Melbourne Club

The Melbourne Club is a men-only private club established in 1838 and located at 36 Collins Street, Melbourne; adjacent to the women-only Lyceum Club. The club has up to 1,500 members; admission being by invitation only. The club is among those that have traditionally been perceived by critics as wielding a disproportionate influence on Melbourne life, with a third of its members being listed in an issue of Who's Who in Australia.

The club was established at a gathering of 23 Victorian squatters and businessmen in 1838 and initially used John Pascoe Fawkner’s public house on the corner of Collins Street and Market Street. The club's early years were marked by drunkenness, duels, fist fights and oafishness.

At the rear of the Club building is a private courtyard garden which is the location of garden parties and private functions. In 2000 there was a dispute over a high-rise re-development of the Naval and Military Club at the rear of the two clubs in Little Collins Street. The development causes overshadowing and overview of the private garden. The Melbourne club building is of architectural significance as a rare intact example of a nineteenth century purpose-built clubhouse in the Victorian Renaissance style, the windows are an exception to this as they were all smashed in an angry working class riot a number of years ago.