aerial view | Hidden Melbourne

Fitzroy from Town Hall Tower

Fitzroy Town Hall is a civic building located in Napier Street in Fitzroy. Planned as Melbourne's first suburb in 1839, Fitzroy is a densely populated cultural hub, area 100ha. The hall and tower were designed by William J. Ellis and built in 1863. Address: 201 Napier St, Fitzroy VIC 3065

Take a full tour of the town hall and see the beautifully preserved building and go up the tower and clock to the crows nest via the link below. This view from the top of the tower allows you to look around the suburb and jump to other locations by clicking on the “Visit” labels .

Many thanks to the town council for participating in this historic project, which gives access to their beautiful town hall to everyone. Contact us if you want your historic building to be included in this project.

1855 Panorama from Melbourne Gasworks Tower

Hidden Melbourne historic tour now includes a photographic panorama of Melbourne captured by Walter Woodbury in 1855 from the 195 ft high chimney of the new gasworks, thought to be an Australian first. These were the years of the birth of modern photography. At the age of merely 21 he took his wet-plate camera, tripod, portable darkroom and his chemicals and was hoisted in a ‘proper cradle’ by means of the ‘small steam-engine’ up to the room at the top of the chimney.

An early adoptee of the new Collodion Process, he used a glass plate coated with a collodion (cellulose nitrate) solution to which a soluble iodide was added. Prior to exposure the plate was immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide. The plate, still wet, was exposed in the camera and then had to “fixed” immediately because once the collodion film had dried this could not be done. The panorama required 4 overlapping photographs.

How much easier it is for Hidden Melbourne, using a Sony A7R2 with a CMOS sensor, “developing” the images in Photoshop!!! This highly detailed panorama has been enhanced to show features not visible on the old prints made on silver gelatine paper. Many thanks to the State Library of Victoria for making these images available, and for the sterling job they do to preserve our history.

Read the fascinating story in the LaTrobe Journal linked to this scene and have a detailed look at Melbourne 1855 through an old lens. Click on this image to see the instructions, use the link to see the panorama in detail.

https://www.hiddenmelbourne.com.au/VTNode/1855_Woodbury_Gasworks_Tower