Further Reading Old Melbourne Town, by Michael Cannon, is an extensive and detailed history of the city's early years. If convicts are your particular bent, try Robert Hughes' mighty tome, The Fatal Shore . For a look at things from the Aboriginal perspective, The Other Side of the Frontier by Henry Reynolds is a disturbing read. The National Trust publishes Walking Melbourne , which will take you on a guided tour of the city's historic buildings.
Melburnian fiction abounds.
Classics include Marcus Clarke's For the Term of His Natural Life , written in the State Library, Henry Handel Richardson's Fortunes of Richard Mahoney and Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory .