The Show Must Go On

Early on Monday the 21st June 1926 the Geelong Mechanics' Institute was destroyed by fire. It was the fourth fire in the property, and police were suspicious it was the work of a "maniac". The Mechanics' Institute housed what was considered Victoria's most historic library, and the largest outside Melbourne. A large number of its 35,000 volumes were destroyed. The Weekly Times reported, "In the library were catalogues published as far back as 1852, and many historic records of the gold diggings."

But the most reported loss was that of Englishmen, Mr. Allan Wilkie, a Shakespearean actor-manager who was a darling of the Australian theatre-going public.