The Argus Building on the corner of La Trobe and Elizabeth streets in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia, is notable as the former premises of '' The Argus'' newspaper for 30 years (1926–1956). It is classified by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

and is listed on the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

. In 2012 it was assessed as one of Australia's top ten endangered heritage buildings. it is the Melbourne campus of the Melbourne Institute of Technology.

History

An 1855 map shows St John's church and school at this location. Documents from 1880 and 1905 show an enlarged church and a row of two-storey shops along Elizabeth Street. The site was acquired by the publishers of ''The Argus'' and '' The Australasian'' for the development of a six-storey purpose-built building to accommodate the numerous workers and massive composing and printing plant deployed in producing high-circulation

letterpress Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable t ...

newspapers, as expounded in a special supplement, "Entering the New Home", published on 9 September 1926. After twenty years of financial losses, the last issue of ''The Argus'' emerged from the building on Saturday 19 January 1957. After the paper's closure, It was announced that the company's other activities would continue, including ''The Australasian Post'', '' Your Garden'' and other operations in radio and commercial printing. In 2004

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

bought the Argus Building for $8 million with the intention to redevelop the building to house its legal and business schools as well as a ground-floor shopping precinct. Owing to the high estimated cost of renovating the building, La Trobe University sold the site for $15 million in 2010 to Shesh Ghale, owner of the Melbourne Institute of Technology, who converted the site into its Melbourne campus which re-opened in October 2016.

References

{{coord, -37.8101, 144.9610, type:landmark_region:AU-VIC, display=title Office buildings in Melbourne Commercial buildings completed in 1926 Heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne Elizabeth Street, Melbourne Buildings and structures in Melbourne City Centre 1926 establishments in Australia Art Deco architecture in Melbourne