AAA<\/p>\n
Dust settles in the arched corridor of an inner-city town hall, dark except for fingers of grey light stretching along the carpet. The air is musty, still. Quiet.<\/p>\n
Except for the booming voice of Stephen Jolly, who is emphatically slapping a swipe card against a reader. \u201cIn here is the ballroom. It\u2019s gigantic,\u201d he says. The card reader beside the frosted glass door beeps disapprovingly.<\/p>\n
Jolly pulls his phone out of his pocket, punching in a number before he holds it to his ear. \u201cI told him ages ago that I was coming here today,\u201d the Yarra mayor says, mildly annoyed.<\/p>\n
![\"Fitzroy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9704d3d85a549be2c351ae88c2ed798901a5f368.jpeg\")
Fitzroy Town Hall is among Melbourne\u2019s grand old relics, under-used since council amalgamations in the 1990s. Ruby Alexander<\/p>\n
We\u2019re inside the palatial Fitzroy Town Hall in Melbourne\u2019s inner north, a relic of the city\u2019s Victorian-era past, one which has sat largely empty since Liberal premier Jeff Kennett ordered statewide council amalgamations in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
The City of Yarra\u2019s council meetings resumed here in 2025 after a years-long hiatus, but \u2013 like many of Melbourne\u2019s grand town halls \u2013 the height of its civil life is marooned in history. It may be time to reclaim it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I wanted to write something, really concentrate on something, I would come here,\u201d Jolly says. \u201c[But] it\u2019d be like coming to a morgue.<\/p>\n
\u201cInner-city land is so expensive, and we have this here, and it\u2019s just not fully utilised. I just hate seeing waste.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tea cups bearing the old City of Fitzroy emblem are stacked in a disused councillors\u2019 room, left over from before it was consumed into the City of Yarra (along with Collingwood and Richmond). The walls of other rooms upstairs are coated in great swaths of dust, and paint is stripped where electrical wiring was torn out and replaced.<\/p>\n
Curtains printed with pictures of books hang on ornate shelves in the reading room where hardbacks used to be. The Fitzroy Legal Service, a couple of NGOs and the local library are here, but the civil servants are long gone, leaving much of the building desolate (its high ceilings, while striking, make it difficult to heat and cool).<\/p>\n
A woman arrives to let us into the ballroom, swinging open the frosted glass doors to reveal a cavernous, classical space fitted with bell flower chandeliers and balcony seating.<\/p>\n
If Jolly had his way, this building would be humming again. Newer council offices in Richmond (\u201ca white elephant\u201d) would be sold off, and staff would work across the municipality\u2019s three town halls, with Fitzroy upgraded to accommodate them.<\/p>\n
![\"Many](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ec4e9758aa20cd91ac90842f9b4644717992e497.jpeg\")
Many of Melbourne\u2019s town halls, including Fitzroy Town Hall, are sitting idle and underused, after losing their civic function. Ruby Alexander<\/p>\n
Melbourne could restore many of its under-used and dilapidated town halls back to their former glory. But it would take time, money, forethought \u2013 and a good dose of imagination.<\/p>\n
It was an average Thursday, springtime in leafy South Melbourne, and two music academy staff were settling in for an afternoon of work when a rotten structural beam collapsed the roof onto their desks.<\/p>\n
The noise was cacophonous. The staff were almost taken out, forced to run from a mess of ceiling tiles, buckled steel joinery and electrical wiring brought down in the chaos. Then, the building flooded, the sprinkler system pouring in more than 12,000 litres of water.<\/p>\n
This was October 2018 at South Melbourne Town Hall \u2013 the home of the Australian National Academy of Music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe building had not been cared for,\u201d the music academy\u2019s Nick Bailey says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt led us to: where do we want to be, is this building safe? It needs so much money, it needs so much love, and it\u2019s just been let go.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2597d53b4c114318b8241c6bbb38b0b052d5a357.jpeg\")
The aftermath of the roof collapse in the Australian National Academy of Music\u2019s offices at South Melbourne Town Hall on October 18, 2018. ANAM archives<\/p>\n
The training and performance arts company had inhabited the retired town hall since 1996, soon after South Melbourne merged with Port Melbourne and St Kilda to become the City of Port Phillip under Kennett.<\/p>\n
The council owned the building, meaning it could lease it to whomever (a quirk when many other town halls are built on Crown land, which restricts them to municipal use). But the academy\u2019s occupancy did not equate to upkeep, or celebrating its 1879 heritage.<\/p>\n
Local historian Adair Bunnett recalls that when the community was occasionally allowed into the grand old hall, \u201cwe\u2019d see that everything was knocked about.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hall had gaffer tape all over the floor,\u201d Bunnett says. \u201cThere were cobwebs hanging from ceilings. The council chamber was a students\u2019 lunchroom, and some of the leathers had got a bit old, and they were picked at, so there\u2019s bits of stuffing coming out of the banquettes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just awful,\u201d she says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t like [the music academy] much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The roof collapse in 2018 triggered a plan to restore the building, which quickly grew in complexity and scale. The restoration, in turn, provoked a community revolt<\/a> \u2013 with Bunnett a leading agitator, concerned the renovations would destroy the building\u2019s character, and the music academy\u2019s sole tenancy would keep it out of community hands.<\/p>\n \u201cIn South Melbourne Town Hall, you can actually place innovation in social welfare,\u201d Bunnett says. \u201cYou can point to that building and say, \u2018This is where the first infant welfare centre was. This was where Meals on Wheels were managed from.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAll of these things, we can actually locate in a particular building. That\u2019s pretty rare.