The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 1/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
INCREASED VALUE OF TOWN LANDS.
SYNOPSIS:— Future Site of Melbourne. —Earthquake in Melbourne. —Mr. Hoddle and the Width of Streets. —Boundaries of "Old Melbourne." —Street Nomenclature and Division into Wards. —Mr. John Thomas Smith —A Seventh-Time Mayor. —Publicans and Sinners versus Purses and Impudence. —Smithites and Anti-Smithites. —Early Land Sales. —Comparative Values of Land.
OF all the popular errors prevailing in the colony there is none, perhaps, so general as the one into which very many people have fallen in supposing that "Yarra Yarra," the "flowing-flowing," or "running-running," was the native name of the once romantic stream on whose banks Melbourne is built. Yet it is not so. Its aboriginal designation was the "Birrarrung" — Yarra Yarra being a generic term in the "Black" vernacular, and applied to rapids or waterfalls generally. Mr. Wedge, a surveyor, who came from Van Diemen's land as an attaché of the Batman Association, first called the river "the Yarra." Under the circumstances thus described by himself, he wrote, "I gave the river the name of 'Yarra Yarra' from the following circumstances. On arriving in sight of the river, the two natives who were with me, pointing to it, called out, 'Yarra Yarra,' which, at that time, I took to be its name; but I afterwards learned that the words were what they used to designate a waterfall, as they afterwards gave the same designation to a small fall in the river Werribee, as we crossed it on our way back to Indented Head." It was decided to establish three townships on the existing sites of Melbourne, Williamstown, and Geelong; and for some time, indecision was shown as to where the future capital should be. Melbourne had fresh water at certain periods of the day, but it was miles from the bay. Williamstown was near the bay but away from the fresh water, whilst Geelong was "barred" by the dangerous reef in its beautiful harbour and its distance from the Barwon. Geelong was a splendid site, but perhaps, as things have turned out, the better choice was made, and Melbourne won. If credence is to be given to the statements of some of the early annalists, the destiny of Melbourne was very nearly changed by a sharp shock of an earthquake a couple of days after Governor Bourke's arrival, which so alarmed him that Melbourne trembled in the balance, and the site of the future city was all but abandoned. After considerable hesitation it was, however, decided that the township should take its chance, and it was "chanced" accordingly. I am afraid that, like some other sensational items of our ancient history, this spicy dramatic incident will not stand the analysis of enquiry. The version of one of the chroniclers is thus precise, viz.:—"One morning shortly after their (the Governor and his party's) arrival and whilst they were in camp, the shock of an earthquake was felt. Sir Richard Bourke expressed to Captain King his apprehension that it would be unsafe to build a town on this spot, as it would be exposed to risks like those which then made New Zealand so unpopular a country for settlement. No repetition of the shock occurred, however, and the town of Melbourne was laid out by Mr. Hoddle." This is circumstantial enough, but let me state the per contra. The Captain King indicated was a naval officer who accompanied Sir Richard Bourke on his visit, and, according to a diary of the trip kept by him the Governor landed in the future Melbourne on the 4th March, 1837, and, in the course of the day "mounting his horse he rode round the township, and marked the boundaries, which embraced about a mile of the river frontage." Though minutely noting various occurrences, the journal does not make the slightest allusion to so extraordinary an event as an earthquake. Next there is Mr. Hoddle, the surveyor who, also, came with the Governor, the officer by whom the town was actually laid out. I have been favoured with the perusal of an unpublished journal kept by Mr. Hoddle, at this time, and it preserves a total silence about an earthquake; furthermore, I have the authority of Mr. Hoddle to declare that he had no recollection of anything such as described having happened. Next, there is Mr. Robert Russell, the first head of a Survey staff in Port Phillip. He was in the vicinity of the future Melbourne at the time - it was upon the outline first traced by him in 1836, that the subsequent plan