Stonnington Community Historical Society

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Stonnington Community Historical Society

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The Stonnington Community Historical Society is an active group within the City of Stonnington. Formerly known as the Malvern Historical Society.

The society supports the Stonnington History Centre and is an advocate for the preservation of history especially within the suburbs of Armadale, Glen Iris, Kooyong, Malvern, Malvern East and Toorak. Hawksburn, Prahran, Windsor and parts of South Yarra are also part of the City of Stonnington. The Malvern Historical Society actively collects and preserves material relating to the area formerly the City of Malvern, now part of the City of Stonnington. Stonnington History Centre
The Stonnington History Centre is an archive dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history of the City of Stonnington and the former cities of Malvern and Prahran. The centre is a branch of the Stonnington Library and Information Service and is located at Northbrook, behind Malvern Library. http://www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/Discover/History/Stonnington-History-Centre
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 8290 1360

05/11/2026

The dress attire for the ladies at the races has changed just a little since 1900! 😉

Stonnington History Centre

31/10/2026

Still looking for its next custodian…

28/10/2026

Glen Iris Park 1920s
Thanks to Keith Stewart for the photo. He doesn’t know the occasion, but it looks like a band and marchers on High St and dirt roads including Muswell Hill in the background. His grandparents lived at 9 High St on the bend overlooking the park.

25/10/2026

South Yarra Club Hotel, corner of Punt and Toorak Roads c1883. The hotel was built c1860 of weatherboards and demolished in the late 1880s. A new hotel was built on the site in 1892, known variously as the Goodwin's, Hatter's Castle (1986), Trakkers Inn, and the Arcadia (1995).

Stonnington history Centre

Photo 1 - The original image is held by the RHSV - c1883
Photo 2 - www.arcadiahotel.com.au - present day

18/10/2026

John Wagner built Stonington Mansion, a 40 room mansion on Glenferrie Road, in 1890 and named it after Stonington, Connecticut, USA, the birthplace of his wife, Mary. From 1901-1931 seven different Governors of Victoria lived at Stonington and it was during this time that the spelling changed to Stonnington.

Since the 1930s the mansion has had a number of uses including St Margaret's School, an after care centre for child polio patients, a Red Cross convalescent hospital during WW2, the Health Department Administration Centre, Toorak Teachers' College, the State College of Victoria and Deakin University.

Stonnington Mansion c1956
Rear of Stonnington mansion c1900
Robert Wagner c1895

Stonnington History Centre

16/10/2026

Warwick School was established in 1895 at 61 Manning Road, East Malvern, but in 1908 it was moved to a larger premises on the corner of Finch and Kerferd Streets, East Malvern.

The school had over 200 boarders and day pupils from kindergarten to leaving honours, with the younger grades including boys. It also pioneered open-air classrooms, had a laboratory, a library and extensive sports grounds.

The RAAF commandeered Warwick for use in 1942, which caused the closure of the school and the retirement of the principal. The building was demolished in later years and units are now on the site.

Stonnington Historical Society

Photos c1935-1940

09/10/2026

On this day in 1979, the shopping complex at the Jam Factory opened.

The Jam Factory, located on Chapel Street in South Yarra, was originally established as the Victorian Brewery in 1858. The brewery shut down in 1876, with the building and land then being purchased the same year by Robert Wright and Robert Payne, who started the Victoria Preserving Company. During the fruit season it employed up to 1000 people, and was the largest employer in Prahran. It was occupied by several preserve manufacturers over the next 90+ years, including the iconic 'IXL' brand name.

In the early 1970s, the factory site underwent major building works and on 9th October 1979 a boutique shopping complex opened. The existing building had been reused as much as possible, including some original machinery and overhead pipework, and the broad volumes of many of the original buildings preserved. The facades to Chapel Street survived these works with some alterations.

In 1995 it was redeveloped as the Jam Factory when the complex was again redeveloped to incorporate cinemas and food and retail outlets. The exterior was then altered significantly, and most of the original walls, as well as equipment which had been retained in the building, were lost.

It is now going through another redevelopment consisting of residential, dining, retail and commercial spaces, as well as two luxury hotels and a flagship Village Cinemas complex. It has an estimated cost between $3.75 billion and $5 billion and will retain the iconic red brick facade and historic chimney on Chapel Street.

Photo 1 - undated
Photo 2 - c1983
Photo 3 - c1914
Photo 4 - c1983

Stonnington History Centre

07/10/2026

Sarah Craze is writing a book on Glen Iris and would love to hear your stories about diving off the diving tower at Harold Holt.

The Harold Holt 10m diving tower was one of only a handful in the whole of Victoria. Many municipal pools had springboards for diving, but platform diving requires a different training regime and specialist instruction. This photograph shows 17 year old Beverley Donnet diving from the 10m platform as part of the diving exhibition for the opening of Harold Holt Memorial Swim Centre in March 1969.

The Donnets were well-known in the diving community. The father, Tom Donnet, was an Olympic diving coach who invented a unique step to gain more height during dives. It is now used by divers all around the world. His wife Barbara was a competitive diver. Their daughters Beverley and Jenny trained at Harold Holt during the 1970s and both dived for Australia. Beverley went on to earn 6th place in the 10m platform diving at the Commonwealth Games in 1972. Jenny preferred springboard diving and became the first Australian woman to compete at four Olympic Games. She was the flagbearer for Australia at the opening ceremony Barcelona Olympics in 1992. In summer, you can sometimes still see Jenny coaching Wesley divers at Harold Holt pool!

Jumping, bombing or diving off the diving platform at Harold Holt Pool was a rite of passage for many children growing up in Malvern and Glen Iris in the late 20th century. The platform was closed in 2005 after diving platform regulations changed and it no longer met the requirements. As it was included in the heritage protection of Harold Holt Swimming Pool, it could not be demolished. It was restored during the 2022 renovation of the diving pool and now stands as a monument to Harold Holt Pool's important contribution to Victorian diving.

Text by Sarah Craze. She is writing a book on Glen Iris and updates her blog on Glen Iris stories regularly. A recent post on the Malvern Baths: https://www.sarahcraze.com/post/the-place-to-be-a-brief-history-of-the-malvern-baths details some of the history of swimming in Glen Iris.

Image:
Diving from the tower at Harold Holt Pool
1969
Stonnington History Centre MP5371

03/10/2026

Chadstone Shopping Centre opened on this day - 3rd October 1960, but did you know a convent used to occupy the land?

The Convent of the Good Shepherd was built in 1883 at the corner of Dandenong Road and Castlebar Road, using bricks made from clay quarried on the site and rendered with roughcast cement. It was built for the purpose of 'training and educating poor and neglected children'. The Convent offered academic, domestic and commercial training for girls aged 11 to 13 who were deemed by the Children's Court to be in need of care and it also provided care for older girls and women. The Convent was also remembered for the quality of its embroidery.

The 19th century complex of buildings included the convent, chapel, reformatory school, laundry and priest's cottage. St Anthony's Primary School, established for the children of the Parish in 1899, closed in 1979. The foundation stone for a new chapel was laid by the Archbishop of Melbourne in 1930.

In 1958 and 1963, parts of the Convent land were sold for development of Chadstone Shopping Centre. In 1984 3.2 hectares of land, containing the convent, chapel and other buildings of the Good Shepherd complex, were sold and in the following year, amidst much controversy, the buildings were demolished in order to extend the car park at Chadstone Shopping Centre.

Stonnington History Centre

Address

Corner Glenferrie Road And High Street
Malvern, VIC
3145

Website

http://www.schs.org.au/

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