You cannot live, work, or walk along Gertrude Street without recognizing the Aboriginality of the area.
Gertrude Street is located in a part of Melbourne that was
"owned by a group or confederacy of Aborigines made up of four tribes who owed all of the Port Phillip region. They were the Taungurong, the Wathaurung, the Bunurong and the Woiworung. This group was called Kulin. Each of the Kulin identified with a particular area of land. The Woriworung lived in all parts of their territory from Mount William near Lancefield across the tributaries of the Yarra to the Dandenong Ranges"
Gary Presland, The Land of the Kulin
The area of Fitzroy is the land of the Wurundjeri
Following the settlement of Melbourne, the environs of the area were rapidly transformed. The Wurundjeri were moved to a mission station, first at Acheron and then to Coranderrk. Despite the attempts to move Aboriginal people away from the new settlement there remain significant sites around the Melbourne locality. The British Government's awareness of the impact of the new settlement at Port Phillip upon the Aboriginal population led to the establishment of a protectorate system, under a Chief Protector, George Augustus Robertson. Robertson commenced his duties on 24 February 1839 and was assisted by Assistant Protectors.
The Protectorate system was supposed to provide for the "education and moral guidance" of the remaining Aboriginal population but it had little success in curbing the decimation of the Kulin nation. The combined effect of dislocation from their traditional country, frontier clashes, massacres and the impact of introduced diseases such as influenza led to a dramatic decline in the Aboriginal population (Ellender & Christiansen, 2001: 28). Wiencke estimates that by 1863 the total number of survivors of the tribes of the Kulin nations was only 181 (Wiencke, 1984: 35).
In the 1930s there were a small number of Aboriginal families that lived in Fitzroy. As the missions closed or people were moved off them, more people graduated to the area to find work and to re-connect with family members. People still gather at spots they have always gathered; near the Morton Bay Fig Tree outside the Exhibition Buildings on Nicholson Street, at Atherton Gardens Housing Estate near the corner of Napier and Gertrude Streets, and at the many pubs along Gertrude Street.
"We're in Gertrude Street at the Builder's Arms Hotel. This is where Aboriginal people always used to go in for a drink. That was one of the most popular. There was the Builder's Arms and on the next corner in George Street there is the Royal, and on Napier Street is the Renown, and on the corner of Brunswick (Street) is the Champion and the Rob Roy. A lot of them are not even hotels any more. Aboriginals used to always go to the Builders Arms"
A. Jackomos, Remembering Aboriginal Fitzroy, p.9.
The first Aboriginal Health Centre was in Gertrude Street. The Aboriginal Health Service was established in 1973 as a response to the growing number of Aboriginal people who needed medical attention, but were reluctant to go to mainstream medical services. As a result of this a number of volunteers established the service from a shopfront at 231 Gertrude Street. The Health Centre then moved to the corner of Little Napier and Gertrude Streets, to a building that was originally the Fitzroy Post Office. (Jackomos, A., Remembering Aboriginal Fitzroy, pg.17)
The site of the first Aboriginal Legal Service was the building at 229 Gertrude Street. The Legal Service then moved to 173 Gertrude Street. The Legal Service stayed there for a number of years, occupying the first floor of the building, before moving to a location in Brunswick Street. It then shifted to Alexandra Parade.
The Fitzroy Stars Aboriginal Gym and Sports Centre is located at the corner of Gertrude and George Streets.
The Koori Club was in Gertrude Street.
These places are of great significance to contempory Aborigines.
The above information is from a much more detailed history and fascinating document in the City of Yarra's, Shapshots of Aboriginal Fitzroy which is accessible via www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/Services/Aboriginal%20Affairs/
Colonial Gertrude Street
Colonial Gertrude Street started life as a privately owned road created when Benjamin Baxter subdivided his purchased land in the 1840s and created Brunswick and Gertrude Streets. Baxter's neighbour, Mr R.S.Webb, continued Gertrude Street west to Nicholson Street. Then in the 1850s the street was built further south to join up with Smith Street.
Gertrude Street was named after the daughter of Captain Brunswick Smythe who owned the subdivision with Benjamin Baxter.
