St Kilda Historical Society Incorporated

This followed a highly ambitious previous year for projects, including the launching on June 18th of Carmel McKenzie s book Movers Shakers and Money Makers at the Linden Art Gallery in Acland Street. During this year, Carmel s book was winner of the Premier s History award. Since then we have seen the fruition of another project looking at a period of time when St Kilda was no longer floating along on a favourable breeze but rather struggling with the demolition of our most significant buildings, an increasing population and the advent of apartment living. Apartments provided an alternative for those shifting out of grand mansions but were then followed by buildings being torn down and replaced with flats. Local film maker, Marianne Latham took on the challenge of representing this era on film, showing us the new and rather seamy side of living in St Kilda. Attractive to the young, a new era of music, arts and the beatnik culture began. With the support of a grant from the Cultural Grants Committee, Marianne was able to put together a fascinating portrayal of this period which was launched on March 25th 2024 at George Lane and attended by over 100 people, many of whom had lived experience of this era of St Kilda and all of whom came along to celebrate this information rich documentary. Many projects continue on the slow boil and we now have a fantastic committee of people who provide outstanding service responding to inquiries, scanning documents to go onto the Collections Victoria website and maintaining advocacy with the City of Port Phillip, participating in a range of initiatives from encouraging the upgrading of the St Kilda Library, supporting those in Council working for the Reconciliation Action Plan, proposing an appropriate response following the vandalization of Captain Cook s Statue and encouraging a multipronged approach to respond by encouraging Council to invest in First Nations art and other endeavours in the public realm. We have also participated in the Council s Cultural Development Committee and worked on initiatives proposed as part of the Council’s ‘Her Story Project’ by providing a considerable amount of research to back up the Council’s commitment to increasing the number of streets and public spaces named after prominent women. Much of this work has been done by Liz Kelly who also provides an impressive amount of work and information on numerous requests for information on a vast array of topics. As in previous years we are also grateful to the input provided by non committee members including Krystyna Kynst and designer Jocelyn Harvey producing our quarterly Newsletters which always provide a comprehensive and interesting insight into our past. Janine Burke has continued to assist in progressing the Ailsa O Connor Courtyard at the St Kilda Library.