John James Clark (1838-1915) designed many famous public buildings in Australia including, in Melbourne, the Treasury Building and Government House. He lived at 104 Gipps Street from 1869-1871. Our speaker, Dr. Andrew Dodd, completed his PhD thesis on J.J. Clark at Melbourne University working with Prof. Miles Lewis and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at Swinburne University.

On 9 January 1878 (Black Wednesday) the government of Graham Berry and Peter Lalor (also East Melbourne residents) retrenched James Clark and nearly 400 other senior civil servants, ostensibly to cut costs but essentially to transform an intransigent civil service. After 26 years in Melbourne James Clark left and began to create an Australia-wide architectural legacy. He returned though to design many more including the City Baths and the Queen Victoria Women's Hospital.