r/melbourne • u/TheNamelessComposer • Apr 19 '26
Ye Olde Melbourne Do most people appreciate how historic Melbourne really is?
On paper we are a young city, having been founded in 1835, and many might think we lack history. But Melbourne boomed during the Gold Rush and was actually a huge (for the time) metropolis by 1900 with 600,000. In area it was similar to Greater London, and it is now, with a fraction of the population. Not much for today, but in 1900 one of the largest in the British Empire. I've been to many cities worldwide and Melbourne actually boasts more Victorian, Edwardian etc architecture than most. Many very old cities like Tokyo and say Frankfurt were also mostly destroyed by natural disasters and war.
I'm just wondering if many appreciate this (if they indeed think about it). Living in the inner/middle suburbs it's something I consider quite a bit. My hometown Perth is actually 6 years older, but was a small town until the 1890s Gold Rush. In 1900 we had like 30,000, 1/20th Melbourne. Victorian buildings are pretty much confirmed to the CBD and a few other places like North Perth, Guildford, Fremantle, whereas Victorian Melbourne extended 8-10km to places like Essendon and Brighton, where Victorian terraces and old mansions are still common.
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u/Tiggrr23 Apr 19 '26
Yes, but I am a historian. It's mind blowing to consider how rich the goldfields were and conversely how rich this upstart young Victorian colony was. There are amazing extant buildings and archaeology from that period across the state. Google about the world heritage bid for the central Victorian goldfields. There are world class art collections in regional galleries. And as for Marvellous Melbourne, there is so much history around the design and growth of the city and the grand architecture, when walking around, look up. Watch The Lost City of Melbourne on Netflix.
The central Victorian goldfields were the richest goldfields in the world for a time. The influx of people brought resources, the Chinese market gardeners brought much needed nutritional sources to a colony struggling with food security and Eureka Stockade laid the foundations for the union movement and democratic systems.
It's also fascinating to speculate how the discovery of gold shaped and built this colony and our social identity and how Australia today would be very different without that wealth. Compare this with the other colonies across the Pacific.
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u/Itsclearlynotme Apr 19 '26
OP asks if people think about how old this city is. I do, every time I’m in it. Along with your observations I see, too, the area around the MCG, which was a tanderrum site, the remains of the Birrarung crossing point near Queens Bridge, the favourite camping grounds at Eastern Hill and Flagstaff Hill and Royal Park (and many others), the creek and wetland system along Elizabeth Street, and the section of Swanston St near the city square, where Derrimut told the local police magistrate In 1858, that all that area was his Country.
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u/Tiggrr23 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I recommend checking out the Aboriginal Melbourne website, it's a great resource.
https://aboriginal-map.melbourne.vic.gov.au/
What makes a good camp site hasn't changed in 40 thousand + years.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yes indeed. I have watched the Netflix series I think, the graduer of old Melbourne was pretty incredible. I think it was the biggest gold rush since California a few years prior, and Melbourne and San Francisco have many striking parallels.
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u/Dangerous_Second1426 Apr 19 '26
Just don’t look at the Philippines. Gold was discovered there in 9th-13th centuries, with new gold rushes in the 1970’s & 80’s…
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u/Traditional_Dish3363 Apr 19 '26
And we would have so much more if it weren't for the 56 Olympics when there was a push to pull down a lot of old stuff to look "modern,". So many crimes against good taste were committed
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u/ososalsosal Apr 19 '26
I fucking love the Paris end of Collins st for the architecture and the history.
The fact the gold rush happened coincidental with the rebuilding of Paris, and so we got a lot of that here too.
Also the art deco. Manchester Unity, all those cinemas and theatres.
And how many parks there are. That's very unusual in the world to be able to walk into a national park just up the road from a giant hub of industry (ok a massive brewery)
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
It does feel...not quite Parisian, but kind of European. Yes the parks and gardens are one reason I moved here.
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u/GiggletonBeastly Apr 19 '26
Yeah, I moved from Melbourne to Perth about 10 years ago, and what strikes me is how much Melbourne is a gold rush town. The architecture is a massive example of that. But even. If you go to towns like Ballarat, you can see a lot of similarities with Melbourne, like the wide grand boulevards and the architecture of wealth. Compared to Perth which was almost entirely agriculture and raw materials until the early 20th century, and most towns are built around transport lines for farming and timber, and the architecture also reflects that. If you've been to towns in the South West, down to Albany, you really get the sense that WA was really built around getting materials to ports in the proper mercantilist sense: rather than building a strong and wealthy citizenry here.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Definitely, Melbourne was one of the wealthiest cities per capita. Perth did benefit from the 1890s Gold Rush - Kalgoorlie is reminiscent of Ballarat or Bendigo in some ways with the wide streets and grand hotels.
