionally you can still see the old phone numbers on buildings.

[@tahuaroa]

2:19 the sweet irony of an Aus Post van driving past in the background. great video

[@johnharper9433]

Dont mean to repeat myself, BUT I enjoyed learning that, and i always learn something from you Philip

[@philipmallis]

Thanks again! And always enjoy hearing from people in the comments :)

[@ItsAClairesLife]

Thanks for the video, really like these historical stories around out city

[@MelodyMan69]

Great video. Adding to this theme, Tasmania Car Registrstion Plates had a similar system. Two Letter + Four Numbers. The 2 letters related to the District you lived in. Not sure if they still use this system. With population under 300 000 maybe they do.

[@ronsta2552]

Thanks Phil, always wondered what the numbers and letter was for.

[@SergeiBoy]

Another great video Philip. Great content

[@andrewmcphee8965]

Thanks Phillip, love your videos and I always learn something. And you've reminded me that I really must go into the CBD again soon, haven't been there since before covid and I reckon a lot of things have changed. Cheers mate!

[@evelynharber6077]

Thank you for enlightening everyone about the old postal service. I was never aware of it and are very glad when it changed, I do remember it coming in and having to know my postcode as well as my address as a child!

[@Arrigo888]

Fascinating. So once my suburb was designated as 37 and later N7. Great video Thanks.

[@letsseeif]

Thanks Philip for your video into the changing over time of Melbourne postcodes.I recall vaguely the suburb where I grew up and how this city has grown to be the biggest in Australia. The PMG signs were the sign attributed to The Postmaster General (Department).

[@denisegore1884]

Great video! It's important to remember the minutiae of local history.

[@philmenzies2477]

Not that any of your stuff is boring. But, really, one of your more interesting videos.

[@johndee68]

Another great historical video. Thank you. I never knew the postal system before that of which we use today. I wonder, how do you come across the ideas of such things to make a video on?

[@reneblacky]

Thanks for your work! Thank You.

[@boris8787]

Reminds me of the town of Chillingbourne.

[@prodigalretrod]

I've never seen any of the signs with the old postcodes in the city, but have come across some around North Melbourne.

[@DatKidJohnny]

Philip, We need more content about the non existent rail link to Airport. It is beyond embarrassing and has to be addressed.

[@errolschmidt3762]

I noticed some of the new postcodes borrowed from the original - like Williamstown moved from W16 to 3016 - I guess the postcode numbers are much more arbitrary now though.

[@christianargentiTalkTV]

Excellent presenter and videos.

[@peterwooldridge7285]

Smashing ...thanks Philip

[@phillipnoone8044]

Great article, worth watching

[@larsalvik93]

Interesting video! Is the postal system the reason why we have suburbs with cardinal direction postfixes (like Burwood East, Brunswick West, Coburg North Etc) instead of like the trains stations with cardinal direction prefixes (West Richmond, East Camberwell etc)?

[@bury_the_elite65294]

The only railway station I can think of in Melbourne which is the exception, rather than the rule, is Ringwood East. Interestingly, many of the team names in the Eastern Football/Netball League have cardinal direction prefixes,(eg. East Burwood, South Belgrave, North Ringwood), even though the actual locality names use suffixes. The only two exceptions I can think of (which have a suffix as the locality AND the club name) are Wantirna South and Doncaster East.

[@BrianS5588]

@@bury_the_elite65294 I lived in East Burwood when it was first developed in the 1960s, it never occurred to us to use any other address than East Burwood at that time ( I still have letters with that address on them). I assume the shift occurred because at the time Burwood was seen to be a bit "better" than East Burwood and while they were not that close in fact, by putting the Burwood first it gave the sense that it was part of Burwood rather than a new housing estate further out. This must have happened after the 1970s, though I do have a recollection of people "trying it on" when I lived there. I think that also explains why East Burwood football club has that name, that was simply the name of the suburb then too - I remember checking that team's football scores in the local paper way back in the early 1970s when it was all only East Burwood - suburb and team..

[@philipmallis]

Australia Post today prefer to have the cardinal direction after the suburb name, I assume because it's easier to list things in alphabetical order. Some suburbs were renamed, but others were not. Not sure why some were changed and not others.

[@LondonRider12]

In the early '90s, there was still an old North Rd SE9 sign on the corner of North and Grange Roads.

[@bernadettelanders7306]

When I read title Mysterious Markings I thought, this will be interesting. As soon as I saw C1, I instantly thought, I remember those. I was born in the mid 1950s, my grandmother born 1885 and passed 1978 lived in Carlton and I loved staying at Nan and Pa’s as she’d take me into the city as a young child stacks of times. So I guess I saw a few of the old ones in the city without thinking anything about them, but they must have stuck in my memory from all those years ago. Also bought back many happy memories of sleeping at Nans, visiting her friends, going into town, oh I remember in the still of the night I could hear the lions roar from the zoo sleeping at Nans. I told my mum, she remembered that too growing up in Carlton. Mum passed aged 95, dad aged 89, both peacefully, not sick, so many wonderful stories of their childhood stories and my grandparents and great aunt who passed aged 92, who we drove crazy asking to tell us the stories over and over 😂. Many stories were told to me and my siblings. My sister got most of Nans furniture as she was, still is, into old furniture. Sorry for waffling, lots of happy childhood memories and stories long before I was born.

