the grid fringes east

east 01

east 02 National model school

The random bits of #columns in the sunken courtyard at the back of the #collegeofsurgeons in Spring Street were discovered when they were digging it out in c2005 for new wings – they’re all that’s left of the the ‘model school’ (a state supported school) that was built there in 1854, designed by #FMWhite. Looks like it got extra wings later, and there was a portico on the west side where think columns like these might have come from. It also housed the education department at first. After 1905 it became a state high school, one of the first, with the boys moving out to Melb Boys High in 1927, and the girls in 1930 due to decay of the building (eventually going to Macrob in 1934), and then it was demolished for the College of Surgeons in 1934.
SOURCE
‘Melbourne fragments – Model School, Spring Street’ Original post 2 June 2020 https://storeyofmelbourne.org/2020/06/03/melbourne-fragments-model-school-spring-street/

east 04 & 05 PARLIAMENT HILL
Spring St / MacArthur St
Gordon Reserve area

The area now known as Parliament Hill or Eastern Hill is a place of intrinsic importance. This high ground, overlooking the low-lying floodplain of the Birrarung (Yarra River), has been a site of law/lore-making for millennia.

Long before colonial settlement, where Parliament House now stands there was an important political and ceremonial meeting place for the Eastern Kulin. They would gather here at certain times of the year to resolve differences, conduct ceremony and practice law/lore. These meetings took place in the warmer months, when food resources were most abundant and could support these significant gatherings of the five language groups that make up the Eastern Kulin.

In the early colonial period, interactions between the Eastern Kulin and Europeans created new contexts for ceremonial practice. In 1839, for example, an illuminated celebration featuring fireworks was held to commemorate the visit of Lady Franklin. As part of the celebrations, Eastern Kulin people were invited to perform a ceremonial dance at Parliament Hill. More than 500 Eastern Kulin people camped nearby at the site of St Peter’s Church.

Overwhelmingly, however, the impact of colonisation was Aboriginal dispossession and alienation. From early colonial times, the Eastern Kulin were discouraged from entering the Melbourne township. This was made explicit when Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe instructed the Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson that Aboriginal people were not to be permitted to enter Melbourne.
SOURCE https://aboriginal-map.melbourne.vic.gov.au/145

east 06 OLD TREASURY BUILDING