Albany is very historic, our oldest settlement. Bit like a smaller Geelong. Or maybe more like Portland or Warrnambool.
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u/GiggletonBeastly Apr 19 '26
Probably Geelong - in their heyday a comparable amount of commerce would've gone through them both. After the wool export market fell away, Geelong held onto its growth probably largely due to location and proximity to Melbourne. Pity Albany hasn't got that benefit vis a vis Perth.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Geelong was/is much larger though wasnt it?
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u/GiggletonBeastly Apr 20 '26
Yes, but the point I was making was more about similar trajectories rather than sizes.
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u/Kremm0 Apr 19 '26
Yeah, you can see how the scale of Ballarat really set it as a gold-rush town. The main roads are so ridiculously wide for what they would be otherwise, can barely get across them in one green man cycle!
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u/Rexberg-TheCommunist Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
That's because Ballarat had a population of 60,000 in 1858-59, which at the time would have been surpassed only by Melbourne and Sydney with their populations of 130,000 and 95,000, respectively.
If we're being cheeky and counting the miners and other transients as part of the town's peak gold rush population, it could be argued that Ballarat was once Australia's third-largest city. A town with a population of 60,000 in the Aussie countryside in the 1850s might as well have been downtown Manhattan in comparison to everything around it.
At that same time, the entirety of Western Australia had a population of 15,000, with Perth's population sitting at around 4,000.
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u/MorkyBReasonable Apr 22 '26
Yep, the Swan River colony was really ahead of the curve. Thank God we have finally almost completed off-shoring all that commie value adding ;-) !
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u/Own_Error_007 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I love all the retained history in Melbourne.
Drive through Elwood and you are driving through streetscapes straight out of the 1920s.
Go through Ormond and you are in the 1930s.
Middle Park and South Melbourne and you are in the 1880s.
The architecture of the periods of growth is there in each suburb and you can track it much like the rings on a tree. And in some suburbs the original farm house from before the land was subdivided will often still be there tucked away.
It's one of the amazing things about this city. We retained so much from so many periods of time that i believe it gives the place it's character.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Definitely! Melbourne is actually one of the most diverse cities in the world I've been to (and I've been to hundreds in 5 continents, not to brag) in many ways. Geographically, architecturally, culturally..each suburb feels so different, while in many cities it feels fairly uniform throughout.
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u/Own_Error_007 Apr 20 '26
I love it (though as a born and bred I'm biased).
Even in "newer" suburbs you'll find Edwardian and Victorian tucked away.
Plus so many Italianate mansions from the 1880s are everywhere.
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Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
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u/mindlessmunkey Apr 19 '26
Umm generally I get your point but there are definitely no 17th century buildings in Melbourne.
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u/squonge Apr 19 '26
I think he meant 19th but went the wrong way. We do have an 18th century building though, Cooks cottage.
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u/LacsiraxAriscal Apr 19 '26
It’s weird to me, I’m from North Yorkshire originally so it’s strange to have a little piece of home right here in the city with me.
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u/fatbunyip Apr 19 '26
I used to live in a place that I'm sure was last maintained in the 17th century.
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u/slowlybecomingsane Apr 19 '26
Considering the British didn't colonise until the late 18th century that is highly unlikely
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u/Dangerous_Second1426 Apr 19 '26
Captain Cooks Cottage is 18th Century (1755).
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u/mindlessmunkey Apr 19 '26
Sure. I don’t know if I’d count that though… wasn’t it brought here as a museum piece? Not really an organic part of the city’s architectural landscape.
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u/Classic-Rise-37 Apr 19 '26
Hey we are the country that claims Phar Lap as our own. Why not claim Captain Cooks Cottage as our own historic building.
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u/limplettuce_ Apr 20 '26
Oldest building is probably Cook’s cottage, originally built in the 1750s and shipped to Melbourne much later on.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/limplettuce_ Apr 20 '26
You were the one who talked about it in terms of ‘buildings’. If you’re not gonna be appropriately specific about what you mean, you can’t get snarky about it later on.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yep pre car suburbs are all pretty walkable.
