Melbourne Trivia
Melbourne Trivia - Reference Around Melbourne
We come across all sorts of interesting Melbourne tit-bits that are often difficult to categorise, so this is where they end up...
⊜ Melbourne
Two questions from the Crowded House song "Weather With You".. 1. Where is 57 Mount Pleasant Street? 2. What does "walking round the room singing stormy weather"mean? 57 Mount Pleasant...
⊜ Melbourne
You've might have heard someone say telling furphies or that was a bit of a furphy and wondered what they meant or where the expression came from. FURPHY | FURPHIES | FURFY The word furphy is a...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne has more than its fair-shair of Australian firsts... One of the first women only gyms, in Victoria and possibly Australia, was established by Harriet Elphinstone-Dick, who lived from...
⊜ Melbourne
20 AUSTRALIAN WORDS THAT MEAN SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT IN THE USA. The Yanks (Americans - Septic Tanks) are fascinated by the differences that exist between the Australian vocabulary and their...
⊜ Beith Street, Brunswick
The world went mad when star Beyonce Knowles appeared in Brunswick, a Melbourne back street to film a music video clip in October 2013. Where: Beith Street, Brunswick When: October 2013 Who:...
⊜ Melbourne
We love BIG, well there was the movie Big (Tom Hanks), and there is Big M (flavoured milk) and Big Coxy (sorry mate), so when it comes to big things, Victoria is huge! Here is 10 more. 1. The...
⊜ Melbourne
Billy Connolly has enjoyed a longstanding career as one of the world's best-loved comedians. His live shows have been enthralling audiences around the world for over three decades. He has toured...
⊜ corner Lygon Street and Grattan Street Carlton
Borsari's Corner is on the corner of Lygon Street and Grattan Street in Carlton. Named after Nino Borsari (14 December 1911 - 31 March 1996), an Italian cyclist who won a gold medal in the 4000...
⊜ 570 Church Street Cremorne
Redheads matches were manufactured in the Bryant and May factory located in Church Street, Cremorne (Richmond). Bryant and May was well known for providing workers with excellent working...
⊜ Melbourne
Did you know there was once five Beatles not four? The only time it ever happened was in Melbourne on the 14th June, 1964. The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr had collapsed and was hospitalized on...
⊜ Melbourne
Have you seen Carrot Man? Legend has a man who walks inner city Melbourne holding a giant papier-mâch© carrot with green plastic leaves. July 2019 - Carrot Man has returned. The mysterious,...
⊜ Melbourne
The savoury snack CHIKO Roll is an Australian icon right up there with Australian Rules Football, kangaroos and Holdens, was developed by Francis McEnroe from Bendigo. McEncroe got the idea after...
⊜ Melbourne
She has graced magazine covers, had wine named after her and poems written to her. She has experienced fame and adoration and has won high acclaim from critics. Her career began, like the many...
⊜ Melbourne
Victoria's Christmas Bush is a Prostanthera lasianthos Lamiaceae. It is a variable shrub or small tree, from 2 m to 10 m high. Often has a compact habit when in shrub form. Leaves are lanceolate...
⊜ Melbourne
The City of Melbourne's Armorial Bearings (or arms) were first granted to the Corporation of the City of Melbourne by Letters Patent of the Kings of Arms dated 30 January 1940. They were based on...
⊜ Richmond
What is a C R O G G Y? A croggy is a ride on the handlebars of a mates push bike. Now we understand Croggy is not a Melbourne bit of trivia, but we do remember as Melburnian's either having a...
⊜ Melbourne
Dacomb is a form of shorthand devised and taught by Melbourne sisters Beatrice & Clara Dacomb. Dacomb shorthand was created as an alternative to the more complicated Pitman shorthand. It became...
⊜ Melbourne
Yes, the humble dim sim was invented right here in Melbourne. The Dim Sim was developed by Chinese chef William Wing Young for his restaurant "Wing Lee"in Melbourne around 1945. A dim sim is a...
⊜ Carlton North
An unexpected memorial found in Melbourne Cemetery is the Elvis Presley Memorial Garden. The memorial was commissioned by the President of the Elvis Presley Fan Club of Australia in November 1977....
⊜ Melbourne
The emblems of Victoria include... Floral emblem: Pink Heath Animal emblem: Leadbeater's Possum* Bird emblem: Helmeted Honeyeater* Marine Faunal Emblem: Weedy Seadragon *Considered to be...
⊜ Melbourne
What possible trivia connection could there be between the Eurovision Song Contest and Melbourne you ask? Believe it or not (ripley) there have been two (yes 2) singers from Melbourne who have...
⊜ Melbourne
I had to have FAGS in our trivia section. I loved FAGS. I had a box of FAGS most days after school long before they became "unfashionable". FAGS was a candy stick made by Riviera Confectionery ...
⊜ Melbourne
With the recent visit by Tiger Woods to Melbourne, the question was asked on radio this morning, "who is the most 'famous' person to have visited Melbourne?". The list of famous was impressive...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne's best known ghost is that of Italian-born British opera singer Anatole Baker or his stage name - Federici of the Princess Theatre. Federici was the stage name of Anatole Frederick...
⊜ First Flight Powered Flight | Melbourne Melbourne
On March 18, 1910 whilst on a visit to Australia and in a Voisin biplane (purchased for US$5,000 in Hamburg, Germany prior to the trip, Harry Houdini made the first controlled, powered flight of an...
⊜ Cremorne
February 1, 1858 - William Deane was the first person to fly a lighter-than-air craft in Australia when he ascends in the balloon 'Australasian' made for George Coppin by C. H. Brown and/or Henry T....
⊜ Melbourne
The Four'N Twenty Meat Pie is Victoria's best selling meat pie and was invented in Bendigo by LT. McLure in 1947. The meat pie is enormously popular in Australia and considered a tradition to eat...
⊜ Melbourne
FRAMED - The "True" Story of the Theft of Picasso's Weeping Woman Stuart Rosson Paperback "Framed" blows the lid off one of Melbourne's most puzzling secrets: Who stole Picasso's Weeping...
⊜ Melbourne
We quite enjoy the odd stuff in Melbourne, a city known for its funny facts or as we show here, Melbourne's crazy laws.. Below are a few laws that you should be aware of to keep you out of...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne street names with a funny twist. This fabulous list of names shows our town planners have a sense of humour. BATMAN AVENUE Who wouldn't want to live in a street named after a...
⊜ Melbourne
When it comes to BIG, they don't get much bigger than the list of 44 of Victoria's Big Things to Visit by Gayle Beveridge | weekendnotes.com. Gayle is an accountant (shh) with way too much time on...
⊜ Melbourne
The Ghost of Old Melbourne Gaol photograph commenced with a simple question posed by a British tourist. It ran for 3 year's gathering thousands of hits and visits from all over the...
⊜ Melbourne
The first Google Earth 'alphabet', featuring all 26 letters has been created from satellite images of Melbourne and Victorian features and buildings. Rhett Dashwood, a graphic designer from...
⊜ Melbourne
Of all the pages we publish here at OnlyMelbourne, our page of Guinness World Records related to Melbourne would have to be the most trivial.. Longest running cartoon strip Who: Jim Russell...
⊜ Melbourne
Here is a curious Melbourne based web site with loads of handy 'local' information. Affectionately known as the Black Hole, because once you enter, you can't escape its magnetic appeal! Kids...
⊜ Corner Elizabeth Street and Collins Street, Melbourne
Where in the city are you going to find this plaque? We found this wonderful post by Susan Pate on Facebook Melbourne & Victoria - Through The Decades. Melbourne's first BRICK building...
⊜ Hoddle Street Richmond
Melbourne's busiest road shares 3 names, Hoddle Street, Punt Road and Hoddle Highway, but why? Hoddle Highway (route 29) is a highway linking CityLink (south) and the Eastern Freeway (north). The...
⊜ Melbourne
Jack Howard (Hunters & Collectors) song about Melbourne, debuted at the 2016 Melbourne Day Concert at Federation Square. Home is Where the Heart is Drove home around the Western Ring Road, From...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne is the only city in the world that has a Hook Turn. A Hook Turn enables a driver to make a right turn in selected intersections. Hook Turns are clearly sign-posted. Hook Turns were...
⊜ Melbourne
With the Donut Fest on the Green now becoming an annual event it may come as a surprise to discover the humble "Jam Doughnut" is a Melbourne invention. A doughnut or donut is a fried dough...
⊜ Coburns Rd, Melton
Houdini's achievement of Australia's first powered controlled flight will be commemorated at the Houdini-Centenary Air Show in March 2010 with a 3 day festival of flight. At dawn on 18 March...
⊜ Melbourne
The world record for the largest human wheelbarrow race was broken in 2008 on September 9th when Melbourne's own Carey Baptist Grammar School in Kew set out to break the previous record that had been...
⊜ Melbourne
Ten previously forgotten Aboriginal names for 19th century sites and suburbs of Melbourne have been recently unearthed at the Melbourne Museum. These include the names for Fitzroy (Ngár-go),...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne is a modern city constantly changing and leading the world in many technologies. Here is some curious bits of trivia about Melbourne you might not know.. Curious Melbourne...
