Description

This is the story of the first fifty years of today’s much-loved suburb of North
Melbourne. When the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung were first
developed by European settlers in 1852, there were many barriers to its success. A
great expanse of barren land lay between it and Melbourne, a swamp on the west,
open sewerage to the east and undeveloped bushland to the south. But of the
thousands of immigrants who flocked to Victoria during the gold rush, some settled in
North Melbourne, determined to develop an urban town to be proud of. From 1859 to
1887, it was called Hotham. The town’s businessmen had a booming stake in
Melbourne’s meat market, metal manufacturing and tanneries. It also harboured an
unusually high number of Irish immigrants and some of Melbourne’s most
downtrodden residents. This book details the triumphs and struggles of the people of
nineteenth-century North Melbourne, revealing fascinating individuals and the
collective story of the emergence of this determined working-class community.
Hailed by Professor Andrew May as ‘Australian urban history at its best’.