A corner in Fishermans Bend

365 – 391 Plummer St

Derrimut 24:7 gym opened on 25 November 2024 after 88 days of hectic renovation of the former warehouse on the corner of Salmon and Plummer Sts. The 4000 sq m gym is a one stop shop offering the latest gym equipment, cafe, supplements and pre-prepared meals as well as a women’s only gym and a posing room.

Derrimut 24:7 owner and Director Nick Solomos started the business in 2010 with one gym in Derrimut. There are now 28 in Australia. He hopes to open 300 gyms by 2030.

The success of the business lies in responding to the preferences of the communities where the gyms are located while maintaining the Derrimut identity..

The gym is like a magnet to the corner of Plummer and Salmon Sts. With popularity goes a demand for car parking that can never be satisfied.

Peeling back the layers

Immediately before it became a gym, the warehouse was the display and sales office for P.M. the development on the corner Plummer and Prohasky Sts which was developed by Third Street.

Third Street also own this site, 365 – 391 Plummer St,¹ for which a permit is in place for thee multi unit towers designed by Elenberg Fraser. The same architects designed the P.M. development. The permit expired in December 2024 but the applicant has a three month window to renew the permit.

And another layer

Part of the site was occupied by Rolloy Pistons, owned by engineer and innovator, Bob Chamberlain. The firm supplied pistons to General Motors Holden and the Ford Motor Company.

Before that, the area between Plummer St and the Yarra was used for sand mining. It was also the location of the Port Melbourne Rifle butts. The rifle butts were no longer compatible with the expansion of the automotove industries in Fishermans Bend and they were closed down in the late 1930s.

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Fishermans Bend is part of the ancestral lands of the Yalukit Willam², a clan of the Boonwurrung, part of the Kulin Nation.

Derrimut was the N’Arweet (Chief) of the Yaluk-ut Weelam² of the Boonwurrung. Derrimut was born around 1815. He was present at the signing of the ‘treaty’ with John Batman on the Merri Creek in 1835.

In a recently published book, The Years of Terror: Banbu-deen: Kulin & Colonists at Port Phillip 1835-1851, Fay Stewart-Muir OAM and Dr Marguerita Stephens write about the turbulent, up ended times through which Derrimut lived following Batman and Fawkner’s arrival. The book is drawn from the journals of Assistant Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip, William Thomas. It’s a harrowing, but essential, read about the devastating impact of colonisation on Derrimut and the Kulin nations.

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I also recommend N’Arwee’t Professor Carolyn Briggs Yulendj Boonwurrung The history of the first people of Melbourne—the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boonwurrung Meanjin Summer 2023

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¹ welcome corrections or updates. This was all I could find when searching.

² since this was an oral language there are many different spellings. I have adopted current usage for the first reference