⊜ Melbourne
Australia's great ideas and vision can be seen by the many inventions that originated in Melbourne that have helped improve the lives of people all over the world. From medical (headache tablets)...
⊜ Collingwood
WOW, we spotted this... Location** Very important!! There are two 153 Johnston Street's within one kilometre of each other!!! We are in Collingwood (close to Hoddle Street / Abbotsford) not in...
⊜ Wangaratta
Wangaratta-based 15th Earl of Loudoun, Simon Abney-Hastings has been shown to be the true next King of the United Kingdom (not Charles). When King Charles is crowned in Westminster Abbey next...
⊜ Melbourne
Kiwi Shoe Polish was invented by William Ramsay and Hamilton McKellan in a small factory in Melbourne in 1906. The brand name Kiwi was named after the bird from New Zealand and the home country...
⊜ Melbourne
Leaps and Bounds is a song written by Paul Kelly with Chris Langman. I'm high on the hill Looking over the bridge To the M.C.G. And way up on high The clock on the silo Says eleven...
⊜ Melbourne
Why is that people either love Melbourne or hate Melbourne, but there does not seem to be any in-between. With its cosmopolitan charm, most Australians appear to love Melbourne, except for people...
⊜ Melbourne
Marchants Lemonade Lemonade manufactured by Marchant & Co. Richmond, Victoria, circa 1950s. In 1886, British migrant George Marchant purchased a Brisbane ginger beer manufacturing plant. By 1890,...
⊜ Melbourne
National Gallery of Victoria conservators are restoring Melbourne 1888 by Frederick McCubbin, but half of it is missing and they want your help to find it. In a quite remarkeable story, the NGV...
⊜ Melbourne
When the sun descends in precise alignment with the central business district's east-west streets, its radiant sphere slips seamlessly between the towering buildings, crafting a unique phenomenon...
⊜ Melbourne
Melborn and Sideny"- The Idlers Five (CBS, 1968) -- Australian Top 40 hit, March 1968 Vocal folk quintet The Idlers Five enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1960s, but they are now virtually...
⊜ Melbourne
Like many cities, Melbourne has its share of iconic clocks that Melburnian's know where to find when they need to tell the time. Melbourne Clock Locations Melbourne CBD Flinders Street...
⊜ Melbourne
The official flag for the city of Melbourne features the coat of arms, with the bull, whale, ship and the fleece hanging from a red ring. The flag features a white background divided into four...
⊜ Rouse Street, Port Melbourne
At first glance, this is a rather plain black & white photograph of Sandridge (now Port Melbourne) taken in 1873 except if you look closer, you will see something quite remarkable. A rotary...
⊜ Melbourne
Travelling on the CityLink motorway you will pass under 39 large red poles and an enormous yellow pillar tilted over the traffic below. The 70-metre yellow steel beam and the accompanying 39 red...
⊜ Melbourne
Debuted at the 2015 Melbourne Day Concert by Soli Tesema Melbourne Our Town Melbourne is our town Melbourne is our city Come on, take the tram around Look at all the beauty Underneath the...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne Song | Lyrics and music by Bettina Spivakovsky Melbourne is our town Melbourne is our city Come on, take the tram around Look at all the beauty Underneath the Southern skies And...
⊜ Keilor
For the people of Melbourne in 1858, it must have been as mind-blowing as watching man land on the moon. On February 1, 1858, Australia's first successful hot air balloon flight took off from...
⊜ Melbourne
Try these trivia quizzes about Melbourne and test your knowledge. 10 mysterious Melbourne urban legends This excellent quiz by timeout.com will have the proudest Melburnian thinking. Take the...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne is a small and attractive market town in a delightful part of South Derbyshire, England. It is about eight miles south of Derby and two miles from the River Trent. It contains a good range...
⊜ Melbourne
If you are like me, you have always wondered whether Ava Gardner actually said.. Melbourne was the ideal place for a film about the end of the world. Then I spotted this article in TheAge, which...
⊜ Australia
The term MILK BAR for a corner shop is unique in Australia & New Zealand. Elsewhere milk bars are called a convenience store, corner shop, general store or 7/11. The local milk bar was part of the...
⊜ Melbourne
Lets look at all things miniature in Melbourne. Mini Melbourne Scienceworks Melbourne We start with the best Miniature Melbourne, the creation at Scienceworks that has kids (+ big kids)...
