Melbourne from the Air

From the balloon to the drone, and from the Exhibition Building viewing platform to Skydeck, Melburnians have thrilled to the spectacle of their city from the sky. They were fascinated by the exploits of hot-air balloonists like the accident-prone Henry L’Estrange.

When they could not actually fly above the city, artists like Albert Cooke reconstructed it from the ground in the black and white ‘bird’s eye views’ published in popular newspapers. In the twentieth century aerial photographers like Airspy’s Charles Pratt shot the city and suburbs in fine detail, producing the most comprehensive photographic record of the city’s changing topography. In this lecture Graeme Davison reviews the aerial history of Melbourne and asks: Why does the view of the city from the air so enchant us? And what is the value of the Melbourne’s rich archive of aerial views to the social and local historian?

Graeme Davison AO is Professor Emeritus at Monash University and one of Australia’s leading historians. He has written widely on Australian urban and cultural history and on the public uses of history. His books include The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, which won the Ernest Scott Prize, My Grandfather’s Clock, The Unforgiving Minute: How Australia Learned to Tell the Time, The Use and Abuse of Australian History, Car Wars: How the Car Won Our Hearts and Conquered Our Cities, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction, University Unlimited: The Monash Story (with Kate Murphy), Lost Relations: Fortunes of My Family in Australia’s Golden Age and, as co-editor, The Oxford Companion to Australian History.

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.