of the township was based - and he has recently given me an assurance, from which I am disposed to believe, that there was more moonshine than subterranean fire, less fact than fable in the morsel of romance so spicily served up. Mr. Russell, however, has informed me that a shock of earthquake was really felt one night at the end of March after Sir Richard Bourke's departure. Possibly, in this case, the historians considered themselves entitled to a poetical license sufficient to enable them to antedate the terrestrial upheaval, or to move it backward by three weeks, of course only a chronological trifle, when done metaphorically. The next point of debate was that of name. Van Diemonian public opinion wished the new-born town to be called after Batman; whilst New South Wales' influences tended the other way. The native appellation of the place "Narr-m," was such a consonantal barbarism as could not be conveniently mouthed by Europeans, and "Bearbrass," as it was termed in some temporary absence of mind by Captain Stewart, was as outlandish. There was some notion of styling it Glenelg, after the Secretary of State for the Colonies, but this was abandoned for Melbourne, in compliment to the nobleman then occupying the high office of Premier of Great Britain — so Melbourne it was, and Melbourne it is. The flat where Williamstown stands was so thickly timbered with sheoak that it was known as "Koort-boork-boork" (clump of sheoak). This was changed into its present more pronounceable appellation after King William IV., Geelong being permitted to retain its native designation from the aboriginal tribe occupying that picturesque locality. Sir Richard Bourke seems to have taken the whole matter into his hands, and evinced a special interest in the planning and nomenclature of Melbourne and its streets. The town, as originally designed, was partly rectangular, consisting of a frontage to the Yarra of a mile, with a breadth of three-quarters of a mile, and it is a singular fact that so far back as 1840, Arden, one of the earliest and ablest newspaper writers complained of the area of the town as being too cramped. He wrote, "It is evident that Sir Richard Bourke, in allowing so confined a portion, could have formed no accurate estimate of the unrivalled growth it has since manifested." Had Arden lived until to-day, he would have seen Melbourne, in its suburbs, extended beyond the Merri Creek, and stretching away towards every point of the compass.
During Sir Richard Bourke's stay there was a remarkable controversy between him and Mr. Hoddle as to the width of the streets. The Governor had a notion that the perfection of town-planting consisted in big streets with little streets or lanes backing them up from behind — a sort of personal attendant like the knight and esquire of old, or the gentleman and valet of modern times. It was also a hobby of his that no town street should, under any circumstances, be of a greater breadth than sixty-six feet, and like most hobbyised people he nursed this notion with much affection. But Mr. Hoddle, though a subordinate, had not only a mind of his own, but what was better, the moral courage to speak it, and that he did so with effect, will be seen by a perusal of the history of the transaction as penned by himself in the following extract from the journal already referred to:—
"When (he writes) I marked out Melbourne in 1837, I proposed that all the streets should be ninety-nine feet wide. Sir Richard Bourke suggested the lanes as mews or approaches to the stablings and out-buildings of the main streets of buildings. I staked the main streets ninety-nine feet wide, and after having done so, I was ordered by the Governor to make them sixty-six feet wide; but upon my urging the Governor, and convincing him that wide streets were advantageous on the score of health, and convenience to the future city of Victoria, he consented to let me have my will. I therefore gave up my objection to the narrow lanes thirty-three feet wide, which have unfortunately become streets, and many expensive buildings have been erected thereon. Had a greater number of allotments been brought to public auction at first, houses in the broad streets would have been built in preference. I have remedied it afterwards in marking out North and East Melbourne, by making the various streets sixty-six feet wide. In 1837, after marking the streets, Sir Richard Bourke came early one morning into my tent and gave me the list of the names of the streets."
