October 2025

The Catani Arch on the St Kilda foreshore, possibly on opening day in August 1916, everyone dressed for …. a Sunday walk, except the girl in the middle. The arch is part of a whole sweep of raised rockeries and paths that was one of the last elements of the beautification of the beach by the St Kilda Foreshore Committee, established in 1906. Before that it was just the road and sand, afterwards it had areas of lawn, paths, lots of planting areas made with lava rocks, palms trees, etc all intended to add a European flavour. A tea room with a rest pavilion above was one of the first things built, in 1908; not sure if it was plan all along but the raised path and arch took you upstairs, and shielded a grassy area, now a children’s playground, and had seating built in, the bottom ones still well used. The lead designer of the foreshore was Carlo Catani, a senior state govt engineer and after 1914 a St Kilda resident. He was so well liked that they named the arch after him, and was mourned when he died suddenly in 1918. The tea room got altered and extended and known as the Stokehouse, which burned down in 2014; the new one is a similar size but contemporary design, but the paths don’t lead upstairs anymore. I don’t hate it but I don’t love it.

11 May 2025

You’ve probably passed this charming landscaping many times and never noticed it nestling below the Upper Esplanade in St Kilda. It’s all volcanic rocks, windy paths and seating nooks, and quite overgrown now. It was created around the early 1910s, along with much of the foreshore and the Catani Gardens, as part of extensive beautification works for what had rapidly become Melbourne’s favourite beach destination.

It was reputedly designed by Carlo Catani, hence the name of the gardens; Italian born and trained he had become a Victorian government senior engineer by the 1890s, and was an active member of the Foreshore Committee established in 1906 that undertook the works.

I found a photo perhaps early 1930s and another dated 1926 showing it was all low planting, but by the 50s in pic 3 the shrubs were a bit taller. And since the 1970s Jacka Boulevard has become a hard to cross traffic sewer, so the paths are less accessible and it’s not a nice place to pause anyway. But lots of great plants!

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