Discover the West Melbourne Swamp

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 exhibition available online. 

Check out the pictorial history of this little-known one-time local beauty spot and it's sad but fascinating disappearing act: The Swamp Vanishes - A digital exhibition - Royal Historical Society of Victoria (historyvictoria.org.au)


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