HomeFrom Abbatoirs to Zoning: Melbourne 1925The American Fleet

The American Fleet

A miserable Melbourne winter day, with a howling Antarctic wind, squalling rain, and rough grey swell on Port Phillip Bay, could not stop Melburnians in their thousands from turning out to welcome forty-three warships of the United States Navy sailing into the port of Australia’s capital on 23 July 1925. Along with a much smaller fleet visiting Sydney, the American armada was a vast exercise in geopolitics and public relations. Hawkish American admirals, convinced that forging Pacific alliances was necessary to forestall Japanese aggression, and eager to rebuild naval morale weakened by post-war disarmament schemes, persuaded more cautious diplomats that a naval cruise to New Zealand and Australia would serve American strategic interests.

For Australian governments, the event demanded a delicate dance, affirming Australia’s role as a Pacific outpost of the British empire while strengthening relationships with a country clearly emerging as the predominant naval power of the region. To this end, a long list of official engagements was developed. There was no prospect of hosting a major event at the Town Hall, where reconstruction from the February fire had barely begun, so the major civic engagements were scheduled for St Kilda - no doubt to the great disappointment of the City Council. Still, a parade down Swanston Street gave the City Engineer a reason to hunt for the Council’s stores of bunting and other decorations so the surviving facade of the Town Hall could be dressed suitably for the occasion.

The Council also arranged for a group of 250 sailors to visit Warburton, on the outskirts of Melbourne. The Shire of Warburton and its Ratepayers’ Progress Association organised sports carnivals and a woodchop competition, and the Automobile Club arranged for a convoy of some seventy cars to transport sailors from Princes Pier to the forested hills.

For most Melburnians, however, the prospect of entertaining some 1,800 American servicemen was of more immediate excitement than the development of Anglo-American Pacific naval doctrine. City businesses leapt at the opportunity to display their friendship, and of course to take advantage of the large crowds expected in the city during the visit. The City Council recorded an influx of requests to permit decorations of all kinds, and one enterprising merchant asked for permission to set up a kiosk selling refreshments outside the Town Hall on the day of the sailors’ parade.

Unfortunately, the sailors’ grand parade on Friday 24 July was marred by the collapse of a verandah on Bourke Street, where about thirty people had climbed to get a better view of proceedings. American sailors, who rushed to assist in the rescue and helped to transport the several hundred injured to hospital, were feted as heroes by the gathered crowds. For years, the City Council had been attempting to systematically review the safety of verandahs in the city area, and the Lord Mayor reminded city businesses that there was a “by-law prohibiting people climbing on verandahs”.

The list of the injured painted a vivid picture of the mostly young women who had travelled from across Melbourne to witness the parade. Their home addresses, compiled from newspaper reports, are marked on the map above. Red markers indicate those critically injured; orange markers serious injuries; and blue markers minor. There were several families gathered together near the verandah, where multiple children and adults were hurt in the collapse.

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