Old Vintage Melbourne’s popular Instagram account has amassed nearly 110,000 followers since Melbourne lawyer and artist Chris Macheras first started collecting and digitally repairing old photos of the city – and sharing them online.

“A whole community has formed around it, which was never the intention – it was never expected,” Macheras told Broadsheet in 2021.

Last October, it leapt off our screens and onto our coffee tables with the release of Macheras’s first photo book, binding together 200 years of Melbourne’s history.

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With shots of the city from as far back as the late 19th century, the book shows just how dramatically the city has changed, but also how much has stayed the same.

Today, Macheras releases a sequel that homes in on the years between 1960 and 1990.

And while these may be years many of us lived through, we’ve perhaps never seen them like this – packaged up into a beautiful book of photos that almost jump off the page.

Flipping through, you’ll find a baby-blue fluro-lit Footscray espresso lounge from 1960; Collins Street’s grandiose Regent Theatre abuzz in ’66; and even beloved Fitzroy bar the Black Cat captured in ’87, but looking like just as much of a charmer as today.

It’s not just iconic Melbourne locations, though. The book also offers a snapshot of the people of the time – and their fashion. See shots of mates dangling their feet in the Yarra, a fabulously dressed woman perusing a newsstand and even a swarm of Melburnians exploring the just-opened Doncaster Shopping Centre in 1970.

Old Vintage Melbourne, 1960–1990 is available for $55 from Scribe.

@oldvintagemelbourne