Footer
Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
Partners
(3123, 8 km E, Boroondara City)
Formerly a residential sector of Hawthorn, the district was originally known as Red Gum Flat before the building of two early local residences, the Reverend Henry Liddiard's Auburn Lodge and John Collings' Auburn House, prompted the renaming. From the 1860s, the area provided a source of clay used in Hawthorn's flourishing pottery and brickmaking industry and mined by a substantial local labouring community. With the opening of the Auburn railway station in 1882, real estate agencies and other retail buildings of decorative late-Victorian design clustered along Auburn Road and around the railway station. Further subdivision encouraged the rapid development of middle-class housing in the area bounded by Auburn, Rathmines, Barkers and Burke roads. This precinct had previously been known as the village of Rathmines, the name associated with subdivision of Parish of Boroondara Crown Allotment 70 in the mid-1850s. In 1888, what is still regarded as Hawthorn's finest hostelry, the Italianate-style Auburn Hotel complete with elaborate kauri pine and cedar staircase, was built at the corner of Victoria and Auburn roads. The locality contains several other notable buildings including the 1889 French-inspired Oxley Road Methodist Church.