special Melbourne architecture: 1848 ->

John Smith's home, Queen St

built late 1840s

Served as Treasury and Gold Office from 1859

Melbourne was founded in 1835 as a commercial venture. Tasmanian settlers, frustrated at diminishing opportunities in their own col­ony, sent an expedition to Victoria to test its viability for farm­ing. Project leader John Batman created a modest colony on the Yarra River and negotiated a land purchase from local ind­igenous men. The first city buildings were wooden, presumably to be rebuilt permanently.

John Smith arrived from Sydney in 1840 and began teaching local In­digenous children at a Melbourne government mission. Then Smith op­ened a grocery and later owned hotels. With this money, he built himself the first really lovely home in Melbourne in 1848, and added a third storey later. Smith was soon elected to the City Council, then elected Lord Mayor, then to the State Legislature for years! The Government used Smith’s renovated premises for different purp­os­es in the C20th eg State Treasury Offices.

Bourke Street looking west, 1858
Lovell Chen

Meanwhile, a row of shops was built in town. A large shop and a residence above went up in Crossley St in 1848-9 by an English migrant butcher, William Crossley. The premises were histor­ic­ally used as a meat-preserving works, with the land behind used as a slaughter yard. It was here that our story began, with the wide shop and residence in Crossley St.

Suddenly life in Melbourne changed forever in 1851; gold was disc­overed in rural Clunes, triggering the Gold Rush. As money and people poured in, the city stretched in every direction, requir­ing rebuilding in a much grander fashion.

The second part of the Crossley Building, the adjoining shop and its residence above, was designed by architect Joseph Burns. The comp­l­et­­­ed building extended from Crossley St (ex-Romeo Lane) and Liv­er­pool St (ex-Juliet Lane). The butchers expanded into the newer shops, over the top of the original cellar. The walls were of blue­stone and the ceilings were brick barrel vaults. The inter­iors sh­ow­ed relics of openings, vents, shelving, enclosures and fix­tures. At ground level, an 1847 cast iron column was visible in a later brick wall, separating the two retail sides.

Later shopkeepers included the famous butcher family Sir William Ang­liss. Since then, shops were us­ed for shoes, drapery, café, gro­cer, fruit­­erer, photographic studio, wine mer­ch­ant, tailor and dry goods.  Eugene von Guerard, a won­d­erful landscape artist in the late colonial era, occupied #56 in 1857-8, just when he was estab­lishing his career. The building had also housed the notorious Bourke St Rats gang.

Job Warehouse, as it was called, was still in a simple Victorian Georgian style. The external render was ruled, there was a simple parapet above, and the corner shop had a splayed cor­n­er. Each of the two storey shops had a residence behind and above them. Externally the building kept much of its original form, except for alterations to the shop windows and the parapet. But the inter­iors retained few original features; even the internal stairs which once led upst­airs were all rem­oved and new stairs were added.

The Job Warehouse was of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria, satisfying these 3 criteria for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:

A] The building’s cultural history was among the ol­d­est surviving buildings in Melbourne, forming an important link to pre-Gold Rush Melbourne. The various businesses occupying the shops reflected the residential nature of central Mel­bourne then, and the everyday goods and services local resid­ents needed. It dem­on­strated the old pract­ice of people living close to their businesses.

B] It has rare historical aspects surviving from a pre-Gold Rush commercial building, and of an early shop-row, once common in the city but now almost completely disappeared.

C] It has the architectural characteristics of the austere Georgian style buildings typical of pre-Gold Rush Melbourne. This style was the basis for most architecture in Australia from the time of Eur­o­pean settlement until at least the mid C19th but rarer in Vic­toria because there was no convict settlement here. In any case, gold wealth in Victoria led to the popularity of more ornate styles.

Job Warehouse, Bourke Street

Lovell Chen

These shops were occupied from 1956 by Jacob Zeimer, a post-WW2 European migrant. He later owned the whole building, becoming well-known in Melbourne for fabrics for haberdashers, dressmakers and theatres. Since then the terrace housed many tenants and underwent extensive alter­at­ions. For 56 years Jobs Warehouse remained a magnet for dress­makers, its windows showing a lively business crammed to the ceiling with enormous rolls of cloth.

