David Mitchell (16 February 1829 – 25 March 1916) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n builder, responsible for Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building. He was the father of Dame Nellie Melba.

Biography

Born in Forfarshire, Scotland, in 1829, David Mitchell emigrated to Australia in 1852. Mitchell is noted for building

Scots' Church, Melbourne The Scots' Church is a Presbyterian church in Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Services are held at 11 am (traditional) and 5pm (contemporary). It is a reformed protestant church. It was the first Presbyterian church to be built ...

, St Patrick's Cathedral, Eastern Hill, Menzies Hotel in

William Street, Melbourne William Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly north–south from Flinders Street to Victoria Street, and was laid out in 1837 as part of the original Hoddle Grid. The street ...

(1857) and Presbyterian Ladies' College, East Melbourne (1874). His grandest accomplishment was the

Royal Exhibition Building The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage-listed building in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, built in 1879–1880 as part of the international exhibition movement, which presented over 50 exhibitions between ...

, which became the first Australian building to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. In 1878 he bought land outside Lilydale on which he opened and operated the Cave Hill limestone and marble quarry. The business worked in tandem with his building company and was a great success, operating as the David Mitchell Estate Ltd after his death until it was sold to a Belgian conglomerate in 2002. It finally ceased operations in 2015. David Mitchell died on 25 March 1916 and is buried in the

Melbourne General Cemetery The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery is notably the resting place of five Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other ...

. His eldest daughter, born Helen Porter Mitchell, was the renowned

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

Dame Nellie Melba Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic lyric coloratura soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early twentieth century, and was the f ...

; artist Helen Lempriere was a niece.

References

*Joan Campbell,
Mitchell, David (1829–1916)
,

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

, Volume 5, MUP, 1974, pp 259–260. Australian builders 1829 births 1916 deaths Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia People from Angus, Scotland {{Australia-bio-stub