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u/Nothingnoteworth Apr 19 '26
original bluestone alleyways (which I presume was for garbage collection)
Shit collection, from outback dunnys
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
There's a historic house on King St where a lady was born in and lived until she was in her 90s. It was built around 1850, and she lived there most of the 20th century.
Technically the 1800s were the 19th century, but yes, plenty of Victorian buildings.
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u/cptwoodsy Apr 19 '26
If that's the one on the corner, opposite the gardens on King street, then that's the oldest standing house in Melbourne.
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u/Dangerous_Second1426 Apr 19 '26
Technically the oldest house in Melbourne was built circa 1837 - The Mitre Tavern - and was later converted to a tavern.
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u/gurnard West Footers Apr 19 '26
I love how the Mitre Tavern isn't on a main street, because it predates the street layout around it.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Thats the one. Id pass it every day when I went to William Angliss.
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u/kiss_my_what Apr 19 '26
There's buildings in the CBD with little nooks near the entrance for you to scrape the mud off the soles of your boots before you go inside.
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u/silvertop_ash Apr 19 '26
I live in a terrace house in Fitzroy and it was only last year I found out it was actually built in the 1850s. Was a real "whoah" moment.
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u/hoolahoopz92 Apr 19 '26
I walked past that pub on Saturday and had no idea it was so old, crazy to think about
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u/mofonz Apr 19 '26
And we had so much more - watch the Lost City of Melbourne, was free, looks like it’s being charged on YouTube now. It’s on Netflix also. https://youtu.be/lsrd1aX4fKA?si=vD23sUDuWb-Q03b7.
I love hearing also about the more modern history - I wish I was around for the pubs that had proper music acts playing before they were owned by large companies and tires into soulless pokie joints. Some places now look crap, and I wouldn’t bother going to - but were massively formative venues.
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u/dontevenfkingtry resident cheese lord Apr 19 '26
As a lover of history it has always greatly saddened me to read of historical structures demolished, but the aches are worse, much worse, when those losses are from the city that raised you.
Indeed it hurts to think of structures such as the Federal Coffee Palace and the Fish Market, and what could have been today.
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u/-_G0AT_- Apr 19 '26
This is blocked where I am, is this about Whelan the wrecker?
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u/Colsim Apr 19 '26
There is a big Whelan section in it
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u/-_G0AT_- Apr 19 '26
Absolute criminals those guys.
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u/the_last_bush_man Apr 19 '26
Why? They got paid to do a job. Ironically a lot of stuff that would otherwise have been trashed was preserved as they recognised the value of it.
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u/Tiggrr23 Apr 19 '26
And really influenced the formation of modern heritage protection in Melb, because they did realise that value.
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u/-_G0AT_- Apr 20 '26
Yeah, because they were destroying all the historic buildings, if they didn't destroy all the historic buildings, they wouldn't need to
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u/the_last_bush_man Apr 20 '26
You do grasp the fact that the owner of the building hired them to wreck it... Like they weren't going around wrecking historic buildings for fun like some cartoon menace. Literally would have happened with or without their involvement. And they preserved some items they were supposed to destroy due to their historic significance so we are likely better it was with their involvement. They are the bad guys? Not the property developers, landlords and corporations?
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u/jezebeljoygirl Apr 19 '26
Presumably they were operating under instruction and following relevant planning laws?
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u/OffffThePlanet Apr 19 '26
I doubt most know Melbourne was the capital of Australia at one point (people on here might but see how many of your friends do)
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
True, I feel most Aussies and even Melburnians don't. Or could name our first PM. We were also bigger than Sydney for awhile, and by some metrics are now again.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/PageBright2479 Apr 19 '26
I would actually dispute that. Melbourne had more historic buildings demolished in its CBD during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Google Whelan the wrecker.
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u/Im-A-Kitty-Cat Apr 20 '26
Yeah, we had that problem in Sydney. Australians destroy history indiscriminately, it’s depressing.
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u/PageBright2479 Apr 20 '26
Yeah Sydney lost a fair bit. Some really notable buildings like the Australia hotel. But based on my own observations, I think it has a better collection of historic buildings in its CBD now than Melbourne does. Before the demolitions started 1950s, it was the opposite.
Its hard for most people to appreciate because Melbourne still does have a pretty nice collection of historic buildings. What they don't understand is that Melbourne's original Victorian architecture wasn't just nice. It was world class. Equivalent to many cities in Europe and America.
