Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

Did you know that West Melbourne once had an enormous picturesque lagoon? Now the spot is an industrial hub of the freight terminal and a tangle of road and rail links. But once a great lagoon stretched out to the west of the city, from near where North Melbourne now stands, out to South Kensington and across towards much of West Melbourne, towards Footscray. The lagoon in 1844. View from Batman's Hill February 5 1844 looking North West Robert Russell, 1884.  Courtesy of the State Library Victoria Collection.  H24487. See the lagoon behind the city? View from the top of the Scots Church steeple, Collins Street, 1875, Photographic studio of Paterson Bros, 1875. Courtesy of the State Library Victoria Collection. H96.160/2713 Local public historian Lenore Frost curated an exhibition for the Royal Historical Society of Victoria about this fascinating but sadly now vanished waterhole. Sadly the pandemic limited access to the physical exhibition, but the RHSV have now made the exhib...

Our friends at the Incinerator Gallery in Aberfeldie have re-opened to the public! Essendon Incinerator, Walter Burley Griffin, Holmes Road  (1975) Photograph by John T. Collins, courtesy of State Library Victoria. One of the current exhibitions showing at the gallery is Fluidity- An Exhibition in Digital Waves . You can experience it in person at the gallery, or online in the digital space. "Fluidity is an exhibition presented on-site at Incinerator Gallery, and as an online resource via the Gallery’s website. It explores the force of soft power to affect change in the world through the political and poetic navigation of water. Fluidity brings together newly commissioned works by some of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists, as well as works curated from the City of Moonee Valley Art Collection. These are presented alongside long-standing ecological projects that celebrate sustainable and healthy waterways in Melbourne’s North West." Fluidity runs from June 19th until A...

Moonee Ponds Court House Museum has been beautifully repaired and renovated after the devastating fire of mid 2016. If you want to take a sticky-beak, this weekend, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 January 2020 is your chance as the Court House will be open to the public. Come and see how the 1890 building has been restored, view the History Reclaimed exhibition which tells the story of the courthouse building and other local buildings which have been reclaimed, and find out about the Essendon Historical Society. Moonee Ponds Court House Musuem is at the corner of Mount Alexander Road and Kellaway Avenue (opposite Queen's Park) in Moonee Ponds. For more information, see the Essendon Historical Society website: https://esshissoc.org.au/the-courthouse-opens/

Karen Price is a local artist who loves the rich variety of domestic architecture that can be found throughout Moonee Valley and nearby areas. On Thursday evening (19th March 2018), to mark the start of National Trust Heritage Week, Avondale Heights Library and Learning Centre will host the opening of Karen Price’s new art exhibition Here Today, Gone Tomorrow . The exhibition includes 34 pen and watercolour paintings. Concerned at the frequent sudden appearance of vacant blocks in recent years, often in spots where she couldn’t quite remember what used to there, (and perhaps also influenced by once having lived in a house later pulled down so the mansion next door could add a tennis court), Karen decided to document in ink and watercolour a selection of domestic dwellings from Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Ascot Vale, Strathmore and Travancore. Karen chooses the homes to paint based mostly on their aesthetic appeal, as well as looking for clear sight lines and trying to includ...