An Antipodean Attica

Jane Franklin’s Greek temple in Van Diemen’s Land, the role of the architect James Blackburn, and the reaction of Hardy Wilson Read more

Asbestos Cement in Australia

The controversial history of the importation, the local manufacture, and use of asbestos cement, up to the time when its tragic effects became evident. Read more

Building in the Docklands

This deals with the site of John Batman’s house and Batman’s Hill more generally, the Yarra wharves, the West Melbourne Swamp, the early railway buildings and the Queen’s Warehouse. Read more

Composite Vernacular Constructions

Vernacular building is the building for ordinary people, constrained by the practicalities of environmental conditions and physical materials, and influenced by traditional culture, but not mediated by professional architects and engineers. Read more

Secret History of Victorian Modernism

These twenty-three letters and fragments are a sort of cross-section of the architectural world of Melbourne in 1952, but not so much a clinical microscope slide as a sort of cheerful, scurrilous laceration. Read more