HISTORIC BUILDINGS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18283, 29 December 1933, Page 7

HISTORIC BUILDINGS

MELBOURNE LANDMARKS TASK FOR CENTENARY YEAR *. .

The Centenary year in Melbourne will provide an opportunity of marking buildings aud places of historic interest. Through the influence of the Historical Society of Victoria many interesting spots associated with early Melbourne have been marked by tho erection of monuments and tablets, notably the iron slab embedded in tho footpath at the foot of William street, and bearing John Batman’s words, ‘‘This will he the place for a village.” A tablet indicating the site of Fawkner’s shanty, probably the first houso built in Melbourne, has been placed on the building occupied by the State Electricity Commission, and the site of the first two-storied building in Melbourne, erected by Batman in 1835, Is marked by an inscription on tho corner-stone of the City Mutual Life Assurance Society's building at the intersection of William and Collins streets. >

On-the entrance to the Australian Mutual Provident Society’s building in Collins street is an inscription marking the site of one of Fawkner’s hotels. The site of the first block of land sold in Melbourne on June 1, 1837, is denoted by a tablet at -the. corner of Flinders and Queen streets. A monument identifies Burial Hill, where the first pioneers were buried, at the top of William street; the bluestone monument which stood over Batman’s grave in tho old cemetery’ at the rear of West Melbourne Market has been re-erected in Batman avenue. An inscription marks the birthplace of Mr. Alfred Dcakin, three times Prime Minister of Australia, at Fitzrov; and the old wooden house of tho first Governor of Yictoria, Mr. La Trobe. is marked by a bronze tablet. The house still stands, nearly 100 years old, at Jolimont. There are many othor places, however, the marking of which would add interest to tno cit - v - .