City History - OOC

From CamMelbourne

Melbourne through Undead eyes

(Formatting needed)

"Through me the way into the suffering city,

Through me the way to the eternal pain,

Through me the way that runs among the lost.

Justice the founder of my fabric moved,

My maker was divine authority,

The highest wisdom, and primal love.

Before me nothing but eternal things were made,

And I endure eternally.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

Message inscribed on the gates of hell - The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Dante Alighieri

The people of the Kulin nation have long been the native inhabitants of Victoria, centred around the bay. The first recorded time Europeans landed in the Melbourne area was in 1803, when a British scout ship landed in present day Williamstown. The sailors recorded what they saw and the British Crown marked the bay for future development.

It was 1835 before Europeans returned, settling Melbourne on the banks of the Yarra River, in what was then still the southernmost edge of colony of New South Wales. A man of dubious character, John Batman, led an expedition up from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) after hearing that the land was unclaimed and ideally suited for grazing sheep. Whilst this was true to some extent, a great quantity of the Melbourne area was actually swamps and marshes. Only days later a second expedition led by John Pascoe Fawkner made camp on the other side of the river not far from John Batman's settlers.

In 1837 the settlement was named after the then British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. At various times before then Melbourne was also known as Batmania, Bearbrass, Bearport, Bareheap and Bearbury. These names were most likely derived from the Kulin name for the area which was Berren or Bararing. In the same year the rectangular street grids were laid out. The first building in the new settlement was Fawkner's grog shop, located near present day Spencer Street Station.

In 1838 Captain William Lonsdale arrived to become the police magistrate for the new settlement. At this time the first census is conducted and the population of the new settlement was recorded as 145 men and 35 women. It is believed that only one or two vampires of Gangrel descent existed in the meagre population, and fed sparingly. The indigenous population was, however, thriving.

In 1842 Melbourne was created a town. It had grown by then to a population of about 10,000 people.

Arriving from England in 1846, Ijon Hall, an Invictus Ventrue, became the first Prince of Melbourne. Whilst he did not hold formal courts initially he established a loose community amongst the vampires present in the town, controlling their small number and reserving hunting grounds. In the following year, Melbourne was officially proclaimed a city.

The colony of Victoria was separated from New South Wales in 1851 and became the Australian State of Victoria. It was in this year that the first Australian gold rush started, and thousands of fortune hunters flooded into Victoria to head to the gold fields in Ballarat. The whole city emptied as almost one third of its people rushed off to seek their fortune in the gold fields.

By 1853 the first court of Melbourne began to assemble, with sufficient kindred dwelling in the city for Prince Ijon to appoint court officers and hold bi-monthly gatherings. The University of Melbourne was founded in the same year.

In 1860 Prince Ijon succumbed to torpor. The event was not unexpected and preparations were made to hand rulership of the city to Alexander Page, a Lancea Sanctum Ventrue. Once the former prince was asleep however, many deals that had been made unravelled, promises were forgotten, and it swiftly became apparent that Praxis would change hands according to political machinations rather the ordained lineage.

After several months of political infighting, negotiation and outright treachery, Charlotte O’Reardon, an Invictus Daeva, ascended to the throne. Charlotte took control of a blossoming city; by this year Melbourne had become the largest city in Australia and the fastest growing city in the British Empire. With the discovery of gold came great wealth and many of the oldest havens and significant buildings in the city were built during this time. Prince Charlotte’s rule was draconian at best, and many kindred shied away from the court during this period, afraid of attracting her ire. Amongst her first decrees was the exile of several of Ijon’s supporters, including the former sheriff David Lonsdale.

Federal Parliament was opened at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne on 9 May 1901. The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York visited to open the first Commonwealth Parliament. Although it was a new nation, Australia had a British Head of State, God save the King as its national anthem, flew the Union Jack and used Imperial currency and measurements. Radical newspapers of the time, the Tocsin and the Bulletin, were quite critical of both the celebrations and his grace, who they referred to as the 'jookoyork'. Federal Parliament continued to sit in Victoria, at Melbourne's Houses of Parliament, for a further 27 years. Australia's new national flag was officially flown for the first time above the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne on 3 September 1901.

In 1902 the High court of Australia was formally opened in Melbourne, and the first federal postage stamps were issued from the GPO. Melbourne was the Capital of Australia.

In 1908 Victoria became the last Australian State to grant women state voting rights. Some prominent countries didn't grant votes for women until much later: Britain 1918 (limited rights only), USA 1920 and Switzerland 1971. The first official Australian Coat of Arms was also created. The design was amended later in 1912 to include the shield of each State.

In 1909 Prince Charlotte was dethroned by Melbourne’s resident Carthians. Citing grievances with her method of rule, and having the support of the majority of the kindred present, Prince Charlotte was forced to abdicate and stand trial for offences against the city populace. She was executed shortly there after.

