Melbourne is a young city. Founded in 1835 Melbourne is now just shy of 200 years old. Despite this, a great deal of Melbourne's heritage has already been lost. The story begins with the discovery of gold near Ballarat in 1851 which made the state of Victoria and its capital very rich. Many high Victorian buildings were built but then in the 1890s the bubble burst, Australia went into a depression and many financial institutions and speculative developers went under. Two decades later in 1901 Melbourne became the centre of government for a fledgling nation and the city wanted to be seen as forward looking. Two world wars and another depression kept a lid on Melbourne's ambitions, then in 1949 Melbourne was announced as the host city for the Games of the XVI Olympiad (1956). Again the city wanted to be seen as a modern metropolis so it was decided to demolish a number of Melbourne's older buildings. Unfortunately, it wasn't till the mid-to-late 1970's that Melbourne began to appreciate its history and what had been lost. The detailed story of Melbourne’s mad pursuit of modernity has been reported often. Bloggers, social media denizens and scholars have written about it, books published and documentaries filmed. However, the idea of this site is to plot this history so the link between past and present are made visible.
Here the map is centred on the old Victorian Post Office (now a “retail experience”) and it extends just beyond the Hoddel Grid.
Locating some places on a present-day map accurately has been a challenge as, over time the streets of Melbourne have been changed, renamed, renumbered and some no longer exist.
The buildings and other objects included here have all been lost to history or significantly altered over time. Everything from the humble “Old Tin Shed” to high Victorian Coffee Palaces are included, but not the survivors which are equally interesting but can be seen by visiting Melbourne today. Not all losses are from the mid to late nineteenth century and not all will be missed. Several examples of mid twentieth century modernist architecture have come and gone in less time than their C19th counterparts and some, like the Gas and Fuel Corp. buildings, were a blight on the city anyway.
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Acknowledgement of Country
The authors of this website respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which the City of Melbourne resides, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the unbroken spiritual, cultural and political connection they have maintained to this unique place for more than 2000 generations.
