Category: The Melbourne Files

The Melbourne Landmark Competition was launched in 1978 to find a southern equivalent to the Sydney Opera House. It was (mostly) not successful.

In 1962 the Southern Cross Hotel opened on Exhibition Street, and the international jet set came to Melbourne.

In 1966 the heir to the British throne came to Australia for two terms of high school. This is Prince Charles at Geelong Grammar.

In 1976, celebrity chef Willi Koeppen disappeared from his restaurant in the Dandenongs. The case has never been solved.

Salvatore, the Yarra Seal, is currently frolicking around the river in Richmond and Abbotsford. He has been visiting, on and off, for 7 years.

In 2003, a world famous musician played a secret gig at a small Melbourne night club. This is Prince at Bennetts Lane.

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, connecting Flinders Street to Flinders Street Station, with a long and surprising history.