Losing yourself in history

The streets of North and West Melbourne are a treasure trove of history if you go looking in the right places and keep an open mind.

Elio Sarpi, an IT professional, was locked up like everyone else when he began noticing houses on his lunchtime walks.

He needed a distraction from a demanding work and family life and he found it by seeing where his curiosity would lead him.

One day he stopped by an old warehouse at 10 Purcell Street, which had red out the front, and asked why?

At first he couldn’t find much about the place then he discovered on Trove, the online register of newspapers, that a pastry chef had 300 pounds stolen from a safe in the building. 

The victim’s name led him to Wikipedia where he found that he was a high-class pastry chef with two shops nearby and a staff of 40. 

 “All these facts are out there,” Elio says. “I decided to write little blurbs about the owners or about the street. I love finding the stories.” 

That’s how an Instagram project housesofnorthandwestmelbourne evolved. The site now includes 200 buildings, most of them historic houses but some architecturally interesting blocks of flats. 

Elio has 1,400 followers and he enjoys conversations with ex-residents, artists, architects, historians and others with an interest in the area.

Architects are now reposting his photographs, evidence that he has a good eye, and residents are requesting that he walk past their houses.

The project has been important for maintaining his mental health during the lockdown in that it gets him out of the house and his domestic situation. 

One of his kids is autistic and a great conversationalist, but all parents need a bit of space to themselves.

“We can’t go out much,” he said. “What people had in lockdown has been our life.” 

Elio takes the photographs with his phone but is very strict about the aesthetics. He prefers symmetry and no cars parked in front.

Sometimes the most modest buildings attract attention. Other times he’s been seduced by a streetscape and doesn’t realise the significance of the old stables he is standing outside.  

“I looked at the suburb in a different way,” he said. “I didn’t appreciate what we have here.”

He does not want to trade in his IT job for that of historian. His posts give followers a taste of a building’s past not a complete history. He confines himself to just one hour’s research a night. 

“What’s good is not knowing,” he said •