As you walk along Gertrude Street you walk past every element of settlement and history of Melbourne. Gertrude Street's history reflects that of Melbourne.
One of the symbols of inner urban Melbourne is the terrace house, a continuous row of one, two or possibly three storied buildings. Melbourne's oldest surviving terrace is Glass Terrace at 64-78 Gertrude Street, dating from 1853.
At the corner of Gertrude and Nicholson Streets stands the Engine House for the Cable Tram. The 1888 Centenary Exhibition at the Exhibition buildings dictated the new route of the tram along Nicolson Street. The tram lines diverge and another tram runs down Gertrude Street. It was the trade and interest that the Exhibition Buildings bought with them that meant that Gertrude Street had a wide range of retail, commerce and manufacturing.
Gertrude Street has always had a large percentage of self-employed shopkeepers and has been village-like from the beginning.
The small area bounded by Nicholson, Gertrude, Johnson and Smith Streets contained all the shops and institutions of Village life: town hall, churches, shops, schools and factories.
In 1890, on the south Side of Gertrude Street there was at number 10 a photographer's studio; at number 12 a tanners; at number 32-36 a tobacconist, dressmaker and confectioner; at numbers 52-60 a boot maker, wood yard, blacksmith and tailor; and at the corner of Fitzroy Street at number 62 was a baker.
On the north side, behind Royal Terrace was a cabinetmakers, a laundry and a fruiterer. Then from 51-61 there was an upholster, confectioner, furniture shop, greengrocer and butcher.
In the 1870s and 80s, Brunswick and Smith Streets had established themselves as retail shopping strips - Smith Street was the main street that led out to the rural farmlands of Heidelberg. The establishment of Foy & Gibson's (one of Victoria's first department stores) in Smith Street cemented the retail focus. Gertrude Street was the gateway to Smith Street.
Manufacturing and retailing were located close to each other and by the 1920s Foy & Gibson's buildings included woollen mills, hat and boot factories, furniture warehouses, and men's and ladies' clothing stores.
Other manufacturing close to Gertrude Street (and still continued on by a metal work foundry) were iron mongering, carpets, cloth and textile factories and later chocolate and confectionary factories.
In the 1940s Gertrude Street became known for its furniture and draperies shops. Johnston's (where Deans Art now is) was a very successful department store known for its lounge suites and wardrobes.
Of course the people working in those factories lived close by and Fitzroy's population was predominately working class.
The first suburb and early planning
Newtown (the area which is now South Fitzroy) was the first land subdivided outside the town reserve boundaries of Melbourne. In 1839, 1000 acres in lots of 12 to 25 acres were sold. This land ran east from Nicholson Street down to the Yarra River. The government held in reserve land for the roads that were to become Victoria and Alexandra Parades, Smith Street and Johnston Street. The area was called Newtown, then in 1842 it was known as Collingwood. The municipality of Fitzroy was created in 1858.
Those that owned land were unregulated as to how they subdivided it. They profited by subdividing their acreage into smaller and smaller slices - there were no regulations about how wide a block of land had to be. Laneways and mews cottages sprung up, these very humble houses were built in the areas not facing the roadway or track.
Higher than the central part of Melbourne and pleasantly shaded, the land on the corner of Nicholson and Victoria (where St Vincent's Hospital is now) became a tent city - Fitzroy experienced a boom in population, first as a result of assisted migration schemes in the 1840s and then the gold rush.
Living in Fitzroy meant over-crowding, poverty, a lack of policing and a large number of unlicensed grog shops, pubs, and a proliferation of livestock, dogs and dust.
It wasn't until 1850 that building regulations establishing minimum street widths and fireproof construction was enforced. Many of our hotels were built in the 1850s - the Rob Roy, the Gertrude (which was the Renown Tavern and before that the Leviathan) and the Builder's Arms.
Boom and bust times
The 1850s was the decade that the street layout of Gertrude Street (and the surrounding streets of south Fitzroy) was finalized. By the 1880s the area around Gertrude Street was in 're-development'. The shanties and temporary cottages had been demolished. As the tram and train lines of Melbourne opened up other suburban areas the families and more well-to-do moved out. The larger bluestone buildings completed twenty years ago were now being used as boarding houses or brothels. The Exhibitions of 1880 and 1888 held at the Exhibition Buildings, and the new tramways route to the corner of Gertrude and Nicholson Streets no doubt providing them with plenty of trade.