⊜ Melbourne
Any memory of Melbourne and icecream must include Mr Whippy. I have wonderful memories of Mr Whippy vans. Hearing the music brings back memories of youth, summer, friends and mum, can we have...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne's parks and gardens contain a wide variety of native animals... A study in Royal Park in 1999 revealed the presence of significant fauna species including the large forest bat,...
⊜ Cremorne
The Nylex Clock is one of Melbourne's iconic signs positioned on top of storage silos in Cremorne, Richmond next to the Yarra River and the Monash Freeway. The Nylex Clock displays the time and...
⊜ 326 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
What is the oldest 'surviving' building in Melbourne? There are two questions/answers to what is the oldest building in Melbourne, depending 'where' the building was originally built. 1. Built...
⊜ 34 Franklin Street Melbourne
The oldest hotels in Melbourne were all licensed in 1853 and believe it or not are still operating as hotels today. Duke of Wellington (above) According to the Tetlow Index, Melbourne's oldest...
⊜ Melbourne
Seeing this iconic picture postcard of Ron Clarke lighting the Olympic cauldron at the M.C.G in 1956 reminded me of two bits of trivia. Firstly, the well known fact that Ron Clarke had burnt his...
⊜ Our Melbourne [ourmelbourne] Melbourne
We simply wanted to see if we could get the term Our Melbourne [ourmelbourne] ranked as a search term @ Google or Yahoo. It was suggested that Our Melbourne or www.ourmelbourne.com.au would have...
⊜ Melbourne
The P Turn allows the driver to make a right turn by going through the intersection, make a U turn into the left lane, then make a left turn. How to do a P-turn on Hoddle Street To go right...
⊜ Mulgrave
Peters Ice Cream was founded in 1907 by American Fred Peters in Manly. In 1927 his Peters American Delicacy Company opened a Melbourne factory in Meyers Place, Melbourne followed by a factory in...
⊜ Melbourne
Polly Waffle is an Australian chocolate bar, a waffle wafer tube filled with marshmallow and coated in compound chocolate. Hoadley's Chocolates made the first Polly Waffle bar in Melbourne in...
⊜ corner of Princess Street and Studley Park Road, Kew
Sitting waiting for the traffic lights at Kew Junction, we see an interesting stone memorial to Raoul Wallenberg with a curious inscription. RAOUL WALLENBERG 1912 - Who is/was Raoul Wallenberg...
⊜ Melbourne
The city of Melbourne is regarded as the fox capital of the world. Depending on what you read, living in Melbourne, you are never more than 50 metres away from a fox. Red Fox | Vulpes...
⊜ Corner Bridge Rd and Stawell St Richmond
Reading an old book about the Menzies Hotel, I was suprised to read there once was a racecourse in Richmond. The racecourse was bounded by Bridge Road, Westbank Terrace and Stawell...
⊜ Melbourne
Sanitarium's original biscuit, Granose was created in Melbourne by baker Edward Halsey. Over a century ago, in 1898, a small business opened its doors in Melbourne, Australia with the vision to...
⊜ Melbourne
Have you heard the saying: Buckley's and None? What does it mean and what are it's origins? The saying basically means you have "no chance" of achieving something. The uniquely Australian...
⊜ South Melbourne
Now I'll be the first person to put up my hand up and say I had not heard of Sennitt's Ice Cream but I do remember the polar bear logo. In December 2012, Stan mentioned a sign of Sennitt's Polar...
⊜ Melbourne
Enjoy signs of Melbourne.. Sign over a Gynaecologist's Office: Dr. Jones, at your cervix ************************** In a Podiatrist's office: Time wounds all heels...
⊜ Melbourne
Signs Signs Everywhere Signs went the song... It was with delight (and some pride) that I asked my 10 year old son to look up out the left side window of the car so he could see one of the most...
⊜ Victoria
Victoria's landmass of 228,000 square kilometres is about the size of the United Kingdom. By comparison, Australia's size is roughly equal to mainland USA and a little larger than continental...
⊜ Melbourne
Brands you may remember.. What about LOY'S, SLADES, CRYSTAL and GOLD MEDAL brands all sold direct to the public - they were delivered to homes in wooden crates. A conversation over dinner...
⊜ Melbourne
How many songs have been inspired by our marvellous Melbourne with lyrics about suburbs, place names and objects? Anyone growing up in Melbourne remembers Balwyn Calling by Skyhooks but how many...
⊜ Melbourne
Sounds Of Melbourne by whereiskapa reminds us all of the sounds we've missed duiring lockdown, and a few we don't miss. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kapa...
⊜ Port Melbourne
Swallows Ice Cream factory was located at Port Melbourne Swallows ice-cream was crunchy; by dint of the particles of ice in it. The ice-cream flavour was very distinct; unlike any other around...
