Arts & Culture » History

Observing at Flagstaff

September 24th, 2025 - CBD News

This humble building in Flagstaff Gardens, covered in ivy and sporting a weathervane, was once an important scientific site in Melbourne.

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A vaulted history beneath the railway

August 27th, 2025 - CBD News

In this photograph, taken around the 1910s in Flinders St near the Queens Bridge (on the right), is the railway line into Flinders Street Station. Back then, the area was at the height of its activity.

Podcast focused on anti-conscription movements within the CBD awarded

April 15th, 2025 - Alexandra Randall

A podcast series exploring the efforts of women of Melbourne to resist conscription during the Vietnam War has received best oral history prize at the Victorian Community History Awards, held on March 24 at The Langham in Southbank.

Setting the stone for a new hall, and a royal visit

February 19th, 2025 - Ashley Smith

On November 29, 1867, the burgeoning City of Melbourne experienced one of its biggest crowds in its history.

The doctor is out right now

January 22nd, 2025 - Ashley Smith

Photographed circa 1910, this mansion with distinguished Corinthian columns was found at 182 Collins St (now 41 Collins St, Collins Place Plaza) and, from 1872 until 1910, it was the home and surgery of notable doctor and politician-about-town, Louis Lawrence Smith.

From sly grog to flat whites: the hidden histories of Melbourne’s lanes

November 20th, 2024 - Sean Reynolds

Melbourne’s lanes are celebrated worldwide for their street art, cafes and character-filled charm but rewind a hundred years, and these bluestone lanes had a much darker past.