MELBOURNE, you’ve come a long way, as these historic aerial images show.

We’ve dipped into the Herald Sun photographic archive and found some amazing aerial images that show Melbourne before Southbank existed, when high-rise buildings were unique and a time before cars required parts of the city to be totally redesigned.

The earliest aerial photograph found was taken in 1925 and looks back down the Yarra from where Jeff’s Shed at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre stands today, where ships once pulled in to unload cargo, down past the turning basin where Customs House now sits all the way to Princes Bridge at the top of the image.

media_camera 1925: An aerial view of Melbourne showing the original turning basin, where the river bends to the left. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

The diagonal Sandridge Bridge, which carried trains across the Yarra to Port Melbourne, is visible in the top part of the image. The heritage-listed rail bridge was the first passenger rail line in Australia.

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It is now a pedestrian walkway.



The first ship spotted in the aerial photograph above sits roughly where Polly Woodside currently resides.

“All that’s south on the river was totally industrial and it has been totally transformed,” Melbourne University architectural historian Professor Philip Goad said.

“It (Southbank) was the dirty side of the river, the irony being it was the side that got the sun,” he added.

media_camera 1927: Aerial view of St Kilda Rd and the Princes Bridge. Picture: Alf Ferguson

media_camera 1929: Exterior of Flinders St. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library/ARGUS

This 1929 image of Flinders St Station also shows the old Princes Bridge Station, built in 1850, which carried passengers on the Hurstbridge line and stood where Federation Square is today.

“In the foreground is Princes Bridge station — if you wanted to catch the train to Heidelberg or Hurstbridge you would catch it from there,” Professor Goad said.

Allens Sweets is also visible in the background, with the factory sitting where Southbank now stands, until the 1980s.

media_camera 1930: View of Princes Bridge from St Paul's Cathedral. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1934: An aerial view of Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1940: Aerial view of Melbourne from Spencer St to Flinders St. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1948: Aerial view of Melbourne showing Russell St police headquarters and Trades Hall. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

The image above of the Russell St police headquarters is “extraordinary” Professor Goad said, as it shows a city that no longer exists.

“It is from when Russell St was a Gotham-style structure and it shows how few high-rise buildings were in the that part of the city.

“Spring St (in the foreground) has houses and was the undesirable end of the city. The old houses were used as gambling dens and brothels- some of them.

“It was the dirty, workers end of the place,” he said.

The old police headquarters at Russell St is now dwarfed by office blocks and apartments where as in this old aerial, it is clearly the tallest building the eye can see.

media_camera 1950: St Kilda, Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library/ARGUS

This image taken above is of St Kilda Junction, before it became part of the freeway interchange, looking up Punt Rd.

While the road is still busy, is has yet to become the massive thoroughfare it is today and the Alfred Hospital can’t be seen in this image.

media_camera 1955: View of the railyards at Flinders St. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library/ARGUS

This 1955 photograph shows the industrial heritage of Southbank to the left with the Allens factory and other warehouses which dominated that side of the river until it was redeveloped in the 1980s.

“It looks like there was a park on both side of the river,” Professor Goad added.

The Grand Hyatt hotel in the CBD is also not visible in this photograph, nor is Hamer Hall.

media_camera 1956: Collins St, Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1957: Aerial view of the CBD. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

This 1958 aerial shows the old Herald & Weekly Times newspaper building, where Herald Sun staff worked up until the 1995, before chef George Calombaris’s restaurant became a central part of the city’s dining culture.

media_camera 1958: Flinders St, where the old Herald building was located. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1958: Aerial view of East Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1958: Princes Bridge and Flinders St Station. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1958: Aerial view shows the dome of the state library. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library.

This 1961 image shows the fish and game meat markets on the Flinders St side of the Yarra have been replaced by carparks.

Kings Way and the Spencer St bridges have been constructed, as the shift towards mass car ownership begins to change Melbourne.

“The photo tells us how infrastructure on Flinders St has been re-engineered for cars. The whole north bank of the Yarra was re-engineered for cars,” Professor Goad said.

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media_camera 1961: An aerial view of the Yarra showing where ships loaded and unloaded goods. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

“The skyline of the city shows few high-rises with the spire of St Patrick’s, ICI House to the left and the CRA building to the right, where 101 Collins St is now,” he said.

“The only tall building we can see here is the Mobil Caltex building, demolished now.”

“It was in Southbank, roughly where the Quay West apartments are.”

media_camera 1962: An aerial view of Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1965: Aerial view of Melbourne’s CBD. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1972: Aerial view of St Kilda Rd from Princes Bridge to St Kilda Junction. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

Punt Rd’s median strip is the standout feature from this 1974 aerial photograph of Collingwood.

“Punt Rd is still pretty busy, but it looks like it has a median strip,” Professor Goad said.

media_camera 1974: Aerial of Collingwood Town Hall. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1970s: Aerial view of Melbourne in the late 1970s. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1980: Aerial view of Melbourne at night. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1980: Aerial of Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1985: Aerial view of Melbourne, from the Rialto. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

This photograph from 1985, shows more and more high-rise structures going up in the centre of town.

media_camera 1985: Aerial view of Melbourne. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1985: Aerial view of Melbourne from the Rialto. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1988: Aerial view of construction at Melbourne Central. Picture: Noel Butcher./Herald Sun Image Library

The Queen Victoria Hospital, now a retail complex can be seen just a block down from the State Library’s dome in this photograph from the 1980s.

The Gas & Fuel towers are still standing at Flinders St and have yet to become Federation Square.

media_camera 1989: Aerial view of Melbourne from the Hilton. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1992: St Patrick's Cathedral. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 1995: The new Exhibition Centre takes shape. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

media_camera 2008: Aerial of Southern Cross Station. Picture: David Caird/ Herald Sun Image Library

This final photograph shows the city as we know it today.

The older aerials show “how much change to the central city has been experienced over 50-60 years in terms of vertical growth,” Professor Goad said.

“It also shows the re-engineering of the north bank of the Yarra for cars. Up until the 1980s, Southbank was in a neglected part of the city.”

“In 25-30 years there has been a huge amount of development,” Professor Goad said, adding that the new structures had changed the scale and cultural life of the city.

media_camera TODAY: Melbourne's CBD shown from Carlton. Picture: Herald Sun Image Library

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