It is refreshing to read this scrap of narrative, at the present day, when professional heads of departments are loth to exercise a freedom of opinion on questions which can only be properly decided by experts, and when Ministerial chiefs are wont to do much as they like, according to their own sweet will. However, Mr. Hoddle came out of the encounter with flying colours, for he had the better half of the compromise; and it is solely owing to the persistent conscientiousness with which he urged his views, that the city of Melbourne has its grand, broad highways of to-day — the big streets thrice instead of twice as large as the little ones. To estimate the incalculable boon which this gentleman's sense of duty secured for the city, we have only to imagine Collins, Bourke, Elizabeth, and Lonsdale Streets one-third narrower than their present width, and this would inevitably have happened but for Hoddle's success in bringing Sir Richard Bourke to listen to reason. For such an action, as things have turned out, Mr. Hoddle may fairly be considered the best public benefactor the city ever had. The streets, it was ordered, should extend from west to east, and north to south, at regular intersections, the former batch to be handicapped with the "lanes." The boundaries of "Old Melbourne" were from the Yarra by Spring, Latrobe, and Spencer Streets, back to the river, and for years no sane man ever dreamed, that for any business purposes, the township would require any extension. The streets from the Yarra to Latrobe Street were named after Captain Flinders, one of the earliest navigators of Port Phillip Bay; Colonel Collins, the Commandant of the Convict Settlement of 1803; Governor Bourke, and the Captain Lonsdale, before mentioned. The streets from west to east were called after Lord Spencer (the Lord Althorpe of a Melbourne Administration), Governor King, of New South Wales; William Street, after William the 4th, and Queen Street after his Consort, though the compliment would have been more marked, and the nae more distinctive, if they had called it "Adelaide" Street. There is a difference of opinion as to the lady whose name is borne by Elizabeth Street. Some years ago it was stated in a Melbourne publication that it was a compliment paid by Sir Richard Bourke to one of his daughters; but I am assured, on the authority of Mr. Hoddle, that it was meant for Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen " of English history. Swanston Street distinguishes a captain of that name, the chairman of the Batman Association; Russell Street is a memento of the once popular Earl Russell; and Stephen Street a tribute to a permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies.
For years Spring Street was an enigma, which neither myself, nor any one I asked, could solve. The only theory that ever suggested itself to my mind, with any show of probability was that, the street, when pegged out, was so far away in the "bush," and passed over such a smooth, grassy, picturesquely timbered stretch of country, up a beautiful hill from the Yarra—across towards the Carlton Gardens, that either Governor or surveyor was induced by the fragrance of the gum trees and the freshness of the day, to present a votive offering to the goddess of Spring, whose season in another country they seemed to be enjoying, and so Melbourne came to have a Spring Street. This fanciful surmise has been singularly sustained by the testimony of Mr. Hoddle, to the effect that when Sir Richard Bourke and he arrived on the crown of the Eastern Hill, there was such an abundance of beautiful black and white wattle-trees growing where the Parliament Houses and Treasury are built, that the Governor, in a fit of happy inspiration, pronounced in favour of a "Spring" Street. Another idea is that Governor Bourke intended it as a compliment to Thomas Spring Rice, afterwards Lord Monteagle, a once distinguished British Statesman, the private friend and political patron of Bourke.
