Author(s): Carmel McKenzie

History

VICTORIAN PREMIER’S HISTORY AWARD

WINNER

St Kilda 1841–1900 is a beautifully presented and profusely illustrated social history of one of Melbourne’s best-known bayside suburbs. Having identified the driving forces behind the early urban development of what was an attractive grassy knoll, Carmel McKenzie charts the beginnings, the rise to opulence and the subsequent decline of the suburb, over a 60-year period. The government’s release of land, and the desire of well-heeled buyers looking for a relatively isolated place on which to build, led to European occupation in 1841. Of course, the influx of greater numbers of Europeans into the St Kilda area had a devastating impact on the Yaluk-ut Weelam, the local clan of the Bunurong language group. McKenzie considers this issue at some length, and also that of local ‘beach dwellers’, particularly Chinese men.

While its focus is primarily on a relatively small area of the growing metropolis of Melbourne, McKenzie’s study is much more than a local history. All of the movers and shakers of the sub-title were part of a social network that connected them to other individuals within the banking, merchant and political circles of Victoria. These connections are well explored here, as are a range of social determinants at play in the lives of the monied classes of Melbourne in the latter half of the 19th century. The scope of subjects touched on in this book is wide, with consideration being given to such matters as changes in the architectural style of mansions, the importation of Indian men to work as servants in the homes of wealthy residents, and the increasing insanitary nature of St Kilda in the 1890s.

This book is social history at its very best, and a worthy winner of the 2023 Victorian Premier’s History Award.