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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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Established in 1853 as the local branch of an international Anglican organisation, the Mission to Seamen aimed to divert visiting sailors from sin. Operating originally from a hulk moored offshore, it soon found itself competing with a range of evangelical missions with a similar purpose. Like other inner-city missions, it offered welfare services and recreation to those who came to its onshore stations, initially in the Flinders Street extension, and later also at Port Melbourne (now demolished). Both stations were the subject of heritage battles in the 1990s when changes in the shipping industry forced the Mission to contract its services. The Flinders Street complex, listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, was designed by Walter Richmond Butler in 1916 and influenced by Spanish Mission Revival style.