Unknown photographer, Laying of cable tram tracks in Elizabeth Street, looking towards Flinders Street Station, c 1890, H38835

The streets of Marvellous Melbourne buzzed with the sounds of underground cables and the ringing of bells, as cable trams ferried people from one place to another. The first cable tram was launched in November 1885, and by 1891 the network encompassed 17 routes with a combined length of 73 kilometres of double track. Melbourne’s system was the largest cable tram network in the world operated by a single company.