Steven Cooke, Author at Royal Historical Society of Victoria - Page 5 of 14

RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE

4 August 2022 Steven Cooke

Back in 1878 Melbourne’s docks were under siege by the Melbourne Harbour Trust itself. Desperate to widen the Yarra so that it could handle bigger ships the Harbour Trust brought in heavies to destroy a privately owned dry dock which stood in their way. The ‘ battle of the docks’ attracted 1500 onlookers before police broke up the fight and arrested 6 Harbour Trust employees. The physical battle then became a media war between Wright and Orr which owned the dry dock and the Harbour Trust –

MAJOR VICTORY IN SAFEGUARDING THE ROYAL EXHIBITION BUILDING & CARLTON GARDENS WORLD HERITAGE SITE

29 July 2022 - 29 July 2022 Steven Cooke

The RHSV congratulates the Minister for Planning, the Honourable Lizzie Blandthorn, MP, on her decision to extend the protected area (the World Heritage Environs Area or WHEA) around the Royal Exhibition Building & Carlton Gardens World Heritage Site. This represents a major step forward in our campaign to implement better protection of Melbourne’s only World Heritage Site.

In 2004, when Australia sought World Heritage listing for the Exhibition Building site, it promised a buffer zone around the Carlton Gardens,

A DOMESTIC REMNANT DWARFED BY THE CITY

28 July 2022 - 28 July 2022 Steven Cooke

Cheryl Griffin’s latest article in CBD News has just hit the streets. Cheryl takes us on a journey inspired by a photograph from the 1930s of a very modest, rather sad, little house found in Franklin Street. The land was first bought by John O’Shanassy, later Sir John, Premier of Victoria.

“For some time, this house was reputed to have been the home of Melbourne’s first mayor, Henry Condell, a theory dispelled around the time the photograph was taken,

PROPAGANDA OFFENSIVE UNDERMINES CULTURAL HERITAGE OF QVM

4 July 2022 - 4 July 2022 Steven Cooke

28 June 2022. In response to the City of Melbourne’s latest undermining of the cultural heritage of the Queen Victoria Market, Charles Sowerwine, Chair of the RHSV Heritage Committee, released the following statement.

“The CEO of the Queen Victoria Market, Stan Liacos, has been on a propaganda offensive, presenting a warm fuzzy on change at the Queen Victoria Market. As CEO, Stan has driven the process of change currently engulfing the market, change based on the proposals Robert Doyle made nine years ago,

TIME TO PUT HERITAGE ON THE AGENDA?

4 July 2022 Steven Cooke

A impassioned call for heritage action from Professor Charles Sowerwine, chair of the RHSV Heritage Committee in the lead up to the Victorian election.

“For nearly a decade, your RHSV Heritage Committee has been participating in the planning process to protect heritage. But heritage is losing out. It’s time to put heritage on the political agenda. As members of local historical societies, let’s demand that candidates and elected representatives address the structural issues in the planning system that cause increasing loss of heritage.”

THREAT TO ABC LIBRARIANS AND ARCHIVES, RHSV RESPONSE

4 July 2022 Steven Cooke

THREAT TO ABC LIBRARIANS AND ARCHIVES

Richard Broome’s response, 16 June 2022

An article in the Conversation recently outlined that the ABC is planning to axe librarians. President of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Richard Broome has written a response to the Chair of the ABC Ita Buttrose, outlining his concern for the redundancies and realignments of staff connected with the ABC’s archive/library and on-going record keeping.

As the article in The Conversation states: “When information professionals do their jobs well,

THE DUELS OF BATMAN’S HILL

5 May 2022 - 5 May 2022 Steven Cooke

Inspired by a sketch of Batman’s Hill which was the western boundary of Melbourne during the 1830s, Ashley Smith has done a deep dive into the dubious history of duels fought on the hill. The hill was eventually levelled in the 1860s to make way for extensions to the Spencer Street Railway Station but its infamy lives on in the stories of duels when gentlemen put their lives on the line to defend their honour or the honour of a woman.

