ROYAL EXHIBITION BUILDING & CARLTON GARDENS WALK Preview

Here are a few simple tips to help you use the tour.

Audio

To listen to the audio press the play arrow button under each image to hear the commentary, the text is also available to read at each stop. To move to the next stop on the tour use the swipe gesture to change to the next screen.

Map

The map is very useful to find your way on the tour and you will need to use it to find the next stop.

Locate the map symbol and tap it to find your way on the tour. You can pinch and zoom the map to orientate yourself.

If your device has GPS (global positioning system) you can tap the GPS symbol to update your location on the map.

Images

You can scroll through the images while you listen to the audio at each stop by tapping the arrow.

To make the images much larger tap the loupe symbol, this will magnify the images and you will see the images all have captions with more information.

When the images are enlarged you can use the pinch and zoom gesture to look at details closely.

List

A list of stops can be used to see all the tour's stops at once. You can tap any of these stops to go directly to that number on the tour.

The tour has been designed so that you can walk the entire length in 2 hours, or if you would like to explore a smaller section at a time you can choose a number of stops on the route.

Walking Safely

To help you enjoy the tour please carry water with you and wear appropriate clothing for the weather, including comfortable walking shoes, hat and sunscreen. As the weather can change suddenly it may be a good idea to have an umbrella or raincoat handy.

Remain aware of your surroundings and personal belongings at all times. Due to high levels of ambient noise along parts of the tour route, we recommend you use ear buds or headphones. When crossing roads, please take off headphones and use the designated pedestrian crossings.

Some pathways on the tour route may be mixed use (pedestrians and bicycles), so it is best to keep to the left-hand side of the path. Parts of the tour route may not be accessible to prams, wheelchairs or bikes, depending on footpaths. If this is the case, please seek an alternate and safe route.

Toilets

A selection of public toilets can be accessed by checking the National Public Toilet Map: http://www.toiletmap.gov.au

Getting to The Royal Exhibition Building & Carlton Gardens or Melbourne Museum to start the Tour

Public Transport Options
Plan your trip using Metlink's Journey Planner. Transport options include:

• Tram 86 or 96 to corner of Nicholson and Gertrude Streets
• Free City Circle Tram to Victoria Parade
• City loop train to Parliament Station
• Bus routes 250, 251 and 402 to Rathdowne Street
• Free City of Melbourne Tourist Shuttle Bus to stop No. 4

Cyclists

Local bicycle facilities include bike lanes on Rathdowne St and Canning St. There is also a shared pedestrian/bike path on Nicholson St. Bicycle racks on the Plaza provide ample bike parking just outside the front door.

Car Park

The Melbourne Museum undercover car park is open from 6.00am to midnight daily. Enter via Rathdowne Street or Nicholson Street.

To find out more about the Royal Exhibition Building or Melbourne Museum visit:

http://museumvictoria.com.au/reb/

http://museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/

Wominjeka Welcome, Museum Victoria acknowledges that the Boonwurrung and the Woiwurring people are the traditional owners of Melbourne and the land on which this tour takes place.

Hi, My name is Charlotte and I am the Senior Curator responsible for the Royal Exhibition Building. Join me today as we explore Melbourne's magnificent cultural gardens precinct. This tour provides an insight into the Melbourne of 130 years ago, a period of immense optimism, enthusiasm and energy, as well as revealing how the gardens and their surrounds have evolved since then.

The Victorian gold rush of the 1850s led to Melbourne rapidly developing from a scattering of wooden houses to a marvellous modern city. This period of wealth and optimism was short lived, as a major economic depression hit in the 1890s. This walk will reveal features in both the Gardens and the surrounding suburbs of Fitzroy and Carlton, highlighting the surprising range of uses the gardens and the Royal Exhibition Building have been put to over the years.

The walk begins at the Royal Exhibition Building and ends at Melbourne Museum, although you can start and finish it at any point. As you walk along the pathways through the gardens, use this tour to discover the points of interest en route.

The complete walk takes approximately one hour. The entire walk is wheelchair and pram friendly, and if you require any further information please drop in to Melbourne Museum.

Our walk begins on the Plaza between Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building.

In most great cities, there is a building that epitomises its spirit and history. In Melbourne it is undoubtedly the Royal Exhibition Building. The spectacular building stands within the formal beauty of Carlton Gardens. Together they form the first built site in Australia to be World Heritage listed.

Today, the Royal Exhibition Building flourishes as one of the world's oldest exhibition pavilions, symbolising the great 19th-century international exhibition movement which we will learn more about on the walk.

With its meticulously-restored opulent interior, expansive galleries and soaring dome, the Great Hall continues to offer a magnificent setting for trade shows, fairs and cultural and community events.

The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens were inscribed on the World Heritage list on 1 July 2004, becoming the first cultural site in Australia to achieve World Heritage listing. Today, the Royal Exhibition Building is a venue of Museum Victoria and the gardens are managed by the City of Melbourne.

Use the map to find your way to the next stop. Walk along the side of the building to the carved stonework installation close to Nicholson Street.

To find out what's on at the Royal Exhibition Building visit: http://museumvictoria.com.au/reb/whatson/

Colonial Square is an installation of carved stonework from the former Colonial Mutual Life building. The building was originally constructed for the Equitable Life Company, an American insurer, and was sold to Colonial Mutual in 1923. Built in 1896 on the north-west corner of Collins and Elizabeth Streets in Melbourne, it was demolished in 1960. Many of Marvellous Melbourne’s grand buildings have not survived. These fragments preserve details of the Renaissance revival architectural style that was popular in Melbourne during the late nineteenth century.

To continue the walk, cross safely near the boom gates. The Westgarth Fountain is close to Nicholson Street.

Featuring kangaroos smoothly carved in Aberdeen granite, this fountain was a gift to the people of Melbourne by pioneer settler William Westgarth in 1888. It was designed to cater for all passers-by, with water spouts for people at the top, troughs for horses in the middle and one for dogs at the base. A businessman, writer and politician, Westgarth lived in Melbourne between 1840 – 1857. He returned to the colony in 1888 especially to participate in the opening ceremony of the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition, an event that celebrated Australia’s 100 years of European settlement.

From this location you can see the next three stops on the tour. The first - Royal Terrace - is on the other side of Nicholson Street.

Just over the road on Nicholson Street is Royal Terrace, one of Melbourne’s finest examples of Regency-style terrace housing. This row of ten two-storey dwellings, built between 1853 and 1858, is one of the oldest and largest terraces in Victoria. Merchant John Bryant developed the block, and his family retained ownership until 1955.

Now turn around and face the Royal Exhibition Building for the next stop.

Joseph Reed, who designed the Exhibition Building in 1879, was possibly the most influential Victorian-era architect in Melbourne. His other grand buildings include Trades Hall, the State Library and the Melbourne Town Hall. Builder David Mitchell was also a major figure in the city’s development: his other projects included the construction of Customs House, now the Immigration Museum, the Scots Church and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

Mitchell's working drawings of Reed's designs can be viewed in the image gallery for this stop. As they illustrate, the detailing on the building is very close to Mitchells' finely drawn designs.

Head toward the green French Fountain in the centre of the Eastern Forecourt to continue. Please walk safely and please be aware of any vehicles that are using this circular driveway.

The circular forecourt at the eastern end of the Royal Exhibition Building contains a bronze fountain featuring winged children riding dolphins. The fountain, made by an unknown French sculptor, was exhibited in the fernery at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition. The fountain was purchased by the Trustees of the Exhibition Building and erected here at the close of the Exhibition in 1881.

From this location you can see the next stop of the tour, the stone Obelisk to the left of the Royal Exhibition Building.

The Obelisk of Victorian Sandstone was erected by John Woods in 1881 as a protest against the use of New South Wales sandstone to extend Parliament House on Spring Street. Woods, a member of the Victorian Parliament from 1859 until his death in 1892, wanted to show that the stone from his electorate of Stawell was just as durable.