The people who owned and occupied the row told the story of the evolving city. The terrace at the top of Bourke St, on a site flank­ed by laneways, clearly held special significance for older Mel­b­urn­ians. Own-ed by one family for decades and still the home of the Paperback Bookshop today, the terrace was a rare survivor in the city streetscape. The site’s history and development resembled many early commercial and residential buildings once commonplace in Melb­ourne’s Central Business District-CBD, but not now.

The restoration of this, one of Melbourne’s CBD’s oldest buildings, is urgently needed. Neglected since the shops closed in 2012, the Her­it­age Listed prop­erty in Bourke St will form part of a new hosp­it­ality venture, bec­om­ing a 673-patron bar and restaurant Juliet’s Terrace. This will honour the laneway once home to Mel­b­ourne’s red-light district 160 years ago. The Lord Mayor said the group’s $50 million project would gen­er­ate 500 jobs during const­ruc­t­ion, and 350 hospitality jobs after­. But due to the building’s age, the time needed to restore it will be longer than normal.

George's Collins St, c1890

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By way of comparison, compare the Georgian architecture with a building designed by architects John Grainger and Charles D'Ebro some decades later (1880) in the grand classical revival style. Brothers William and Alfred George were retailers in the UK. They emigrated to Melbourne in 1877, and soon found work at Robinson’s drapers in Collins St, in the most fashionable retailing area in the city. In 1880, the opportunity came to take over the business as George's Emporium, perhaps the most beautiful commercial building and business in Australia.

Dr R Virchow: pathology, science, politics ....................... by guest blogger

Prussian Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) was the only child of a farmer and always had a strong interest in natural science. In 1839, he received a scholarship from the Prussian Military Academy to study medicine at Berlin’s Friedrich Wilhelm Institute University. He grad­uated in 1843 and was preparing for a career as an army physician.

Rudolf Virchow with skeletons

Science Photo Library

At the Charité Hospital he studied pathological histology and in 1845 published a paper des­cribing one of the earliest reported cases of leukaemia. He became hospital anat­omist, and in 1847 he and Dr Benno Rein­hardt started a new journal Virchow’s Archives which still goes on as a leading pathology journal. He asked students to use microscopes and had a major impact on medical education in Germany. He taught several men who became famous scientists, including William Welch & William Osler, 2 physicians who founded Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr Virchow was appointed by the Prussian government to in­ves­tigate a typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia; his strong report blamed the outbreak on social conditions that were tolerated by the government. The government was annoyed, but it had to deal with the revolution in Berlin! After the 1848-9 Revolution, Virch­ow wrote and published a weekly paper, Medical Reform, but the government didn’t like his progressive views.

Having already established a reputation as a crusading social reformer, he’s since been identified as much with social medicine as pathology. His regular writings on topics of pathology included many essays and lectures on social medicine and public health. His writings and teachings recommended ways of improving people’s health by improving their economic and social conditions.

The doctor was soon appointed to the newly established Chair of Path­ological Anatomy at Würzburg University, Germany’s first. During his successful years there, Virchow published many papers on pathological anatomy, and began publishing his 6-volume Handbook of Special Pathology and Therapeutics (1854). He also began to formulate his theories on cell­ular pathology with studies of the abnormal skulls of those affected by neonatal hypo­thyroidism.

Dr Virchow giving a Pathology lecture

Science Photo Library

Virchow disliked the majority view that phlebitis of a vein caus­ed most diseases; he de­monstrated that mass­es in the blood vessels resulted from thromb­osis and that portions of a thrombus could detach to form an embolus. An embolus set free in the circulation could be trapped.

Virchow’s greatest success was his observation that a whole organism does not get sick, only groups of cells. In 1855 at 34, he published his now famous aphorism every cell stems from another cell. Virchow thus launched the field of cellular pathology. He stated that all diseases involve changes in normal cells i.e all pathology ultimately is cellular pathology. This insight led to major progress in medicine. It meant that disease entities could be defined much more sharply. Diseases could be characterised not merely by a group of clinical symptoms but by typical anatomic changes.

In 1856 he was given the Chair of Pathological Anatomy established at Berlin Uni; and a new pathological institute was built which he used until retirement. His main statement of his cellular pathology theory was given in a lecture series in 1858 and published as his book Cellular Path­ol­ogy as Based upon Physiological and Pathological Histology. Virchow lectured on the inflammatory process, introducing the modern con­cep­t­ion of starchy degeneration. The pathology of tumours was important, as was his work on the role of animal parasites in causing disease in humans.

