These walking tours take place on unceded Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung Country. We honour the strength and resilience of Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people, and more broadly of Koorie people, especially those who have contributed to these walking tours. In seeking to make the many histories of our city more knowable, we stand with the custodians of these lands in their fight against ongoing colonialism. Always was, always will be.

City of Dissent Walking Tours

Walking the buried histories and landscapes of Naarm/Melbourne

The city that you and I walk in is not the same.

This site is a homepage for a series of urban walking tours put together by Madeline Frohlich and Willow Ross. In these tours, we follow histories of burial, dissent, erasure and refuge in the urban fabric. We ask what happens when projects of urbanisation and colonisation succeed (or fail) and what goes on in the spaces in-between.

How much of urban life is invisibilised, buried beneath the pavement? How are instruments of power forced to reckon with the desires and existences of urban residents - both human and more than human? Cities are shaped by both the forces of top-down planning and the everyday encounters and activisms of city dwellers. The traces of this interplay are not always visible to the lay observer, however we can begin to notice these contested histories by learning from one another. Fcolollow one of our audio-guided tours by clicking the links below or sign up to stay updated on new tours and opportunities to join us in person as we walk the city of Naarm/Melbourne.

These tours are a community resource. None of them would exist without the generous sharing of knowledge by friends, colleagues, contributors, comrades, and more. Check the links below or in the navigation bar to learn more.

Walking Tours

Below are links to the audio guides and Google Maps routes for each walking tour. On our audio guide pages, you'll also find a script for each tour including references, images, and further reading. We hope you learn something new :)

Walking Tour Audio Guides

Walking Tour Maps