VICPlanned settlement
St Kilda
A breezy hill above the beach became Melbourne’s first seaside address.
1842First Crown land sale for the village
WHAT STARTED IT
A raised seaside knoll about three miles from Melbourne drew picnickers, and government allotments for a new village were auctioned here in December 1842. The place appears to have taken its name from the schooner Lady of St Kilda, moored offshore in 1841–42.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By the 1850s St Kilda was an address of the well-to-do, and the 1857 railway brought day-trippers to the sea baths, pier and racecourse. Trams from 1888 lowered the tone, the 1890s depression turned many mansions into boarding houses, and the foreshore and Luna Park made it Melbourne’s pleasure ground.
TURNING POINTS
1842Crown allotments for the new village are auctioned near Fitzroy Street and The Esplanade.
1857The railway from Melbourne to St Kilda opens.
1888A cable tram along St Kilda Road reaches St Kilda Junction.
1906A foreshore committee begins remaking the beachfront to designs by Carlo Catani.
1912Luna Park opens on the foreshore.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A dense inner bayside suburb of flats, cafes and entertainment venues. Luna Park, the pier and the Palais Theatre recall its seaside heyday.
KEEP READING · SOURCESTrove · Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser, 8 December 1842, ‘Land Sale’Trove · New South Wales Government Gazette, 9 September 1842, ‘Port Phillip. Sale of Suburban, Urban, and Town Allotments’Trove · The Age, 14 May 1857, ‘St. Kilda Railway’Trove · The Argus, 14 December 1912, ‘Luna-Park. Successful Opening’Victorian Heritage Database · Former St Kilda Railway Station ComplexVictorian Places · St Kilda