Interestingly Virchow became actively engaged in politics. In 1859 he was elected to the Berlin City Council, foc­using on pub­lic health issues eg meat inspection and school hygiene. He super­vised the design of two large new Berlin hospit­als, opened a Nursing School and designed the new city sewer system. Then in 1861 he was elected to the Prussian Diet/Assembly under Otto von Bis­marck. In the wars of 1866 and 1870, Vir­ch­ow was involved in building military hos­pitals and equipping hospital trains. In 1874 the doctor introduced a standardised technique for perform­ing aut­opsies, to examine the whole body in detail.

Dr Virchow supervised autopsies closely

ThoughtCo.

It was interesting that this talented doctor campaigned vigorously for soc­ial reforms and contrib­uted to the development of anthropology and archaeology. These were Virchow’s­ main interests in 1865 when he discovered hill forts in North­ern Germany. In 1869 he co-founded the German Anthropological Ass­ociation and in 1870 he founded the Berlin Society of Anthropology, Ethnology & Prehistory and continued to edit its journal. And in 1873 Virchow was elected to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He excavated wall mounds in Wollstein with Dr Robert Koch in 1875 and edited Koch’s papers. [For his discovery of tuberculosis bacterium, Koch won a Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1905].

Pathologic anatomy had major practical consequences. If the physician was able to find out what anatomic changes had occurred in a patient, he could make a much more accurate diagnosis of the disease than he could previously. This also empowered physicians to give more precise treatment and prognosis. In his speeches Virchow advocated that medicine in Germany should a] study microscopic pathological anatomy, b] do research performed by physicians and c] make systematic clinical observations

Virchow’s many discoveries included finding cells in bone and connective tissue and describing substances eg myelin. He was the first to recognise leukemia and the first to explain the mechanism of pulmonary thromboembolism. He showed that blood clots in the pulmonary artery can originate from venous thrombi. While Virchow in Germany was creating the new science of cellular pathology, Louis Pasteur in France was developing the new science of bacteriology. Virchow and  Pasteur’s germ theories were somewhat different.

He served in the German Reichstag (1880–93) while also directing the Pathological Institute in Berlin. Even though Virchow was opposed to Bismarck’s excessive budget, which angered Bismarck sufficiently to challenge Virchow to a duel, Virchow helped to shape Bismarck’s health care reforms. Not bad for a pathologist, public health activist, social reformer, politician and anthropologist!

by Dr Joseph

neoclassical sculpture was created to honour Dr Virchow

by Fritz Klimsch from 1906, 

On Karlplatz in Berlin-Mitte, 

Wiki

Chagall's stunning stained glass, UK church

It is an ordinary laneway that leads to All Saints Church Tudeley in Kent, where an unremarkable church appears, although loved by locals. Enter the porch, lift the latch, push the heavy oak door and pass via the dark entrance into a realm of magic. Pools of mainly blue and gold light, flecked with crimson and green, shimmer on the ancient flag stones. They are the special stained glass windows by Marc Chagall on 3 sides that make this church unique. Why? It is a story of love, tragedy and art

modest All Saints Church Tudeley, Kent

Tudeley’s history is interesting. Until 1849 there was no large land owner close to this tiny village. Then in that very year, the Jacobean mansion Somerhill, the most important house around, was purchased by Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. The years passed and the wealthy Goldsmid family expanded their estate and started taking a philanthropic interest in Tudeley affairs. But this interest did not include the little Anglican church since the Goldsmid family was Jewish. But all that was to change in the C20th when the Squire of Somerhill Sir Henry Goldsmid married an Anglican. Sir Henry kept his faith, but Lady Rosemary d’Avigdor-Goldsmid and the 2 daughters worshipped at church.

The Goldsmids lived a privileged, art-filled life. In 1961, Sarah and her mother visited an exhibition in Paris' Louvre where glass windows designed by Chagall for Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Centre synagogue were displayed. Both women were thrilled by these windows, and on her return to Britain, Sarah constantly talked about them. 

