Thursday 8 August
From 6pm
Reading Room, Fitzroy Town Hall
Opening address by Cr Edward Crossland, Mayor, Yarra City Council
Followed by an in-conversation with Robert Ashton and Greg Day.

Published in 1974, Into the Hollow Mountains was a landmark book featuring black-and-white images taken by a young photographer Robert Ashton around the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, alongside original writing from local authors including Helen Garner. Now in 2024, Fitzroy 1974 presents an authentic record of what it was like to live and work in one of Australia’s most diverse, inner-city suburbs during a time of unprecedented change.

In 1970s Fitzroy the colonial roots of urban Australia were still on show from bluestone lanes to hard-case pubs. The suburb began to teem with a new diversity, as the children of migrants set about finding their place among the high-rise commission flats. The streets were a sanctuary for First Nations People from all over the Kulin nation and beyond. Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Mercy sat beside the Divine Light Mission, the Greek Orthodox Church and the good Protestant nuns, around the corner from student flop houses and industrial sweat shops. Fitzroy become a haven for painters, musicians, writers and photographers chasing cheap rent, driving a creative legacy rivalling Greenwich Village in New York or Montmartre in Paris.

Fitzroy 1974 is published with over 100 of Robert’s images and includes new writing by Tony Birch and Lorin Clarke and edited by award winning novelist Gregory Day.

Robert’s evocative and compelling images offer a rare glimpse into one of Australia’s most influential suburbs at a pivotal moment in history. Fitzroy 1974 is a beautiful collector’s item of a time long gone. 

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