Category: Recent News

The RHSV will be closed on Thursday 22nd September for our National Day of Mourning following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.  The RHSV will also be closed on Friday 23rd of September for the public holiday before the AFL Grand Final.
Statement on Queen Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022

The Council of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and our many members extend our deepest sympathies to the Royal Family and the members of the British nation and the Commonwealth.

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Inspired by a photograph taken in 1906 from one of the tallest buildings in Melbourne at the time – the nine-storey Commercial Travellers Club – Cheryl Griffin has described the history of the Yarra River’s Turning Basin for the latest edition of CBD News. 

“Although it is hard to imagine the landscape before white settlement, it was once a fertile wetland and for many thousands of years and countless generations of Wurundjeri people it was a hunting and fishing ground,

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The RHSV joins the Chinese Community of Ballarat, local historical societies and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) in calling urgently for the Ballarat Council to reverse the decision to demolish a historic cottage that played a central role in the town’s history. This 1906 classic Edwardian cottage was home to the family of Chinese goldmine manager James Wong Chung continuously until 2008. It played a role in Chinese life and stands as a witness to the participation of Chinese Australians in the Goldfields.

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The RHSV is currently awaiting the publication of the final planning application for the development of the Royal Standard Hotel. As we so far know, it involves “partial demolition” in order to construct residential apartments and “a ground level restaurant”. We are very much concerned for the future of this iconic 1865 hotel, remarkably intact and still functioning. The City of Melbourne has a shocking record in allowing the demolition of historic hotels, most recently in granting a permit to demolish the 1864 Great Western Hotel,

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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 – 

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The threat of redevelopment of the historic John Curtin Hotel in Carlton has eased after Heritage Victoria announced on 25 July that the Curtin has been recommended for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register due to its ‘state level significance’.

Concern about the future of the John Curtin Hotel arose when it was announced in February that the hotel was up for sale and that its lease would not be renewed when it expires in November.

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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,

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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,

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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,

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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.”

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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,

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Every month Cheryl Griffin and Ashley Smith write fabulous history articles for CBD News and Docklands News respectively. The articles are based on photographs from the RHSV collection.

This month Cheryl is inspired by a photograph from about 1865 of students in front of the Model School, Spring Street. You can read the full story here: The three “Rs”: school’s in at the Old Model School, Spring St

Ashley’s article is inspired by a photo of the presentation at the ‘launch of a new train that would become a feature of the railways for the next half-century,

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The Royal Historical Society of Victoria is much saddened at the death of long-serving member, His Honour Paul Mullaly QC. Paul contributed substantially to the RHSV over many years and in many ways however his greatest contribution has been his transcription and annotation of Judge Willis’ Port Phillip Casebooks, for which legal scholars will always be in his debt.

Paul’s work can be found on a mini-website within the RHSV website here: The Judge Willis Casebooks 

The RHSV extends sympathy to Paul’s family.

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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.

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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,

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