All Saints church Tudeley, memorial window above altar 
Meer

Alas two years later, Sarah (21) and 2 friends drowned in a sailing accident near Rye in Sussex. Grief stricken, but thinking of a lasting memorial to their daughter, the Goldsmids knew of Sarah’s awe of Chagall. Her parents approached the artist and asked him if he’d be willing to create the East Window in her memory. Chagall agreed.

Chagall was a very busy older man, plus there were two major problems to consider: 1. He’d never worked in England and 2. the Jewish artist had no experience of what might be acceptable in an Anglican church. Still, Chagall had always been interested in Christian motifs, and did agreed to the commission. Tiny Tudeley was en route to artistic fame. 

Lady d’Avigdor-Goldsmid met Chagall in Paris to discuss his design. Note that painter Chagall did not adopt the medium of glass until late in life. Perhaps as a lover of colour, he was only too well aware of what his palette could create. But Chagall already found a skilled glass craftsman in Charles Marq of Atelier Jacques Simon in Reims, who rendered the piece into glass. Marq interpreted Chagall’s windows as he had done with Hadassah windows, Jerusalem. Soon 2 workmen went to Kent to install the glass in a newly designed space over the altar.

Crucifixion, memorial window
Letter From England

Note that Chagall had been commissioned to design ONLY the church's East Window as a memorial; yet when he arrived for the dedication ceremony in winter 1967, he’d noticed that the church possessed 11 more windows, 7 with plain glass and 4 with coloured glass. If suitable arrangements could be made for the removal and reinstallation elsewhere of the existing coloured glass, then Chagall would create designs for ALL the windows. After much debate and many delays, All Saints Church Tudeley became the home of the 12 exquisite stained glass windows designed by Marc Chagall, the ONLY church so honoured.

According to Jewish Chagall, the windows were inspired by Psalm 8; he found the Bible captivating. Each of the 11 smaller windows is a work of art in its own right. They tell the Biblical stories of creation and show the artist’s delight in the natural world and in live beasts. See Adam and Eve, moon and sun, branches and leaves, doves and ducks, fish and butterflies, ass and a small Chagall self-image. A simple church in an ordinary area was favoured with complex art!! 

Windows with deep blue with green leaf, angel, moon, 

Wiki 

The East Memorial Window over the altar told the tragic story of Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid; her ascent to heaven was symbolised by light blue waves and glorious gold and angels. They were all beautiful windows, but it is the memorial window that is the most absorbing. Blue was the colour that Chagall enjoyed using to represent love and Sarah’s tragedy. In the lower section Sarah appeared rocked in the dark indigo waves, while a figure represented all the mourners. Her mother was there too, beside a ghostlike Sarah and her surviving sister. Then look up as the sea’s blue lightened to become sky. Here Sarah was seen again, on a horse, Chagall’s symbol of happiness, being carried towards a ladder. Sarah went up the ladder and a crucified yet triumphant Christ awaited her at the  window’s apex, above them all. Thus life’s suffering and grief shown in the lower panels became the love and resurrection in the upper sections. 

In the sun, enjoy the window’s glory and notice the light swirling through the glass. The colours addressed vital consciousness directly, telling of hope and delight in life. The story was tragic but had been made into rather beautiful blue windows with glass and light. In a perfect testament of a mother’s love for her lost child, mother had commissioned a perfect memorial window.

Depicted in the sea, at the bottom of the memorial window, the drowned girl floated in the water. Then look up at a beautiful depiction of her resurrection. Sarah had loved to ride horses. For Chagall, horses and donkeys represented happiness, and, for him, red was the colour of joy. Sarah was riding a  red horse in Paradise!

Sarah riding a red horse in Paradise 
Letter From England

The church is open to art-lovers on Mons-Sats; on Sundays everyone is welcome to the church service.

Myer: great Russian-Australian retailers

Russian Elcon Baevski (1875-1938) was born in Krichev to Hebrew scholar Ezekiel Baevski, went to a Jewish primary school, then high school and later managed his mother's drapery business. In 1896 Elcon migrated to Australia, working in Melbourne with a relative, Lazer Slutzkin. Simcha Myer Baevski (1878-1934), the youngest of the 11 siblings, attended the same schools as his brother, then he too managed his mother's store. Simcha fled poverty in Belarus and joined Slutzkin's business.

