Around 1987, I came across a file on Justin Drouhet’s model of old Melbourne in the City of Melbourne town clerk’s correspondence files and filed away a thought that one day I would write a piece on the subject. In 1994, I discovered that fellow historian Sheryl Yelland had also come across the tale of the Drouhet model, and we joined forces to undertake further primary research. As it happened, other projects demanded our attention, and we got no further than collating a manilla folder full of notes. Cancer took Sheryl in 1999, and my notes sat in a filing cabinet for over two decades until news that the Royal Exhibition Building’s viewing platform was to be opened to the public inspired me to write this article.

‘City views: modelling Melbourne at the Royal Exhibition Building’, Provenance 21 (2023-2024).

Andy May