Origins of Melbourne Photos

After falling over in Royal Arcade the other day, I have been reading about Melbourne and its history. Here is an interesting picture of Melbourne in its early days.  The city was named "Melbourne" in 1837.  Here is a picture of Collins Street, (main street, where I used to work) in 1839.  It looks very different today.

Collins Street, Melbourne 1839.

This is Collins Street today.

I used to work in this Rialto Building.  Lots of high floors.

This picture is dated 1840.

Needless, to say, I do not recognise any landmarks or buildings!  I wonder where abouts on the Yarra this is.

I was fascinated to find this photograph of Melbourne in 1862, where St Paul's Cathedral can be clearly seen, it is much smaller there than it is now however.  I always wondered how old the older part of the cathedral was (the brick is a different colour) and now I know. 

It is an amazing Cathedral and would have witnessed many changes in Melbourne.  It is also the Cathedral that the various members of  the Royal Family hang out in whenever they visit Melbourne.  Our beautiful J (6 year old) was also christened in this Cathedral in 2006.  It was so lovely.

This is a picture of St Paul's Cathedral today.  It is beautiful.

This picture below, is of Flinders Street Station in 1927.  Obviously, Melbourne is quite a city by this time and this aspect is taken probably from St Paul's Cathedral which is on the other diagonal side of the train station.  This is the station I was running to when I fell over in Royal Arcade. 

I like the iconity (is that a word) of Flinders Street Station, but it is very old and damp inside, with old cracked ceramic tiles and rusty pipes dripping water in most places as you walk along.  Some people say that the platforms are haunted.

These are pictures of the inside of Flinders Street Station today. 

Flinders Street Station, today.

These pictures are Melbourne modern day, the way we see it.  Even though I am very homesick for Queensland, I feel happy to be in Melbourne when I see it like this at night. 

My husband is reading my blog on his I-phone in another room whilst I write my blog in this room.  Isn't modern life bizarre sometimes?

I also have a confession to make everyone, I am studying media/journalism subjects at university now and I have to "write", "journal", "document" "critique" etc so I am going to use my blog as my playground for these topics.  It is a nice change and break from my last subject at uni where I had to use legal argument to argue cases that not many people would be convinced about! :-)