Old Melbourne – Using AI

On a day when it is 41C (107F) the best thing to do is to sit in an air conditioned room, watch the cricket and find a low energy activity.

I’ve found that the State Library of Victoria has an extensive collection of historic photos and my photo editing software has an AI capability of restoring old images and colourising them. I have spent a few hours creating coloured images of old Melbourne – especially places that some meaning to me.

Bourke Street – 1880. In the late 1800s, Melbourne was flush with money from the Victorian gold rush. It was then the second most wealthy city in the world. Many of the city’s grand buildings were constructed at that time and are still in use today. The GPO, with its early clock tower is the tall building to the left. As a schoolboy., I used to occasionally have special day out in the city and go to the GJ Coles Variety Store in Bourke Street and have lunch in the cafeteria. We would get dresed up in our Sunday best and mum would always wear a hat and gloves.

Eastern Market  -1888. This was one of three markets in Melbourne in the 1840s. It operated from 1847 until the demolition of its buildings in 1960. The Market began as a general second-hand market but went through several changes of use over its 113 years of operation including as a fruit and vegetable market, entertainment precinct and town square. The Southern Cross Hotel (made famous by the visit of the Beatles in 1964) was constructed on this site in 1960 but demolished in 2003.

Flinders Street (circa 1920). Flinders Street forms the southern edge of the Hoddle Grid – the grid of Melbourne CBD streets laid out by Surveyor Robert Hoddle in 1837. The street is home to Flinders Street station, originally the central station of Melbourne’s suburban rail network. Train services are now more distributed as a result of the recent openings of a network of underground lines. The cable car in this photo was the forerunner of curent tram routes 70 and 75.

Hoddle Street – 1886. This main thoroughfare runs south-north through some of Melbourne’s oldest suburbs – Fitzroy, Colingwood, Prahran and East Melbourne. Some of these small suburbs were combined to form the City of Yarra.  Because that local council has adopted very liberal policies such as banning nuclear weapons and encouraging refugees (both well outside its scope of jurisdiction) it is cynically known as ‘The Socialist Republic of Yarra”.

Melbourne Fish Market – 1890 – The fish market, was built in 1891 to replace an earlier market that existed on the current site of Flinders Street Station. It covered five acres along the south side of Flinders Street as far as Spencer Street. Fish was received from railway trucks onto a platform and taken in to the market by trolley. By 1907, up to 190,000 packages of fish came through the market each year. This wonderful building was demolished in 1959 in the name of progres when a new fish market was planned to be built in the Docklands area and to make way for the new bridge over the river at King Street.

Port Melbourne 1871 – In the 1870s, Melbourne’s port was a bustling trade hub centered at both Williamstown and Sandridge (Port Melbourne). Port Melbourne was connected to the city by the first railway in Victoria, as ships were hindered in travelling up the Yarra River by a sandbar. Eventually, the port saw a shift from sailing clipper ships to steam, massive growth from the gold rushes, and the formation of the Melbourne Harbor Trust in 1877 to manage its rapid expansion. Today, Melbourne is the busiest port in Australia. My grandfather was the president of the Gideons, a Christian organisation that aimed to place a bible in every accommodation room in the country. As a young kid, I occasionally came to the port with him as he delivered bibles to various ships.

Princes Bridge  -1901. A grand and temporary Municipal Arch (or City Arch) was built on Princes Bridge for Melbourne’s 1901 Federation celebrations. Prior to 1901, all the states were seperate colonies and federation was a significant and exciting event. The arch was a neoclassical gateway to commemorate the visit of both the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Duke of York’s visit as they represented the King. Hence the name  ‘Princes Bridge and not the commonly mistaken name of ‘Princess Bridge’. The arch featured patriotic inscriptions and Roman-inspired ship elements before its eventual dismantling, leaving only the permanent stone Princes Bridge itself. 

Swanston Street – 1900. Swanston Street was one of the main north–south streets originally laid out as part of the 1837 Hoddle Grid. Originally carrying pedestrians and horse-drawn traffic, the street resembled many typical European avenues of the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century it also accommodated some of the major tram lines through the city. With the advent of the car in the early 20th century, the street became a major thoroughfare, carrying car traffic between areas north of the city and St Kilda Road. In January 2010, it was announced that the entire length of Swanston Street would become car free so it is now occupied only by pedestrians and is a major thoroughfare for trams that service the southern and south-eastern suburbs..

View across the Yarra River to Flinders Street Station – 1893. Opened in 1854 by the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay Railway Company, the station, but not the current building, is the oldest in Australia, backing onto the Yarra River in the central business district. The complex now includes 13 platforms and structures that stretch over more than two city blocks, from east of Swanston Street west almost as far as Market Street. A popular urban myth is that Flinders Street Station’s design was swapped by the Colonial Office with one for Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus). It is untrue. Both stations have distinct designs, with Flinders Street’s Edwardian Baroque/French Renaissance style, a result of a 1899 design competition.

