29. Revisiting Melbourne on Foot Richmond_TMBTP

This episode of This Must be the Place is the first of our ‘walking tours’ – we are revisiting the walks of the 1980 book “Melbourne on Foot: 15 Walks Through Historic Melbourne”. This episode starts with David speaking with one of the authors of that book, Professor Graeme Davison of Monash University, about the genesis of the book in general. They are then joined by Elizabeth to discuss the Richmond tour specifically. (Confusingly this all takes place in St Kilda, ahead of a walking tour included in a later episode). Back in time, but later in the episode, Elizabeth and David retrace the 1980 tour of the inner suburb of Richmond. While some things have changed since then (beginning with tram routes, and also a cable tram station that has since been swallowed up by Punt Road), many of the houses and landmarks of Richmond’s layers of history remain. The tour takes in Richmond’s genteel hill area (now home to many urologists and cosmetic surgeons), down to the flat and the mix of 19th century housing and factory buildings (many of them now disguising, ‘iceberg house’ style, James Bond style apartments behind), and the civic buildings and shops of Bridge Road. It also takes in what is now known as the Dogs in Space house (reference to the 1987 film), but in 1980 was noted as an unusually large house for such a small street. Graeme had written ‘The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne’ while living in Canberra. On his return to Melbourne, some of the walks in the book originated as urban history material both for his students and for himself. They were also partly inspired by the book ‘Chicago on Foot’ and the Chicago school tradition of urban walking. Plus, they were also pitched at a wider readership. The authors – who comprised a mix of academics and of community activists - consciously did not pick (then) fashionable suburbs such as East Melbourne or Parkville, but instead encouraged readers to visit parts of the city that they perhaps overlooked or were reluctant to see historic merit in. Graeme’s 4th year dissertation was on Richmond and he was once picked up by the police there, for looking shifty with a bag. It was that kind of place then. Nowadays many of us probably couldn’t afford to live in places like Richmond, but you can still take a walk there. Or visit a urologist, as you see fit.