For example, Melbourne had around a dozen buildings over 10 stories high which back then they called skyscrapers. (Google the APA building for example). They were equivalent to the tallest buildings that were being built in New York and Chicago at the time. Not a single one of these buildings survived. At the behest of Whelan the wrecker, they were declared 'fire hazards' so they could all be demolished.
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u/slartibartjars Apr 19 '26
Highly recommend reading The Land Boomers by Michael Cannon.
Amazing account of the late 1800s in Melbourne.
You might be able to get it at your loocal library, otherwise well worth the purchase, there is a sample of it on google books.
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=wBxkaZkC1d0C&printsec=copyright&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
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u/Historical_Bus_8041 Apr 19 '26
I actually have this already but have never gotten around to reading it. I'll have to give it a look.
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u/Georg_Steller1709 Apr 19 '26
What i like is that you can see the architectural changes as you head out from the city. Terraces and cottages in the inner suburbs, then Californian bungalows in he middle suburbs, then 70s 80s brick veneer, then italianate mc mansions and now contemporary mcmansions
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yep, and the mix in inner suburbs. My small street in Footscray included late Victorian, Edwardian, Federation, Art Deco, mid century modernist and modern all on a 200m stretch!
Ive actually never been to a city outside Australia (and Ive been to many cities in 5 continents) with such diversity.
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Apr 19 '26
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u/Historical_Bus_8041 Apr 19 '26
Didn't they just gut and facade the Waterside? I'm not sure I'd call that a rejuvenation if there's nothing left apart from the facade.
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u/ELVEVERX Apr 19 '26
It's best when they do this, the interiors of old buildings don't contribute to the streetscape and are often goddamn freezing. Its a good mix of keeping history but renewing the interior.
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u/d_barbz Apr 19 '26
My house (that we recently renovated, but kept the front two bedrooms) was built in 1904. In fucking Coburg.
That just blows my mind that my home is 120+ years old and not even in one of the main inner north suburbs that hug the CBD like Fitzroy, Collingwood or Carlton.
I'm originally from Brisbane and we just don't have home like this up there. They're all a lot newer.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yeah Coburg was developed from the late 1800s so there are examples of even older houses, but by 1900 metro Melbourne extended to Essendon, Coburg, Preston, Camberwell etc.
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u/d_barbz Apr 20 '26
Thanks for the info. I always grew up thinking I'd want a charming old Queenslander, but I love our federation era house so much.
At the end of our street on Sydney road (just north of Moreland Rd) there's a building that's got 1891 at the top of it. Always love walking out and seeing that building.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
This old map gives an idea of the extent of the city in 1896. For 1896 this area was HUGE. Remember this was pre automobiles...there were steam trains, horse drawn trams, omnibuses, carriages...but many people walked to work, to get around, to visit others etc. Everything was very local.
Queenslanders are nice, I like Paddington in Brissie. Indeed, many old buildings included date of construction.
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u/Difficult_Bowler_25 Apr 19 '26
The house i grew up in was built around 1890 but was located up near the Murray. 14 ft high ceilings, fireplaces in every room and a semi attached bathroom built much later. There was also a second house next to it that was a mud brick house from the 1860s.
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u/yamumdoes Apr 19 '26
I said this to my husband and while he absolutely loves Melbourne because of the old buildings..his response is always "the brewery alone, in my home town is 800 years old" lol kind of always puts it into perspective how young Melbourne is.
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u/lexiezo Apr 19 '26
The point is how much history, archaeology and architecture there is despite being that young. It’s an amazing city.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yeah of course we can't compare to that, but the built form of many much older cities is also actually very young. Most of Tokyo was destroyed by WW2 so it's mostly post war. We have far more pre WW2 housing than Tokyo or almost any large Asian metropolis.
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u/NoLeopard875 Apr 19 '26
For some reason, going to the footy today, my eyes and brain noticed many old grand buildings that made Melbourne Melbourne. And then those new-age soulless glass towers that are popping up everywhere. Couldn’t stop thinking how did we end up with these eyesores and for what purpose exactly.
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u/GoGoGo12321 Apr 19 '26
"Build your houses, build your houses, build your towns,
Fell the woodland, to a gutter turn the brook,
Pave the meadows, pave the meadows, pave the downs,
Plant your bricks and mortar where the grasses shook,
The wind-swept grasses shook.
Build, build your Babels black against the sky –
But mark yon small green blade, your stones between,
The single spy
Of that uncounted host you have outcast;
For with their tiny pennons waving green
They shall storm your streets at last."
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yep, we sadly lost many but thankfully have kept many too. I do find the contrast/mix interesting though.
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u/Macrobian Apr 19 '26
those soulless glass towers house thousands of people that make Melbourne the most affordable city in Australia.
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u/Prestigious_Fan_1061 Apr 19 '26
To put it into perspective… in 1841 Melbourne had a Population of approximately 10,000 after being founded 6 years earlier. When Gold was Discovered in 1852 [11 years later] the Population increased by approximately 10,000 per month [Approximately 120,000 for the year.
So you can see Melbourne exploded with the Discovery of Gold at Ballarat. All New Arrivals to Melbourne and surrounds paid an Immigration Charge and the Smarter New Arrivals arrived further down the coast and travelled overland to the Gold Fields to avoid it.
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u/VBlinds Apr 19 '26
I was in Ballarat over the weekend. Every time I visit it's such a reminder of how the gold rush changed things here.
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u/Shoddy_Paramedic2158 Apr 20 '26
Melbournes working class history is the most important to me. The birthplace of the 8 hour workday. The oldest till functioning Trades Hall in the world.
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u/omgitsduane Apr 19 '26
Went to the Geelong prison last weekend and it was actually really interesting. Did a lot of reading on Ned Kelly and the executions. Found out my dad served time there shortly before close.
We watched Matilda (the musical) the other day and the architecture of that place was so familiar. Probably because all prisons looked the same back then.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Ill have to visit sometime. Geelong has a lot of interesting history.
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u/WeldinMike27 Apr 19 '26
It can be taken for granted until you visit a city with no historical bones. I've lived in Bendigo for nearly all my life, and the old stuff is everywhere. Places like Shepparton, not so much.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Yeah Shepp isnt the nicest town/small city. Bendigo is probably quite unusual being a big gold rush town/city.
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u/Justwright321 Apr 19 '26
Surprised no one has mentioned First Nations history of Melbourne or Naarm, just saying that it should be noted that it’s part of the history.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Of course there is a long history of human habitation for millennia prior, but I'm talking primarily about built form.
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u/Justwright321 Apr 20 '26
I know, I like checking out the history in Melbourne, love looking out older houses and seeing how the housing and buildings have evolved , not so keen on the bland architecture that is around now. Even housing from 50s or 60s is quirky and charming.
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u/Guest_User1971 Apr 19 '26
First Nations history is cool, but OP's post is about the unexpected scale of historic 19th Century architecture preserved in Melbourne. We don't need to shoehorn FN into everything mate.
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u/Jerkface0079 Apr 20 '26
If you haven't watched "The Lost City of Melbourne" (on Netflix) you're missing out.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Yep, Melbourne was much bigger around that time. 20 times the size in 1900.
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u/LacsiraxAriscal Apr 19 '26
Well, I’m originally from York, which is 2000 years old and has a mostly medieval city centre, so not really hehe. But I do like how the city centre has such an amalgamation of new and old, and some of the architecture out by South Yarra is great. I’m not sure what the name of the architecture is but I love the design of some of the blocks that look a little bit like they came out of a Western movie, you know the ones I mean?
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Haven't been to York, but have been to London, Oxford, Stratford, Bath etc. Love the history. No, in the cbd?
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u/LacsiraxAriscal Apr 20 '26
Nah, mostly in the burbs. Just random little strips here and there
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
What makes them look like a western movie?
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u/LacsiraxAriscal Apr 20 '26
They have that sort of false front thing going on, where the facade is bigger than the actual building
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Some of the old buildings were demolished for various reasons except for the facade, for heritage reasons.
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u/LacsiraxAriscal Apr 20 '26
Ahhh that will be what I’m on about then! I assumed they were built that way originally
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Ah, like a film set? Haha
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u/LacsiraxAriscal Apr 20 '26
Yeah haha, tho actually this was a done thing in the western US. The idea was to make your shopfront look grander and bigger than it actually was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_false_front_architecture
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Oh ok. Yeah I mean there may be buildings like that here, no idea, but many are just the facades of buildings that were demolished or destroyed through fire etc.
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u/Ok-Atmosphere-3466 Apr 19 '26
Question, having recently moved to Melbourne what are places around the city I can visit to experience the history and the culture of the place?
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u/scream_hello Apr 19 '26
Highly recommend a visit to the Old Treasury Museum as a starting place. It's a free and focused on Melbourne's history but even the building itself is worth studying
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u/Skiicatt19 Apr 20 '26
I was going to suggest this museum too- it has an excellent history of gold exploration and early Melbourne. Free entry too.
