East Melbourne people power

For nearly 70 years, the proud residents of East Melbourne have been working together to preserve their inner-city oasis, nestled between the traffic arterials, stadiums, parks and gardens.

The East Melbourne Group Incorporated: Victoria’s first residents’ group

Maintaining its tranquillity and heritage charm, on the doorstep of the CBD, has been a vigilant effort championed by East Melbourne Group (EMG), whose history has been recounted by Jill Fenwick, former East Melbourne Historical Society President, in the 2017 publication The Residents Who Roared, A History of The East Melbourne Group 1953-2003.

“This is the story of a small group of people and the organisation they formed in 1953 to protect the amenity of their neighbourhood. The East Melbourne Group (EMG) began as a citizens’ protest against the removal of the stately elm trees forming a green canopy over major streets within the suburb. The Melbourne City Council ordered their removal on the spurious grounds that they were diseased or likely to become so, and thus presented a hazard to the increasing numbers of cars. There are two other theories about the council’s reasons, the first that the elms were a nuisance to street cleaning vehicles, the second that it was an attempt to “modernise” in preparation for the royal visit of Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in February 1954.

Whatever the truth was, the East Melbourne Group was the first such citizens’ group established in Victoria and remains today as an example of “people power” helping to maintain East Melbourne’s reputation as Melbourne’s “most liveable suburb”. While it was established to influence council decisions on amenity, by the 1970s the group became active in the protection of heritage places, parks and streetscapes, and today acts as the ever-watchful guardian of this small suburb which forms an essential part of the historical fabric of nineteenth-century Melbourne.”

In recent times, the EMG has risen to address new challenges, initiating the East Melbourne Emergency Response Group (EMERG) and working with the council and state authorities to welcome and integrate rough sleepers in crisis accommodation through the height of the pandemic. EMERG was one of the many innovative ways we worked to galvanise our community during COVID. The scheme connected the elderly and vulnerable in a buddy system with younger neighbours during lockdown, securing enduring friendships and cheer throughout our unique village •