Safely cross the Southern Drive to the garden path. Turn to your left and walk to the end of the path which is slightly elevated from Nicholson Street.

Prior to the settlement of Melbourne in 1835, these gardens and surrounding areas were used by the Kulin Nation. Between 1920 and 1950, this Moreton Bay fig tree closest to Nicholson Street, became the site of regular gatherings at which the campaign for social justice was addressed. The importance of the site to Victoria's First Peoples continues into the 21st century.

You can learn more about the peoples of the Kulin Nation in the 'First Peoples' Exhibition, which is located at the Bunjilaka Cultural Centre within Melbourne Museum.

The next location is on the opposite side of Nicholson Street, but is best seen on this side of the road.

In the red brick building on the corner of Gertrude and Nicholson Streets, heavy machinery turned underground cables that pulled cable trams around the city. Cable trams ferried visitors to the 1888 Centennial International Exhibition from the city centre. The system endured for over fifty years and this was the last engine house to remain in service, closing on 23 October 1940.

Walk back into the gardens and head 50 metres along the path that runs parallel to Nicholson Street. The next stop is on the opposite side of Nicholson Street, but is best viewed from this side of the road.

On the opposite side of Nicholson Street is Osborne House, the oldest documented dwelling in Fitzroy. The central portion of this two-storey, Regency-style townhouse was built for pastoralist John McPherson in 1850. In 1887, the three-storey wings and wrap-around verandas were added. The house has operated as a boarding house since 1888, making it one of the oldest boarding houses in Victoria.

Turn around from here so that the lake is in view. Our tour continues here.

Formerly a small quarry, this is one of two pools in the south gardens created for the 1880 Exhibition. In the right weather conditions, it is possible to see the building reflected in the water. The lake was originally much larger than it is today; rides in a gondola were available during the 1888 Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition.

Take the pathway that intersects the garden. Walk along it to continue the tour.

You’ll notice many of the trees have circular metal bands or tree guards. These are to limit the damage to trees from the native Brush Tailed Possum which live in the gardens. The possums, which are found in many parts of Australia, have readily adapted to urban living.

As you walk through the gardens, you will cross a number of the axial paths radiating from the fountain. These join a series of serpentine pathways around the garden’s perimeter, remnants of Edward LaTrobe Bateman's layout of the 1850s. Architect Joseph Reed is credited with the current garden design, but the layout and planting was developed by well-known Melbourne horticulturalist William Sangster.

William Sangster’s avenue planting style is informal, with alternating tree species. Here he mixed oaks and hoop pines. The plantings at this southern end of the gardens are dominated by European tree species, most commonly Oak, Elm and Plane trees.

The axial path intersects the next stop, the Grand Allée, a straight avenue of two paths that run from Victoria Parade at the end of the gardens to the southern façade of the Royal Exhibition Building. Turn right at this point, and wander up the Grand Allée.

Leading from Victoria Street to the Exhibition Building’s southern entrance, this avenue of plane trees (Platanus sp.) imitated the ceremonial walk at the Royal Palace of Versailles in France and produces a landscape effect possibly unique in Australia. During the depression years of the 1930s, a homeless men’s shelter was erected in the centre of the avenue, a respite for those living in the nearby rooming houses.

The aesthetic significance of the Carlton Gardens lies in its embodiment of the 19th-century Gardenesque style. This includes parterre (formal or symmetrically-placed) garden beds, significant avenues such as the southern carriage drive and the Grand Allée, the path system, specimen and clusters of trees, two small lakes and three fountains. The formal, ornamental palace garden, which was the context for the Great Hall of the 'Palace of Industry', is substantially intact, something that makes this a unique garden in Melbourne's History.

Walk up the Grand Allée to the Hochgurtel Fountain.

At the top of the Grand Allée is the Hochgurtel Fountain, taking its name from the designer who won the competition to build it for the 1880 Exhibition. Josef Hochgurtel had trained in Germany before coming to Melbourne in search of commissions. His design includes symbols of trade, commerce, industry, science and art: key themes at the Melbourne International Exhibition, you can see these designs on the underside of each tier of the fountain.