The boom times of the 1880s meant that then, as now, property prices were booming. As a flow on effect, council rates and rents also boomed. If you owned large buildings that could be subdivided into rooming and boarding houses then you made a profit. More than one family occupied many houses and the area became more a home for single men than families. Boarding houses proliferated - as did the hotels, where people could meet and drink.
By the 1890s the area had 75 licensed premises . The growth of the temperance movement in the 1900s and the introduction of 6:00 o'clock closing meant that sly grog running, criminal activities and prostitution were spread throughout Fitzroy, but especially around the streets and laneways that ran off Napier, Hanover and Nicholson Streets.
The depression of the 1890s left Fitzroy extremely vulnerable. The many charitable organizations and religious orders established in the area then remain today. The scale of poverty and suffering in the 1890s was huge. People depended on the religious and charitable organizations for food, shelter and clothes. The old, ill and frail were particularly vulnerable and in 1893 the order of the Irish Sisters of Charity began the St Vincent's Hospital.
The years between the wars and the next Great Depression again called in the need for the charities in the area. Poverty and great social need were everywhere, many organizations handed out food parcels - during the 1930s large numbers of people attending St Vincent's Hospital were malnourished.
Housing and social life
Fitzroy is one of the smallest yet most densely populated municipalities of Victoria. At the time of the First World War the area was over-crowded with many of the rented houses in shocking disrepair. No sinks or taps inside the houses were commonplace. The housing in the 'Little' streets; Little Napier, George and Gore were particularly bad, often with no running water and up to three families living in a house. Such over-crowding led to people creating h3 social networks. Life was lived in the open and most people were close-knit and supportive.
Then there was the 'larrikin' aspect of Fitzroy life. As the streets became poorer, rival gangs or 'pushes' held sway over the public. Fitzroy and Collingwood gangs held regular turf battles along Smith Street. Sly grog running and illegal SP bookmaking activities created many opportunities for criminals and gangland warfare. Cocaine was the drug of addiction amongst a number of ex First World War soldiers and very popular with prostitutes. In 1919 a large-scale shoot-out occurred between the underworld figures of Collingwood, Richmond and Fitzroy. 'The Fitzroy Vendetta', the pushes and the gangster behavior scared people and added to the suburb's unsavoury reputation. This reputation was to exist and to be embellished by the behaviours of rival union gangs and underworld figures up until the 1980s.
During the 1930s and 40s rural aborigines came in to join up with their extended families and networks and to find work in the Defence industries. They lived around George, Gore and Gertrude Streets and the Fitzroy Church of Christ was a popular meeting place. Pastor Doug Nicholls held many social functions. People socialized in churches, at dances and at the pubs.
By the time the Great Depression hit many areas were slums. It was in 1938 that the Housing Commission was created. The charitable organizations, along with private welfare crusaders were determined to improve the living conditions of Fitzroy. Originally the ideas were to assist with rent and provide rent subsidized housing. The policy of the late 1930s was to build small villa estates and move people in to them. WWII halted the reclamation process and brought about faster ways of building with prefabricated concrete.
By the 1950s and 60s the Government-run slum clearance programs started. Land and houses were compulsorily acquired and the houses and sometimes whole streets were demolished. In their place were built the high rises and walk-ups of the Housing Commission estates.
Artists and Galleries
Because of the cheap rent and the closeness to the National Gallery School many artists lived near or on Gertrude Street. Tom Roberts lived in George Street, Charles Gilbert in Gore Street and Arthur Boyd worked in his uncle's paint factory in Fitzroy in the late 30s and then lived in Fitzroy in 1943.
More information can be found through the Fitzroy Historical Society:
P.O.Box 180
Fitzroy 3065
fitzroyhistorysociety@yahoo.com.au
The information on these pages have been compiled from the book Fitzroy, Melbourne's First Suburb, edited by the Cutten History Committee of the Fitzroy History Society: Melbourne University Press, 1991.
