Melbourne's 'ghost sign' adverts whisper stories from the past (2025)

When Sean Reynolds stumbled on the ghostly remains of Miss Watson's Motor Garage it immediately captured his attention and imagination.

The faded sign clung to a weathered wall in Kew, inner Melbourne, and whispered stories of a bygone era.

The chipped and timeworn lettering from the 1920s drew the cultural archaeologist into the forgotten world of Myra Watson, the trailblazing owner whose story had been buried beneath decades of industrial progress.

"Here [was] this little bitty garage and it had a render over it … it was stuccoed over," Mr Reynolds says.

"At one point in the last two years or so, they peeled the render off and underneath it was the brick facade."

Now visible on the facade is a sign that says Miss Watson's Motor Garage.

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The discovery set Mr Reynolds on a mission to uncover the woman's identity and story.

It turned out to be a hyper-localised urban mystery, that he says is both deeply important and inconsequential.

"She was a woman who in 1920 started her own service station," Mr Reynolds says.

"There was nothing about her written in a broader context, so I had to really dig down and find out what that was."

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Miss Watson ran her garage from about 1920 until World War II, Mr Reynolds says.

"At the time, just owning a car was a unique thing," Mr Reynolds says.

"She not only owned a car and knew how to service a car, she would take people around.

"She was from Gippsland, so she would take people on tours of the countryside and that was just such an extraordinary story.

"It's a bit of women's history, a bit of automotive history, all behind the sign I thought was such a unique and beautiful thing."

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In search of more signs

Studying "ghost signs" has become an obsession of Mr Reynolds, who is originally from the United States.

During the pandemic, driven by strict isolation and a curiosity about his adoptive country, he explored Melbourne in search of forgotten brands scattered around the city.

His favourite is the Robur Tea sign on the other side of the city in Carlton North.

"Robur was one of these brands that I love. It lived its whole life in Melbourne," he says.

"It was founded in South Melbourne and was located in South Melbourne."

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So entranced by the sign's aesthetic, Mr Reynolds got it tattooed on his right bicep.

"They must have spent an absolute fortune on advertising because there are signs for Robur Tea still all over the place," he says.

"I see them constantly but this one is actually super well preserved."

Robur Tea has since been sold off, but the design retains an iconic resonance for people who recognise it.

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Seeing signs everywhere

Mr Reynolds says "ghost signs" are also in constant communication with the streetscape, still conversing with their audience more than 100 years after being put up.

Once you first notice them, you begin to see them everywhere. On the top of buildings, etched onto telephone poles, plastered onto the side of people's houses.

Not far from the Robur Tea sign, on the corner of Canning and Fenwick Streets, there is a ghost of a ghost sign on an old corner house.

"The signs that we think of as ghost signs, a lot of them were from the 1920s, 30s, 1900 … they were all lead-based paint," he says.

"So when someone has gone and painted over all these signs, the lead will actually eat its way out of the plastic-based, petrol-based paint that we have now.

"It's clawing its way out of a grave … [and] one day it'll see the sun again, unless this building is demolished."

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At risk of disappearing

Demolition and destruction of these signs is a real risk.

Surprisingly, new ghost signs are exposed all the time.

A building may be knocked down, revealing a wall that has been concealed for generations.

Sometimes Mr Reynolds will get a tip about a ghost sign, rush to the location in his car, and grab a picture. The next day it might be destroyed by graffiti or demolition.

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A glimpse into the past

There are examples of these historic remnants scattered across Melbourne and the country.

An old supermarket, now a trendy townhouse in Melbourne's suburbs, can be seen covered in faded advertisements for tobacco, Velvet Soap, and Nestle's milk.

The home's modest size offers a glimpse into a very different world of shopping that Melburnians experienced a century ago.

Today's supermarkets sprawl like vast fluorescent hangars of concrete, brimming with everything one could imagine.

In stark contrast, the former supermarket — no larger than a corner of those colossal stores — hints at a simpler, more intimate past.

Many of the products once advertised have vanished entirely, while others have evolved so drastically they are scarcely recognisable.

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"One of the other interesting things about these signs is that they show the history of manufacturing in Melbourne," Mr Reynolds says.

"Melbourne used to be a city that manufactured everything.

"Australia was far away from the rest of the [world] … and it was really hard to get things imported. It was expensive."

Mr Reynolds says the signs reflect a very different time in Australia's manufacturing history.

"Everything was made here," he says.

"All your tea was blended here, your oats were made here … everything was very hyperlocal."

Melbourne's 'ghost sign' adverts whisper stories from the past (2025)
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