You might like to take a moment to promenade around the fountain, as visitors to the gardens did in the 1880s, while exploring the photos for the next stop.

The Royal Exhibition Building was erected as a ‘Palace of Industry’. Its huge temporary halls housed exhibits from more than 30 nations. Pianos, typewriters, lawn mowers, electric lights, carriages and decorative home wares were all on display. The 1880 Exhibition attracted over 1.3 million visitors. When one considers the population of Melbourne at the time was 280,000 it is clear the Exhibition was a massive event in the social and cultural life of Melbourne.

On 1 August 1888, the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition - commemorating 100 years of European settlement of Australia - opened with great fanfare. Temporary annexing for the Centennial International Exhibition stretched from Nicholson to Rathdowne Streets, and all the way north to Carlton Street.

Although 2 million visitors travelled to the exhibition, many taking advantage of the newly installed cable tram along Nicholson Street, the exhibition was deemed a financial failure as it cost the colony £238,000 (that’s close to 20 million dollars!).

Thanks to the installation of electric lighting, the 1888 exhibition offered night-time viewing ,the first in the world to do so.

Standing with the Hochgurtel Fountain behind you, take the diagonal path to your right. Walk along this path until you come to a second lake.

There are two lakes in the gardens, and this smaller ornamental lake was the inspiration for the poem ‘The Poor Shall Feed The Birds’, by Australian poet John Shaw Neilson. While working in the Exhibition Annexes during the 1920s he wrote to a friend:

‘it is always the poor people who feed the birds. No well dressed people come – I suppose they are away motoring or entertaining their friends.’

The next stop on the tour is the Royal Society of Victoria Building which can be seen near the pedestrian lights on the corner of Rathdowne Street and Victoria Parade.

On the opposite corner of Victoria Parade and Rathdowne Street is The Royal Society of Victoria building, designed by Joseph Reed in 1859. The Royal Society initiated the explorations of Burke and Wills to northern Australia, and expeditions to Antarctica.

Turn around and walk up the path that runs parallel to Rathdowne Street until you reach a drinking fountain on your left. The next stop, the Parterre Flower Beds, run alongside the path to your right.

An elaborate series of parterre garden beds originally ran alongside the southern drive of the building. Removed in the 1920’s, the parterre layout was reconstructed by the City of Melbourne in 2008 to William Sangster’s original design, though now the beds are planted with drought tolerant species.

To learn more about the restoration of the parterre gardens beds and surounds watch: http://museumvictoria.com.au/reb/videos/digging-up-the-past/

Return to the Rathdowne Street end of the Parterre Flower Beds, turn right, safely cross the Southern Drive, and walk ahead to the entrance of the Western Forecourt.

The Exhibition Building was the setting for the opening of the first Federal parliament on 9 May 1901. Over 12,000 people attended the event in what was at the time Australia’s largest building. On 3 September 1901, the new Australian flag was unveiled for the first time and flown from the dome of the Exhibition Building. Federal Parliament took over Victoria’s Parliament House on Spring Street, so Victoria’s state parliament sat in the now demolished Western Annexe until 1927.

Museum Victoria continues to fly the Australian national flag from the dome of the Exhibition Building. On the flagpoles around the building it flies other official Australian flags including the Australian Aboriginal Flag (a black band above a red band with a yellow-gold disc at its centre) and the Torres Straight Islander Flag (a blue panel with a white five-pointed star under a white dhari (dancer's headdress) all framed by two thin black lines and two green panels).

Walk into the centre of the circular garden of the Western Forecourt.

In 1880 the Western Forecourt featured a circular bed and footings for a kiosk. A temporary annexe housing the armament court was built over the garden in 1888 for the Centennial International Exhibition. Following the annexe’s removal in 1889, a circular bed was reinstated. In the 1950s the whole site was covered in asphalt to provide parking for people working on or visiting the site. Museum Victoria restored the western forecourt to its original 1880 design in 2011.

