Above: Pakington Street, Geelong West.

The images may look foggy, grainy and indistinct but as a collective travelogue of Geelong back in 1908 they’re an invaluable repository of a vibrant and sophisticated Victorian city.

The lack of clarity is surprising considering the large glass plates the photos would have been snapped on. Perhaps it’s more the printing of the facsimile edition.

Whatever the case, the 1990 facsimile of the erstwhile Illustrated Guide: Geelong and District offers a rivetting time-tunnel trip, a pictorial peregrination if you like, through the streets and parks, bayside, clubs, gardens, commerce, industry and social life of the old Pivot.

The 1908 edition, an updated version of the original 1905 publication, was pulled together by Geo. H. Brownhill – that’s George Harrington – for the Geelong Progress Association. Geo. H. went on to become a reporter, sub-editor and editor of the Geelong Advertiser.

     

Above: Geelong Lawn Tennis Club, Western Beach.

The guide’s 230-odd pages provide a solid 90 of images and details about the city and its features plus suburbs, industries, rivers, lakes, nearby seaside resorts, popular drives, various attractions, clubs, cycling routes, coach fares, cabs and buses.

Another 100-plus provide an intriguing array of commercial, industrial and service advertisements in a brash and effusive tone of voice.

Then, as now, Geelong was eager to draw tourists to the region, with the Illustrated Guide bemoaning the fact that: “As a holiday resort, Geelong has not in the past secured from tourists the attention which its accessibility and attractiveness so richly warrant.

“Pleasure-seekers in the Metropolis and elsewhere have been rushing off to inconveniently-situated but much-boomed places, while almost at their very doors there existed a town possessing attractions unequalled in any part of Victoria.

    

Above: Ladies swimming matches at Western Beach, the Western Beach promenade.

“For whether considered in the light of its accessibility, with its direct railway connection with all the large areas of population, and its adequate daily steamboat service to the Metropolis; or whether regarded as a health-promoting and invigorating centre, whose extraordinary advantages are intensified by its valuable medicinal springs and its nearness to the balmy ozone influences of the boundless ocean; or whether selected for its charm, wealth, and variety of scenery, to say nothing of its very attractive accommodation for visitors, Geelong outrivals all its compeers.”

That’s a spiel and a half. And a sentence and a half too but you get the idea. Mind you, Brownhill doesn’t bog himself down in negatives.

The vast sentiment is unbridled positivity: salubrious climate, a sparkling dimpling sea, brilliant refulgent panoramas, transcendent beauty, charming residences, palatial mills, umbrageous trees …

Geelong even has a complete system of underground sewerage and perhaps its most telling attraction, a lower death rate than other towns and cities.

Only one question: Why would you want to go anywhere else?

This article appeared in the Geelong Advertiser 27 February2023