Shutter City: Fragments of Old Melbourne

(Paperback)

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Suppose that you could travel back in time to a Melbourne city street from 150 years ago or even longer. What might meet your eye that has eluded historys gaze

Shutter Citypresents city street views spanning the hurly-burly decades of the 1850s to 1870s, between the gold rushes and Marvellous Melbourne. Robyn Annear peers into every shadowy corner to reveal postcard streetscapes as miraculous time-capsules, packed with hidden-in-plain-sight historical detail. Her discoveries she calls them sparks illuminate and decode each of Shutter Citys street views.

Among the sightings: barbers poles, drinking fountains, the three gilded balls of a pawnbrokers sign, gleaming white cups at a coffee stall, street-vendors carts, neighbourhood dogs (and a cat), assorted ghosts, and ladders lots of ladders.

LetShutter Citybe your time-machine and Robyn Annear your guide: her lively and insightful commentary weaves the street views and their sparks into a vivid narrative of a near-forgotten Melbourne and the photographers who captured it.

Author Bio

Robyn Annear has been ransacking Melbournes history for thirty years. Her books includeBearbrass, A City Lost & Found (Whelan the Wreckers Melbourne)andAdrift in Melbourne.