If you would like to find out more about the western suburbs, Erin Kelly has shared her resources here:

2017, ‘Western Suburbs Memories’, viewed 15th May

This facebook page had been set up by a group called ‘Western Suburbs Memories’ and is used as a community forum and space to reflect on memories relating to the western suburbs in Melbourne. This informal group posts old pictures from the western suburbs and many members of the community post thoughts, memories and stories about the photos. This informal site would be good to get in touch with people or post any questions that the client may have regarding the 60’s. It is an informal site though and any posts would be anecdotal and perhaps not verifiable. This would be something to keep in mind if using the site to gather material.

Burnley, IH 1975, ‘Immigrant Absorption in the Australian City, 1947-1971’, The International Migration Review, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 319-333.

This journal article details how immigrants were absorbed into Melbourne during the post war period. It uses statistics to provide an accurate picture of what was occurring in Melbourne during this time. The article covers the numbers of immigrants who were coming in to Melbourne from international places. It also gives an accurate portrayal of whom those immigrants were who were coming i.e. age, sex, race etc. This will assist the researcher in following some of the community groups from arrival to permanent residence in the west, thus showing how the population of the area was established and by whom.

Ditchburn, G & Martin, J 1986, Concepts of femininity and masculinity: education for girls in Catholic and independent schools in the western suburbs of Melbourne and Gippsland.

The report uses 31 studies of schools to discuss the disadvantage of girls’ education in non-government schools. The book investigates how girls were disadvantaged by where they were educated. It goes into detail about the resources that were available to students and schools, policy decisions that affected the education of western suburbs students, and the student’s perceptions of their career prospects. It also makes some recommendations. This book will assist the researcher in understanding the education system in the Western suburbs during the 60’s and 70’s and some of the barriers for young women in completing a valuable high school degree.

Encyclopedia of Melbourne 2017, ‘Encyclopedia of Melbourne’, viewed 16th May.

This website offers an overview of Melbourne’s history. It does not have much detail on each of the pages but it gives a broad overview of many aspects of Melbourne’s history including the history of streets, suburbs, development, religion, media and education. These pages are a good resource just as a short history of each of Melbourne’s suburbs. This resource would best be used as a starting point for research on each of the suburbs that the researcher is interested in. The references that they include at the end of each page are also helpful in providing a direction for further research.

Footscray Historical Society Inc. 2017, ‘Footscray Historical Society Inc.,’ viewed 16th May.

The Footscray Historical Society is both a museum you can visit and an online resource. The archives relate to Footscray’s history and have information as far back as archives about indigenous populations in the area. There is a fee for accessing the material both online and on site but the resources may be useful in providing details about the history of the indigenous populations and various collections with detailed information relating to the commerce in the area, copies of local newspapers and photos showing the changing development in the area. The museum also holds collections of family memorabilia, personal correspondence and art works. The researcher may find many items in the collection that can demonstrate memories of the 60’s in the many personal records, thus giving the researcher more personal stories that will aid with understanding the 1960’s in a small, western suburbs community.

Healy, C 1986, The Lifeblood of Footscray: working lives at the Angliss Meatworks, The Living Museum of the West, Williamstown, Vic.

This book goes into detail about the history of the Angliss Meatworks in Footscray. As one of the biggest employer in the area, and also with female employees as a large part of the workforce, the meatworks played a major role in the local economy. This text also provides the reader with actual stories from the employees. This text would be of great benefit to the researcher as it goes into the history of the workforce and the economy in the region during the 60’s. The particular text also describes the ‘working-class’ nature of the western suburbs during the time that the meatworks was in operation and the occasional violent uprisings from the union as it rallied against ‘de-skilling’ proposals. The meatworks was not operational by the 1970’s so this text will be useful in describing the change in jobs and the economy after one of the largest employers starts to close during the 1960’s.

Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West Inc 1985, Changing places: Vietnamese women in Melbourne’s west, Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, Williamstown, Vic.

This book contains the written stories of real Vietnamese women from Melbourne’s west. This book would be an excellent resource as it is a compilation of stories about both the western suburbs, being a woman in the western suburbs and stories of immigration. As the researcher is compiling a book of stories written by people who grew up in the western suburbs during the 1960’s, this book will offer an insight into how those stories are displayed and compiled. In particular, the researcher will gain an insight into the true stories of immigrant women in the area and could consider how to include stories relating to immigration.

2017, ‘Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West’, viewed 15th May.

This website is an excellent resource for learning about the history of the western suburbs in Melbourne. It has publications that it has produced available for purchase and oral histories, educational histories, video works and walking tour brochures available to download through the website. It organises exhibitions, has large collections and digitisation projects, and communicates news from the area. You can visit the museum on site or use the resources online. This museum would be a good starting point for any researcher as there is a large volume of information provided on many aspects of the area. The museum requires a booking to arrange a visit but there are also plenty of resources available online.

Morrow, D 2012, ‘Forging, Ahead: Industry and Environmental transformation in a Melbourne suburb 1906-85’, Australian Economic History Review, vol. 52, no. 2, p. 148.

This article focuses on the suburb of Sunshine in Melbourne’s west from 1906 until the mid-eighties. The article provides a snapshot of a suburb in the west during both pre and post war periods. It mainly focuses on the industrialization of the suburb but also provides information about the mainly working class nature of the west. Though only related to one suburb in the west, this article would allow the researcher to follow the developing industrialisation in the area and understand the changing environment, as it would relate to all of the suburbs in the west. This article would be used best for gathering information around the changing nature of one suburb both pre and post war.

Morrow, DW 2010, Melbourne’s West: a study of the people, place and the production of community in the post-1945 period, thesis, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.

This thesis examines the post-war period in specific west Melbourne suburbs. It provides an overview of the community, economy and development in western suburbs such as Footscray and Sunshine.
It offers a broad overview of the history of the area and examines how national and international politics influenced the growing community and community groups. It may be more economic and political based research than the client would like but it provides a big picture view of the communities in post-war Melbourne. This would be a good text to use to further understand the economic and political climate of the 1960’s in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

O’Hanlon, S 2015, ‘‘A Victorian community overseas’ transformed: demographic and morphological change in suburban Melbourne, Australia, 1947-1981’, Urban History, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 463-482.

This article links both the development of suburbia and the growing immigrant population from 1947-1981. It focuses on two Melbourne suburbs as case studies, Footscray and St Kilda. The section on Footscray gathers information from the census, providing an accurate snapshot of both the rising development and immigration at the time. This text will provide the researcher with an accurate portrayal of the development and immigrant experience in Footscray during the 40’s to 80’s. The author of this article, Seamus O’Hanlon, has also written widely on the subject of Melbourne’s western suburbs post-war and I would recommend that the researcher use the bibliography and citations in this article to follow up on more of his writing and other resources that he cites.

O’Hanlon, S & Luckins, T 2005, Go! Melbourne: Melbourne in the sixties, Circa, Beaconsfield, Vic.

This collection of essays about life in Melbourne during the sixties will be an excellent resource when deciding how to formulate a collection of essays on the western suburbs in Melbourne. The essays cover a range of topics by a variety of Melbourne authors, everything from dining out in Melbourne to Aboriginal rights. Although it isn’t about the west in particular, it details the nature of Melbourne in the sixties and demonstrates how a to put together a collection of essays related to the same topic. The book was widely reviewed at the time of publication and I would recommend that the researcher also read the reviews as this will also provide information how readers approach a collection of essays on the same topic from different authors.

Rubenstein, L 1977, Women and shift work: a study of women working at night in Melbourne’s western suburbs, M. Taft, R. Preiss, F.Gardner, Melbourne.

This book goes into detail about how women worked night shifts during the 1960’s and 70’s in Melbourne’s western suburbs. This would also be a foundational text for this research area as it examines how women worked by including studies of real women. This text is an accurate portrayal, using statistics and real-life accounts from women working night shift, of how women were involved in the local economy. This text would be useful to the researcher as it would give insight into how women were involved in the local economy, workforce and industrialisation of the western suburbs. It also describes the shift-work system implemented in workplaces around the western suburbs and the effect on women and households as they adapted to the demands of shift work.

Victorian Heritage Database 2017, ‘Victorian Heritage Database’, viewed 16th May.

This website lists the buildings and objects that are heritage listed in Victoria. This website would be useful to look into the history of some of the buildings from the western suburbs that still remain and could have a history that tells of the various changes, both economic and architectural, of the area. It may not be that useful if the research is going to be related to people telling their stories of growing up but it could be good background research on some of the iconic buildings that were a central part of the image of the western suburbs. It could also be beneficial to the researcher to see how the changes in the economy or the political climate of the suburbs were reflected in the architecture of the area.

Winkler, SA 2009, Cultural and place identity: a study in Melbourne’s western suburbs, thesis, Deakin University, Melbourne.

This thesis explores the cultural identity of neighbourhoods in the western suburbs of Melbourne. It explores the migrant experience and how immigrant communities created the identity of suburbs. This thesis would be useful to the researcher as it covers both the migrant experience and the development of communities within the west. The study also concludes that the migrant cultural experience is demonstrated in suburbs that are very culturally diverse. The researcher could use this text to understand how different cultural groups have influenced and changed the western suburbs and contributed to the history of the area in many different ways.

Extended bibliography:

Australian National University Urban Research Unit 1973, Urban development in Melbourne: aspects of the post-war experience, Australian Institute of Urban Studies, Canberra.

Burnley, T 1976, ‘Southern European populations in the residential structure of Melbourne 1947-71’, Geographical Research, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 116-132.

Camilleri, M, Hollander, R & Jacobs, M 1985, Life lines, stories by women in the western suburbs of Melbourne Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, Williamstown, Vic.

Lack, J 1991, A history of Footscray, Hargreen Publishing in conjunction with the City of Footscray North Melbourne.

McGuire, TA 2008, Lost saw toothed landscapes and subjectivities: recovering narratives of Melbourne’s industrial western suburbs, thesis, University of Melbourne, Melbourne.

Scott, AJ 1974, People of the Western Suburbs, Inter-Church Trade & Industry Mission on behalf of the Western Region Community Relations Committee, Melbourne.