At first the streets were only opened from Spencer to Swanston Streets; the rest were soon added, and after Mr. Latrobe's arrival as Superintendent in 1839, he named the Northern boundary road, Latrobe Street, as a solatium for himself. The street now known as Market Street was not originally provided for. Its formation was first suggested by Mr. Robert Russell, and adopted by the Government. A few years after the streets known as Therry, A'Beckett, and Jeffcott were formed and so called after three of our early judges, and a fourth commemorates the name of the great Arctic explorer, Franklin, who was once Governor of Van Diemen's Land. All the country at the other side of the Yarra, from the Punt Road to Fisherman's Bend, went under the general designation of South Melbourne, and was of very little account—for the major part of it was a dense, snaky, scrubby jungle, and it was the opinion of some of the early engineers that no large ships could safely lie at Sandridge. What a practical contradiction the Railway Pier has offered to such professional vaticinations! When Melbourne was incorporated by the New South Wales Legislature, in 1842, the town was subdivided into wards, called after Latrobe, Bourke, Lonsdale, and Gipps (the last mentioned being Sir George Gipps, who succeeded Sir R. Bourke as Governor.) He was, in due time succeeded by Sir Charles Fitzroy, after whom the straggling and seedy looking suburb of Newtown, modernized into Collingwood, was associated to the Melbourne Corporation as Fitzroy Ward. North Melbourne was supposed to be included in Bourke and Gipps Wards, and as the city spread out, the "Northern territory" was cut up and brought under the Government auctioneer's hammer. But ere long the new streets were built upon, and the district at length became so populous that a cry arose for new Wards, and those of Smith and Hotham were created. There was a precious row in the City Council over the nomination of Smith Ward, and many a post-Council adjournment took place to the "Rainbow," the "Royal Oak," and other dram shops contiguous to the Council Chamber, where the monotonous question of the naming of the New Ward was repeatedly discussed, with a heat and froth equalled only by the hot toddy and effervescing "spiders" consumed in the efforts to settle the vexed question. Mr. John Thomas Smith, a seventh-time Mayor, was then quite a power in the civic world, and he was well backed up by the "publicans and sinners," who, under the combined influence of purse and impudence, got elected as the representatives of the citizens. The question was, whether, as all the other Wards had been called after Governors or Vice-Governors, it would be right to confer a similar honour upon a mere Mayor, for Mr. Smith was then nothing more. The anti-Smithites averred that it would be anything but the correct thing; whilst the pro-Smithites asseverated that it was only the right and proper thing to do. The Smithites finally worked up a majority, the matter was settled as they wished, and Smith Ward became an accomplished fact. There was no debate about "Hotham" after Sir C. Hotham, who succeeded Mr. Latrobe as Governor, in 1854. Since then two additional Wards have been added—Victoria and Albert—and when Sir A. Clarke (Surveyor-General) passed his Municipal Institutions Act, Melbourne was gradually shorn of some of its most flourishing suburban proportions—which germinated into as many independent municipalities.
The First Land Sales.
In the sketches I am writing, figures and statistics, unless in a "figurative" sense, ought to be tabooed as much as possible; yet there are some figures connected with the early land sales, which, when contrasted with those that would take their places, were the same allotments to be brought to the hammer to-day, reveal such an extraordinary increase in amount, as renders a brief glance at them far from uninteresting. The town was named, and subdivided into streets and lanes, and the next thing to be done was to submit the land in lots to public competition, and sell to the highest bidder. If the land auctions were to be held in Sydney a great hardship would be inflicted on the local residents through loss of time and expense in attending the place of sale; and as a special favour Sir Richard Bourke met the public wish by authorising the holding of land sales at Melbourne. The first came off accordingly on the 1st June and the second on the first November, 1837, Mr. Hoddle, the principal officer of survey, acting as government auctioneer. As a rule, few men of means lived on their stations in the