The city was ruled by a council of five kindred chaired by (Prince) Alicia Nunn. The newly created council was more adept at ruling the city and the kindred populace revelled in the more libertarian policies of the Carthians. That year the first shipment of new Commonwealth coinage arrived and the first Australian bank notes were printed in Melbourne.

In 1911 the Commonwealth Bank was established by Invictus interests in Melbourne. Under the Defence Act of 1909 compulsory Military training was introduced for all Australian male youths except Aborigines.

In 1915, a year after the beginning of the First World War, Alec Red, a foreign Carthian Daeva with great support amongst the younger and unaligned kindred, joined the cities governing council. His popularity did not come without enemies however, and in short order he and the Council’s Chair Alicia were wrestling for control of the council, expending their energies blocking each others initiatives. The council’s effectiveness at governing began to diminish.

In 1916, serum production began at laboratories in Melbourne's Park Royal under the control of the Trade and Customs Department's quarantine branch. The laboratories would later come under the aegis of the CSIRO. Initially concerned with work on Polio, Influenza and snake antivenene, it later became primarily responsible for veterinary work concerning sheep and cattle.

With the end of the First World War in sight in 1917 the Department of Repatriation was established in Melbourne to care for the 357,000 members of the Australian Imperial Force and the families of the 60,000 men who lost their lives in the war.

In 1918 Melbourne trialled the successful electric tram. The new transit system quickly expanded and in 1920 the electric tram system is extended, and commuters move into the new leafy suburbs of Malvern, Canterbury and Brighton.

In 1923 Hoadley's Chocolates made the first Violet Crumble bar in Melbourne and Victorian Dr C P Callister created Vegemite. In the same year women were enabled to practice Law for the first time, though few immediately took the opportunity.

1927 saw the official opening of the transmission of beam-wireless between Australia and UK. In the same year the Commonwealth Parliament moved to Canberra. The stone for the Shrine of Remembrance was laid. The pillar marking the entrance to the memorial grounds is marked ‘All men know this is holy ground’. The shrine would later be designated as Elysium by the Carthian Council.

The High Court (and Conciliation and Arbitration Court) building is completed in Melbourne in 1928. In 1929 Hoyts converts 20 suburban theatres from silent screen to black and white with audio. The court of Melbourne begins meeting more infrequently as petty disputes and factionalism divide the court members.

At the height of the economic depression in 1932, 28% of registered trade unionists are unemployed. Workers on sustenance payments ('the Susso') build the Great Ocean Road and Alexandra Avenue, Melbourne, among other public works.

The Australian Aborigines League is formed in the same year in Melbourne under William Cowper and Ebenezer Lovett. It petitions King George V for special electorates for Aborigines to be established in the Federal Parliament. The number of unaligned kindred in the city begins to swell, many kindred are never presented properly, and several are created without the council’s leave.

In 1933 the reformer F. Oswald Barnett publishes The Unsuspected Slums, about the need for housing reform in Melbourne. He became Vice-Chairman of the Housing Commission of Victoria on its establishment in 1938. Also in 1933 the mounted hide of Phar Lap was placed on display at the museum in Melbourne.

In 1938 the Carthian regime over the city came to an abrupt end. Massing numbers of unaligned kindred seised control of the city, slaying most of the council. Under the direction of their leader, Goran Markusovic, the former position holders of the city were hunted from haven to haven, being burnt out of their dwellings along with any other kindred who would not join their band. Thus began what was to become known as the Black Friday fires, the worst in Victoria's history. By the time the fires had been extinguished, almost half the court had been claimed by the flames or the weapons of their enemies. Entire suburbs, numbering over a thousand homes, were destroyed and 1.4 million hectares of forestland were laid to waste. The kindred community descended into chaos for what was to be six years.

In 1942 thousands of American soldiers arrived on the docks in Melbourne as part of Australia's defence against invasion by Japanese forces. Most of the soldiers had to be billeted in the community while waiting to be cycled into duty in the South Pacific.

By 1944 there was little cohesion left amongst the unaligned kindred and those court members who had been chased out of the city were beginning to find ways back in. Towards the end of the year their efforts were galvanised by the reappearance of Ijon Hall. Though diminished by torpor he was able to effectively unite the remaining Carthians in the city, and with help from the Lancea Sanctum from outside the State the unaligned kindred that occupied the city were forced out or slain. Amongst those to flee was a coterie of unaligned Aboriginal Gangrel, who took up residence in the Rutherglen region.

Early in 1945, it became obvious that Ijon’s time in torpor had deranged him to an extent that he was unsuitable to rule the city. Praxis was passed, as Ijon had originally intended, to the Ventrue Alexander Page.

