Media: DATA CD - 1 CD (2 vols, 1008 pages)
Author: J. Cooper
Year: (1931) 2014
ISBN: 9781925135305
Publisher: Archive Digital Books Australasia

Written in 1931 by John Butler Cooper, 'The History of St Kilda: from its first settlement to a city 1840 to 1930' is a two volume set that covers a wide range of aspects of the city and its development and includes many photographs.

Topics examined include the City of Melbourne Corporation, early Elwood, houses, St Kilda beach, early churches and schools, Albert Park, the Town Hall, postal services, St Kilda General Market, mixed bathing, and the South African and other wars.

Apart from brief biographies of several people within the text, one chapter is devoted to the Town Clerks and councillors and one of the appendixes lists the Mayors and Councillors from 1857 to 1931.

When Councillor F. J. Marks in 1922 resigned his position as a councillor for the North Ward an extraordinary election was held to fill the vacancy. Only one candidate was nominated Mr. J. B. Levi, and he duly became a councillor of the City of St. Kilda on November 27, 1922. Taking a keen interest in municipal affairs he was elected to the position of mayor in 1924. We have referred specially to Councillor Levi because he belongs to a family that is identified with St. Kilda for many years. His uncle was the distinguished Hon. Nathaniel Levi, the first of his ancient race to enter the Parliament of Victoria. He was born at Liverpool, England, in the year 1830, and when 23 years of age left in the ship "Matilda Wattenbach" for Melbourne, where he arrived on April 27, 1854. He started as an auctioneer. In 1859, he stood as a parliamentary candidate for the electorate of Maryborough, but was defeated at the poll by 14 votes. When, in 1859, the barrister R. D. Ireland, a St. Kilda resident, accepted the office of Attorney-Generalship in the first Heales Government, N. Levi, another St. Kilda resident, contested the return of Ireland for Maryborough. Up to that date, there had not been in Victoria such a riotous political election. A pistol was fired into Levi's committee room when it was known he had defeated Ireland by 166 votes. In many ways, Nathaniel Levi was a public-spirited man, and he was esteemed by Christians and Jews alike, of his generation. He lived in a house on Princes Street, St. Kilda for many years, which he named "Liverpool". He died there on September, 1908.

High quality scanned images of the whole of the original books. This CD has been  bookmarked for easy navigation, and pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Any computer using Adobe (Acrobat) Reader 4 or later
Adobe Reader 6 or later is recommended for CDs with searchable text