Bourke Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district and a core feature of the Hoddle Grid. It was traditionally the entertainment hub of inner-city Melbourne, and is now also a popular tourist destination and tram thoroughfare.
During the Marvellous Melbourne era, Bourke Street was the location of many of the city's theatres and cinemas. Today it continues as a major retail shopping precinct with the Bourke Street Mall running between Elizabeth and Swanston Streets, numerous offices to the west end and restaurants to the east.[1] Its liveliness and activity has often been contrasted with the sobering formality of nearby Collins Street.[1] For this reason, "Busier than Bourke Street" is a popular colloquialism denoting a crowded or busy environment.
Easterly view of Bourke Street, towards the Elizabeth Street intersection, c.1935Route 96 trams on Bourke Street, October 2012.Bourke Street at night, August 2017.Pellegrini's cafe, November 2018.
Bourke Street runs roughly from east to west and bisects the city centre along its long axis.[3] Bourke Street runs parallel between Little Collins Street to the south and Little Bourke Street to the north.
There are two primary stretches of Bourke Street, split by Southern Cross station: the historic city centre and the modern Docklands precinct. The city centre portion runs from Spring Street in the east (overlooked by Parliament House) to Spencer Street and Southern Cross station. The newer Docklands end continues on the other side of the station (which is only accessible to pedestrians) and finishes at its intersection with Collins Street further west.
Having been laid out as part of the Hoddle Grid in 1837, Bourke Street was considered "out of town" until the 1840s when the western end saw the opening of St Patrick's Hall, the first synagogue and the first public hospital. During the 1850s it gained a reputation as a busy thoroughfare popular as the centre for Saturday nightlife. As retail presence increased with department store Buckley & Nunn opening a succession of buildings in 1851 and rival Myer in 1911, the street was often compared to London's Oxford Street.
Melbourne's first theatre opened on Bourke Street as the Pavilion (1841), and by the late 1840s the east end was established as Melbourne's main entertainment zone. Theatres and public halls were complemented by billiard halls, cigar divans, rifle galleries, bowling alleys and sideshows. While the early evening crowd trod Bourke Street's pavements for entertainment or for show, the night-time street was also notorious for public disorder, fights, brothel touts and drinking and drunkenness.[1]
Cheap restaurants appeared from the 1870s, when Parer's Hotel and Crystal Tea Rooms[4] became a Melbourne institution, while the Café de Paris was a favourite literary and artistic meeting place. Ellis Bird's Books opened in 1925 at number 21 and Margaret Bird and her husband built up a haven for the literati for 30 years.[5] Twentieth-century restaurants such as Florentino's, Pellegrini's and the Society Café have become Melbourne institutions.[1]
The late 20th century onwards has resulted in office block developments, residential skyscrapers, the introduction of several shopping arcades and the Bourke Street Mall.
Mall
The Bourke Street Mall is a pedestrian and tram-only strip running between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets. The mall is Bourke Street's most famous feature and contains retail hubs like Melbourne's GPO, H&M, Zara, Cotton On and the flagship stores of Myer and David Jones.
Concepts for a Bourke Street Mall were drawn up as early as 1964 by Robin Boyd and Frederick Romberg[6] however the ambitious multi-platform design which separated cars from pedestrians was never realised. Plans were eventually scaled down with pedestrians sharing space with a grade level tramline. Vehicular traffic was removed from the section on 13 February 1978.[7] The pedestrian mall was officially opened in 1983 by Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales.
The mall received a major facelift in preparation for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and elevated tram super-stops were later installed.
In the January 2017 Melbourne car attack, a mentally ill person driving a sedan being pursued by the police deliberately drove the vehicle onto the footpath and ran over innocent bystanders at Bourke Street Mall. The crime claimed the lives of six people, including one baby and one child. Over twenty-five victims were hospitalised with injuries.[8]
The 2018 Melbourne stabbing attack also took place near the Target Centre on Bourke Street. An ISIS inspired male set fire to his ute before exiting the vehicle and stabbing three bystanders. Two victims were hospitalised and one died. Police attended the scene within one minute of the car fire and shot the offender, who later died in hospital.[9]
In September 2023, Zain Khan drove through a tram stop, running over multiple bystanders before crashing into two cars at the Bourke/Russell Street Intersection. A 76-year-old Brunswick man, identified in media reports as the philanthropist John Haasz, was killed and five other people were injured in the alleged rampage.[10] Khan pleading guilty at his trial.[11]
Arcades
Many of Melbourne's famous arcades and shopping centres connect to Bourke Street, including:
The Walk Arcade (presently (2024) being redeveloped and not operating.
Centrepoint Shopping Centre presently (2024) largely empty in readiness for redevelopment.
Events
Myer Christmas Parade (2007)
The inaugural Myer Christmas Window display was in 1956, the year of the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics and became an annual tradition. Myer's shopfront windows are decorated in a different Christmas-themed display and are visited by around 1,000,000 children and their parents each December. The Myer Christmas Parade was an annual parade running down Bourke Street from Spring Street to the Myer windows. The parade was last held in 2010.
