Dr. Ann Blainey, author of I am Melba, spoke about the life of the opera singer.  Dame Nellie Melba's main connection with East Melbourne is as a school girl at Presbyterian Ladies College, which was built by her father, David Mitchell.

Ann’s talk and her encyclopaedic knowledge of her subject emphasized the enormity of Melba’s achievement. Her great journey from Melbourne to the opera houses of London, Paris and New York was truly astonishing in an age when photography and recording were in their infancy and radio and television did not exist. Nellie Melba also challenged convention; it was almost unheard of for a married woman to be on the stage, to neglect her husband and domestic duties in order to pursue her own career. Only a person of supreme talent, soaring ambition, high determination – and physical stamina – could have achieved the conquest of three continents that Melba achieved.