Super User
AGM for the St Kilda Historical Society
Sunday 22 September 2019
St Kilda RSL, 88 Acland Street
Upstairs with lift access
Trams 96, 16, 3A
Car parking behind Acland Street
Artists of St Kilda
Sunday, 25 August 2019
St Kilda Army and Navy Club
88 Acland Street, St Kilda
4:30pm
Presented by Janine Burke, Art Historian with images provided by Steve Cappadona.
Assets at our St Kilda location
Over the years the St Kilda Historical Society has responded to numerous requests from people for further information about their families or buildings in St Kilda. A resource data base has been accumulated most of which is in the section under Collections using Flick’r. This is also being put onto the Collections Victoria for safe keeping into perpetuity. You can also access the following by appointment:
- Local newspaper
- Reference books
- House data by street
- Early street and house photographs
- Early photographs of people
- Historical maps including the Vardy Maps
- Aerial photographs
- Land sale notices
- Early resident files
- Oral histories
- Memorabilia of events and functions in the City
Yalukit-Willam
Yalukit Willam: Our aboriginal history
Before the arrival of Europeans In 1835, the City of Port Phillip area was occupied by the Yalukit Willam clan which was one of the six clans of the Boon Wurrong people. The area the Boon Wurrong inhabited stretched along the coast from the Yarra River to the north to Wilson’s Promontory in the south.
The area occupied by the Yalukit Willam was generally low lying. For example the area now described as the Albert Park Lake Reserve was once a rich willam or camp for the Yalukit Willam and their guests from the country. The remaining obvious evidence of our aboriginal inheritance is the Ngargee or Corroboree Tree located precariously alongside Queens Road and the newly renovated Cricket Ground near Fitzroy Street. This magnificent trees dominates the surrounding area despite its age and loss of limbs, It bears testimony to the longstanding aboriginal use of this area.
Their Land
Meyer Eidelson’s book on the Yalukit Willan gives a compelling vision of the original geography of this area:
Rising from the wetlands were prominences such as today’s point Ormond Hill, the Esplanade Bluff, the Silurian ridge of St Kilda Hill , and the ancient volcanic core of Emerald Hill. These provided higher and dryer locations for Willam or camp places for ceremonies, tool manufacture, ochre collection and lookouts.
Historical records show that even these landmarks were significantly altered with the arrival of the Europeans in 1835 as both Point Ormond and the Esplanade Bluff were used for various purposes including road building to the north and filling in swamps such as Elsternwick Park, to the south.
Dispossession
The eventual exclusion and decline of the aboriginal presence in the St Kilda area is documented in Meyer’s book which is under publications on this website or via this link from the CoPP Website. https://heritage.portphillip.vic.gov.au/Aboriginal_heritage/Yalukit_Willam_The_River_ _of_Port_Phillip
Books in our collection can provide additional information about the relationship between the aboriginal people and the Europeans in the early period of colonization, especially the Cooper Volume 1 History of St Kilda can also be readily accessed under Publications.
For further information, download the eBook by Meyer Eidelson | Yalukit Willam – The River People of Port Phillip | or via City of Port Phillip
Walk notes
Heritage Council of Victoria
From Rags to Riches and Back Again
The Melbourne Circle Project – Stories by Suburbs
Spaghetti, Coffee and Drag – more from St Kilda
Three Women of St Kilda Cemetery
The Diverse Charms of St Kilda East
City of Port Phillip
Walks in Port Phillip Federation Trail 2001 Meyer Eidelson
Village Belle
Social Media
Carnivals, Charity & Commemorations
25 November 2018
Join local historian Maureen Walker for an early evening walk around the St. Kilda foreshore to learn how St Kilda celebrated the end of WWI and how local veterans were welcomed home. Maureen will explain the significance and scale of fundraising and how the local community worked to support veterans and their families. If you've ever wondered about the why and how of St Kilda's iconic Memo Hall, you'll have your questions answered.