The forgotten class? Shopkeepers of nineteenth-century Melbourne

Shopkeepers played a vital role in the functioning of nineteenth-century Melbourne society. They owned the businesses where residents obtained goods, from basic daily needs to the flights and fancies of an emerging modern consumer culture. Echoes of their presence live on in the shopfronts and main shopping streets. This lecture investigates and compares the shopkeepers who operated in three distinct, representative suburbs of nineteenth-century Melbourne: genteel Malvern, inner urban North Melbourne and industrial Footscray. In doing so it provides a genuine comparative cross-section of the urban retail trade in this period and reveals the subtle differences between these localities in terms of the prestige and identity ascribed to shopkeepers within the socio-economic fabric of these local societies. Yet across all three towns (or suburbs), shopkeepers held an important and unique role, one that cannot be understood through the same lens as the working class or middle class.

Dr Fiona Gatt is a professional historian who works on commissioned histories for clients such as the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). She teaches history at La Trobe and Deakin universities and undertakes research for history projects at universities across Australia. Her particular areas of interest include urban history, class, migration, housing and First Nations history. Her work has been published in History Australia, Postcolonial Studies, the Victorian Historical Journal, and shortlisted for the Victorian Community History Awards. The 2024 Weston Bate Oration will present Fiona’s research findings as Historian in Residence at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria 2023–2024.

The Weston Bate Oration is one of the RHSV’s Distinguished Lecture Series.

Housekeeping

The Weston Bate Oration follows the RHSV’s Annual General Meeting. The AGM runs from 5pm until about 6:10pm when we have a short break before resuming for the Oration at 6:30pm. Refreshments will be served in that break. If you wish to attend the Oration only then there is no need to arrive at the Drill Hall until, say, 6:15pm for 6:30pm.

Both the AGM and the Oration are hybrid and will be available on ZOOM for those who cannot attend in person at the Drill Hall. The same ZOOM log-in will apply to both the AGM and the Oration and those log-in details will be sent to those who RSVP 24 hours before the event. You just need to log-in when you are able to join the meeting/oration.

There is the opportunity below to record your apologies if you cannot attend the AGM in person or via ZOOM.

Members will be sent the papers for the AGM 14 days prior to the AGM.

Non-members are more than welcome to attend the AGM – we just ask members to identify themselves when RSVPing as it makes it easier for us to count votes etc