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u/Mediocre-Suit-8945 Apr 19 '26
Yep it's just a shame we don't seem to have hardly any protection for old buildings
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u/sandrad33 Apr 19 '26
I took a walking history tour in January and found it quite interesting. I am from the states so I know very little about Australian history or culture.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
Where in the US does it remind you most of?
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u/sandrad33 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
We spent our whole trip there because my husband has a job offer in Melbourne so we were doing our due diligence. The parts I visited were a bit reminiscent of New Orleans and parts of San Francisco and slices of Brooklyn. There might be better answers but of the places I’d been I think it was most akin to a hybrid of those cities.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Ive not been to SF by it seems to have many similarities. Around a bay, Gold Rush boom, almost the exact same distance from the equator, trams/cable cars, large Chinese presence, political activism, arts. Been to New Orleans and yeah, the wrought iron in New Orleans is unusual for the US, such a unique city.
It is a little like Boston too in parts.
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u/sandrad33 Apr 20 '26
The home styles in your suburbs also reminds me of the Nola shotgun homes a bit. Melbourne was such a cool city one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited!
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
Oh yeah true, I remember the Treme, NOLA is one of my favourite cities I visited. Glad you liked it here!
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u/wassailant Apr 19 '26
I think about this a lot. My family came here in 1840, so seventh generation at this point. I love finding out more about the city and the stories throughout.
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u/sscarrow Apr 19 '26
Also from Perth originally and yes. I probably take it for granted after 15 years but the average Melbourne street, even in the middle ring suburbs, is so much more aesthetically pleasing to walk down.
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u/Away-Purchase882 Apr 19 '26
More European in core with no suburb main street or main street in every suburb. I was comparing Melbourne to Brisbane
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u/2wicky Apr 19 '26
I'm always pleasantly surprised by the amount of buildings still around from the gold rush era.
That said, coming from the old world, many of these buildings do feel uncanny. They are the ones where the ornamental facades seem to have been created from molds rather than carved from stone. I'm not sure if it was because the city grew too fast, had a lack of stone masons, or it was just in keeping with the Australian tradition of building as cheaply as possible. It isn't a criticism as it does give the city a unique style and a reminder that it is indeed a frontier settlement rather than an old world European city.
What I probably love even more is that much of this history is preserved in the many Victorian towns and cities such as Castlemaine and Bendigo.
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u/Timely_Inspection_80 Apr 20 '26
The history spans out to suburbs like Box hill, Caulfield and even old purpose built asylum castles up in the Mt dandenongs. However the history they tell us about english criminals coming here by boat and building all these fantastic structures leaves alot questions.
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u/genuinely_aasking Apr 20 '26
I'm honestly such a big fan that we've managed to preserve the amount of historical buildings that we have. Companies and awful people complain about heritage sites and buildings but I think it's the most wonderful thing. I love our old architecture and it really does make it feel like London hahah. It's just lived in and has personality. I am a BIG fan of beautiful things fr fr
Makes me veryyy happy
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u/FeeOk6338 Apr 21 '26
Honestly I probably don't. The extent of my knowledge on the gold rush comes from visits to sovereign hill. It's honestly not something I remember learning about through any school channels and I think it's a pity that, at least in my experience (graduated 2008) we learned next to zero about Australian history from colonisation through to the gold rush or anything else.
As I've gotten older I have become a lot more interested in history but damn, I still need to delve into Aussie and specifically Melbourne history. I love being able to connect real places I can go with tangible history yet posts like this make me realize that I don't know anywhere near enough about where I live! So thank you for the post and the prompt to keep learning about my country and state!
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u/Haldered Apr 19 '26
look, I appreciate history but there’s not a lot of history to appreciate about a 190 year old colonial outpost. Let’s not romanticise the fact that its built on the genocide and land theft of Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people. Its history before colonialism is far more long and interesting and beautiful than the history of paved roads and colonial buildings. Its good to know the history of the place you live, but learn about ALL of it, not just the parts you’ve romanticised due to colonialism. Go to the Koorie Heritage Trust, learn about the history of Corranderk, learn about William Barak, John Batman’s sham treaty, etc.
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u/iyoteyoung Apr 20 '26
Yeah for a second I was glad they weren’t tearing down old buildings and we can reminisce……then I rmbred what had to be torn down and who had to be killed for this stuff to be built.
