Elizabeth Street, Melbourne

Elizabeth Street

Victoria
Elizabeth Street looking south toward Flinders Street station, April 2010
Elizabeth Street, Melbourne is located in Melbourne
Elizabeth Street
Elizabeth Street
Coordinates
  • 37°48′35″S 144°57′40″E / 37.8096°S 144.961°E / -37.8096; 144.961
General information
TypeStreet
Opened1837
Route number(s) State Route 55 (2005–present)
(Parkville–Haymarket roundabout)
Former
route number
  • National Highway 31 (1988–2005)
    (Parkville–Haymarket roundabout)
  • State Route 3 (1965–1989)
    (Parkville–Melbourne)
Major junctions
North end Royal Parade
Parkville, Melbourne
 
South end Flinders Street
Melbourne CBD
Location(s)
Suburb(s)Parkville, Melbourne CBD

Elizabeth Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. It is presumed to have been named in honour of governor Richard Bourke's wife, or for Elizabeth I.[1][2]

The street is known as a retail shopping precinct. It is connected with key shopping and tourist destinations such as Bourke Street Mall, General Post Office, Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, Emporium Melbourne and Queen Victoria Market.

The intersection of Elizabeth Street and Flinders street has been the site of ongoing social and criminal issues in recent times.[3][4]

Geography

Elizabeth Street, looking south from the Queen Victoria Market

The street runs roughly north–south in-between Queen Street and Swanston Street. At the southern end the street terminates at Flinders Street station, whilst the northern end terminates at Grattan Street, north of the Haymarket Roundabout.

Haymarket connects Elizabeth Street to Peel Street towards the south-west, Flemington Road to the north-west, Royal Parade to the north and Grattan Street to the East. This complex, high-traffic roundabout is further complicated by trams travelling through it on varying routes.[5] Traffic lights were installed on the roundabout in 2011 to limit the dangerous complexity of the intersection, it having previously functioned as a normal roundabout.[5]

Floods

Elizabeth Street is the lowest point in the Melbourne central business district, with land rising both to the east and west, and more gradually to the north. The street was built on top of a historic natural creek and has suffered numerous floods in Melbourne's history.[6]

Flash flooding south towards the Yarra River occurred in 1882, 1972 and more recently during the 2010 Victorian storms.[6]

The Elizabeth Street drain runs from Carlton in the north to the Yarra River in the south, carrying storm water from the inner northern suburbs and city centre.[7] This drain is a significant source of pollutants entering the lower Yarra.[8]

Notable buildings

Melbourne's GPO is located on the corner of Elizabeth & Bourke Streets

Elizabeth Street is home to many historically important buildings, modern structures and works of art. These various works are listed on both the Victorian Heritage Register and National Trust of Australia.

Victorian Heritage Register

National Trust

Michaels Building corner of Elizabeth & Lonsdale Streets

Motorcycle and Camera Precincts

Flag of the Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria, the Victoria Grand Orange Lodge is headquartered at Loyal Orange House, Elizabeth Street
Elizabeth Street circa 1960
Elizabeth St. in Melbourne
Elizabeth Street in 1870[11]

Elizabeth Street has been home to a number of photography retailers and a considerable number of motorcycle dealers. The street has been the home of motorbike retailing in inner Melbourne since 1903, the longest-existing such area in the world.

Transport

As well as Flinders Street station at the southern end, the western exit of Melbourne Central railway station is located at the intersection of Latrobe and Elizabeth Streets.

A number of tram services run along the street, including route 19 trams to Coburg North, route 59 trams to Airport West and route 57 trams to West Maribyrnong.

Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria

The Grand Orange Lodge of Victoria, also known as the Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria, was established in 1843 in response to a sectarian protest carried out by Irish Catholics on Elizabeth Street when an Orangeman and political candidate was elected. [12]

They operate under the Grand Orange Lodge of Australia, the Australian branch of the Orange Order.[13] The Orange Order is a Protestant fraternity that originated in Loughgall, County Armagh, Northern Ireland following the Battle of the Diamond in 1795.[14][15] The fraternity commemorates the reformed faith and Orange Order history.[16] King William III's victory in the Battle of the Boyne is commemorated annually, in which Australian Orange Lodges travel to Adelaide to parade in The Twelfth.[17]

Headquarters

The Loyal Orange Institution of Victoria originally purchased its headquarters in 1961 on Elizabeth Street, known as Loyal Orange House.[18]

In 2018, the Institution sold their headquarters in Box Hill for approximately $15 million to move back to their original location on Elizabeth Street.[19]

In July 2026, the renovation of Loyal Orange House on Elizabeth Street was completed, and the Victoria Loyal Orange Institution officially moved in to the premises. A ceremony was held, in which the Grand Masters of the Grand Orange Lodge of Australia and Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand attended.[20]

See also

icon Australian Roads portal

References

  1. ↑ Royal Historical Society of Victoria "Melbourne's streets and lanes: what's in a name?" Archived 10 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, brochure published 2004 or later, retrieved 4 April 2013
  2. ↑ School of Historical Studies, Department of History. "Street Names - Entry - eMelbourne - The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online". eMelbourne. Retrieved 23 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "Is homelessness on Elizabeth St getting worse?". ABC listen. 31 August 2023. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  4. ↑ Juanola, Marta Pascual (25 August 2023). "The Elizabeth Street gateway: How crime crept down the city's spine". The Age. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Trams DownUnder - Message 147857". tdu.to. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  6. 1 2 "Melbourne city grid | Ergo". ergo.slv.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  7. ↑ "The Elizabeth-Street Drain". The Argus. 22 July 1884. Retrieved 21 January 2017 – via Trove.
  8. ↑ "Melbourne's underground river: Museum Victoria". museumvictoria.com.au. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  9. ↑ "VHD". vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  10. ↑ "VHD". vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  11. ↑ Tom (31 August 2015). "Melbourne's Elizabeth Street in 1870". Cool Old Photos. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Ceremonial Collar - Loyal Orange Institution, circa 1900". Museums Victoria Collections. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "Orange Expansion". Grand Orange. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  14. ↑ "The History of the Orange Order". Ulster Folk Museum. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  15. ↑ "A concise history of the Orange Order". The Irish Times. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "John Stokes Bagshaw | Monument Australia". www.monumentaustralia.org. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "John Stokes Bagshaw | Monument Australia". www.monumentaustralia.org. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "Protestant fraternity institution in Bakery Hill, Victoria". www.loyalorange.com. Archived from the original on 26 June 2026. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
  19. ↑ Johanson, Simon (5 October 2018). "Orange Order sells Box Hill site". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 July 2026.
  20. ↑ "Orange - Congratulations to the Grand Orange Lodge of Victoria on the opening of their new, and absolutely beautiful headquarters in Melbourne. A huge thank you to all who were involved in the project over many years to bring this to fruition. We hope these facilities will be enjoyed by many members and by many people in the years ahead as you continue the much valued work of the Orange Order "down under." Grand Master of New Zealand Sheryll Rodgers presents a Maori Tekoteko which is a wooden carving traditionally placed on top of meeting houses. | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 27 July 2026.

Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Elizabeth Street, Melbourne at Wikimedia Commons

This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.