Sidney and Elcon took the family name Myer, moved to rural Bendigo and in 1901 established their drapery store. Sidney ran a rural trade in fabrics, on foot then on horse-cart. The brothers formally became partners in new premises in Pall Mall Bendigo, and in Mar 1902 Elcon married Rose Marks. 

Myer evolved from a drapery to a Bendigo department store

ABC News

Bendigo’s 1856 synagogue was replaced later by a larger, solid brick synagogue, so families had a religious centre. But the brothers’ partnership struggled because Elcon opposed Sabbath trading. He returned to Melbourne, opening clothes production in Flinders Lane. Sidney bought him out and remained in Bendigo, but they were still close. In 1905 Sidney married Hannah Flegeltaub at Ballarat.

In the Bendigo drapery, Sidney followed new fashion trends and presented stock attractively. He also advertised boldly, appealing to women's shopping habits. By 1907 Bendigo's busiest drapers had 60+ staff and expanded its premises. In 1908 Sidney bought Craig Williamson Drapery for £22,000, and a fast sale of its stock repaid his creditors.

Late 1909 Sidney travelled overseas to study British and European merchandising methods and to establish contact with exporters. In 1911 he purchased Wright & Neil, a Bourke St drapery, paying £91,450. He raised staff wages and closed up for a fortnight's stocktaking and ordering! In June, full-page newspaper ads promoted the long Myer sale.

Soon Sidney took over more Bendigo shops, then opened other Melbourne and Adelaide shops. Then Elcon rejoined his brother and managed 2 Bendigo shops. Modelled on San Francisco's Emporium, the new £70,000, 8-storey building opened in July 1914 with a popular gala sale. Myer grew the business, occupying a broad City area between Bourke and Lonsdale Sts. The area included 10 buildings built by Sidney, designed by commercial architects HW & FB Tompkins.

When war tragically erupted in 1914 and damaged trade, Myer opened a London office to deal with suppliers, sourcing more products locally and even manufacturing. It aided Sidney's plan to maintain imports in WW1. Elcon travelled to London again, to organise shipments of cloth. He joined the Army Service Corps, serving in UK and then at the front. In 1915 he built a clothing factory and bought Doveton Woollen Mills in rural Ballarat in 1918.

Myer Emporium, Bourke St, 2007

The retailer evolved from being a drapery into a department store in Bendigo, Wiki

The success of their retailing was also due to their classy window displays. The new Bourke St windows attracted customers, using theatrical sets and models to display goods. Designed by famous commercial buildings architect Nahum Barnet in 1892, two extra buildings were bought by Myer.

In mid-1919 Sidney visited U.S, getting divorced in Nevada and converting to Christianity. In Jan 1920 he married young Margery Merlyn Baillieu and had 4 happy children.

By 1920 Myer Emporium had 200 departments, famous for its motorised delivery vans! Myer's Australia Ltd brought together all firms solely owned by Sidney, with a capital of £2 million; and the London subsidiary was unified. In 1921 warnings of a post-war slump overseas prompted Sidney to predict the collapse of import prices and cut his losses with a Million Pound Master Sale. It cost £500,000+ but, by restocking the cheaper imports, he traded out of crisis.

Sidney offered 73,000 staff shares of £1 each, and 200,000+ shares among his managers (plus paid vacations, access to a sick fund, holiday homes were built) and a free hospital went in-store. He ran annual staff balls, football & cricket matches, a Christian Fellowship and choral society shows.

 

From 1925, a separate section was devoted to display design and installation. The Lonsdale and Little Bourke St building facades showed Classical and Beaux Arts styles while the Bourke St facade had an Inter-war Art Deco style. The present Bourke St façade (8 storeys) was completed in 1933. By 1925 the Bourke St front increased with the first section of an 11-storey Lonsdale St store opened with £3 million capital. In 1926 Myer opened Melbourne's first Cash and Carry grocery, plus self-service cafeterias.

Sidney was managing director, with a large committee. In 1927 the Co's net profit was £328,000 and shareholders received dividends of 17%. In 1928 Myer took James Marshall department store of Adelaide, placing Myer Emporium SA Ltd under his nephew Norman. Furthermore Myer bought out Webb Table Ware Merchants 1930, then WH Rocke smart furniture dealers 1931!

