[2] Flinders Street Extension was constructed in 1890, as part of improvements to railway, road and wharf facilities west of Melbourne's CBD.
[4] From about 1900 to the 1940s, work on the wharves was obtained through the bull system of labour hire, where workers assembled twice a day at the stevedores offices on the south side of Flinders Street.
An unknown assailant shot dead Yeung Shing, the bosun of the ship SS Fort Abitibi, and seriously wounded Albert Sydney Pack.
Along with the creation of the Coode Canal and Victoria Dock, the plan emphasised the need for a main road linking the river wharves.
The Flinders Street Extension was constructed to meet that need, and the wall was built where the road cut through what was left of Batman's Hill, a site closely associated with Melbourne's foundation.