[@ohcar0line]

Brilliant video!

[@KjamLXX8]

Going off this video it seems that preservation is being kept in mind for these old signs with Fleming Lane getting a new sign under the old one and the old being left in its initial place.

[@ane_world]

ive always wondered why Auburn and Glenferrie are still treated like suburbs, even though they aren't officially! interesting

[@francfurian8215]

So interesting, thankyou.

[@melanielynn104]

Thank you - very interesting ❤

[@phillipevans9414]

Very interesting video - being born in 1967, I had no idea that our current postcode system only dates from the year of my birth (I had assumed that it was in use far longer than that - I mean, we all know decimal currency came in 1966, and I had assumed that I would have been told/found out about the change in postcodes, had it been implemented even more recently than decimal currency...apparently not, hence my thinking that it dated much further back). Thanks again. Cheers!

[@philipmallis]

No worries at all, thanks for sharing!

[@annephillips1870]

Fascinating!

[@tlr8408]

How interesting thank you! I have an old Morgan's street directory and l wondered about the strange numbering on it. It cost $1.68 and the phone numbers all had only 6 digits. Now l know a little bit more

[@philipmallis]

You're very welcome! That's a great thing to have in your collection. I have a Collins edition from 1933 and it's always interesting flicking through. Many editions are also available at the State Library, many of them online: guides.slv.vic.gov.au/c.php?g=245270&p=1632845#s-lg-box-wrapper-5864219

[@elcasho]

Nice history!

[@errinundra9798]

E11 for Box Hill South was still in use when I was a boy.

[@joshjacobs9554]

Not sure if you’ve done a video on the telephone number system but that would be an interesting follow up video

[@a1n9d6y3]

There was a political mnemonic used in Sydney to remember the PMG phone prefix system pre-1960: Auburn's Big Fella Jack Lang Made Us Worry XtremelY

[@philipmallis]

Good idea, thanks will add to the list!

[@zoomosis]

Now we know where the band East 17 got its name from. 🙃 I don't think the numeric values of postal district codes in Melbourne were intended to measure distance, since Box Hill E.11 is 9 miles from the GPO, Sunshine W.20 is 8 miles, etc.

[@lentrawn9899]

The numbers in London may have been for miles, but certainly not in Melbourne. Yarraville W13, where I grew up, is less than five miles from the GPO and Williamstown is not 16 miles away either, is it Errol Schmidt.

[@LondonRider12]

London doesn't base the number on distance, instead they are alphabetical. 1 would be the main post office, and then others were numbered alphabetically.

[@leventelmaz3328]

Nice work

[@damienhudson8028]

Loved that !

[@Inimitable]

I understand the explanation of "C1", but what about the "AL"?

[@errolschmidt3762]

"Alley" - obvious when you know ;)

[@annabellagardner3190]

Enjoy your posts ♥️👍🇦🇺

[@philipmallis]

Thank you!

[@DatKidJohnny]

Brilliant content.

[@TheHsan22]

Live in Northcote, N16.....now 3070.

[@xr6lad]

Yes I one about the postcodes long before the 4 digit ones existed. So like the London ones. I think they made sense

[@crashman3150]

I believe that at some point in history houses didn't have numbers but .house names, l know my grandparents house had one Can anyone confirm this? As a retired signwriter l make house names signs and I've seen some very old ones in the older suburbs of Melbourne as well as in Ballarat and Bendigo.

[@timothyokane766]

They have these in London still

[@gold3084]

If Australia had of used the metric system earlier the previous system would of worked better as a Km smaller than a mile and would have less suburbs per post code.

[@pennyspringdoor]

Less or more?

[@MrJaz8088]

PMG - Post Master General i believe

[@harvey1965]

P.M.G. - Postmaster General's Department.

[@ithebinman]

1:46, please preview your vid before posting it, this blip gave me a nasty pain in the ear :(

[@philipmallis]

Sorry about that. Sometimes KZbin does bad things to videos, even after they've been uploaded. I'll make sure to keep a closer eye on it in the future.

[@graemeloyer]

Going 'decimal' in 1966 was the WORSE THING. Pounds/ shillings and pence was a fantastic system. It sustained the British Empire for 200 years. Stupid forefathers!! Bring it back !!!!!!!

[@leosheppard8517]

Victorians are pretty slow to catch up

[@tuppyglossop222]

“Surprisingly recently”. 1923. I’m surprised that you think that’s recent… 😂

[@worrywart1311]

Textbooks credit "modern history" as dating from the year 1500, so in that context 1923 is indeed very recent.

[@philipmallis]

Given that many other cities introduced these systems well before 1923, we were pretty late to the party on that one :)

[@tousenoart]

prior to covid that alley was still used by DX