Welcome
East MelbourneWelcome to the East Melbourne Historical Society.
East Melbourne is tiny suburb adjoining the city of Melbourne bounded by Treasury and Fitzroy Gardens to the west, Victoria Parade to the north, Hoddle Street to the east and Yarra Park to the south, home of the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground. East Melbourne was included in Robert Hoddle's original 1837 plan for the city but the first private house was not built until 1853.
The suburb today reflects a history of Victoria with its beautiful gardens, grand houses of the gold rush era and workmen's cottages. Cast iron lacework adorns the houses, bluestone cobbled lanes lead to old coach houses and brick dunnies. Artists, scientists, politicians, judges, educators, priests, explorers, entrepreneurs, courtesans, philanthropists and social activists lived here and many a tale is told of characters wild and exotic.
Our Society welcomes members to participate in our programme of talks, excursions, research projects and social activities. For enquiries about membership or about this website please make Contact.
Recent news
The East Melbourne Historical Society Receives a Special Grant
Project team members: - Jill Fenwick, Nik Iljin, Wendy BabiolakisThe East Melbourne Historical Society has received a grant of $2,290 from Museums Australia (Victoria) to digitise its collection. Digitising involves creating high quality electronic images of items in the collection and loading them onto the web site. The collection may then be searched or browsed via an on-line catalogue and digitised items can be viewed in detail. The grant provides funds to buy imaging equipment, software and services to begin the process.
Hole plugged in MMBW plans
Thumb print of missing planA significant hole has been plugged in our set of MMBW plans for East Melbourne. The missing plan covers the area bounded by Grey, Hoddle, Hotham and Powlett Streets. It was drawn in 1899 but had managed to escape digitisation until clever detective work by the State Library Maps Collection uncovered its whereabouts and took it into custody. Its particulars have now been digitised by the Imaging department and it is available in our Gallery where you are free to pan and zoom at your pleasure. As you will see, even after such a long period at large the item is in quite remarkable condition although admittedly a little ragged around the edges.
EMHS catalogue is now on-line
The East Melbourne Historical Society catalogue is now on the web site. Just click on the Catalogue menu item at the top right or follow this link: http://emhs.org.au/catalogue.
You can browse the catalogue, search for any terms or look for specific topics, building names or addresses.
If you would like access to any items please don't hesitate to Contact us.
News from the State Library of Victoria
Forthcoming activities
Tour of Abbotsford Brewery
Breweries once dotted many of Melbourne's inner suburbs including East Melbourne.
US Military Forces at the MCG
The Melbourne Cricket Club Library has recently received some new material, including photos, dating to the Second World War when US military forces were based at the MCG. Alf Batchelder will
Tom Wills
Tom Wills, a star cricketer, is credited with creating the game of Australian Rules Football to keep members of the cricket team fit over the winter months. But there was much more to his life than just sport. Greg de Moore will tell us his extraordinary story.