1.6 Conclusion

The beach and other landforms of the waterfront have remained central to the character and identity of Frankston. Over the years the major use of this great natural asset has remained recreational. These vary from the people who throw fishing lines off the pier at Frankston to the families who sit on Seaford and Frankston beach [and who some years ago may have competed in the Herald Annual Sand castle competitions]. Around Kananook Creek and at Davey's and Canadian Bays sailors dart out into the deeper waters of Port Phillip. Not so long ago the holiday-makers of Mt Eliza got together in their gardens in summer evenings. From there they could look out across to the lights of shipping in the bay channels while musicians from the city played in the background. The sybaritic recollections of those who stayed at Mt. Eliza between the wars contrast with the cramped and hot scenes around the Frankston beach car-park today.

While the character of the waterfront as a holiday resort has changed, there are still a range of buildings from the pier to bathing boxes which remind us of Frankston's holiday past. The beach has played a part in the lives of many Melbournians who have never been Frankston residents. Generations of children competed in Sun News Pictorial sand castle competitions on Frankston beach. In the 1960s members of the Greek community arrived in Frankston for the Annual Blessing of the Waters. And a world-wide audience learned of Frankston through Stanley Kramer's film On the Beach in which scenes were filmed at Canadian Bay and at the Frankston Railway Station. The waterfront, its surviving buildings and landscapes provide a tangible link with the Shire's past when so much of the city, away from the bay, has been fundamentally altered.