Category: The Melbourne Files

For 70 years, Wirth’s Circus stood where the Arts Centre is now, and was one of Melbourne’s top attractions. It was destroyed by fire in 1953.

In 1911, an American philanthropist gifted a library to Melbourne. Northcote’s ‘Carnegie Library’ still stands on High Street, and is now used as council offices.

The Degraves Street Subway is a thirty metre underpass, providing an underground entrance to Flinders Street Station. It has a long, and varied, history.

From upmarket apartments, to a low budget boarding house, and back again: this is the story of The Gatwick Hotel.

In October 1938, a plane crash on Mount Dandenong became Australia’s first major air disaster. The aftermath would change aviation in this country.

The Bendigo Street Studio has a long history: it was a piano maker’s, a Heinz factory, and the most famous TV location in Australian history. 

Bayside Williamstown is one of Melbourne’s oldest suburbs. Until the 1940s, it was home to one of the city’s most popular racetracks.

In November 1986, the Turkish embassy in Melbourne was bombed. This is the Toorak Terrorist Attack.

If you think skiing in Victoria you think: Mt Hotham, Mt Buller, Bright. But before those, Victoria’s most popular ski resort could be found on Mt Donna Buang, near Warburton.

Yarra Bend Asylum was Melbourne’s first, and biggest, mental hospital.  The grounds are now a public park, but traces still remain.