eHive Object Details

Name/TitleElevated view across Carpentaria Place (later Gordon Reserve), Eight Hour Day Monument to Geological Museum, Macarthur Street, Government Printing Office and Treasury Building, Spring Street, Melbourne, c. 1910

About this objectThis is a colourised photograph probably taken from an upper level of the Grand Hotel (later Windsor Hotel) on Spring Street, a tower of which casts a shadow in the foreground. To the left, four Hansom cabs wait near the cabbies' shelter in Carpentaria Place.

The small triangle of land in the middle foreground, bounded by Spring and Macarthur streets, was detached from the grounds around Parliament House in 1863 and named Carpentaria Place. The Stanford Fountain, built by William Stanford (1839-1880), was placed here in 1870, and is seen in the middle of the triangle circled by flowerbeds and paths. The statue of General Charles Gordon, killed at Khartoum, Sudan, in 1885, was erected in 1889 at the apex of the triangle where Macarthur and Spring streets meet, and is circled by bollards and a link fence. In the middle foreground, in front of the fountain, is the Eight Hour Day Monument, placed here in 1903 and relocated to the corner of Russell and Victoria streets in 1923. The Adam Lindsay Gordon Memorial was placed on the site vacated by the relocated monument in 1932. A large Morton Bay Fig, to the left of the fountain, is what remains after other exotic plantings including weeping willows and conifers were removed around 1900. Carpentaria Place was renamed the Gordon Reserve in the 1961.

Two cable trams can be seen running along Macarthur Street behind the triangle. The large white double-storey, grey roofed, Renaissance revival-style building, on the left, is the Geological Museum. It was built in 1909, architect J.J. Clark (1838-1915), and demolished in 1965 when government buildings were constructed. The large yellow four-storey buildings behind the Geological Museum are the Government Printing Office completed in 1856. The red brick chimney might be associated with the printing office.

Another J.J. Clark design is the Old Treasury Building to the right of the photograph, said to be one of Australia's finest Renaissance Revival buildings. Behind the Treasury Building, in the background, is the suburb of Jolimont.

One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund.

For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria

MakerT.W. Cameron (Firm)

Maker RolePhotographer

Date Made1910

Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm

Period1910-1920

Object TypePhotograph

Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956

Subject and Association KeywordsGordon, Adam Lindsay, 1833-1870.

Subject and Association KeywordsGordon, Charles, Major General, (1833-85)

Subject and Association KeywordsGordon Reserve (Melbourne, Vic.)

Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials

Subject and Association KeywordsEight Hour Day

Subject and Association KeywordsFountains

Subject and Association KeywordsStanford, William, 1839-1880.

Subject and Association KeywordsGovernment Printers Office

Subject and Association KeywordsOld Treasury Building (Melbourne, Vic.)

Subject and Association KeywordsSpring Street (Melbourne, Vic.)

Subject and Association KeywordsPanoramic views

Named CollectionImages collection

Object numberGS-BCS-15

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved