Amongst the list of history-related items recently pledged to the Carlton Football Club archive was an aerial photograph of IKON Park (Princes Park as it was then known) almost three quarters of a century ago.

The poster-sized black and white image was handed in to Club reception by lifelong supporter Di Smith, who’d been given it by a friend Bruce Goode. Goode, in turn, had acquired the photo from Kevin O’Reilly, a Melbourne-based aviation historian and author of the book Flyers of Time who recently researched the life of the aerial photographer Charles Pratt.

The image is one of a series of such photographs of the old ground at varying angles, as captured by Pratt and stored in an envelope marked September 13, 1952.

The photos reveal much of the Carlton ground at Princes Park and its infrastructure within and beyond, much of it no longer in existence. Immediately obvious are the number of cricket pitches both on the playing arena and in the neighbouring parklands east and west of the Club’s 129 year-old home, and if you look closely you can see matches in progress involving players in their creams.

The only seated areas within the venue are found in the Ald. Gardiner and Robert Heatley Stands. Though the Gardiner Stand still exists, the Robert Heatley Stand at the Royal Parade end was demolished in 2007 to make way for the redevelopment, as was the old press box more than 40 years ago. The Northey Stand on the city side wing has also since disappeared, as has the curator’s house – for decades the living quarters of Tom Warne and his son Bert, at the north-eastern end. The old scoreboard can also be seen in that pocket, years before the Olympic Tyres Scoreboard was erected at the south-eastern corner.

Prominent in the front of the venue, dotted with poplar trees, is parkland - now the football club’s main carpark. Across the road on Royal Parade can be seen a row of glorious mansions either side of the Walker Street intersection, most of them since-demolished, including one owned by Heatley himself.

The beautiful elm and palm trees today flanking the ground at the Royal Parade and Garton Street ends are visible, as is Poplar Oval, bound by The Avenue, Ievers Street and the Inner Circle suburban railway line. The line, which served the inner northern suburbs of Parkville, Carlton North, Carlton, Fitzroy North and Fitzroy, was formally opened in 1888 and officially closed in 1981.

In another of the images of the ground looking south-west, the huts of the old American Army wartime base Camp Pell still stand in the distance – as does North Melbourne’s home ground at Arden Street, in the shadow of the long-gone gasometer in the top right.

An excellent blog appearing on the State Library of Victoria website, reveals that the aerial photographer Charles Daniel Pratt was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1891 and served as a cadet with the First Wellington Rifle Company. When war broke out, Pratt enlisted and saw action in Gallipoli. He was later promoted to rank of corporal, and served as a mounted motorcycle despatch rider in Egypt and Palestine. In 1917 he volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps and quickly found his calling. He was a natural pilot and soon began teaching others.

After the war, Pratt boarded the Steamer Cooee for the voyage back to New Zealand along with four crated aeroplanes and intentions of establishing an aviation business – intentions thwarted by a dock strike which saw him stranded in Melbourne. Pratt befriended the Captain of the Cooee, and persuaded him to unload one of the crates containing a DH-6 aeroplane onto the wharf. From there he proceeded to assemble it and, once ready, took off from that very wharf.

During the enforced stay in Melbourne, Pratt explored the region and realised that there was potential for his business here. He established himself in Geelong where he remained until moving to Essendon in 1938. Soon after setting up in Geelong he convinced his three brothers to join him. Two of his brothers, Percy and Len, were taught to fly and helped with the business, while the third brother, Alf, was to operate a motorcycle courier business.

Pratt was one of a number of ex-military pilots who teamed up with the aerial photographer William Hansom (aka ‘Airspy’) to capture unique bird’s eye views of Melbourne and regional Victoria.

The images cover many suburbs and rural locations from Coburg to Lakes Entrance, and document some of the state’s most historic locales, such as Luna Park, the MCG, Queen Victoria Market and of course Princes Park.

The State Library of Victoria holds a vast collection of Airspy’s aerial photographs as well as family photos and albums from wartime, were donated to the library in 1972 by the Charles Pratt estate; four years after Pratt’s death at the age of 77.