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, which was only used on Sundays and special occasions. The kitchen had a one-fire stove, with wicker chairs either side of it, and in the corner stood a large wireless. …
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 I (1914-1918) in France and Palestine and at Gallipoli. A metal plaque that was added later names wars up until the 1970s but, unlike most of the monuments in the …
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 Magazine? It is the largest magazine complex ever built in Victoria and opened in 1878 to provide safe storage for gunpowder imported into the colony of Victoria. It was used …
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 the North Melbourne Library and the Hotham History Project later in the year. The play has been chosen because of its connection to North Melbourne. In 1885 Rough Diamond was …
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 required to use pencil. The tour began with an exploration of the Harry Nunn Reading Room, named after the first keeper of public records. Before Nunn’s time, each government department …
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 Heritage Register? The Presbyterian Union Memorial Church complex comprises the 1879 church with its landmark 46-metre spire, the Victorian manse, the Elm Street church hall, the parsonage and five cottages …
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 lived in their respective houses in West Melbourne. DAVID BEGAN HIS TALK with a preface on the early years of North and West Melbourne — two suburbs that developed in …
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 one of the earliest surviving two-storey shop rows in Victoria. The row is the oldest existing building in Errol Street, built around 1855 for well-known early identity and chemist (chymist) …
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 before, but remained the self-appointed family expert on our cable trams. On his annual visits, he delighted in taking us to points of interest related to the story of Melbourne’s …
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 laying of its foundation stone in 1850 until its demolition in 1911. The asylum boundaries were on Elm, Abbotsford, Miller and Curzon streets, and the huge main building sat astride …
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. A committee headed by historian Eleanor Pugsley and Nora Killip presented a chronological arrangement of historical photographs and memorabilia donated by church families past and present. The exhibition usher, Jean …
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 Home on Hotham Hill, published by the Hotham History Project. Guy began researching the history of the house as part of a university assignment in 1996. The book profiles both …
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 and 1940 after 50 years of service. Engineering feats were accomplished on Melbourne’s flat terrain, which was quite different from the steep grades in Austria, where cable haulage originated, or …
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 the famous Monster Petition in 1891, asking that “Government by the People and for the People should mean all the People and not only half’. For the most part, the …
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 entrance steps. The United Friendly Societies (UFS) commissioned architects W.H. Ellerker and Co to build the hall in 1874. This date is embossed on the facade. The building was designed …