About EMG
Our History
The East Melbourne Group, believed to be the earliest residents’ association in Melbourne, was established in 1953.
How It All Began
It began when a small group of people joined forces to prevent the destruction of elm trees in the streets of East Melbourne. The Melbourne City Council, in its wisdom at the time, wanted to remove the street trees to make way for more car parking spaces.
The magnificent canopy of elms at the eastern end of George Street remains testament to this early resistance.
The Group has gone on to remain at the forefront of preserving the character, amenity, ambience and architecture of this unique and historic precinct.
Decades of Advocacy
In the 60s and 70s, given the then lack of wide sympathy with the causes of heritage protection and conservation of amenity, EMG did what it could to stem the destruction of heritage buildings in East Melbourne as many fine buildings were demolished to make way for blocks of apartments.
Although there has been a greater understanding of these issues in more recent decades, vigilance is still needed to stand up to inappropriate development unsympathetic to East Melbourne and Jolimont’s character.
The Residents Who Roared
In 2017 the East Melbourne Group commissioned one of its members (and East Melbourne Historical Society President) Jill Fenwick to write a history of our first 50 years. The Residents Who Roared is now available to purchase online either direct from Amazon or through the East Melbourne Historical Society website. It is currently only available in a Kindle edition, but you can download the free Kindle App from Amazon to read it on any device.
A list of former Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries and Treasurers from 1953 on can be found here.