Melbourne History
Published 1 year, 8 months ago in My life.tonight I went to a lecture on the roads of Melbourne. it was the history of how Melb was layed out. it was interesting to note that the grid we have in the CBD is not aligned north/south, east/west. Robert Russell who planned it apparently did it that way because of the way the Yarra river went. Then Hoddle came along and wanted to change some things. He wanted to extend Bourke St to go out thru East Melb but the local MP’s didn’t want that to happen so they decided that’s where they would put Parliament House. Has anyone ever heard that before? I know I haven’t. all this including decisions being made in Sydney and in London all combined to effect the city we now have.
5 Responses to “Melbourne History”
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Some might say parli is a roadblock of sorts but I also didn’t know that parliament was a literal roadblock.Gold star for creative thinking to the MPs; got to give them that.
Those East Melbourne residents have always been great lobbyists, haven’t they?
And, man, didn’t Mr Russell get the grid wrong? Funnelling that Antartic winter wind along the CBD streets…
Can’t imagine why a girl like you, lyni, would be at a lecture on roads though. You become more interesting every day!
thank you wonderwoman but I like hearing about Melb’s history. also it supports our community to go to these lectures because this was held at the local history library. I know that quite a few suburbs have them and its always worth going when they put on a lecture.
Who was the brain cell who thought up the hook turn?
The history of Melbourne and it’s roads got my attention, do you have a link to the person /people giving the lecture or the sources, so I can find out more?
Also did you hear the story about Mac Robertson Girls School on Queens Rd?..it was rumoured to have been built on the ‘wrong’ site of the road…!!
hi savesyou. the lecture was given by Dr Max Lay. he wrote a book called Melbourne Miles and his talk was based on his book. the book I think costs either $25 or $35. I’m not sure on that. the lecture was given at the Prahran Mechanics Institute in High St Prahran and they have the book for sale there. or you can borrow it if you are a member. have a look at their website for more info. pmi.net.au and click on ‘events’. no, I didn’t know that Mac Robertson Girls School was built on the wrong side of the road. I knew that it was built by the Mr MacRobertson from MacRobertson’s Chocolates because the state government of the time was dragging their feet on building a school and where to put it. so while the girls were waiting for the school to be built they used Government House as their school. that I think would have been great.