Latest articles by Dr Cheryl Griffin
A bustling scene at Queen’s Wharf, 1853
Full of life and activity, you see here a crowded Cole’s Wharf, located between Spencer and King streets, in the early 1850s.
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An elegant colossus reaches for the sky
Captured by amateur photographer Pierre Robin in early September 1959, this is one of the last photographs to capture the solid presence of the Colonial Mutual Building on the north-west corner of Collins and Elizabeth streets.
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A corner of Melbourne at the crossroads
Standing tall on the right-hand side of this photograph, taken looking east along Little Collins St from Russell St, is the head office of Preston Motors, the go-to place to buy the latest Chevrolet and Buick cars.
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Breakdown outside the Windsor Hotel, 1920s
Eight men, one broken-down car and a wagon to cart it on. This dismal winter’s day was not going well for the driver, seen here on the far right of the photograph in chauffeur’s outfit, complete with greatcoat to ward off the worst of the Melbourne weather.
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It’s raining, it’s pouring: Elizabeth St a raging torrent, 1863
December 15 to 22, 1863 – a week to remember for the citizens of Melbourne. It rained and rained and rained some more and when the rain stopped, and the sun emerged, more than 127 millimetres had fallen.
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Read all about it! The Argus office makes news
Seventy people arrested in Lisbon for taking part in anti-English protests. The attempted poisoning of the Russian Tsar proves to be untrue. Australian and New Zealand mail believed to have been destroyed when a train caught fire in Nebraska is found and rescued.
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The Lamb Inn, a “roystering place for shepherds with cheques”, c. 1840
Tucked away in the bottom right-hand corner of this watercolour by W F E Liardet are two small windblown figures battling Melbourne’s notorious north-westerly winds.
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Observing the universe: the Great Melbourne Telescope, 1875
The open-air reflector telescope at the back of the Great Melbourne Telescope Building faces up to the skies, its seemingly delicately filigreed barrel looking like something from a circus act.
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An afternoon concert in Little Bourke St in the 1880s
Seven bandsmen, dressed in flat caps and uniforms, perform outside a substantial bluestone building, believed to be the premises of R Goldsbrough & Co, wool and grain agents, a company that had large grain and produce stores around the city.
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Hold the front page! Melbourne’s first printing office
This image of a derelict building in a laneway off Market St was the scene of great activity in the early years of the colony ...
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Thunder, drums, bells, whistles: the magic of the Town Hall organ
Melbourne Town Hall was opened in August 1870 and two years later the “grand” organ you see here was installed, with 4373 pipes and 24 manual and 66 speaking stops.
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Clackety-clack: train journeys and the Travellers Aid Society
“Clackety clack – clackety clack. There was a big train”. Some of my favourite childhood stories were about trains. And my absolute favourite was a Little Golden book called The Train from Timbuctoo that began with these words.
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Odeon Theatre, 283 Bourke St
There had been a theatre on this Bourke St site since the Melba Theatre opened in 1911. That was during the era of the silent movies.
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A jewel of a theatre: the Bijou in Bourke St
The Victorian Academy of Music, feted by the press as a “jewel of the theatre”, was a much anticipated “palace raised to the Muses” and its foundation stone was laid with great fanfare by the Governor of Victoria on May 23, 1876.
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Women at work – Sands and McDougall staff, 1897
What better way to celebrate Women’s History Month in March than taking a peek into the working lives of female office workers in the 1890s?
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Behind the facades – Bourke St, 1875
It’s not often you come across a photograph that gives such a clear view of the backs of the buildings that line the CBD’s streets.
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Robbie Burns in St Kilda Rd
As you link arms and sing Auld Lang Syne this New Year’s Eve, you probably won’t bring to mind the legendary poet Robert Burns who died 226 years ago in distant Scotland never having visited Australia, which at the time of his death had been settled barely a decade.
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In the words of Carole King: “City streets, the stories that they tell”
When the Hoddle Grid was superimposed on the early Melbourne landscape in 1837 it did not take into account the spiritual and cultural connections to this land of its traditional custodians, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung Peoples of the Eastern Kulin.
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Mrs Purnell’s Hotel – a small feminist statement of the 1860s
It may not seem it, but the modest façade of Mrs Purnell’s Hotel at 12 Bourke St is a symbol of one man’s failure and his wife’s strength in providing financial security for herself and her family.
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Once an ancient waterfall, now a busy port
This photograph was taken in 1906 from one of the tallest buildings in Melbourne at the time – the nine-storey Commercial Travellers Club. The photographer is facing west, towards the area we know today as Docklands.
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