Carlton Association - First Meeting

First Meeting

The first public meeting of what would become the Carlton Association was held on 17 March 1969 at St Michael’s Hall in Princes Hill. It was attended by 170 Carltonians who heard fiery speeches from residents whose homes were threatened. The meeting concluded with the election of a ten-person committee and a plan for action. The Committee decided upon an organisational structure that would best enable the Association to address the central concerns of residents. In addition to three permanent sub-committees (architecture and town planning, community services and education), action groups would be established to respond to urgent concerns. The first of these action groups got to work immediately on the most pressing matter: the proposed demolition of the Lee Street block.

The action group prepared the case for preserving the existing buildings in a report addressed to the Commission. This report contained a comprehensive analysis of the block, demonstrating the historical significance and structural soundness of the buildings, the acceptable level of sanitation and the lack of ‘overcrowding’. It argued that there were no reasonable grounds upon which the houses could be demolished. Moreover, it challenged the HCV to prove that the area constituted a slum. The Carlton Association represented the views of many Melburnians in its warning to the Commission that “posterity will be justifiably angry if we permit destruction of this and similar areas – destruction of the historic heart of Melbourne.” However, the Commissioners were unable to see it this way, convinced as they were that the condition of ‘slum areas’ that had shocked the public during the Depression could never be rehabilitated.