⊜ Melbourne
Here is a 1982 TV advert with Elle Macpherson promoting TaB cola made by Coca-Cola. ...
⊜ Melbourne
Tarax was the brand-name of an independent Melbourne soft drink bottler and a market innovator including sponsorship of the Tarax Happy Show and the development of new packaging, such as the steel...
⊜ Flemington
The day the fashion world's eyes turned to Melbourne. British actress and model Jean Shrimpton caused a sensation when she arrived for the Victoria Derby wearing a white shift dress which ended 10...
⊜ Melbourne
Widely regarded as the "world's" first feature length film, The Story of Ned Kelly - 70 minute in length was unprecedented when it was released in 1906. The film cost an estimated $2,250 and was...
⊜ Melbourne
is a sport invented in the railway repair workshops of Newport in the Western suburbs of Melbourne by railway workers in the 1920s. There are only 2 "games" that can be claimed to have been...
⊜ by Ray Peace Melbourne
Eye-witness accounts in Melbourne early morning on 30 June 1908 of a cylindrical object travelling extremely fast from south-south-east to south-east. Where was it headed? The answer appears to be...
⊜ Melbourne
It is 50 degrees, dusty and very cramped. We are in a service tunnel under Parkville's Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) which supplies steam to the Children's Hospital nearby. The tunnel is more...
⊜ Melbourne
We intially had a giggle when we were asked how many tunnels were under Melbourne, but we decided not to have tunnel-vision (hehe) and we soon found there was more to it. A little research into...
⊜ Camberwell
The first Tupperware party in Australia was held by Mary Paton in her mother's home in Camberwell in 1961. Mary's sister Ruth became the first Australian Demonstrator. Craig and Mary Paton...
⊜ Melbourne
A friend recently asked what was unusual about Melbourne. Unlike me, I didn't have an immediate answer. Yes, I know, most unlike me, who knows everything (well, supposedly) about Melbourne. I...
⊜ Melbourne
We are always looking for trivia about Melbourne, so Urban Legend fits the bill perfectly. Firstly, what is an Urban Legend? An urban legend is a myth, sometimes true, sometimes false more often...
⊜ Melbourne
Snot block, box, brick, pus pie, phlegm sandwich, slices and cakes. A traditional Vanilla Slice is a rectangular pastry consisting of thick custard sandwiched by flaky puff pasty topped with...
⊜ 187 Todd Road Fishermans Bend
Vegemite dates back to 1922 when Fred Walker and Cyril Callister developed a spread from one of the richest known natural sources of the vitamin B group - Brewers Yeast. Walker turned to the...
⊜ Melbourne
3AW's breakfast shows Ross and John took callers with new names for existing suburbs in Melbourne. Scum-bry for Sunbury Crazy burn for Craigieburn Freakston for Frankston Chernobyl Park for...
⊜ War on the Streets by Ray Peace Melbourne
WHAT'S in a street name? Residents in many suburbs may wonder about the curious names of some of their streets and how they came to be. An area south of Riversdale Rd along Elgar Rd, opposite...
⊜ Melbourne
Commonly asked: What happened to or Where is it now ? Things that we came to know and love, but then moved with the hands of time. By the way: if you want to know where something is, then ask...
⊜ Melbourne
We came across two versions of "what it means to be Australian"... 1. What it means to be Australian Being Australian is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then...
⊜ Melbourne Wide Melbourne
The question of "why are shoes hanging by the laces from power lines?"has popped up a number of times, we decided to do a little research. Shoes hanging from power lines suggestions ! - Drug...
⊜ Nelson Place Williamstown
Technically speaking, this article is about the Oldest Building in a Melbourne suburb rather than Melbourne's Oldest Building, written by C Mervyn Archdall in September 1947, published in Walkabout |...
⊜ Melbourne
Melbourne is not only known for many 'Australian' firsts, but also for world FIRSTS, paving the way in many areas and proving that Melbourne truly is a remarkable city... Australian FIRSTS for...
⊜ Melbourne
James Harrison was the first to invent and patent a mechanical system to create ice for refrigeration. A model of the first industrial refrigerator (pic above), invented by James Harrison of...
⊜ Chandler Highway Kew
At 1.4 km in length, the Chandler Highway in Kew (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) is widely regarded as the world's shortest highway. Chandler Highway (road) began life as a railway track, part of...
⊜ Melbourne
As the National Gallery of Victoria celebrated its 150th birthday in February 2011, it emerged that many important events took place in Melbourne during 1861.. -:- Melbourne Museum of Art...
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