Wombat Creek Tramways

It is a sunny afternoon in Wombat Creek, A couple of gentlemen are at the bank with suitcases full of gold or banknotes. An elderly Miss Jennifer are on her way up the steps to make a small withdrawal. A couple of girls sit on the steps to the right whispering about them all. A salesman are leaving City Hatters. Did he have any success selling his newest range of hats? He certainly didn’t buy one himself!

In real life Melbourne City Hatters is part of the iconic Flinders Street Station. The shop’s website, https://www.cityhatters.com.au, reads:

City Hatters has served old, young, titled, swaggies, footy followers, RSL, race goers, Governors General, actors, personalities and anyone requiring a hat for any occasion. 
City Hatters began trading as a hat shop, beneath the clocks at Flinders Street station in 1910.
Originally it was the station master’s office when Flinders Street station was built and after this, the builder used the office when the master moved upstairs. It became a hat shop owned and managed by the Buzolich family and called Buzolich’s. Doug Buzolich was one of five brothers who owned 4 shops in Melbourne and one in Geelong. The one remaining was the Flinders Street shop.
HB’s acquired Buzolich’s in 1927. Wallace, Buck (of Henry Bucks fame) & Goodes were major suppliers and Henry Buck himself acquired the business after a friendly exchange of assets and debts and have owned and managed the store ever since.
In 1934 Bill Littlehales became the manager and buyer and worked there for over 50 years and was one of the last of the legendary great hatters, retiring finally in 1990.
Major events in the City Hatters calendar are The Derby, The Melbourne Cup and Christmas.

Great news! The Bank is almost finished. With the canopy along the Golden Mile and railings around the City Hatter shop finished, only a few signs and the clock above the entrance need to be installed. I am on the look-out for a working clock but may settle for a fixed clock face.

With almost no people around the two photos could be from the 2021 lock-down, but with Wombat Creek locked in a 1963 time warp, the steps and footpaths will soon be full of people enjoying everyday life.

No, I am not thinking of the stock market! Instead there has been some progress on Wombat Creek’s own Queen Victoria Market.

Trees have been planted; a mail box is ready for important letters from stall holders; the steps have been equipped with handrails for the elderly and perhaps dizzy traders celebrating a good turn-over.

Gaps between the steps and the ground are due to the fact, the steps still has to be glued in place.

The general pace in Wombat Creek is slow. Very slow. The photo below is from August 9, 2020.

It has taken a year to get to the next photo.

In fact nothing had happened to Queen Victoria Market until a week ago. The mean reason was the lack of a back scene. The back scene had to come up before the depth of the market and curvature of the roof could be calculated. As seen from the photos the height of the building has been extended. The main entrance was too low. Still more to do. The skylight (hardly visible) needs glazing and a photo will give an impression of the interior visible through the main entrance.

Another challenge to the right of the market is to rectify the obvious/common mistake of a road leading directly into the sky! A row of shops should do the trick and also improve the perspective.

Well, not quite. More like ‘blue skies behind Wombat Creek’. To be able to work on the buildings near the edge of the layout I needed the background to be installed. The sky scene and the backing were purchased years ago, so it was a matter of putting it all together. It looks okay, but…

There is an unexpected colour difference between two of the sheets and the cloud cover doesn’t quite match up. It can partly be rectified with the upcoming buildings. The backing is curved around the corner, which I thought could cause a problem. It did! The background sky is printed on self-adhesive paper and was stuck to the flat panel. Bending the panel unfortunately caused some ripples. I had hoped the rather strong bonding between the panel and sheets would have been enough to prevent this problem. Unfortunately not, but I will live with the ripples for the time being (which will probably be forever!).

Melbourne City Council erected more the 40 public toilets between 1903 and 1918, most with 2 stalls. Eight of these remain, all still being used for their original purpose. The structures employed a prefabricated system which enabled the urinals to be assembled on site or dismantled and relocated if required. This occurred often, as their prominent locations in the streets sometimes offended contemporary standards of public decency. This could be the reason most of the toilets have the entrances quite near the curb.

Wombat Creek has received a couple of surplus toilets from Melbourne. A 4 stall unit has been erected three years ago in front of the town hall. Another smaller 2 stall toilet has a temporary spot in front of the Bank. It partly covers a smother of the newly laid pavers. In the attempt to close the gap between pavers they got too wet and partly disintegrated. To pull them all up again and do the whole odd shaped footpath was not an attractive solution.

The toilet is of course very convenient for male tram passengers in need, but also very inconvenient if the doors of a stopping trams happen to be just in front of the building. In the future I will probably relocate the little building and perhaps replace it by a small kiosk selling newspapers and magazines.

With Melbourne in lock-down 6.0 I can go no further than 5 km from home, so I have some time to work on the Bank or more precisely the shops in the basement. ‘City Hatters’ on the corner has got window displays and a display ‘cabinet’ next to the quite narrow steps leading down to the entrance. Further along a bicycle shop has been stuck on (yes, at the moment it looks like something glued on to the building). The footpath along and past the building has been paved. Unfortunately a rather ‘big’ gap needs to be filled next to the main steps.

To prevent people from falling into ‘City Hatters’ railings will be erected in front of the shop and along the steps. Also, a canopy will constructed above both shops.

Unlike present day Melbourne the bar at Duncan & Fraser is busy as never before. Every table is booked and no room left for the proprietor.

I used ‘flash’ for the photo. I will install ceiling lights so future photo should better show the lively atmosphere in the bar.