country, and were more concerned about increasing their lambs and their calves than speculating in land-buying. Batman, Fawkner, Gardiner, Rucker, Hodgson, and a few others were exceptions, and the consequence was there was not much competition, and moderate prices ruled. The Melbourne streets, as before observed, were each 99 feet in breadth, and the lots were half-acre ones, less about four perches sliced off for the right-of-way behind. A curious condition of sale was introduced, by which every buyer covenanted to erect a substantial building worth £20 on his purchased land within two years. Lots at Melbourne and Williamstown were sold at the first sale; but only Melbourne ones at the second. The average prices at the former were Melbourne lots £35, and Williamstown £46; and at the latter (or second), Melbourne averaged £42. At the June sale 106 lots were sold, and 83 in November. All the Melbourne land so bought was in Flinders, Collins William King, Bourke, Elizabeth, Swanston, and Queen Streets; and the more westward the situation, the more valuable was it considered. An inspection of an old plan of Melbourne with which I have been favoured by Mr. C. J. Ham (the Mayor of Melbourne), taken in connection with other information obtained, elicits some incidents that make one wonder, whilst pondering over the prices and fixing the identity of some of the lots which are now the prime business places in the city. Fawkner, usually the first in everything bought lot 1 for £32—the south-eastern corner of King and Flinders Streets—and Batman the south-west corner of Collins and William Streets for £60. The north-eastern corner of Collins and Queen Streets lately purchased by the English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank for £60,000, was knocked down to Mr. E. W. Umpleby for £61, and Mr. John Hodgson bid £23 per half an acre of "the Block" in Collins Street, but, fancying he had "sold" himself by buying it, was thoroughly re-sold by his forfeiture of the couple of guineas paid as deposit money. It was subsequently taken up for the same price by a Mr. Fleming. A Mr. S. J. Browne, of Heidelberg, well known in those days as "Paddy" Browne, purchased the allotment at the corner of Queen and Collins Streets, on part of which is the Bank of Australasia, the price being £40, and he paid a deposit of 10 per cent, or £4. All that night he dreamed of having "burned his fingers,"and next day was sure he had done so. Coming to town and fretting over his bad bargain, he was so anxious to get rid of it that he actually offered the deposit receipt to several of his friends—satisfied to lose the £4 if the transferee would pay the balance. Not one of them would touch the thing even with a branch of gum-tree; and this so confirmed "Paddy" as to the badness of the investment that he actually forfeited the land! The half acre became waste land for a year or two, and after a time there was an intention to reserve it for a post-office site, but this was abandoned in favour of the more central position finally selected. In 1839 the Wesleyans obtained it from the Government as a chapel site, and thereupon was erected the large brick building so long known as the Wesleyan Chapel. In course of time the Wesleyan body thought it advisable to sell the place, and apply the large price expected, in promoting the spiritual efficiency of their mission; and the consequence was, that in less than forty years Paddy Browne's abandoned venture of £40 increased exactly in the ratio of one thousand to one, for just £40,000 was the price obtained by the Wesleyans. The four intersecting half-acre corners of Collins and Elizabeth Streets were got for £50, £40, £42, and £32, respectively. The first was knocked down to Mr. W. T. Mellison; it was, till recently, known as the Clarence corner, and subsequently sold for $60,000, and the Queen and Collins Streets block (now Bank of New Zealand) went for £42, the corresponding corner opposite bringing £90. Batman, who bought largely, got the half-acre, in Collins Street, opposite the Bank of Victoria, for £59, and the Rev. James Clow—wise in his generation, pocketed no less than two acres at the south-west corner of Swanston and Lonsdale Streets for £162. Germain Nicholson's corner (Collins and Swanston Streets) was bought for £43; the Albion Hotel lot in Bourke Street, £30, and the Beehive corner, opposite Post Office, £28. A Captain Synnot bought a halfacre in the heart of the "block" for £19, which he re-sold the day after for £25, congratulating himself on his good fortune in having cleared £6 so easily.