The next stop is at this same location.

In 2009, Museum Victoria, in collaboration with a number of partners, undertook a major three-phase, sustainable conservation project to reinstate the1880 garden layout of the western forecourt of the Royal Exhibition Building. The project began with an archaeological investigation in late 2009, was followed by the installation of an underground tank with a storage capacity of 1.35 million litres in 2010, and then the garden was reconstructed.

The western forecourt, which has been an asphalt car park since the 1950s, was an integral part of the ‘palace garden’ designed by Joseph Reed and William Sangster for the Melbourne International Exhibition, 1880-1881. The western forecourt featured a carriageway around a circular garden. The garden was allocated to Germany at the Melbourne International Exhibition, and is consequently known as the ‘German Garden’.

The archaeological investigation provided significant findings that informed the design of the new garden. Evidence was found of changes to the site over time, including serpentine paths from thepre-1879 layout, footings for a kiosk from the 1880 circular garden, the temporar yarmament court from the 1888 Centennial International Exhibition, and a plinth and other features from the garden post-1889. The 1566 artefacts recovered from the excavation have been accessioned into the museum’s collections. You can see those findshere: http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/3541/royal-exhibition-building-western-forecourt-col...

The second phase of the project saw the installation of a giant concrete tank and kilometers of pipes. The tank is filled with water harvested from the roof of the Royal Exhibition Building and surrounding areas and is used on the gardens and to feed the fountains and lakes.

The final phase of the project, completed in 2011, saw the western forecourt restored to its 1880 design.

Walk along the Rathdowne Street side of the circular garden, picking up the path that takes you past a spectacular Gum Tree and behind the entrance to the car park. Just after a ground level fountain, turn left onto a pathway that takes you to Rathdowne Street. The next stop is on the opposite side of the road, but is best viewed from Carlton Gardens.

As you are walking you will notice the imposing red brick building on the other side of Rathdowne Street. This is the Sacred Heart Church, one of the finest ‘full blown’ Baroque churches in Victoria. Designed by Melbourne firm Reed, Smart & Tappin in 1897, it was completed in 1910. The nearby Presbytery, built in 1880, is another of Joseph Reed’s designs.

Walk back to the main pathway. Turn left and walk along the path running parallel to Rathdowne Street.

Adjacent to the Sacred Heart Church is Carlton Gardens Primary School, built in 1883-84 in the Gothic Revival Style. In the first decade of the 20th century, children from this and other local Carlton primary schools planted pepper trees (Schinus molle) in the Gardens for Arbor Day, an annual celebration observed in Victoria since 1889.

The next stop on the tour can be seen if you turn and look toward the Children's Playground in the Gardens.

A lake, part of Clement Hodginson’s 1870’s design for the north gardens, once occupied the site of this playground. It survived the rearrangement of the gardens for the 1880 and 1888 Exhibitions, but was later paved to form a wading pool, then drained to make way for the Children’s Traffic School in the 1960s. The current playground was installed as part of the construction of Melbourne Museum in 1999.

With the playground in front of you, turn left, and walk along the path to the red brick cottage at the corner of the Gardens.

On your right you’ll pass some of the last remaining sections of temporary garden fencing used throughout the gardens to keep visitors to the paths in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Built in 1891, the cottage was first occupied by John Guilfoyle, curator of parks and gardens in the City of Melbourne from 1892 to 1909. In addition to Carlton Gardens, Guilfoyle had responsibility for the Flagstaff and Fitzroy gardens. The curator's cottage still houses garden staff today.

This is the only part of the gardens where visitors can see the original palisade fencing that marked the perimeter of the gardens. Entrance gates and fence posts like those on the corner of Rathdowne and Carlton Streets, were located on each corner of the gardens, and at the entrance to the eastern and western forecourts.

On the north boundary of the cottage in Carlton Street is a remnant of the elaborate fence and gates which were installed around the whole of the gardens for the 1880 Exhibition. It was mounted on bluestone which can still be seen around the perimeter of the Gardens. The cast iron was removed in the 1920s.