Flashmob die-in protest in 2010 on the ninth anniversary of the Afghanistan War
Southern Cross station bisects Bourke Street at the city centre's west end and is a major transport hub for train and bus services throughout Victoria. The station also has shuttle buses to Melbourne and Avalon Airports. A pedestrian bridge at Southern Cross station provides access from Bourke Street to Docklands Stadium and Melbourne Docklands.
Cinemas
Bourke Street has played a historically significant part in Melbourne's cinema industry. It was home to the city's first permanent cinema (although this was initially established near Princes Bridge), and by 1913 had developed into Melbourne's principal cinema precinct. In 1908, Arthur Russell began screening films at St. George's Hall, which was rebuilt as Hoyt's De Luxe Theatre in 1914, marking the beginning of the Hoyts cinema chain.
Bourke Street remained a centre for cinema-goers until quite recently. In 2005, the Hoyts cinema moved to larger premises at the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre. On 15 February 2006 the Village cinema closed down, leaving Village cinemas at nearby Crown Casino as the main Village branded city cinemas. The Chinatown Cinema, which inhabits the former Hoyts MidCity cinema, is the only cinema left in Bourke Street. On nearby Collins Street, the newly expanded Kino Dendy cinemas continues to be a cinema drawcard. The adjacent Russell Street Greater Union cinemas closed in 2013 and has since been demolished.
Docklands, is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on the western end of the central business district. Docklands had a population of 15,495 at the 2021 census.
Swanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street vertically bisects Melbourne's city centre and is famous as the world's busiest tram corridor, for its heritage buildings and as a shopping strip.
Melbourne tram route 96 is operated by Yarra Trams on the Melbourne tram network from East Brunswick to St Kilda Beach. The 13.9 kilometre route is operated out of Southbank and Preston depots with C2 and E class trams.
Collins Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most desired address in the city. Collins Street was named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania David Collins who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sorrento in 1803.
Elizabeth Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. It is presumed to have been named in honour of governor Richard Bourke's wife.
Melbourne tram route 109 is operated by Yarra Trams on the Melbourne tram network from Box Hill to Port Melbourne. The 19.3 kilometre route is operated out of Kew depot with A and C class trams.
Victoria Street is one of the major thoroughfares of inner Melbourne, running east–west for over six kilometres between Munster Terrace in North Melbourne and the Yarra River. The road is known as Victoria Parade for over one-and-a-half kilometres of its length, distinguishable with a wide reservation and tramway down the middle.
The Melbourne cable tramway system was a cable car public transport system, which operated between 1885 and 1940 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Lonsdale Street is a main street and thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Australia. It runs roughly east–west and was laid out in 1837 as one of Melbourne's original boundaries within the Hoddle Grid. The street extends from Spring Street in the east to Spencer Street in the west.
Melbourne Central is a large shopping centre, office, and public transport hub in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The main tower is 211-metre (692 ft) high, making it one of the tallest buildings in Melbourne at the time it was built in 1991. Other parts of the complex include the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, the underground Melbourne Central railway station and the heritage-listed Coop's Shot Tower.
Centre Place is a laneway and pedestrian precinct in Melbourne, Australia. It runs north from Flinders Lane to Collins Street, between Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street.
Little Collins Street is a minor street in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia.
Degraves Street is a pedestrian precinct and thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district in Victoria, Australia. It is a short, narrow laneway that runs north–south from Flinders Street to Flinders Lane and is situated in-between Swanston and Elizabeth streets. Degraves, as the street is colloquially known, is famous for its alfresco dining options and because it epitomises Melbourne's coffee culture and street art scene. For these reasons it has also become a popular tourist destination.
The Melbourne central business district is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city laid out in 1837, and includes its fringes. The Melbourne CBD is located mostly in the local government area of the City of Melbourne, which also includes some of inner suburbs adjoining the CBD, while a small section extends into the City of Port Phillip.
Bayside Shopping Centre is a super regional shopping centre in the suburb of Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula of Melbourne.
The Melbourne central business district in Australia is home to numerous lanes and arcades. Often called "laneways", these narrow streets and pedestrian paths date mostly from the Victorian era, and are a popular cultural attraction for their cafes, bars and street art.
The District Docklands is an indoor/outdoor shopping centre in the suburb of Docklands in the inner-west of Melbourne.
The Melbourne tram network began in 1884 with the construction of the Fairfield Horse Tramway. However, the purpose of the line was to increase land prices in the area, and it soon closed during the depression in 1890. The first genuine attempt to construct a tramway network was the construction of the Richmond cable tram line by the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company in 1885. Over the next few years, 16 more cable tram lines were constructed, as well as numerous other horse tramways. The depression of the early 1890s slowed further expansion of the cable network. The first electric tram line was the Box Hill and Doncaster tramway which opened in 1889. This was a pioneering line in what was then the countryside and thus didn't receive much patronage. It closed in 1896. The next attempt at an electric tramway was Victorian Railways' St Kilda to Brighton line, which opened in 1906. Later that year, the North Melbourne Electric Tramway & Lighting Company opened lines to Essendon and Maribyrnong. Many local councils formed their own tramway trusts and built tramways within their own constituency. The most successful of these was the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Melbourne:
↑ Holroyd, J. P., "Margaret Henrietta Bird (1888–1963)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 28 August 2024
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