The result of the sales in Melbourne inducing a belief that land would bring more money if disposed of at Sydney, the venue was accordingly changed to that place, and from a financial point of view the result justified the course taken. In February, 1838, a sale was held there, when town, suburban, and country lots in Melbourne, Williamstown, and Geelong were offered, several following at intervals, and the prices increased in consequence of the Sydney capitalists going into the thing as land-jobbers. All that populous locality now known as Fitzroy and Collingwood, but then as the parish of Jika Jika or Newtown, was cut up into 25 acre lots, and averaged about £1 per acre. Lot 1 comprised the 25 acres commencing at the corner of Nicholson Street and Victoria Parade, and was sold for £6 10s. per acre. How many thousand pounds would it bring now? Two corners of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets were obtained for £125 and £136, the lot where the Argus Office is £129, and the (until recently) "Rainbow" corner near the Police Court, £121. Twelve 25-acre blocks at Richmond averaged nearly three times as much as at the first Collingwood sale. A land mania, which brought its own penalty of an early burst-up, set in the following year (1839), and continued for some time, and speculation reached a high pitch. The half-acres were cut up into feet, and brought what were then deemed not exorbitant prices; though a few examples will show the immense increase of supposed value. The south-east corner of Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets bought for £22 was re-sold at £600, and the north-east corner of Elizabeth and Collins Streets, (first cost £32) fetched £630. A corner of William and Collins Street, cost originally £95 and realised £2000. Fawkner made a good thing of his King and William Street bargain, for the £32 swelled into £1513 6s. 6d. and some land and three half-acre allotments in Collins Street, a little eastward of the Bank of Australia, sold at the rate of twenty-six guineas a foot. Two of them were bought by the well-known Mr. Ebden for £41 and £43, and the other by Lilly, the spouting auctioneer, for £42. The emergency evoked the auctioneering talent necessary for the occasion, and the two great hammer orators were a Messrs. Williams and Lilly, who hammered away in poster, newspaper and rostrum incessantly. Williams' style was ornate, plausible and "high falutin," but Lilly, who evidently possessed some small smattering of the classics, though not so flexible or fluent as his rival, distanced him in originality if not smoothness of style. In selling an allotment in William Street, near St. James's Church, Lilly completely outdid himself, for, not content with apostrophising Port Phillip as "This nascent empire of the South Seas," in summing up the numerous advantages of the property on hand, he had recourse to the ugliest and handsomest figures in heathen mythology wherefrom to extract some wordy yeast with which to inflate his absurd puffery—for he seriously declared that "words were inadequate to describe, and language, like Vulcan obeying the behests of Venus, follows thought with slow and halting pace." The force of bathos can no further go. In 1837, the Government land sales realised £7,221; in 1838, £62,467; and in 1839, £59,995. Town, suburban, and country lots continued to be alienated, and the Sydney capitalists, who mostly went in for suburban and country blocks, reaped a rich harvest by sub-dividing and sub-letting.
In bringing this chapter to a close I cannot do better than summarise a few of the numerous and almost incredible contrasts presented by a study of the early sales of land in Melbourne, and some of the changes effected in the value of that description of property in modern times:—
- The north side of Collins Street, from Queen to Swanston Streets, constituting the whole of the now fashionable "Block," was originally sold for £455—about one-fourth of what a single foot of it would now bring!
- The corresponding, or south side of the same street was sold for £555, and would now realise an equally increased value.
- The north side of Bourke Street, from Elizabeth to Russell Streets (omitting the Post Office Reserve) netted £1982—an excess over Collins Street which I account for in this way:— The portion commencing at Swanston Street, northward, was not placed in the market until 1838, when the prices showed an advance, and the purchasers of four or five of the allotments, not standing to their bargains, their deposits were forfeited. These lots then remained over until the speculative fever of 1839 had set in, when they brought such proportionately enormous prices that Dr. Cussen appears down as the possessor of one for £635, or £180 more than the first cost of the whole "block," and Mr. James Purves gave £450 for another, or within £5 of the "Block" figure. So it was the forfeitures mentioned that unwittingly swelled the price. The corresponding, or south side of Bourke Street, owing, in a lesser degree, to the same causes, realised £1397 18s., one lot having brought £490. All this property, if now unbuilt on, would be worth from three to four times that sum per foot!
- Let us next take both sides of Elizabeth from Bourke to Flinders Streets, the land alone of which commands a present high value at per foot frontage. All the eastern side was originally bought for £283, the whole space from Bourke to Little Collins Streets, including the Beehive and Colonial Bank corners going for £56, and the Clarence half-acre corner for £50. The western side price was £290; the Bourke Street corner bringing £30, and the two Collins Street ones £40 and £42.
- Through the courtesy of Mr. T. Alston, I have been supplied by one of the most eminent auctioneer firms in the city with the following note of some sales of Melbourne properties, and they are given simply as a few specimen cases.
