WINNER

St Kilda 1841–1900: Movers and Shakers and Money-makers

By Carmel McKenzie

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.

WINNER

Frontier Magistrate: The Enigmatic Foster Fyans

By John Cary

Frontier Magistrate tells the life story of Foster Fyans, successively a British Army officer, Commandant of penal settlements, and police magistrate in colonial Victoria. It is the first full-scale biography of Fyans who had a significant role in the earliest years of European occupation in Victoria.

In a range of official capacities, between 1837 and 1853, Fyans interacted with many of the earliest settlers and squatters, particularly in the large area between Geelong and the Portland Bay District. As a Commissioner of Crown Lands, he was charged with preventing collisions between the squatters and Indigenous peoples, a task which, in the circumstances, was well-nigh impossible.

John Cary has produced a highly readable study of Fyans, which places him within the wider context of the moving frontier of the European invasion of First Nations’ country. The text is well researched and balanced—the author does not refrain from referring to the prejudices and attitudes displayed by his subject. This is a ‘warts and all’ biography, of a superior kind

WINNER

Houses of North and West Melbourne

Elio Sarpi

The Houses of North and West Melbourne Instagram account is an exemplary model of how social media can be used to lift the profile of local history. The captions accompanying each carefully selected building demonstrate detailed research and an abundance of engrossing, intriguing and little-known fact. The range of buildings documented enables an exploration of the many facets that go together to make up the history of one of Melbourne’s oldest, but still thriving, areas. The account has attracted more than 16.6 thousand followers who have enriched the heritage value by adding their own cultural and historical knowledge through the comments. An engrossing offering to a broad audience of both locals and others interested in the history of Melbourne.

WINNER

Staging a Revolution: When Betty Rocked the Pram

By Kath Kenny

Staging a Revolution is the story of the making of the radical stage production, Betty Can Jump, directed by Kerry Dwyer, produced by the Carlton Women’s Liberation group, and performed at the Pram Factory in 1973. The play was born out of and intertwined with the struggles of the women’s liberation movement in Melbourne in the early 1970s.

Betty Can Jump was a bold and revolutionary feminist play, performed by five actors. To mark its 50th anniversary, Kath Kenny has produced an engaging and highly readable account of an important episode in Melbourne’s more recent history. Kenny vividly evokes the world in which the drama was played out and its key players, demonstrating a skilled use of oral records that bring to the page the voices of the period. She also uses interviews to weave into the account some more recent reflections of the main characters. This book has much to commend it: its imaginative, playful and clever structure; its energetic prose; and its wide and varied range of sources. Kenny balances the complex issues and agendas of 1970s feminism against the backdrop of the independent theatre scene with all its own dramas and vulnerabilities. As well as being an important episode inMelbourne’s history, this is a rich and valuable record of a significant group of women who, through theatre, were making history.

WINNER

Unknown Melbourne

By Julian O’Shea

Unknown Melbourne is a beautifully researched, produced and presented series of short-form videos shedding new light on the well-worn streets of the great city of Naarm/Melbourne. With a significant internet, social media and community following, this series draws on the iconic, quirky and sometimes surprising aspects of everyday life in Melbourne in a playful yet factual manner. Old places are gifted a new historical connection, character and context, and in the process, Melburnians are given a new lens through which to view their city. Engaging, sophisticated and clever work from Julian O’Shea.

WINNER

Don’t Be Too Polite Girls

By Richard Lowenstein and Martie Lowenstein

This twenty-five minute documentary film illuminates the origins of Australian oral history through the extraordinary story of oral history pioneer Wendy Lowenstein: from her days in the postwar Communist Party youth movement and political theatre, through the development of the Australian Folk Movement, to traveling around Australia in a van with her husband and children in 1969 creating oral histories on a reel to reel recorder. Combining vivid film footage of political and cultural movements and from home movies, audio interviews with Wendy, and riveting filmed extracts from many of Wendy’s recordings, the documentary captures the irascible energy, determined politics and insatiable curiosity of one of Australia’s oral history pioneers. It evokes the excitement of creating new ways of listening to the histories of so-called ‘ordinary’ Australians.

WINNER

The Lost City of Melbourne

By Gus Berger

The success of The Lost City of Melbourne in elevating the history of Victoria is evident through its wide-spread appeal beyond the field of professional and community history, and the responsiveness of the general public to this work. The judges felt that the production was well-researched, expertly referenced and drew on a range of sources. The filmed historical experts were well chosen due to their ability to select the stories that resonate with modern-day audiences. Creator Gus Berger has made us think about what is lost and what remains in the built fabric of contemporary Melbourne.