The exploding emporium

Melbourne in 1839 was a bustling place because the bourgeoning colonial project was alive and well.

The Kulin nations bloody displacement from their homelands by the colonists was alive and well. Charles La Trobe arrived from England in October of that year to be the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District (as Victoria was known at the time) and planning for the first bridge over the Yarra, the Princes Bridge, was advancing. The temporary shacks built by the colonists were becoming permanent buildings and one of these permanent buildings was going to have a very short life.

John Blanch, the biggest gun and gunpowder seller in Melbourne (the biggest because he was the only gun seller in Melbourne) plied his trade from his ‘Sporting Emporium’ either because of poor planning or a lack of it his Sport Emporium was right next door to John McEchnie’s tobacco shop.

On 17th December 1839 two recently arrived brothers from England wanted to buy firearms and ammunition before they set out for the bush so they popped into Blanch’s ‘Sports Emporium’. Blanch was in his shop and Blanch’s wife was in a room next door sitting near an open bag of gunpowder, not to mention the power in a storage cupboard nearby.

A smoker from next door stepped into Blanch’s for a friendly chat and flicked ash from his cigar into or near where the gunpower was stored causing a huge explosion. Both shops were destroyed. Melbourne was such a new town there wasn’t even a hospital, the casualties had to be taken to places in the neighbourhood for urgent care.

Mr and Mrs Blanch died, so did the brothers and John McEchnie’s son all died in the blast.

Planning laws matter.