Memo, of prices realized for certain city properties from 1873 to 1877:—
Leviathan Corner, Bourke and Swanston Streets, shop, &c. (the half-acre originally cost £30), Jan. 29, 1873.—Land, 59 feet 6 inches to Bourke Street, and 65 feet along Swanston Street, and irregular depths. Area, 13 6-10 perches. J. B. Watson, £30,800. £517 12s. 10d. per foot, frontage to Bourke Street, £362,606 per acre.
Dec. 4, 1873.—Hall of Commerce and other buildings, Collins Street (the half-acre cost in first instance, £23). Land, 87 feet frontage, by irregular depths, 110 feet to 156 feet 9 inches. Area, 1 rood, 5 6-10 perches. Price realised, £40,000. £459 15s. 5d. per foot frontage. £140,289 17s. 3d. per acre.
Dec. 2, 1874.—Two shops in Collins Street, occupied by Wilkie, Webster and Co., and Geo. Wharton. Land, 63 feet 2 inches; frontage by irregular depths, 88 feet to 88 feet 3 inches; area, 11 7-10 perches; price realised, £14,466 13s. 4d.—£400 per foot frontage. £197,730 is. 7d. per acre.
Dec. 2, 1874.—Six shops in Collins Street, occupied by Fergusson and Mitchell, and Twiddell and Co. Land, 103 feet frontage by irregular depths of 107 feet 8 inches to 109 feet 3 inches. Area, about 1 rood 1 6-10 perches. Total price realised £38,850. £370 per foot frontage. £149,233 6s. 8d. per acre.
Dec. 1, 1875.—Two shops in Collins Street, occupied by Nicholson and Ascherberg, and F. Barber. Land, 36 feet frontage by irregular depths of 156 feet to 187 feet; area, 26 3-10 perches; total price realised, £19,000. £528 per foot frontage. £113,530 17s. 3d. per acre.
Mar. 22, 1876.-Two shops, next Union Club Hotel, Collins Street (first cost price of half-acre, £91). Land, 35 feet 11 inches frontage by 81 feet 4 inches deep; area, 10 7-10 perches; price realised, £6,465. £180 per foot frontage, £96,377 12s. 4d. per acre.
Mar. 22, 1S76.—Four shops (Collins Street) occupied by Gunsler, Hickinbotham and Son. Land, 66 feet 2 inches. Frontage by 314 feet 4 inches back to Little Collins Street, to which it has 65 feet 8 inches frontage; area 1 rood 36 2-10 perches. Price realised, £39,700. £600 per foot frontage, £83,307 7s. 6d. per acre.
Mar. 22, 1876. —Old site Bank of Australasia, Collins Street (the half acre originally bought for £50). Land, 95 feet frontage by 139 feet deep; land 71 feet frontage to Bank Place by 96 feet deep; area, I rood 32 perches. £33,000. At rate of £73,359 10s. 10d. per acre. Feb. 10, 1877. —Criterion Hotel and other buildings (first cost of half-acre lot, £19). Land, 66 feet frontage by 313 feet 6 inches back to Flinders Lane, to which it has a frontage of 66 feet; area, 1 rood 36 perches. Price realized, £33,000. £500 per foot frontage, £69,473 13 8d. per acre.
After this who will venture to say that Melbourne fact is not stranger than fiction?
Note. —The following are the boundaries of the town of Melbourne, as defined in the Government Gazette of April 1st, 1840:—
Parish of North Melbourne.—County of Bourke—Bounded on the north by a line bearing east 240 chains, being distant one mile north from the centre of Batman's Hill, extending two miles east to its north-east corner; on the east by a line bearing south 110 chains; on the south by the Yarra Varra River; and on the west by a line bearing north 94 chains to its north-west corner.
Parish of South Melbourne.—County not named. Bounded on the east by ihe continuation of the east boundary of the Parish of North Melbourne, bearing south 299 chains; on the south by Hobson's Bay; on the north by the Yarra Yarra River; and on the west by the continuation of the west boundary of North Melbourne to Hobson's Bay.