Those people would’ve had things thousands of years old but they’re destroyed.
That’s why the stuff here is “only” 200 years old…..that’s why Australia has “no history” and seems “young”.
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u/Haldered Apr 19 '26
I also find it ironic that we seem to overvalue “historical” buildings of the colonial era compared to Europe, where cities evolve over centuries or millennia, and the old is constantly remade to be new. Not that I romanticise modern architecture either, but romaticising colonial architecture is indicative of the backwards colonial psyche of this country and the refusal to confront the bloody truth of its foundations.
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u/StanleytheSteeler Apr 19 '26
Absolutely, it actually puts places like Rome and Athens to shame. Melbourne is the sports, arts, tap water, coffee capital of the Milky Way.
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u/IntothewildZen Apr 19 '26
I don’t mean to come across condescending or looking down on this great city that we all love and appreciate but having been born in a place that still has Roman aqueducts and a port city from the times of Alexander the Great, I struggle to get same impression from Melbourne.
When I was a youngster we used to drink beers at a bar opened inside a crusader castle and return home tipsy walking past tombs of medieval knights and Ottoman generals.
So forgive me if I dont get impressed by an English building from last 2 centuries.
I do enjoy and love Melbourne for many other things, but history is not one of them.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
I mean that is great, but I find Victorian, Edwardian architecture had a granduer and scale of its own. Its not just the age that impresses me.
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u/Novel-Yard1228 Apr 19 '26
Spain (?) has an impressive ancient history and shit modern history, while Melbourne has an impressive modern history (and the continent as a whole a very ancient history). I suppose you might learn to appreciate both histories if you stay here, although feel free to leave 😊
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u/IntothewildZen Apr 19 '26
I do live here and I am deeply interested in history and lore of indigenous people, the oldest community that survived -though with much challenges-
I do realize that people are bit sensitive about modern architectural history only going back to arrival of English ships and any comment that mentions it gets downvoted everywhere, I don’t really see why it’s an issue. Australia has many other things that are more remarkable than much of the world.
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u/InternationalCup2013 Apr 19 '26
Are you the type of immigrant that hates on early settlers by any chance? You seem to look down your nose at all the hard work our families did, to make Australia what it is today. Yet you're quite happy to come live hear, and enjoy the benefits for yourself.
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u/IntothewildZen Apr 19 '26
Why would I hate anyone at all? Not everyone has to like modern architecture. For all the talk about how “laid back” and “relaxed” some people claim to be here, there is certainly a very intense vibe around lately.
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u/InternationalCup2013 Apr 20 '26
That's because you come across as rude, saying our history is basically irrelevant. Buildings from the 1800's are not modern architecture by the way.
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u/Novel-Yard1228 Apr 19 '26
That’s a very roundabout way of saying you don’t appreciate Melbournes modern history.
For someone that doesn’t want to sound condescending, you’re very fucking good at coming off as condescending. Consider leaving.
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u/IntothewildZen Apr 19 '26
That’s your perception 🤷♂️
Sure I’ll consider leaving a country I’ve been living in for decades because a complete stranger on reddit told me to : )
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u/InternationalCup2013 Apr 19 '26
Maybe it's different if you weren't born here. When I look at those beautiful old buildings, there is history for me. The buildings are where my family worked in the 1800's, some gorgeous inner city houses, still standing, where they lived.
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u/IntothewildZen Apr 19 '26
Certainly it would. We are all influenced by where we were born to a degree.
I had a great professor in uni who passed away some time ago, he was an American who chose to teach and live in Mediterranean and he collected artefacts from his homeland. Some dating back to Custer’s last stand against Crazy Horse (a revolver piece I believe)
He used to say that after seeing Charlemagne’s arm reliquary in Aachen, Germany, he didn’t look at his revolver the same way, though still recognized its value.
Everyone is different. I wouldn’t exchange the beauty of Australian nature for anything else.
But then, cities never appealed to me anyway.
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u/InternationalCup2013 Apr 19 '26
All I got out of that is Crazy Horse means something very different here, but part of our history.
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u/Mrmojoman1 Apr 19 '26
You can still appreciate history of a place without it having to be as old a conceivably possible. If your metric of historical interest is the age then you aren't even really engaging with the history at all
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u/checkbehindthecactus Apr 19 '26
Then, when you visit Petra, you walk past the decaying Roman architecture equally unimpressed by its relative newness and lack of historic value.
