Photo by Wolfgang Sievers, 1965. Courtesy of National Library of Australia Pictures Collection

The Linton Street Oval was St Kilda’s  home ground from the start of the 1965 season to the end of the 1992 season. Before 1965 it had played at Junction Oval (in St Kilda). After 1992 it played ‘home’ games at Waverley Park (in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs), until moving to Docklands at the turn of the century.  The club now has a new training base and offices at Seaford,  south of Moorabbin. There are still offices, the club museum and pokies at Linton Street but, alas, no scoreboard.

The scoreboard served local league games after 1992, before being demolished two summers ago. Scoreboard memorabilia such as name plates and numbers had pretty much disappeared in the intervening years: lost, souvenired, nicked, forgotten. Tossed into a skip, perhaps.

The scoreboard shortly before being demolished. Photo by StKilda stalwart Andrew Keach, courtesy of the St Kilda Football Club.

Image courtesy of David Hurwitz

“I spent a good few months painting on-site at Moorabbin during its final days,” recalled artist David Hurwitz.  “I was really captivated by the old ground and was sorry when they demolished so much of it.” David’s series of watercolour paintings became a commemorative print of the Saints’ Moorabbin era.

Twelve months ago St Kilda held a Farewell Moorabbin online auction of remnants of the Linton Street ground. One avid St Kilda fan had his eye on parts of the scoreboard. “I was keen to have some genuine artefacts from my many years of watching St Kilda at Linton Street,” said ‘Murray from Moorabbin’.

As a boy, ‘Murray’ used to watch his beloved Saints from a spot above the players’ race. “We had to climb through barbed wire to get to the spot but it was worth it, seeing your heroes running out, underneath you.”

‘Murray’ describes his St Kilda memorabilia as “eclectic ephemera”. It includes badges, photos, posters, footy cards, glasses, yo-yos, dolls, a garden gnome called Barry Breen, a scarf knitted by his grandmother and, now, precious parts of the scoreboard that once stood proudly at the South Road end of the ground.

‘Barry Breen’ guards the ‘Goals’ sign from his turnstile sentry.

Photo by John Carr

Photo by Wolfgang Sievers, 1965. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia Pictures Collection

Wolfgang Sievers AO (1913-2007) was a prominent industrial and architectural photographer. You can see more of his Moorabbin photos at the the National Library of Australia Pictures Collection

David Hurwitz’s subject matter includes what he calls ‘the iconic landscape of suburban Melbourne.’ More details

John Carr is a Reclink Cup football player for 2011 B-grade premiers Western Storm and a scoreboard fan. He blogs on his Holy Boot Football Emporium website

Before 1965 St Kilda played at the Junction Oval.

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