Shiel St quarries, 1855 - North Melbourne

Several old maps from the early days of North Melbourne, prior to the subdivision of what became known as Hotham Hill, show three quarries in different locations.  

One of them, shown in the 1855 map fragment above (from the State Library of Victoria), is along what would become Shiel St, although it did not exist at the time. Nor did Macaulay Rd, or Arden St Oval.

Instead, there was the North Melbourne Swamp – the northern section of what is more commonly known as the West Melbourne Swamp, or Batman’s Swamp.

Running north-south between the allotments of W. Smith and Hugh Glass is Boundary Rd, and along their southern boundary is what would become Canning St.

Shiel St now has a steep bluff on its south-western side, which is where the quarries are shown. Going by scale off the map, they were probably between the intersection of Shiel St and Canning St and the Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV). The site is currently used as a depot and storage yard, with buses parked there at times.

This map confirms the description of Albert Mattingley, an early resident and head teacher at the Errol St School, and whose parents John and Elizabeth are considered the first residents of North Melbourne. In his 1916 article “The Early History of North Melbourne”, in the Victorian Historical Magazine he wrote: “In the early days there were some very fine basaltic columns on the western side of Shiel St. They were of a pentagonal form and two feet or more in diameter, larger than any I saw at the Giant’s Causeway in the North of Ireland.”

“Unfortunately they were destroyed by being knocked down and broken up for the purpose of metalling the roads. I believe traces of these columns can still be found there, but of a very much softer nature than those broken up.”

Mr Mattingley lived in Alfred St, but had a house built in Shiel St for his mother Elizabeth.

The quarry area is now covered in vegetation and no traces of those columns can be seen. Are they still there though, beneath the trees and fallen leaves. Or beneath PROV? •