Columns » East Melbourne Historical Society

Reach for the sky

Ask those who live in East Melbourne about the different styles of local architecture and they will identify the rare houses still existing from the 1850s and ‘60s, the beautiful long lines of terraces in Powlett St and the iron lace-trimmed free-standing mansions which are the pride of the neighbourhood. But East Melbourne has another claim to fame; the 1955 ICI now Orica, building, the first skyscraper in Australia.