Robyn Annear

Just a little way down Collins Street, beside Henry Buck's, is a perpetually dark but sheltered laneway called Equitable Place. Here you'll find a number of places to eat and drink. Settle yourself in the window of one, shut your eyes, and picture this scene of yore... In this much-loved book, Robyn Annear resurrects the village that was early Melbourne—from...

Robyn Annear lends her signature wit to this fantastic history of second-hand, from the origins of the op shop to eBay, up-cycling, and how new became normal. 'Given the way we live now,' writes Robyn Annear, 'it would be easy to suppose that newness has always been venerated.' But as this wonderfully entertaining short history makes clear, modern consumerism is...

"Old landmarks fall in nearly every block...and the face of the city is changing so rapidly that the time is not too far distant when a search for a building 50 years old will be in vain." - Herald, 1925. The demolition firm of Whelan the Wrecker was a Melbourne institution for a hundred years (1892-1992). Its famous sign -...

Melbourne’s streets have always been marvellous—but the proud facades of the nineteenth-century boom aren’t the half of it. What about the stories behind them? The great corset scandal of Melbourne’s belle epoque; the heritage-listed toilets out the back of the Rialto; the exploits of the women who ran the brothels in Little Lonsdale Street; the reason George Mallaby starred in...

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 history’s gaze? Shutter City presents 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...

Beloved Melbourne historian Robyn Annear takes us on an unorthodox tour of the city's streets and corners, telling stories about the events and people that have made these the most interesting places to be. What better defines a city than its street corners? A corner gives you a starting point, a destination, and a place to turn. It's furnished with...

Melbourne: a city of stories grew out of Melbourne Museum's permanent exhibition, 'The Melbourne Story'. That makes it a selective history: one based on objects—things that have survived. The idea that objects can give rise to stories comes as no surprise to anyone who's ever dug up a shard of old china in their garden, or found an ancient button...

Part of the award-winning non-fiction series for teens, The Drum 3 December, 1854. When government troops stormed the Eureka stockade, the battle lasted just twenty minutes, but it changed Australia forever. Fly a Rebel Flag: The Eureka Stockade by Robyn Annear offers an insightful look into this pivotal moment in Australian history. This compelling narrative, suitable for teenage readers, captures...