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Of curse the Irish could not possibly let the Scots, with their Lothian, Melrose, Dryburgh streets—and the rest have it all their own way; especially when not a few of their compatriots were also well to the fore in the public affairs of the colony of Victoria. A remarkable number of graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, notably in Law, came to Victoria before 1860 and had distinguished careers. Several of them were born in the Province of Munster. One of these, William Stawell, said why they came—”when I saw 40 hats on the Munster circuit and not enough work for 20, I felt it was time to go, and so I came to Australia”. There is a Stawell Street in North Melbourne, and two other streets named after Munster men – O’Shanassy and Murphy. Anyone who has driven his car around Ireland must admit that the Munster-born have good reasons to be intensely proud of their birth-place. Some of the loveliest scenery in all Ireland is there—Bantry and Dingle Bays, Kenmare River, the Ring of Kerry, Cobh Harbour (for many years called Queenstown), the Shannon Estuary, Killarney and the Cliffs of Moher. The Munster-born “Garryowen” wrote — “Adventuring to the …

No novelist has read more widely in the early days of the colony than Sir Walter Scott. So Abbotsford Street was named after his home, Dryburgh Street after the abbey where he was buried. Lothian Street runs between them — Scott’s novel The Heart of Mid-Lothian was the favorite of many. “Lothian” comes from a root meaning low-lying. It was the name given to that part of Scotland’s Lowlands bounded on the north by the Firth of Forth, on the south by Lanark and Peebles, on the east by the North Sea and on the west by Stirling. The Scots and English fought for centuries to possess this tract of country, but the final battle made it part of Scotland for all time. It was worth fighting over. The soil is said to be the most fertile and easily worked in Britain. That prince of potatoes, the famous “Lothian Red”, has its home there. There are also the ruins of magnificent castles, the stately mansions of fine estates, the rolling summits of the Pentland Hills, which form the backbone of the land, beauties of coastline and woodlands, the numerous sites of battles famous in the nation’s annals, some of them …

Named after Charles Howard who was the assistant commissary general of the new colony of Port Phillip. His job was to superintend the supply of rations. The street in North Melbourne so important to Church and commerce in his day, was fittingly named Howard Street.(1) Source. Northern Advertiser, 6/7/1972. Blanchard collection, “What’s in a Name” at North Melbourne Library.

    “Burgh” is a shortened form of “borough”; obsolete in ordinary English usage since the 17th century, but retained in Scotland for a town possessing a charter. It is pronounced “borough’ not “berg”. This street is a sign of Scottish nostalgia. It was named after Dryburgh Abbey, which stands in a setting of sheer beauty on a horse shoe of land encircled by the river Tweed. It looks out on the triple peaks of the Eildon Hills (1300 feet), where sacrifices were once made to the sun-god, and, later, the Romans built a great military camp. It took 12 years to build. Meantime, the builders—English and Scottish monks— lived in wooden huts on the river-bank, feeding well on the excellent salmon the river provided. The Abbey was completed on 13th December, 1152. Years of, suffering awaited it. In 1322 the retreating army of Edward II set the place ablaze. Helped by liberal gifts from Robert the Bruce, the monks restored it. In 1385, Richard II’s men made a bonfire of it again. Once more the monks restored it. At last in 1545, the English army under Hertford left it a smoking ruin. Centuries of neglect completed the destruction. Nov …