Solomons – Do You Remember?

In the same year that the Geelong Historical Society was formed – 1944 – the owners of the big Geelong Department Store, Solomons Pty Ltd created the first volume of a history series. They called it Geelong – Do You Remember. In the foreword the editor acknowledged that the inspiration for the series came from the very formation of our society. The editor wrote, “In the hope that it will exercise a constructive influence towards the consumption of those ideals that inspired the formation of the Geelong Historical Society, this book is dedicated to Geelong – as we remember it and as we visualise it in the future.

In this post I have reproduced the first two articles. Each article follows the same format, first an iconic image from old Geelong and then a few paragraphs about the changes that long time residents may well remember.

In these two articles the reader is taken back to 1912, just 32 years previous, to consider the changes that have taken place at the centre of the city. It had me wondering about the changes that have taken place in our city since 1992. What photographs would you use if you have to do something similar?

This book is dedicated to Geelong – as we remember it and as we visualise it in the future

from the Solomon’s history of Geelong