First posted 31 January 2020
The Hotel Australia, in the middle of #CollinsStreet, opened June 1939, and hard to believe, but it was demolished as late as 1989. I remember being shocked when I heard (this was just before I started working at the NationalTrust), I guess it wasn’t highly regarded architecturally because it was rather plain, a bit 1930s Art Deco (only just being taken seriously as ‘heritage’), or maybe a bit Modernist. Nor by a well regarded architect – LeslieMPerrott, best remembered for the hated #GasAndFuel.
I only had a look a few times, I wasn’t impressed, but then I didn’t get to see the various function and dining rooms, eg the famous huge arched one which everybody thought was part of the 1916 Walter and #MarionMahoneyGriffin #CafeAustralia but was actually a simplified reproduction. I did go to the basement cinemas in the 80s when they were art house still didn’t notice anything too stylish.
But there were plenty of nice spaces originally, the State Library has photos of the foyer steps, the various dining rooms and bars, the lobby of the cinemas and the basement Silver Grill.
And there’s some queer history too – through the 40s and 50s the first floor cocktail lounge was quite camp, where the ‘A gays’ of their day hung out. Later, from 1970, the renamed Woolshed bar in the basement off Little Collins was very gay, and famously in 1979 a Melb Uni academic was charged for kissing another man in public, $75 fine, evicted from his university accommodation, which led to protests at Uni and a kiss-in on the front steps of the hotel!
Ten years after that it was replaced with a particularly daggy boxy thing clad in thin #Postmodern Classical dress, with a stupid huge ‘arcade’ that led you up or down instead of through to the other street thankfully now replaced. The hotel part went from glamorous to 3* and now it’s a Novotel.
The ‘Australia’ name was used from 1916 through 3 redevelopments but was dropped in 2014 favour of #StCollinsLane, what the hell is that supposed to mean ? There is no St Collins and it’s not a lane.
Storey of Melbourne 
Hi Rohan Your website a trip down memory lane – thanks for being so assiduous and ensuring we don’t forget some of the great places that were
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Hello, I’d love to find high res versions of these pictures for a book project. Can you give me any pointers as to where you sourced them? alexettling @ gmail . com
Thank you!
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All photos state library Victoria
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Hi Rohan, I am very interested if there would be a possibility of finding out about employee records for the Hotel Australia. My grandmother worked there as a chamber maid and she died there. She was found between two beds with a sheet in her hand. Her death was in 1961. I don’t know how long she worked there and I am doing my family tree and the person I could have has long since passed. So if you could give me a guide as to where to look I would appreciate it.
Thank you
Karen
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I have no idea where you find information like that ! Contemporary newspapers, if you have the date ? Though no melb newspapers from the 60s have been scanned,you’d have to go to the state library and lol at microfilms.
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hi just wondering the Australia hotel on Collin’s st is that know the Novotel I used to work around corner and have had drinks there years ago
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Yes it was
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Australia Hotel on Collins Street in 1939 perfectly captured old-world Melbourne glamour—elegant interiors, high society gatherings, and a reputation for being boldly gay in spirit long before its time. It was more than a hotel; it was a cultural landmark where style, confidence, and social freedom converged. The legacy of that era still fascinates today, reminding us how Collins Street once set the tone for sophistication and progressive social life in Australia’s hotel history.
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