Category: The Melbourne Files

When did Sunday trading start in Victoria? More recently than you might think, and largely due to one stubborn hardware store owner.

Melbourne’s Significant Trees tell the story of the city; from its First Nations roots, to Colonial settlement, and on to the modern era. 

Flagstaff Hill has been there from the start of colonial Melbourne: cemetery, signal post, scientific observatory, and lunching spot.

Underneath Flinders Street Station was once a unique Melbourne institution: a private club for women run by Ada Gunn.

In March 1959, US evangelist Billy Graham came to Melbourne and set a record that still stands: the largest ever crowd at the MCG.

The lost blue lake of Melbourne was part of a wetland west of the city, swallowed up by Spencer Street station and surrounding development.

The Field Collection at Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens contains cacti from around the world, a passion project for a local plant enthusiast, and an adventurous German botanist.

One of history’s greatest unsolved crimes has a tantalising local connection: was Jack the Ripper in Melbourne?

During World War II in Australia, a shortage of military bases led to a creative solution: thousands of troops at the MCG.

Who is Melbourne named after? Viscount Melbourne: a two-time British Prime Minister and political centrist who was never far from scandal.