in 1878, Rochester Terrace in the background Before European settlement, the area now called South Melbourne stood out as largely flat with central hill (where the Town Hall now stands) surrounded by swampy land to the north and south. The hill was a traditional social and ceremonial meeting place for
Aboriginal Australian peoples. The area was colonised by Europeans in the 1840s and became known as Emerald Hill. During the
Victorian Gold Rush of 1851 a tent city, known as "Canvas Town" was established. The area soon became a massive slum, home to tens of thousands of fortune seekers from around the world. Subdivision and land sales at Emerald Hill began in 1852, and while the hill itself was reserved as the site for an orphanage, Canvas Town was soon replaced by modest often single storey terraces and cottages, including many that were prefabricated overseas in timber and corrugated iron and imported in the early 1850s. Independence from the City of Melbourne was granted when Emerald Hill was proclaimed a
borough on 26 May 1855. In 1857, Melbourne's second railway line, to
St Kilda, was created running through the new municipality. On 6 August 1868, a weekly newspaper,
The Record, began publication. In 1872, it changed its name to
The Record and Emerald Hill and Sandridge Advertiser, reverting to
The Record in 1881.
The Record continued publication until 22 December 1954. The new municipality developed rapidly and by 1872 Emerald Hill was proclaimed a town. By the 1870s, parts of South Melbourne became a favoured place of residents for the wealthy, particularly in
St Vincent Place (which mostly lies in
Albert Park), with large lots laid out around a generous green space, The orphanage on the hill relocated in 1878, and the crest of the hill become the site of the
South Melbourne Town Hall, built between 1879 and 1880, designed in suitable grandeur to evoke the city's booming status, and establishing a civic heart at Bank Street. In 1883 Emerald Hill became a city, changing its official name to South Melbourne. Like many other working class inner city suburbs, South Melbourne experienced a decline from the 1950s as Melbourne sprawled outwards, and the condition of the mostly rented cottages deteriorated. During the 1960s, the
Housing Commission of Victoria stepped up their 'slum clearance' activities, and two several high-rise public housing towers in teh locality, including the earliest,
Emerald Hill Court, and the tallest,
Park Towers (1969). At the same time the suburb became home to postwar European migrants, adding a multicultural flavour to the area. In the 1980s, like other inner suburban areas, South Melbourne's
gentrification got under way, and many of the terrace houses and cottages were renovated and a new middle class moved in. From the 1990s, the industrial districts of South Melbourne, closer to the city, and including
Southbank, have been redeveloped with mid and high rise apartments; in 1996 the most intensively developed part of Southbank was transferred to the City of Melbourne. At the same time, the City of South Melbourne was amalgamated with the Cities of St Kilda and Port Melbourne to create the
City of Port Phillip. ==Population==