APA Building
Australian Building
Australia's first true skyscraper rose above Melbourne in brick, turrets and lifts, lost its crown in the 1950s, and was demolished despite heritage recognition.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A twelve-storey Queen Anne commercial building at Elizabeth Street and Flinders Lane.
Oakden, Addison and Kemp used steel, hydraulic lifts and emphatic vertical design to make a land-boom office tower unlike anything in Australia.
Existence timeline
A speculative company plans an exceptionally tall office building.
Twelve storeys, lifts and a high spire alter Melbourne's skyline.
The insurer gives the building its lasting name.
Turrets, gables and spire are cut back.
Fire compliance costs compete with heritage status.
Most of the landmark is removed for redevelopment.
Why it ended
After decades of alteration and arguments over fire upgrades, the listed building was demolished in 1980.
Last confirmed trace
A vertical strip of banded brick survived against its neighbour, accompanied by extensive State Library photography.
What it left behind
The building anchors debates about whether Melbourne discarded the most exuberant evidence of its nineteenth-century boom.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.