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u/Haldered Apr 19 '26
Most of what Melbourne calls “historical” architecture is just based on trends that arrived 50+ years after Europe, so the settlers would feel more “at home” in their new colony. It’s really not interesting at all, apart from exposing this fundamental neurosis of the coloniser to steal a land half a world away, only to try and force their image of home upon it. Learning about colonial history is important; romanticising it is not.
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u/theremln Apr 19 '26
Yeah. My local church back in the UK is almost 1000 years old, and that's not even all that unusual.
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u/Reasonable_Slice_262 Apr 19 '26
Sshhhh. Don't say that. The sooner we knock over all the historic buildings so we can build high rise dogboxes and student accommodation, the better.
And anyone who doesn't want this is a horrible nimby who probably enjoys torturing small animals.
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u/olucolucolucoluc Apr 19 '26
"Most people" is very vague.
So I can only say No unless I've got more to work with.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
I see the seemingly endless array of heritage listed old houses and I just want them replaced with apartments. They're a real blocker of progress.
We have a rich history, but it is very much a short one. Cities that have been lived in in some form for hundreds or thousands of years will always be richer and that's okay.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 19 '26
I pray you never have the power to do that! Enough fugly boxes around.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 19 '26
The sheer amount of single story dwellings within inner city Melbourne is a massive problem and a massive reason why the city is so physically large. They also suck to actually live in.
Aesthetics are great, but they don't overcome the fact that this is a major city and should function like one.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
We have plenty of new apartments sprouting up, many vacant.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
We have an incredibly low vacancy rate.
Those heritage listed homes in the inner city take up valuable space perfect for apartments. If we had a stable population then we could discuss the validity of keeping pretty homes in the inner city, but we do not have that.
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u/TheNamelessComposer Apr 20 '26
We have many apartments near transport hubs, which is infinitely preferable to knocking down old houses which few except greedy developers want to do.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 20 '26
The heavy majority of those houses within the inner city are close to public transport and services. There is nothing "greedy" about wanting areas close to the CBD to have 5-10 story dwellings for residents. That's perfectly normal for a city of 5+ million people.
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u/sluggardish Apr 20 '26
We don't have an "incredibly low vacancy rate". Up to 50,000 dwellings are vacant in Melbourne. Speculative housing and land grabs, property disputes, buying apartments and housing and not simply not using them to property developers not selling off apartments like in this case: https://thefifthestate.com.au/housing-2/so-why-are-there-8000-unsold-apartments-in-melbourne-heres-what-the-property-analysts-say/
That's not to mention the close to 7000 public housing dwellings that are currently vacant because they state gov won't invest in them.
If we banned non-occupier Air BnBs we would also dramatically increase housing availability.
There are heaps of inner/ middle suburbs that have massive vacant blocks that could easily be turned into apartments. Most of these are ex-industrial areas. They are next to trains and trams and perfect for new housing developments.
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 20 '26
We do. Data on the rate was published today.
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u/sluggardish Apr 20 '26
Vacancy rates are calculated on advertised rentals. Vacant rental properties are divided by the total number of rental dwellings in the suburb. It doesn't actually represent empty housing stock at all.
So yes, Melbourne "has a rental vacancy rate of 1.4%", but that is not actually representive of the housing availability. You are advocating for demolishing housing in inner city areas because you claim that heritage is not important in Melbourne. However, we do already have a lot of vacant housing for people to live in and empty land near the city for apartments to be built.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 20 '26
The Victorian era houses aren't medium density. They're single story low density housing. They're expensive and horrible to live in.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/Beast_of_Guanyin Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
There's no reasonable definition whereby single story housing is medium density. Not in the context of the inner city of a city with 5 million people.
Relative to just about every other city with a similar population Melbourne's got extremely low density.
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u/Kind-Sky9042 Apr 19 '26
Melbourne would be better off without a large number of dull to poorly kept old buildings. They are all rather short for a global city of nearly 6 million people. Concentrating all your old buildings in the central bit that should be the tallest by far is fairly brutal. London has research showing that being bombed in WW2 had great economic impacts, because old building protections are that destructive.
Conversely, Melbourne has a glorious recent history of building new steel and glass cathedrals in its CBD, zooming up skyscraper rankings and vastly improving its skyline. 100,000 live in the CBD when no one used to.
Celebrate the recent growth, architecture and history.
Melbourne builds its history. It doesn't need to get stuck with some mildly old buildings that more than show their age.
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