Learn how to research the history of your house or a prominent Melbourne building using the Library’s collection of architectural drawings, maps and online tools.
Recasting and extending chemist shop, LTAD 82
The Library's collection of architectural drawings is held in the Pictures Collection. It is made up of architects' drawings of 19th and 20th century buildings.
The SLV also holds measured drawings of some buildings on the Historic Buildings Register or those classified by the National Trust, including the digitised Matthew Flinders measured drawings competition.
The drawings are mostly of Victorian buildings, but also include some examples of interstate and overseas buildings. A listing of drawings of the State Library of Victoria can be found in this guide.
Several collections of drawings by landscape architects or designers are also represented.
Prominent Melbourne architects
Mr Joseph Reed, IAN09/10/80/189
The architect who designed the State Library of Victoria.
You can browse the following subjects headings from the Pictures Catalogue
Architecture, Modern--20th century
Landscape architecture drawings (for garden & landscaping plans)
PROV holds the drawings of Victorian government buildings, spanning 1853 to 1998. Included in the collection are drawings of state, high and technical schools, colleges, mental asylums, government offices, bridges and roads, law courts, police stations and prisons.
PROV also holds City of Melbourne building plans and permits (1916-1960). This collection contains plans and correspondence relating to over 60,000 applications to build in the City of Melbourne between 1916 and 1960. The PROV webpage on this collection features a clear explanation of how to find records in this collection. You can access the index cards for this collection via the Ancestry database (accessible only onsite in the Library).
The State Savings Bank were responsible for financing many homes across Melbourne's suburbs from the 1920s onwards. Catalogues of the house designs can be accessed via Trove.
The Pamphlet of useful information for persons wishing to either build, borrow, or invest includes several house plans and elevations, with costs, available to people borrowing money from the Universal Permanent Building Society.
Concerned by the destruction of Victoria’s building heritage, the Committee for Urban Action photographed the buildings and houses of Fitzroy, Castlemaine and South Melbourne between 1972 and 1975. These can be found via the catalogue.
All the images of Fitzroy and Castlemaine have been digitised and can be viewed online.
If you have an address, you can search using the street name and closest cross street. For example:
committee for urban action napier gertrude
The University of Melbourne Archives hold records relating to the architectural history and social geography of Victoria including the records of both architectural firms and individual architects. These include architectural plans from tens of thousands of Victoria’s buildings and built structures.
The Archives also hold other material that may be of use when researching buildings and houses, including sales brochures, newspaper clippings, various maps, records of architectural historians, and photographs.
The Miles Lewis Heritage Building Materials Collection, at the University of Melbourne, consists of 3D scans of over 300 objects ranging from nails to roofing sheets. The objects come from the collection of architectural historian, Professor Miles Lewis. The website also features supporting videos which provide background and context to the collection.
The Walsh Street Archive features over 4000 items (including books, furniture and artwork, manuscripts, correspondence, slides, films, architectural drawings and newspaper clippings) from architect Robin Boyd's collection. These images, which were housed in Boyd's 1958 home, are now digitised through the Victorian Collections site.