\u201d<\/p>\n But late last year, Bunnett stood alongside architect Peter Elliott<\/a> in what will become the music academy\u2019s main performance and training hall.<\/p>\n Shadows danced on the scaffolding in the cathedral-like space, which will eventually be bathed in light by the biggest double-sashed windows Elliott has ever seen (most of which, are boarded up for now).<\/p>\n Massive circular rigs containing sound and lighting equipment will be flown above musicians in the round.<\/p>\n Beyond just the academy, the idea is to have people in the restored building every night of the week, particularly with public events like the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and writers\u2019 festivals, Bailey says.<\/p>\n In seeing the project with her own eyes, Bunnett has realised it is realistically the only way to save the building.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m comfortable now that if I was run over tomorrow, if the big bus got me, I\u2019d be happy,\u201d Bunnett says. \u201cI\u2019d feel it\u2019s in safe hands and will be developed properly.\u201d<\/p>\n But the project hasn\u2019t been without colossal expense and effort.<\/p>\n The cost has blown out from $65 million<\/a> to $110 million, and students aren\u2019t due to return until mid-2028 \u2013 meaning it is running four years behind schedule.<\/p>\n Related Article The City of Port Phillip has doubled its original contribution to $40 million, and the music academy itself is putting in $70 million \u2013 half from philanthropists, and the other half from government funding ($10 million is still in negotiation with the Victorian government).<\/p>\n Elliott says the restoration is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring the rundown building into its next 50 years. While a big part of the project is unique to a performance academy, half of the job is also ensuring the integrity of the building\u2019s infrastructure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe roofs were completely shot. Virtually every service had to be replaced,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But when it\u2019s complete and people step inside what still looks like an old civic building, \u201cit\u2019ll feel like a whole nother world\u201d, Elliott says.<\/p>\n In March, Bailey stepped down as the academy\u2019s managing director to focus purely on the South Melbourne Town Hall restoration. In his 17 years in the role, he worked through the roof collapse, relocating the academy to the Abbotsford Convent, and the aftermath of the infamously named \u201cfax day\u201d, when then-federal arts minister Peter Garrett informed the academy by fax in 2008 that he intended to shut it down by the year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n But this project \u2013 currently an inconceivable maze of machinery, dust and demolition \u2013 may be Bailey\u2019s greatest challenge yet.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they look about like, what the hell are we doing, taking this thing on?\u201d Bailey says of the crews working on the restoration.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n Four music students take position in a big dirt pit beside excavators, in what it is hoped will one day become the Barry Jones studio (an apt tribute to the former politician). They steady their instruments, then launch into play as a string quartet, mesmerising Elliott as he visualises the completed room; the acoustic panelling, designed to resemble books, like those in the former library here.<\/p>\n A second prompt to step aside for an interview snaps Elliott out of his daze. \u201cOh, sorry,\u201d he says, sheepish.<\/p>\n The architect tears himself away from the music.<\/p>\n In the library of Prahran Town Hall, Rachel Westaway is sitting in a green armchair beside tall arched windows. They look out to a small courtyard \u2013 a bit of greenery here, a statue there. It\u2019s closed off to the public with a sign warning \u201cno access\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cCivic buildings like this that have been around for well over 100 years were built in prime locations,\u201d Westaway says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe difficulty we have when Chapel Street is in demise at the moment is that we\u2019ve got a big building that isn\u2019t being utilised effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, the local state MP toured the town hall\u2019s upper storey, which is closed to the public. She found it in a state of disrepair.<\/p>\n The local council, the City of Stonnington, has a vision to transform the building<\/a> into a cultural hub \u2013 but an accompanying business plan is indefinitely on hold while the council lacks the funds.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are future plans for a major redevelopment throughout the site,\u201d a City of Stonnington spokeswoman says. \u201cCouncil hopes to work in partnership with the state government to move these plans forward in the next 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cThis support will be vital if council is to undertake a significant redevelopment.\u201d<\/p>\n In Melbourne\u2019s north, Merri-bek City Council is in a similar position, working with a modest $73,000 in next year\u2019s budget to upgrade Brunswick Town Hall\u2019s facilities. Mayor Nat Abboud\u2019s ideal would be for it to become the \u201celder sibling\u201d to Brunswick\u2019s Mechanics Institute, which has been reborn as an arts venue. \u201cSince COVID, the whole building has been underutilised,\u201d Abboud says.<\/p>\n Westaway suggests it\u2019s implausible for ratepayers to cover the necessary tens of millions of dollars to restore their town halls, and councils should collaborate with private businesses to bring life and community back into these places \u2013 lest the buildings rot.<\/p>\n![\"Architect](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/fba368e02e059dfef90047026793cfcc71bab347.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prahran](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/50c08a38a7c3f56decd292e7f1e943af6a199aa5.jpeg\")
Prahran MP Rachel Westaway says collaboration at all levels of government, and with the private sector, is the best way to bring life back to Melbourne\u2019s forgotten town halls. Wayne Taylor<\/p>\n
![\"City](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c52076ca4042d24969a904ef48685221a956ce4b.jpeg\")
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