Once central to daily life, Melbourne’s Eastern Market was demolished in 1960 after decades of neglect. The City We Demolished explores how a city that had inherited its history chose instead to discard it—and what that choice reveals about Melbourne’s values during the age of “progress.”
In the post-war drive to modernise, Australian cities dismantled the civic fabric that once anchored daily life. Markets, streetscapes, and public buildings were neglected, reclassified as obsolete, and cleared away. This essay explores how demolition became normalised nationwide.
In the age of empire, Melbourne’s sudden wealth brought an unexpected fear: invasion. From ironclads to hidden guns at the Heads, colonial anxiety reshaped the city’s defences in lasting ways.
MATTHEW FLINDERS has long been credited with first using the name ‘Australia’ when, while imprisoned by the French on Mauritius in 1804, he completed the chart of his circumnavigation of the continent.
Built on the legacy of the original Australian Heritage magazine, Australian Heritage exists to carry forward the tradition of Australian historical journalism into a modern, digital space.
The publication is
