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Arriving and thriving
On Wedneday the 5th of August around sixty current and former North Melbourne residents gathered at the Town Hall for an evening of oral history. Part of the Arriving and ...
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A history of the printing school site
The site of the RMIT Printing School was originally part of the two-acre Presbyterian Church reserve bounded by Curzon, Elm, Union and Queensberry Streets. The Denominational School Board donated a ...
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John Monash: a man of war and peace
John Monash's connection to North and West Melbourne did not end with his early childhood in Dudley Street. In 1887 what would become a lifelong interest in military affairs saw ...
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Melbourne Benevolent Asylum 150th anniversary procession.
Blue and white streamers and balloons decorated some of the streets of North and West Melbourne on Friday 10 November. This time, however, the celebration was not a Grand Final ...
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Fifty years gone.
A few days ago, we calculated that we have lived in North Melbourne for more than half a century. We thought to ourselves, what's changed in that time? The street ...
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Hotham Borough named in 1859
In 1859 the area that is known as North Melbourne was named the Hotham borough, after the governor of Victoria Charles Hotham. Hotham's first Post Office opened on 20 March ...
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Let’s hear it for Hotham
Historic Bowls Day—20 March 2005 The City of Melbourne Bowls Club was delighted to welcome members and friends of the Hotham History Project to our joint Heritage Bowls Day on ...
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The old Temperance Hall: a historical journey
by Jillian Ball, June 2005. Approaching the old hall at 456 Queensberry Street, between Leveson and Chetwynd streets, the visitor might notice the unusual entry, which has a bay-windowed shop ...
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The lost picture palaces of North and West Melbourne
In the late 1970’s I saw a poster advertising holiday screenings of a series of Shirley Temple films at the Central Theatre (now the Lithuanian Club) at 50 Errol Street, ...
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St Mary Star of the Sea
St Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in West Melbourne has a new chapel, dedicated to the the Madonna del Terzito. Located near the base of theme unfinished tower, ...
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Six men in a seat.
As we drew close to the federal election, the nature of representation in the Melbourne electorate took on a fresh interest. ABC psephologist Antony Green called today's Melbourne a very ...
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Sesquicentenary of the forerunner of the Errol Street Primary School
2007 marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of Mrs Elizabeth Ann Mattingley's Infant School in her double-storey weatherboard house at 18 Errol Street, near where Errol's Bakehouse Pantry operates ...
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Prince of Angels
The story of St Michael’s Church, North Melbourne, 1907-2007 Prince of Angels, the latest publication of the Hotham History Project, had a dramatic launching in St Michael's Church on Hotham ...
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Local hall takes us on a walk through our past
One of the first history walks conducted by the Hotham History Project was a - pub walk. It seemed right, therefore, that the Project should organise a temperance walk. The ...
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The corner grocery shop
Do you remember the corner grocery shops? Carolyn Whiting does and printed below are some of her memories. In the days before the large supermarkets, people would shop at the ...
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Carolyn’s story
We lived in a two-storey terrace at 594 Spencer Street, West Melbourne, between Hawke and Abbotsford streets. My parents slept in the front room downstairs, next to the lounge room, ...
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Lest we forget
The monument at the Victoria Street end of Errol Street was erected by the local Red Cross to honour men from North and West Melbourne who fought during World War ...
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Hotham History visits Jack’s Magazine.
In March, Hotham History Project members found their way to this remarkable 19th-century edifice that nestles inside impressive bluestone walls on the banks of the Maribyrnong River. What is Jack's ...
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Hotham History Project – Rough Diamond
After the business of the meeting, there will be a reading from the play Rough Diamond, by John Baldwin Buckstone, as a precursor to a performance to be staged by ...
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Holding onto our history
FIRST STOP was the locker room, past reception at street level. Bags had to be left here, as did pens, in very efficient individual lockers with personal keys. Notetakers were ...
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Historic precinct a rare treasure
How many know that the small block bounded by Curzon, Queensberry, Union and Elm streets contains the highest concentration of buildings in North and West Melbourne listed on the Victorian ...
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Evoking a sense of place – two stories of West Melbourne
Earlier this year Hotham History Protect members Lorraine Siska and David Evans gave presentations on two 19th-century men and their families whom they had researched — and who had once ...
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Errol Street 100 Years Apart
There were enormous changes in the Errol Street Shopping Centre in the 100 years that separate these two photos. The shop now occupied by Gary Bohmer's Pharmacy forms part of ...
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Cable trams made tracks along our streets
It is now a few years since my Uncle Neville (Clement Neville Govern died. He became my uncle when he married my aunt, Leila Bums. He had left Melbourne years ...
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A fascination with local history inspired this Queensland-born reference librarian’s commitment to recording and preserving North and West Melbourne’s heritage
Mary Kehoe's interest in local history research began with the stories of the Benevolent Asylum, which had been a landmark on Melbourne's western skyline for over 60 years from the ...
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Generations of the Faithful
One of the highlights of the Curzon Street church's 150th anniversary was the historic exhibition 'Generations of the Faithful' held in the Elm Street Hall between 29 and 31 October ...
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At Home on Hotham Hill
One hundred and twenty years after it was built, the `Bougainvillea House' on the corner of Curran and Dryburgh streets has been immortalised in a book by Guy Murphy, At ...
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115 years on and engine house faces…
Traces of cable trams are scarce in Melbourne, although Melbourne once had the world's most extensive network of cable trams. They gradually disappeared from the streets of Melbourne between 1927 ...
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When history walked the streets
Hundreds of women and men in North and West Melbourne played their part in getting women the vote in Victoria. Some 800 women who lived in our patch 0 signed ...
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The old Temperance Hall: a historical journey
Approaching the old hall at 456 Queensberry Street, between Leveson and Chetwynd streets, the visitor might notice the unusual entry, which has a bay-windowed shop on either side of the ...
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