From mayoral robes to urinals: The hidden treasure chest that helped shape Melbourne
Here, the pompous ceremonial robes of lord mayors past share shelf space with gaudy Moomba costumes, gifts from visiting dignitaries, coin-operated parking meters and even models of the city's humble former public urinals.
As part of this weekend's Open House Melbourne, the public is invited to hear the stories behind these objects in a special talk by former lord mayor Sally Capp and the city's long-serving curator, Eddie Butler-Bowdon.
Their free talk, Heritage Stories of the City, on Monday night at The Capitol will dive into the collection's most fascinating tales.
Butler-Bowdon, who has overseen the collection for 22 years, calls it the 'biggest and best capital city collection in Australia'. He says many Melburnians interact with it daily without realising it.
'It's actually a problem that we faced over the years – it's just incredibly hard to communicate that this [public artwork] – for example The Public Purse in Bourke Street Mall – is part of a much bigger thing.'
The collection boasts one of the city's biggest archives of Melbourne photography, documenting everything from iconic protests in the CBD to council-taken images of potholes.
It's also a place of interactive research. 'There's the land use room, which is amazing,' said Capp. 'If you live in the City of Melbourne ... you can go back and pick an address and go back through the books and see what's been there before.'
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Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
From mayoral robes to urinals: The hidden treasure chest that helped shape Melbourne
Upstairs in Melbourne's grand Town Hall, inside what was once a 'rabbit warren of old offices', lies a vast 13,000-piece treasure chest of the city's history. Here, the pompous ceremonial robes of lord mayors past share shelf space with gaudy Moomba costumes, gifts from visiting dignitaries, coin-operated parking meters and even models of the city's humble former public urinals. As part of this weekend's Open House Melbourne, the public is invited to hear the stories behind these objects in a special talk by former lord mayor Sally Capp and the city's long-serving curator, Eddie Butler-Bowdon. Their free talk, Heritage Stories of the City, on Monday night at The Capitol will dive into the collection's most fascinating tales. Butler-Bowdon, who has overseen the collection for 22 years, calls it the 'biggest and best capital city collection in Australia'. He says many Melburnians interact with it daily without realising it. 'It's actually a problem that we faced over the years – it's just incredibly hard to communicate that this [public artwork] – for example The Public Purse in Bourke Street Mall – is part of a much bigger thing.' The collection boasts one of the city's biggest archives of Melbourne photography, documenting everything from iconic protests in the CBD to council-taken images of potholes. It's also a place of interactive research. 'There's the land use room, which is amazing,' said Capp. 'If you live in the City of Melbourne ... you can go back and pick an address and go back through the books and see what's been there before.'
The Age
3 days ago
- The Age
From mayoral robes to urinals: The hidden treasure chest that helped shape Melbourne
Upstairs in Melbourne's grand Town Hall, inside what was once a 'rabbit warren of old offices', lies a vast 13,000-piece treasure chest of the city's history. Here, the pompous ceremonial robes of lord mayors past share shelf space with gaudy Moomba costumes, gifts from visiting dignitaries, coin-operated parking meters and even models of the city's humble former public urinals. As part of this weekend's Open House Melbourne, the public is invited to hear the stories behind these objects in a special talk by former lord mayor Sally Capp and the city's long-serving curator, Eddie Butler-Bowdon. Their free talk, Heritage Stories of the City, on Monday night at The Capitol will dive into the collection's most fascinating tales. Butler-Bowdon, who has overseen the collection for 22 years, calls it the 'biggest and best capital city collection in Australia'. He says many Melburnians interact with it daily without realising it. 'It's actually a problem that we faced over the years – it's just incredibly hard to communicate that this [public artwork] – for example The Public Purse in Bourke Street Mall – is part of a much bigger thing.' The collection boasts one of the city's biggest archives of Melbourne photography, documenting everything from iconic protests in the CBD to council-taken images of potholes. It's also a place of interactive research. 'There's the land use room, which is amazing,' said Capp. 'If you live in the City of Melbourne ... you can go back and pick an address and go back through the books and see what's been there before.'
Sydney Morning Herald
20-07-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
This trio has mapped hundreds of murals in Melbourne. Here are 15 of the best
Melburnians are pretty proud of their city's prolific street art. But when Neda Nikolic found the world's largest online urban art community that maps such works, she noticed Melbourne was underrepresented. So, two years ago, she teamed up with friend Andrew Haysom, and later Lia Arraiano, to add Melbourne's murals to the Street Art Cities database. Today, Melbourne is the No.1 city in the world for total street art recorded on the platform, with 3639 masterpieces logged – up from being ranked 43rd in July 2023. This Victorian trio says it's added 3272 works. 'We've got so many wonderful artists across Melbourne,' says Haysom, who became Street Art Cities' Australian manager this year. 'That's why this city's scene is so special.' In May, the trio lifted Australia to No.1 for total street art on the platform, which only accepts select 'hunters' with adequate photography skills to capture art and describe a work's location and background. 'It's very addictive,' says Nikolic. 'This is like the Olympics of street art.' Melbourne's contemporary street art scene has also changed immensely in recent decades: First, there was the underground graffiti subculture of the 1980s and 1990s. Then, there was the Banksy-boom of stencils in the 2000s. Later, major murals took off in the 2010s. But the first big wall-art installation, which helped kick-start the large murals across Melbourne today, was famed New Yorker Keith Haring's work at Collingwood Yards, which is now heritage-listed.
