Hotham History Project

The Melbourne City Council is buying up a North Melbourne block. The buying program started about six years ago and the council now owns at least half the Capel Street block – an area bounded by Peel, Dudley, William, Capel and Victoria Streets. The Acting Town Clerk, Mr. T. M. McCaw, said today: “Public knowledge of council land deals may …

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Long-time North Melbourne identity Nancy McIntosh passed away recently at the grand age of 98. The last issue of the News published a moving obituary written by her daughter June. Nancy was about eight when she arrived in North Melbourne with her family around 1929. They moved into Provost Street, the small street parallel to Queensberry and between Curzon and …

In the 1930s, there were strict rules about who could visit hospitals and who could not. The rules were very strict for children, the reason being that visitors only upset them and made them difficult patients. When Rae’s young relative George got polio in the 1930s, he was taken to Fairfield Hospital and for some weeks was allowed no visitors …

Abbotsford Street runs like a spine through North and West Melbourne. Its unusual name springs from a connection with famous Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott and his home in the Scottish Borders. In about 1811 Scott bought his 100-acre Cartley Hole Farm on the river Tweed. The site had a personal significance for him as it was close to the …

Since 1791, Irish people have emigrated to Australia. Emigration initiatives such as the Earl Grey scheme for orphan girls in the 1840s, and events such as the Irish Famine in 1847, saw different waves of people arrive on Australian shores in the 1800s. Whether by choice or by situation, these pioneers went on to create a new life for themselves …

This sketch of a group of houses in Chapman Street, North Melbourne, is by Ailsa O’Connor in 1972, who was a teacher at Flemington High School when it was housed at the Errol Street Primary School. Ailsa died in the early 1980s but she left behind her ideas in both her art and in her writings. Past students may not …

Sir, Mr Jas Cooney’s letter in “The Age” of 27th October asked whether anyone can remember Mr Dott’s glass works in Munster terrace – also the Crocketts. I knew them all for many years, as we lived in that place at the corner of Lothian and Victoria Streets, when not many houses were about. Does Mr Cooney remember Stewart’s jam …

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) has some wonderful old scrapbooks of press cuttings in its collection. Long before TROVE existed some HHP members were trawling through these scrapbooks and came across a treasure trove of letters about North Melbourne. In 1934 The Age published a series of articles, The Suburbs of Melbourne: The Story of Their Growth.  Part …

Three Historical Sites The letter of “J.H.K.” in “The Age” entitled “Three Historical Sites” is opportune, since an illustrated brochure containing an historical review of the schools that were first established in North Melbourne is at present in course of preparation by me at the request of the present committee of the Errol Street State School. This history is to …

ORIGIN OF THE TOWN. Owing to the discovery of gold in Victoria in the year 1851, thousands of people from all parts of the world hastened to Australia, buoyed up with the hope of making their fortunes by digging for the precious metal. The total population of Victoria at that time was 77,345. The following account of the origin of …

This mural was designed by Kaye Hopwood and painted at a North Melbourne Street party on the 27th February 1982, photo by Peter Elliott. On the left of the mural are the names of the organisations which endorsed the slogan… “CHILDREN… OUR MOST ENDANGERED SPECIES GIVE THEM A PEACEFUL WORLD AND A NUCLEAR FREE FUTURE” The names on the panel …

In North Melbourne, the streets are alive with the sound of literature. We have a Byron Street, and Lothian, Dryburgh and Abbotsford streets are all echoes of Sir Walter Scott. I assumed that Arden Street was associated with the idyllic Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It. But browsing through the Hotham History Project’s latest venture …

Antonino Misale puts on his classic cap and blazer and takes to the streets of North Melbourne. The sprightly 94-year-old offers a smile and a wave to everyone he meets. He has lived in the suburb since he arrived in Australia 68 years ago from Messignadi in Italy. “On the ship there were Italians, Greeks, Maltese. We all come for …