In 1947 the first of thousands of displaced persons arrived in Australia from war-torn Europe. The city began to rebuild under Prince Alexander’s direction.

In 1955 the first Moomba Festival occurred. In the same year Australia received its one-millionth post war immigrant into Melbourne.

In 1956 the 16th Olympic Games were held in Melbourne. They were based primarily at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and opened by the Duke of Edinburgh. During the games Melbourne experienced its first television transmission as part of the initial stage of the Federal Government's gradual extension of television throughout Australia. In 1958 Alexander named one of the vampires who had arrived with the masses from Europe as Sheriff; Victor Haussman, also known as Victor the German, a Carthian Mekhet.

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl was opened in 1959.

Gambling was legalized in Melbourne in 1960, with an act of state parliament establishing the TAB. Scores of betting outlets were immediately 'opened' though poker machines were not to proliferate for some time. In actuality, the betting houses had been in operation for some time and only with legalization did they become public. In the same year the Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Frank McFarland Burnet, won the Nobel Prize for research in immunology. In 1963 Victor the German becomes Seneschal.

In 1967 Ronald Ryan, was the last person hanged in Victoria. Melbourne gaols have had a history of using people arrested for vagrancy or drunkenness as flagellators and executioners. Most of the executioners they used had a lengthy criminal record for petty crimes. When one of their chosen hangmen was not serving time, they would head out into the community, find them, arrest them for vagrancy, and have them perform the execution for reduced sentence and a small fee.

In 1970 the protests against Australian involvement in the Vietnam War culminate in a series of Moratorium marches in Melbourne. During this time Tullamarine airport opened for the first time, and in an accident a section of the unfinished West Gate Bridge collapsed killing nine workers. Construction immediately stopped and a steel re-strengthening project took over, setting the completion date of the bridge back two years.

In 1972 the Equal Pay Case gave women right to equal pay for equal work. Contrary to the desired effect, many women were sacked following the ruling. Legislation to oppose such sackings did not exist at the time.

In 1975 Sir John Kerr dismissed the Whitlam Labour Government, the first time a Governor-General used this power. Over 30,000 protested in the streets of Melbourne at the sacking.

In 1976 the Police started random breath testing for motorists. In the same year the Victorian Registry of the Family Law Court opened and over 1,000 people joined the queue to get divorced.

In 1977 the Victorian Football League Grand Final was televised live for the first time and Australia won the Centenary Test Match at the MCG, defeating England by 45 runs.

In 1978 the West Gate Bridge is opened. It has become a known landmark of Melbourne from its many pictures. Strangely enough, around 9 mortals each year kill themselves by throwing themselves off it, but this is never reported in the popular press for fear of litigation.

In 1981 the first stage of the Melbourne Underground Railway Loop was opened to traffic. In the following year the Melbourne Concert Hall is officially opened and at the same time a severe dust storm swept over the city darkening Melbourne.

In 1986, Prince Alexander was slain unexpectedly, by what most believe was a group of overseas kindred. The motive behind his assassination was never uncovered for certain, though several kindred have their theories. The usual politicking associated with the Danse Macabre ensued, and eventually the former seneschal Victor took the throne.

Also in 1986 the Russell Street police headquarters was bombed, killing a police officer and wounding several others. The culprits were never found, but the event marked a shift in the nature of Melbourne’s underworld.

In 1998, attempting to recreate the council rule of the early 1900s, the Carthian Alec Red staged what was to be an unsuccessful coup, and was bloodhunted for his efforts. Shunned by the other Carthians, he fled the city with two of his progeny.

At the turn of the Millennium, 2000, Melbourne joined cities around the world celebrating the beginning of the 21st century. Construction of the deck above Flinders St Rail yards finished and work on Federation square began in earnest.

In 2004, Alec Red was seen reentering the city. The court officers were marshaled to prosecute the bloodhunt against him, and over a period of three months Alec was harried through Melbourne’s outer suburbs. Alec finally met his destruction along with the city’s Hound, burnt to ashes whilst locked in combat by the morning sun. One of Alec’s childer, Julian Red, was captured and later executed for treason and being created in breach of the 2nd tradition. Alec’s second childe Simony Red remains uncaptured.

Throughout the prosecution of the bloodhunt and for three months afterwards, the Prince has called no formal gatherings; with the beginning of 2005, the Herald has called for the first gathering of the court of Melbourne in six months.

Premise for the start of the Chronicle The first session of the new chronicle will be the first court meeting the kindred of Melbourne have had for 6 months, an unusual lapse caused by affairs of state. Kindred will have still met in small groups or as individuals during this time. As a result of this lapse, and events that have happened during it, the positions of the Hound, Covenant Positions, Prisci & Whips will be sorted out by characters as the game commences.