Melbourne Club

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The Melbourne Club is called by many the headquarters of the Melbourne Establishment with members wielding a powerful influence in Melbourne and Australian life. Since its establishment in 1839 it has become widely regarded as the unofficial power center of Melbourne, although in recent years its influence has perhaps waned a little due to the diversity of business and social networks. It is known as an exclusive Gentleman's club for Melbourne's elite, and the embodiment of tradition, elegance and old moneyed sophistication. The club has no female members. The club also offers exclusive accommodation, library and reading room, and elegant dining facilities.

The club was established at a gathering of 23 Victorian squatters and businessmen in 1838 and initially used John Pascoe Fawkner’s public house on the corner of Collins Street and Market Street. The club's early years were marked by drunkenness, duels[1], fist fights and oafishness. It moved to a London-style three storey clubhouse designed by Leonard Terry in 1858 at 36-50 Collins Street, Melbourne and is located next door to the women only Lyceum Club and the Naval and Military Club.

The internal operations of the club are secretive with members encouraged not to speak publicly about the club in a powerful code of silence. Membership is by invitation only, with membership numbers in 2001 being reported at just over 1,000 people. According to one news report[2] the proposing member requires a seconder and four referee members for the nomination to go forward to a ballot open to all members four months later. There is an annual membership fee of $1500, and all services are invoiced on a monthly account.

At the rear of the Club building is a private coutyard garden which is the location of garden parties and private functions. In 2000 there was a dispute over a high-rise re-development of the Naval and Military Club at the rear of the two clubs in Little Collins Street. The development causes overshadowing and overview of the private garden.

The Melbourne club building is of architectural significance as a rare intact example of a nineteenth century purpose-built clubhouse in the Victorian Renaissance style.

It has close reciprocal relations with a number of other clubs of its kind in Australia, most notably the older Australian Club in Sydney.

[edit] Notable members

Frederick Powlett (1811-1865) was a founding member in 1838 as well as being a founding member and the first recorded president of the Melbourne Cricket Club in 1838. He was a highly respected public servant, a police magistrate and later chief commissioner of Crown Lands. Other early members included Robert O’Hara Burke of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition and early Victorian squatter Richard Bunbury.

Membership includes notable stockbrokers, doctors, lawyers, company directors, public servants, professors and politicians. Governors-General once received an automatic offer of membership. Prime Ministers Stanley Bruce and Malcolm Fraser were members, along with Liberal politicians Tony Staley, Michael Wooldridge, and Andrew Peacock.

Chief Justice of the High Court Owen Dixon was a member as was Henry Field Gurner (1819-83), Crown Solicitor of Victoria 1851-1880.

Distinguished academics include historian Geoffrey Blainey, medical researcher Gustav Nossal, and botanist John Stewart Turner (1908-1991).

Prominent businessmen include: mining magnate Hugh Morgan; BHP-Billiton businessmen Don Argus, James Balderstone, and Ian Munro McLennan (1909-1998); former head of Shell Australia and vice president of the International Olympic Committee Kevan Gosper. Prominent bankers include Sir Leslie McConnan and Sir James Elder.

Elders businessman John Elliott is understood to have ceased to be a member after being declared bankrupt in 2005. He has also ceased to be a member of the Australian and Savage Clubs.

The club has been accused in the past of anti-semitism, but this does not seem to be the case in its recent history with new members including Temple Bet Israel Emeritus Rabbi John Levi and Peter Isaacson. The anti-semitic reputation arose when membership was refused to Kenneth Myer in the 1950s and Baillieu Myer in the 1970s, both descendants of Sidney Myer, a Jewish migrant who founded the Myer Department store network.[3]

Former Labor Government Minister and Federal President of the Australian Labor Party Barry Jones is understood to have been elected a Member in 2004 or 2005, which dispels some of the mythology about the Club being a right wing preserve.