Keith Webb Tallent - discovering places through their people

This article is courtesy of Ella Birt, our student intern from Australian Catholic University. Ella is doing her history honours year and completing her internship requirement with us this semester, as well as her honours thesis, which she has written about here.

An exploration of Croydon Road, Croydon in Melbourne’s outer east through primary sources touched on a number of buildings, people and events that together contribute to making this place at the heart of Croydon. Croydon Road is a 1.2km road near Croydon train station, connecting the heart of Croydon to the busy Maroondah Highway. There are several significant features in this street.

Information on any of them is often ‘surface level’, but if you delve deeper you may be able to learn more about a place itself, or you may find an opportunity to understand how a place is part of the larger fabric of Australian life and experience.

This was the case when I explored one of the people inscribed on the war memorial in Croydon Road.

You can read his story here.