The Howitt family’s life in the inner city in pre-goldrush times

3 May 2022 Steven Cooke

Cheryl Griffin’s latest article in CBD News has just been published – all about of a little ramshackle house that could have been found in Spring Street for over 50 after it was built in 1840.

When Godfrey Howitt, his brother Richard and other members of their family, decided to settle in Port Phillip in April 1840, Godfrey and Richard brought a home and that is what you see here.

His prefabricated wooden cottage fronted Spring St in the south-east corner of the CBD and his land,

RHSV seeks BOOKKEEPER

20 April 2022 - 3 May 2022 Steven Cooke

The RHSV is looking to appoint a new book-keeper as soon as possible. We’d like the new book-keeper to start by Monday 9th May 2022.

We are seeking a motivated, experienced, part-time book-keeper to work in a small team. Life is never dull or repetitive at the RHSV and this position would suit someone who has worked in small business.

Although we are small, the RHSV is a complex organisation in terms of the range of activities in which we are involved.

The grandeur of Spring St, early autumn 1899

31 March 2022 Steven Cooke

The wealth and extravagance of the 1880s, the era of Marvellous Melbourne, was long gone when this photograph was taken, but it is still evident in the two main buildings you see here – the Grand Hotel on the left and the Princess Theatre on the right.

The ornate Princess Theatre that dominates this streetscape gives no sense of the terrible fate that overtook Victorian society in the 1890s. The collapse of the banks and the suffering that followed overwhelmed almost every aspect of life.

It’s the 1920s and you’ve arrived at Spencer Street …

31 March 2022 - 31 March 2022 Steven Cooke

Imagine you’re an eager tourist arriving at Spencer Street Station in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

With your back to the acrid coal smoke and much-needed sea breeze of the docks, you take one of the numerous passageways to the front entrance of the station and there, across the street at the corner of Spencer and Little Collins, you find the Hotel Alexander, the swankiest hotel in an otherwise no-frills end of the city

Read more of Ashley Smith’s story here in Docklands News (scroll down to P18)

CURTIN HOTEL UNDER THREAT

25 March 2022 - 25 March 2022 Steven Cooke

Statement on the John Curtin Hotel

Thursday, 24 March 2022

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria strongly supports the nomination of the John Curtin Hotel to the Victorian Heritage Register. Indeed, the RHSV has been providing historical information to assist the National Trust and Trades Hall with the nomination. On the basis of its historical associations alone, the hotel is clearly of state significance. We note, however, that it is also of some architectural significance.

The birth of Victoria Dock

4 March 2022 - 4 March 2022 Steven Cooke

In the early 1930s Victoria Dock was one of the biggest sites for trade and export in Melbourne. A constant queue of ships sailed in, unloaded their cargo, recharged and reloaded, then left for the
next port. The RHSV’s researcher, Ashley Smith, has just written a great article about the birth of Victoria Dock for Docklands News (March edition)

Read the article here: https://www.docklandsnews.com.au/themes/user/site/dn/pdf/DN183.pdf (scroll down to P18)

A stroll along Collins Street, 1900

28 February 2022 Steven Cooke

CBD News has just published Cheryl Griffin’s latest article, A stroll along Collins Street, 1900. A fabulous riff on a photo of everyday life snapped in December 1900 just weeks before the Colony of Victoria became one of 6 states in the new Commonwealth of Australia.

https://www.cbdnews.com.au/a-stroll-along-collins-st-1900

Remembering Stuart Macintyre: Historian, Mentor, Colleague. A two-day symposium

10 February 2022 - 10 February 2022 Steven Cooke

24th-25th February 2022
Arts West North Tower Room 253 The University of Melbourne

Professor Stuart Macintyre (1947-2021) was one of Australia’s most outstanding historians and public intellectuals. An extraordinarily prodigious scholar, his scholarship covered many fields including the history of social movements, Australian public policy, intellectual history and labour history. Stuart was an inspiring teacher and PhD supervisor and mentor; his generous support of the careers of others was a gift from which many have benefited over several decades.