Street smarts

Miles Street was named after Frederic George Miles who was the Town Clerk of South Melbourne. 

He was born in 1835 in Dover and moved with his family to Port Phillip in 1842.

His father purchased a property at Mansfield but after two years the family returned to Melbourne.

Miles was educated at Groves Academy in Queens St and later the Victorian Grammar School in Collins St. 

Miles was then articled to George Wharton, who was an architect and surveyor in Collins St. Following this, Miles took up a clerkship in the Registrar General’s office and, in the same year, become a councillor for the Brunswick Town Council.

He moved to the Lands Department in 1863 and was the chief draughtsman at Sandhurst and then Ballart until 1870 when he became town clerk and surveyor of Brunswick. 

In 1871 he became the clerk of petty sessions and resigned from his position as town surveyor.

Miles was appointed as the town clerk of South Melbourne from a pool of 75 applicants in 1879, a position he worked in until his death in 1909.