Mar. 22, 1876. —Old site Bank of Australasia, Collins Street (the half acre originally bought for £50). Land, 95 feet frontage by 139 feet deep; land 71 feet frontage to Bank Place by 96 feet deep; area, I rood 32 perches. £33,000. At rate of £73,359 10s. 10d. per acre. Feb. 10, 1877. —Criterion Hotel and other buildings (first cost of half-acre lot, £19). Land, 66 feet frontage by 313 feet 6 inches back to Flinders Lane, to which it has a frontage of 66 feet; area, 1 rood 36 perches. Price realized, £33,000. £500 per foot frontage, £69,473 13 8d. per acre.
After this who will venture to say that Melbourne fact is not stranger than fiction?
Note. —The following are the boundaries of the town of Melbourne, as defined in the Government Gazette of April 1st, 1840:—
Parish of North Melbourne.—County of Bourke—Bounded on the north by a line bearing east 240 chains, being distant one mile north from the centre of Batman's Hill, extending two miles east to its north-east corner; on the east by a line bearing south 110 chains; on the south by the Yarra Varra River; and on the west by a line bearing north 94 chains to its north-west corner.
Parish of South Melbourne.—County not named. Bounded on the east by the continuation of the east boundary of the Parish of North Melbourne, bearing south 299 chains; on the south by Hobson's Bay; on the north by the Yarra Yarra River; and on the west by the continuation of the west boundary of North Melbourne to Hobson's Bay.