Sandridge Bridge – 1893.

The current bridge is the third bridge on this site and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. It runs diagonally across the Yarra River and is 178.4 metres long. In 2006, it was redeveloped as a pedestrian and cycle path, featuring public sulptural art. A first bridge was built in 1853 for the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay Railway Company Port Melbourne railway line, which ran from Flinders Street to what was then known as Sandridge, now Port Melbourne. It was the first railway in Australia to operate with steam locomotives. The original bridge was replaced in 1858 by a timber trestle bridge carrying two tracks on a more oblique angle, as seen today.

The final bridge was one of the first railway structures in Melbourne to use steel girders rather than iron, and the workforce included a young engineering student, John Monash. On either side of the river, the steel girders were supported by bluestone and brick buttresses and, on the south side, the structure continued as a brick viaduct. In the 1920s, overhead electrical stanchions were added as part of the electrification of the line, and the original timber deck was replaced with rail and concrete slabs.

St Pauls Cathedral – 1904. The cathedral was designed by the English Gothic Revival architect William Butterfield and completed in 1891, except for the spires which were built to a different design betwen 1926 to 1932. The Cathedral is built on the site where the first public Christian service in Melbourne was conducted in 1835. Previous buildings on this site include a corn market and St Paul’s Parish Church. On 22 January 1891, the cathedral (without the spires) was consecrated by the Rt Revd Field Flowers Goe, Bishop of Melbourne.

Victoria Street – 1882.  My Great, Great Granfather, Samuel Wilson, arrived in Melbourne in January 1842 with his wife and children. He records, in his diary, how he went to the swamp ( a wetland area to the west of the city) to collect mud so that he could build a wattle and daub hut in Victoria Street. The street itsel was reserved as a government road in 1839. Though not part of the original Hoddle Grid, it was included as a thoroughfare in Hoddle’s Mile extension. During the economic boom in the 1880s many of the buildings along Victoria Street were reconstructed, perhaps explaining why this photo from the 1880’s shows much more development than crude mud and timber dwellings. In 1884, a bridge over the Yarra River at the eastern of the street was opened followed by a cable car tram line in 1886.

St Kilda Road and Victoria Barracks – 1885.  Victoria Barracks was originally built as accommodation for British troops, including the 12th and 40th Regiment of Foot who were involved in putting down the armed Eureka Stockade rebellion in Ballarat and later became the Colony of Victoria’s colonial forces. The earliest building at Victoria Barracks was built by soldiers of the 40th Regiment under the supervision of a Royal Engineer officer, from 1856 to 1858, while the remaining buildings were built by civil contractors with the original bluestone buildings between 1856 and 1872. The term “Barracking” is derived from the local slang term for enthusiastic vocal sports support, originating from soldiers who came from the barracks to attend football matches  in the 1860s. 

H.R.H. Duke of Cornwall and York opening the first Commonwealth Parliament of Australia – 1901.   The Royal Exhibition Building is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed building, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between 1851 and 1915 around the globe. It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81, and then hosted the even larger Centennial International Exhibition in 1888. It was then chosen as the site for the Federation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. The building is representative of the financial wealth and pride that the city of Melbourne and state of Victoria had in the 1870s. Throughout the 20th century some smaller sections and wings of the building were subject to demolition and fire; however, the main building, known as the Great Hall has survived.

Haymarket” Corner – Elizabeth Street and Flemington Road with soldiers about to leave for the Boer War. – 1900.

Historically, this area was the site of the original hay market when working horses were central to the city’s function. This area was once alive and aromatic with the sounds and smells of thousands of pigs, horses, cattle and sheep. Once, perhaps, it was a source of pride and gratification to the citizens and city fathers, but for the last few decades that it existed it was perceived negatively. The old ‘gaol-like’ brick walls, that enclosed the 2½ acres of this former triangular market place became to be considered ugly. A new dental hospta was built on this site in 1944. Victoria played a significant role in the Boer War (1899-1902) by contributing soldiers and nurses to the British Imperial forces. Victorians made up nearly a quarter of the over 23,000 Australians who served, fighting in tough conditions, facing casualties, and establishing the first Australian colonial forces, including the Victorian Mounted Rifles. Their involvement saw actions like those of the Victorian Mounted Rifles in skirmishes, reflecting Australia’s commitment to the Empire, even as the war’s brutality and controversial tactics led to public questioning back home.

These Images

I’ve enjoyed preparing these images by cleaning them up, deleting scratches and then colouing them once the photos had been improved. I have no idea whether the colours are truly correct but I think that the AI colourising techniques add interest and life to the original photos, In the days when these photos were taken, glass photographic plates required long exposure times. In some of these images, figures have moved and become blurred. That is part of the charm of early photography.

I have some more images that I might use in a future post. They illustrate aspects of life around the turn of the 20th Century. Let me know if you have enjoyed looking at these ones.