Camberwell Racecourse, Grand Stand and Grounds, c. 1886

Thank you to Malcolm Spence for posting this on the 'The Lost History Of Melbourne/Victoria & Its Pioneers' facebook group. This ingenious and economic idea for a racecourse in the suburb known then and now as Hartwell combines street-frontage housing and large enclosed open block with a multitude of uses. I cannot imagine anybody jumping at the chance to own a 'villa' backing on to a space wherein huge numbers of people (not to mention sheep, cattle, and horses) regularly congregated but I guess standards were different then (or not, since it seems pretty likely the villa lots were never sold in this configuration). Mr. Spence cites this as 'Map of Camberwell Racecourse. C.1880-90. (Map by Battan and Percy Ltd- Source SLV)'. The Camberwell Racing Club's first meeting was held on 29 May 1886 and there seems to have been some dissatisfaction expressed (at least by the Age) on the lack of comfortable amenities for patrons (see Melbourne Age 31 May 1886 p. 5). The prospectus was advertised on 4 November 1886, as per the short item in the Melbourne Age for this day:

Assuming the Club only ever operated one course, I find the 'convenient proximity to town' slightly contentious: 13 km is not a hop skip and a jump although punters could of course take a train to Camberwell and walk a mere three and a half of those km. The Outer Circle Railway, prominent in the plan above but clearly labelled 'proposed', did not open till 1891. Chris McConville's Camberwell Conservation Study (get it here) describes this as the Bowen Estate and gives a slight description of the attractive views available from the site (which would presumably more or less disappear once the villas were built). 

The surveyor credited, Bryson, was also an architect judging from items available in the State Library of Victoria. Whoever he was, he apparently had no qualms about producing a remarkably deceptive map of the area suggesting very falsely (unless you had the eagle eye to spot the tell-tale broken line in 'Hollis St') that Burke Road was a lot closer to Bowen St than 900 m. 

Who was involved in this project? C. F. C. Taylor, M.L.A. was a very active figure in the area in the 1880s. His day job was as a lawyer, but he was also chair of the Victorian Rowing Association (Melbourne Age 14 August 1883 p.6) and secretary of the Riversdale-Road Omnibus Company (Melbourne Age 20 October 1884 p. 2). Of the other men involved not much can be gleaned and they're probably not important to this story except by dint of their being swept up in this scheme which was almost certainly ill-fated in terms of a racecourse but possibly did alright in the long run when the whole site was made available for housing, if they were able to hold onto it during the 1890s depression. By 1913 there was an aerated water manufacturer called P. G. Dixon & Co (Melbourne Herald 31 July 1913 p. 8) which sold up its Rosslyn St. West Melbourne premises the following year (Melbourne Herald 5 February 1914 p. 5). G. Mayger was involved in some kind of proprietorial fashion with the East Melbourne Bicycle Club (Melbourne Herald 9 January 1891 p. 4). The other names are too common to track. 

You can see the present lay of the land here.