Melbourne & Australian Architecture Topics

Collector,

Terrific photos. Keep up the good work.

Beachy Bleechy

Collector. Those are fantastic photos. Great stuff.

Wouldn't it be interesting to gather all those who were involved in the demolition of these buildings to gauge whether they have given a thought about how much they destroyed part of Melbourne's history. I bet no one of them would have given it a thought. Hell, they might be dead by now.
It breaks my heart.

Most of them were commissioned to be demolished by "Whelan the Wrecker", who made a living out of it.

In a book, it was said that the Whelans often pilfered many of the artefacts that noone else was interested and sold them on the black market. Some pieces of the Federal, for example, were distributed in this way. It also says, ironically, that they, like many at the time, actually dismayed and quite sentimental with what was happening. And unlike many, they actually got to see some of these grand interior spaces in their final days that were kept under lock and key by the councils anti-heritage fire restrictions.

Talk about conflict of interest !

Dear Lord, imagine walking through these beautiful old buildings in the days before the demolition work began.....wandering through the rooms knowing the whole thing was about to disappear.

I cannot fathom how a building like the Federal Hotel was allowed to be demolished. Just completely bewilders me.

What an utter waste.

Collector - all respect for compiling these images, you are officialy the Jedi master of this forum (congrats by the way)... it's a funny feeling going through these though.. at first I get very excited and proud but very soon I'm left in a long lasting depression.. walking past the site of the former Champions Hotel daily has been painful to my peripheral vision anyway, now that I've seen images of what it once was it just makes it a lot worse.. so yeah Collector - thanks very much.

^^ Thanks all, we aim to please.