Robert Hoddle, the surveyor who laid out the grid of early Melbourne, tells us in his journal how However Governor Bourke came to his tent one morning with names of the streets.
Edmund Finn came to Melbourne in the early days of European settlement and worked as a journalist under the name of Garryowen. Here is what he tells of the city street names. ...Read Full Article»
During the 20th century, the railyards next to the river gradually expanded and cut that part of the city off from the river. To compound this, several utilitarian (ugly) public service buildings were erected which blocked the view of the river. Melbournians had talked about what they could do about these eyesores for the best part of a century. Then in the 1990s Victoria got a government that wasn't big on talking, but was big on doing. They decided to knock down the offending buildings, cover a large section of the railyards to create Federation Square and free up a large section of riverside for additional parkland - now Birrarung Marr. (That government also did other things which angered enough voters to unceremoniously kick them out of office soon afterwards.)
The resulting park is quite modern in style and forms a contrast with the parks from a century earlier on the other side of the Yarra....Read Full Article»
Adjoining the eastern boundary of Carlton, 2 km. north-east of Melbourne's centre, Fitzroy was Melbourne's first suburb. The eastern boundary of Fitzroy adjoins Collingwood.
The name comes form Sir Charles Fitz Roy, Governor of New South Wales, 1846-1855. Alexandra Parade divides the former Fitzroy municipality into Fitzroy North and Fitzroy South....Read Full Article»
Port Melbourne, a residential and industrial suburb, is 4 km. south-west of Melbourne. It is bounded on its north and west by the Yarra River, on the south by Hobsons Bay and on the east Bay South Melbourne. The residential part adjoins South Melbourne.
In 1839, four years after the first permanent settlement of Melbourne, Wilbraham Liardet settled at Port Melbourne, building a hotel and jetty on Hobsons Bay and operating a mail service to Melbourne. The area became known as Liardet's Beach, although the official district name was Sandridge. Land sales were delayed until 1850. The gold rush immigration brought passengers and freight which made use of a government pier on Hobsons Bay, served by Australia's first railway line from Melbourne to Hobsons Bay....Read Full Article»
Jolimont is a residential precinctin East Melbourne, 1.5 km. from the G.P.O., Melbourne.
In 1839 Charles Joseph La Trobe arrived in Melbourne as the Superintendent of Port Phillip. He brought a transportable dwelling and was obliged to buy land on which to erect it. He was the successful (and only) bidder for five hectares, off the south side of Wellington Parade,set in the corner of the Government Paddock (later Yarra Park). The name Jolimont was reputedly given by La Trobe's French-Swiss wife: joli mont - a pretty hill....Read Full Article»
Southbank,on the south side of the Yarra River opposite Melbourne's central city area,was first defined as an area for redevelopment by the State Government in1984. Two years later the Government published a strategy document for theredevelopment process.
Southbank's easternand western boundaries are St. Kilda Road and Montague Street. Its southernboundary is irregular in shape, but south of the Westgate Freeway. Nearlyhalf the area was owned by the State Government or its agencies when thearea was defined. ...Read Full Article»
Carlton is a residential, commercial and educationalarea adjoining the northern boundary of central Melbourne at Victoria Street. Its other boundaries are Elizabeth Street/Royal Parade, Cemetery Road/PrincesStreet and Nicholson Street. The University of Melbourne is in the postcodearea of Parkville, but is treated here as being in Carlton. The area north of Cemetery Road/Princes Street is Carlton North.
The subdivision and settlement of Carlton came later than that of Fitzroy and Collingwood.. By the gold rush, 1851, two thirds of those suburbs were subdivided, often in a hap-hazard way calculated to maximize profit on the resale of land. When Robert Hoddle, Government surveyor, came to survey Carlton in 1852, care was taken to lay out streets in an orderly grid, with reserves for open space and religious institutions....Read Full Article»
East Melbourne is a residential and commercial suburb which retains a number of religious and institutional buildings on land grants made during the nineteenth century. It borders central Melbourne's Spring Street, and its other boundaries are Victoria Parade, Hoddle Street/PuntRoad and the Yarra River.
The Government surveyor, Robert Hoddle, prepared a plan for East Melbourne in 1837, with roads correctly running north-southand east-west on contrast to the skewed directions of central Melbourne's streets which took their axis from the direction of the Yarra River. Hoddle's plan had a grid layout north of the extension of Flinders Street, i.e. WellingtonParade, and the north-south Police and Government Paddocks from WellingtonParade to the river. The plan was not implemented, and settlement leap-frogged East Melbourne to Fitzroy, Collingwood and Richmond....Read Full Article»
South Melbourne, between the south bank of the Yarra River and Port Phillip Bay, originated at the elevated area first known as Emerald Hill, 2 km. south of Melbourne.
Emerald Hill, an old volcanic outcrop, stood out from the surrounding swamp land and had greener vegetation. Its elevation above the Yarra delta attracted the initial settlement. During Summer, the swamp land dried out and it could be used for recreation or military training. ...Read Full Article»
Melbourne's central city area has traditionally been defined as the "Golden Mile", which is the checker-board survey by the government surveyor, Robert Hoddle, who in 1837 fixed a township of six blocks by four blocks. The boundaries were Spencer, La Trobe, Spring and Flinders Streets.
The "Golden Mile" sufficed until the postwar years for defining Melbourne's commercial and retail heart. During the 1960s town planning surveys extended the northern boundary to Dudley Street, the Queen Victoria Market and Victoria Street. Shortly afterwards notions of a central business or activities district pushed the boundaries of the "central area" into East Melbourne, down St. Kilda Road, beyond Flinders Street and across the Yarra River to Southbank and beyond Spencer Street to Docklands. Postcode boundaries have not mirrored these expansions, and the Queen Victoria Market is in the West Melbourne postcode....Read Full Article»
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