1860>1869

1860s as a decade

colonial family structures In the 1860s Victoria was settling down after the turbulent years of the 1850s gold rushes and Melbourne’s proportion of the colonial population was growing (Davison 1978, p. 7; Serle 1971, p. 2). This was a period when the generation of young migrants who arrived seeking gold in the early 1850s was maturing and raising families. Historical demographers have documented the formation of large families in this decade, with women bearing on average seven children (Summers 1994, p. 368) SOURCE pp5,6 Melbourne: The archaeology of a world city International Journal of Historical Archaeology 22:117-130 (2018) Susan Lawrence and Peter Davies

1862 – MINT operating T. STOKES MAKER / 100 COLLINS ST. EAST MELBOURNE
image:
Token – 1 Penny, Miller Brothers, Coach Builders, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1862
https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/59721

Coranderrk created 1863 After decades of being forced off their own land, and the loss of food sources as a result of farming, the Wurundjeri people, led by William Barak petitioned the government for their own land. Coranderrk Reserve was created by Protector William Thomas in 1863 on the land of the Wurundjeri-balluk clan, covering 4850 acres between the Yarra River, Badger Creek, Watts River, and Mount Riddell. It took only a decade for Coranderrk Mission to become a self-sufficient village. https://museumsvictoria.com.au /melbournemuseum/resources/marvellous-melbourne/

1866

Batman’s Hill levelled for expansion of Spencer St Station 1866 With Spencer Street Station needing more land for its freight sheds, a contract was signed in 1863 to tear down the hill [Batman’s Hill, where there is a powder magazine at this time]. By 1866, the levelling was complete at the cost of over £24,000. SOURCE: A view to a hill (with an explosive secret) 29th July, 2020 By Ashley Smith https://www.docklandsnews.com.au /history_16633/

St Michaels Church, Collins St constructed in polychrome brickwork 1866 ‘The design of the church reflects the architect Joseph Reed’s admiration for the Lombardic style – the polychrome brickwork exterior, open cloisters on the side of the building and Romanesque arches’. SOURCE ‘THE HISTORY OF ST MICHAEL’S’ https://stmichaels.org.au/the-church/history/ Architect Joseph Reed introduces polychrome brickwork to Melbourne ‘after a trip to Europe in 1863, as seen in St Michael’s Church on Collins Street, a residence at the corner of Powlett and George Streets in East Melbourne, and at Rippon Lea Elsternwick. Polychrome brickwork, generally red or brown with cream accents, became very popular in the 1870s. SOURCE Context Pty Ltd 2012, Thematic History: A History of the City of Melbourne’s Urban Environment, prepared for the City of Melbourne.

1868

The first copper tokens were introduced in Melbourne in 1849 and tokens circulated freely in colonial Australia until 1868 (when they became illegal in New South Wales) source https://collections.sea.museum/objects/179990/john-martin-grocer-and-tea-dealer-29-rundle-street-adelai

Whether altogether true or not, newspaper man Thomas Strode recalled one of the enduring urban
legends of Elizabeth Street in 1868 –
“[Thomas Strode in 1868] At almost every hour of the day may be viewed the interesting spectacle of
drays being bogged in the muddy depths of Collins Street… we remember on [one] occasion a dray of
bullocks were so hopelessly imbedded in a hole in Elizabeth Street, that the animals were allowed to
stifle in the mud, and its being nobody’s duty to remove the nuisance, their remains with that of the
dray, lie buried in that extemporary graveyard to the present day.” (Annear, 2014)

-SOURCE p7 Elizabeth Street
Historical Character Study, Green Heritage Compliance and Research pdf