The Melbourne Benevolent Asylum opened in November 1851 in North Melbourne in the block bordered by Abbotsford, Elm, Curzon and Miller Streets. The objectives of the Institution were to relieve the aged, infirm, disabled or destitute, of all creeds and nations, and to minister to them the comforts of religion. By the 1880s there was a movement to relocate the building from its inner city location to a more rural site. In 1904, 154 acres of land was purchased at Cheltenham; the foundation stone of the new building was laid in 1909 and the inmates began the move to Cheltenham in March 1911. In 1970 the building was renamed the Kingston Centre.
The North Melbourne building was demolished and the grounds cleared for housing; however the palm trees were removed to the new building at Cheltenham. The Weekly Times published these two photographs in July 1911.
Caption: Removing Palms from the Benevolent Asylum, North Melbourne, to the new home at Cheltenham.
Left caption: A Date Palm (Phœnix Canariensis), 25 year old, ready for removal.
Right caption: Getting a four-ton load under weigh.
A Date Palm (Phœnix Canariensis), 25 year old, ready for removal.
Getting a four-ton load under weigh.
Image: Weekly Times, July 15, 1911
The State Library of Victoria has a number of photographs of the Benevolent Asylum in North Melbourne, it was a very imposing building with formal gardens, however I cannot see a Palm Tree in any of the photographs.
Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, c. 1870s.
Photographer: Charles Nettleton.
State Library of Victoria image H92.375/10
The Cheltenham Benevolent Asylum was, as we said, on 154 acres and some of the land was used for market gardening, which you can clearly see on the left in the photograph below. I can see four palm trees in the photo, whether they are the North Melbourne one or not, I cannot tell.
Aerial view of buildings including Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, Cheltenham, c. 1950s.
Photographer: Airspy.
State Library of Victoria image H2008.32/43.
Palm Trees in the same image as above, are circled in blue.
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