Mitchell Toy: Great stories from Melbourne’s history you’ve probably never heard of

THE Lady of St Kilda who had three funerals, a 300-year-old tree as tall as 22-storey building and a waterfall on the Yarra that was blown up. Here are eight stories from Melbourne history that you’ve probably never have heard of.

THE Lady of St Kilda who had three funerals, a 300-year-old tree as tall as 22-storey building and a waterfall on the Yarra that was blown up.

Here are eight stories from Melbourne history that you might never have heard about.

SORRENTO, DARLING

Melbourne was founded in the 1830s when John Batman and his party ventured up from Van Diemen’s Land.

But Melbourne wasn’t the first European settlement in Victoria. It was Sorrento.

In 1803, before even Tasmania had been properly colonised, settlers arrived at Sullivan Bay in Sorrento where the state’s first funeral and wedding were held.

The settlement dwindled as supplies ran short and Tasmania was seen as a better option.

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A sketch of Sullivan Bay at Sorrento as it became the first Victorian European settlement in 1803.

THE LADY OF ST KILDA WHO HAD THREE FUNERALS

In 1841 the ship Lady of St Kilda threw down her anchor in the bay, close to the area that now bears her name.

The ship was named after Rachel, Lady of St Kilda, in Scotland who disturbed a plot by her Jacobite husband to stage a rebellion.

The rebels decided to keep her in prison and faked a funeral so everyone thought she was dead.

She was imprisoned on the isle of St Kilda and later the Isle of Skye and died in 1745.

But her captors were still worried they’d be found out so they held another fake funeral with a fake casket and later held her real funeral in secret.

The ship Lady of St Kilda is honoured in a sculpture at the Balaclava rail bridge.

An 1840s sketch of the Lady of St Kilda ship, and its tribute sculpture at Balaclava.

WHY MAGPIES SING

Indigenous people in southeastern Victoria have a unique story about the creation of the first dawn.

According to the story, the sky once covered the earth like a blanket, filling everything with darkness and making people crawl around among short, under-grown trees.

Then a group of magpies took initiative and propped up the sky with branches and sticks.

Eventually it was hoisted so high that light poked through on the horizon; the first sunrise.

The magpies were so elated they burst into a chirpy song which has never ended.

THE MCG COULD HAVE BEEN AT SOUTHBANK

Although the Melbourne Cricket Club was formed in 1838, the MCG wasn’t constructed on its present site until 1853.

Before that the club played games at grounds around the young city’s outskirts, including the area that is now the Botanical gardens and later Southbank.

But the Southbank site proved unusable when the Yarra kept breaking its banks and flooding the field.

In frustration the club moved the ground to its present location.

The 2017 AFL grand final at the MCG. Picture: Jason Edwards

HOW TO BLOW UP A WATERFALL

When early Melbourne settlers of the 1830s consulted indigenous locals about the river, the name “Yarra Yarra” came up.

But they might have actually been referring to a short waterfall that used to exist near today’s Queen’s Bridge, and separated the river’s fresh water from the salt water estuary.

The waterfall prevented settlers from moving further up the river so it was packed with dynamite and blown up in the 1880s.

While it meant the upper part of the Yarra was more accessible, it also changed the tidal reach and caused erosion around the banks.

The waterfall was similar to Dights Falls, further up the river at Abbotsford.

TREES LIKE SKY SCRAPERS

Among one of the oldest trees in Victoria is the Ada Tree, a giant mountain ash in the Yarra State Forest that has lived for about 300 years; older than European settlement in Melbourne by more than 180 years and one of the tallest trees in the world.

The Ada Tree might be the largest living thing in Australia and is estimated to be more than 75 metres tall.

Visitors can see the tree via a walking track.

A group of Victorians with a giant mountain ash in the 1950s. Picture: State Library of Victoria

The Ada tree.

MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE

The term ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ is believed to have started when the city was the centre of the British Empire in the east.

During the 1880s Melbourne was booming with the gold rush and an influx of prospectors and merchants saw our city become the largest in the empire after London.

Although overtaken by other imperial centres by the early 20th Century, Melbourne was also the capital of Australia until the establishment of government in Canberra in 1927.

Federal Parliament sat in what is now the State Parliament.

The Melbourne coat of arms and the official city flag, designed in the 1800s, and featuring a hanging sheep, a bull, a ship and a whale.

SHE GATHERS STRENGTH AS SHE GOES

Among the under-used symbols of early Melbourne is the official city flag, designed in the 1800s and featuring a hanging sheep, a bull, a ship and a whale.

Another is the Melbourne coat of arms featuring two lions supporting the flag on a crest.

It also features Melbourne’s Latin motto that never really caught on: “Vires Acquirit Eundo”, which translates to “She gathers strength as she goes”.

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