Sidney had ethical employment beliefs, and in times of financial strain here, instead of reducing worker numbers, he lowered wages and increased worker numbers! With the terrible Depression, he launched a £250,000 rebuild of his Bourke St shop in 1931, to increase employment. He’d already anticipated Scullin government's tariff embargoes and import restrictions, so reduced his overseas buying and started a Made in Australia Week. He limited profits to 5% so no retrenchments were needed!

The objects of his philanthropy were sometimes cultural, rather than charity. In 1926 he gave 25,000 Myer shares worth £50,000 to Melbourne Uni! Then he formed the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1932, and created a trust fund for them with 10,000 Myer shares. Sidney was on Royal Melbourne Hospital’s management committee; in 1933 he was chosen for the executive committee of Victoria's Centenary Council and raised £20,000+; and he gave an ambulance to the Victorian Civil Ambulance Service. What a great man.

Sidney died of cardiac failure in Sept 1934 and his will placed 1/10 of his wealth in trust for the charitable, philanthropic and educational needs of his community. The business was left to nephew Sir Norman Myer and Baillieu Bails Myer’s brother Ken Myer.

New windows were installed to Bourke St in 1955, the Myer Christmas windows commencing with 1956’s Olympic Games, and each year, a new theme was created. The Bourke St Myer Christmas window displays were visited by generations of children as their Christmas holiday ritual.

One of the Christmas windows for children after 1956

Mother's Little Explorers

 

Myer Mural Hall used a Streamline Moderne dining room for 1000 people, completed in 1933 on the 6th floor. It is a large space with a décorative plaster ceiling, balconies and wall panels. At one end the mannequin stairs led down from 2 balconies to the landing for fashion parades. The Hall was decorated with 10 murals by famous neo-classical artist Napier Waller (1893-1972)

half the Myer Mural Hall, completed in 1933 on the 6th floor

wedding reception, Tripadvisor

He donated to: Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne Uni and Yarra Boulevard, roadwork for unemployed men. And when the Children's Hospital had to close wards, he donated £8000. His love of classical music meant he gave £1000 annually to concerts by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

He was succeeded by Elcon, with Norman Myer as managing director. Elcon presided over the completion of the modern Bourke St shop. Elcon was also active in many charitable causes eg the Alfred Hospital board and St Kilda Synagogue Board. Alas Elcon died in 1938 of cancer, and was buried with Jewish rites in Boxhill cemetery. His estate was probated at £114,353. Elcon left 2 sons of his first marriage and by his 2nd wife Myrtle Fisher (married 1929).

Bails Myer, born in San Francisco in 1926, was Sidney and Merlyn’s youngest of four children. Bails followed dad in the retail trade, after being a WW2 officer in Royal Navy. When Sir Norman died in 1956, Bails and brother Ken started an ambitious expansion strategy for the company. In 1960 they set up in a giant shopping centre, Chadstone. The brothers believed that the future of retail depended on bringing shopping to the masses, in the suburbs. Correct! Myer store became the retail heart of country’s largest mall!

Myer Chadstone, 2025

Tripadvisor

Bails was also involved in Myer Emporium’s acquisition of the Lindsay’s retail chain in Geelong. That business re-emerged as Target under Myer’s ownership and became another famous Australian retail brand. But in 1983, Bails went back into Myer’s management as a recession strangled Melbourne’s retail trade. This was just when Myer was in a corporate tussle with Grace Brothers. Myer won, securing ownership of the significant NSW department store owner in 1983. Bails led the group’s merger with GJ Coles and Myer Emporium, to create Coles Myer in 1983-5, the ?biggest deals in Australian corporate  history.

In 1994 Bails retired to focus on his interests in the arts and philanthropy, as a trustee of Victoria’s National Gallery. He also worked with the Myer Foundation, a trust that had started in 1959 by Sidney’s sons; it had distributed $300+ million since then. Re scientific studies, Bails became president of Howard Florey Institute and executive member of CSIRO. He also played a key role in the early 2000s in the refurbishment of the Sidney Music Bowl, built to honour dad’s legacy. He died (96) at home in 2022. My grandfather was correct; of all immigrants, Russians added the most to Australian culture.

Sidney Myer Music Bowl summertime venue

has been wowing crowds opened 1959.

Visit Victoria