Articles by: Sarah Matthews

Read all about it!

Read all about it!

August 30, 2021

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Our stories, Victorian history:

From as far back as the 1850s, newsboys were a common sight on the streets of Melbourne. Most were poor and many were illiterate. But they were not without their friends and allies…

Canvas Town: ‘a floating city, devoured by the sun’

Canvas Town: ‘a floating city, devoured by the sun’

March 31, 2021

Ask a librarian, Our stories, Victorian history:

It was November, 1852, when almost overnight, a strange sight sprang up, near Princes Bridge, in Melbourne. Canvas Town, as it came to be known, was a large tent city, set up to accommodate people on their way to the goldfields…

Melbourne’s first newspaper

Melbourne’s first newspaper

January 1, 2021

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Victorian history:

On New Year’s Day, 1838, pioneer John Pascoe Fawkner published Melbourne’s first newspaper. Printing presses were scarce in the colony, so Fawkner handwrote the newspaper himself…

Ania Walwicz: rebel with a cause

Ania Walwicz: rebel with a cause

November 9, 2020

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Our stories:

The Victorian literary community has lost one of its own, with the death of much-loved poet, performance artist and creative writing teacher, Ania Walwicz

The Show must go on!

The Show must go on!

September 18, 2020

Social life & customs, Such was life:

The Royal Melbourne Show has been cancelled this year so let’s look at how it came to be- and the fun times we can look forward to next year.

The riotous Williams

The riotous Williams

September 17, 2020

Ask a librarian, Victorian history:

Melbourne’s Elizabeth Street was once a waterway known as Williams Creek. Today, the creek runs underground, but every now and then, it returns with a vengeance…

Fireworks in Little Bourke street

Fireworks in Little Bourke street

August 4, 2020

Ask a librarian, Collection spotlights, Our stories, Victorian history:

There’s an air of intrigue around these deserted Chinese shopfronts, captured by artist Eric Thake in Melbourne during World War II

Time travelling with Sands & McDougall

Time travelling with Sands & McDougall

June 16, 2020

Buildings & streets, People & professions, Such was life:

Bell hangers and nightmen, leech merchants and lightermen; these are just some of the nineteenth century characters you may find lurking within the pages of a Sands & McDougall directory.

On the ‘shick’ in Little Lon

On the ‘shick’ in Little Lon

April 16, 2020

Buildings & streets, Social life & customs, Such was life:

Of all the slums in inner Melbourne, ‘Little Lon’, was the most notorious. But there was more to the precinct than met the eye…

The Spare Corner Club

The Spare Corner Club

May 17, 2019

People & professions, Social life & customs, Such was life:

It was a cool summer’s day in 1940 when around fifty members of the Spare Corner Club met in the Fitzroy Gardens for lunch…