Delighted that the Melbourne Historical Journal [43, 1 (2015): 20-38] has published the text of my inaugural professorial lecture, delivered last September at the University of Melbourne. I have fond memories from my graduate days of being on the editorial collective for Volume 18 (1987)—how almost three decades have flown by since then! The article includes some reflections on a variety of applied history projects I have worked on over the years, and using the double-meaning of trivial as at once everyday or commonplace (standing for microhistory), and the crossroads (the place where three roads meet), I take a journey across Melbourne in time and space to track some of my urban historical preoccupations.