Follow the original fencing around the side of the cottage, turning right on Carlton Street. The next stop is on the other side of the road, but is best viewed from here.

On the northern side of Carlton Street is Gordon Terrace, built between 1883 and1885 for slate merchant John Gordon. With its cast iron veranda and fence, this set of six dwellings is typical of boom-style domestic architecture of the 1880s.

The next stop can be seen to your right as you continue walking along Carlton Street.

This avenue runs near the northern boundary of the temporary annexes built for the 1888 Centennial International Exhibition. These elms were probably planted in the 1870s and are the oldest trees in the gardens. Once a common tree in Melbourne, elms are now rare world-wide due to the effects of Dutch Elm Disease, which devastated elm tree populations in Europe and America in the 1970s.

Half way down Carlton Street on your right is a path back into Carlton Gardens. Enter the gardens here, then take the first path to your left. Walk to the end of this pathway, then turn right onto a path that runs parallel with Nicholson street. The next stop is just a few metres on your right.

You will notice the tennis courts that were built in 1924 to provide for recreational activity in the gardens, are still very much in use today. These facilities are a reminder of how the gardens were used during the twentieth century, when a wide range of facilities existed within the parklands, including an aquarium, an oval, and a migrant reception centre.

Continue walking along the pathway that runs parallel to Nicholson Street for about 50 metres. The next two stops are on the other side of the road, but are best viewed from here.

Here you can see another grand Victorian mansion, No 122 Nicholson Street. Built in plain sandstone and brick in 1862 by John Denny, it was refaced with its flamboyant rendered facade during the boom years of the 1880s.

Further up on Nicholson Street is the impressive sandstone Ursula Frayne Memorial Chapel. It is part of the Academy of Mary Immaculate and Convent of Mercy Catholic girls’ secondary college. The Chapel, built between 1887 and 1890, is a rare example of an intact convent chapel in the geometric French gothic style.

Clara Mary Frayne was born in Dublin in 1816. She became a professed Sister of Mercy in 1837, taking the name Ursula. In 1845 she and five other Sisters of Mercy sailed to Western Australia with Bishop John Brady, to staff a recently constructed school. Because the catholic population in Perth was small, when the school opened in 1846 it only had one pupil, but by year’s end had 100 children attending its classes. In 1849, Mother Ursula opened the first secondary school in Western Australia.

In 1857 Mother Ursula accepted Bishop James Goold’s invitation to establish a foundation in Victoria. The site on Nicholson Street was selected and a convent and school for day girls and boarders built over a number of years. The Sisters of Mercy were the first teaching nuns in Victoria.

Mother Ursula Frayne died in 1885. The Gothic chapel was built in her memory, and her remains are buried in a vault in the chapel under a Celtic cross.

Continue walking up the path to the plaza between Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Building where you started this tour.

Opened in Carlton Gardens in 2000, Melbourne Museum continues the tradition of exhibitions on the Carlton Garden site. Designed by Denton Corker Marshall, the contemporary design takes a number of references from the Royal Exhibition Building, including the axial composition of its roof.

Melbourne Museum is the largest museum complex in the southern hemisphere. Using innovative technology and interpretative techniques, the museum’s eight galleries cover the natural and physical sciences, history and technology, and indigenous cultures in new and captivating ways.

Both The Melbourne Story gallery, the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre and new First Peoples Exhibition provide opportunities to explore the unique and evolving tale of our city in more detail.

You have now completed the tour I hope you have enjoyed walking around the Carlton Gardens with me.

1850s - Area for Carlton Gardens set aside for Public Purposes.

1856 - Edward La Trobe Bateman created the first landscape scheme.

1873 - Major works in Gardens by Clement Hodgkinson, Inspector General of Parks and Gardens.

1878 - Government chooses Carlton Gardens for purpose built exhibition building.

1878 - Architects Reed and Barnes win design competition for the new Exhibition Building.

1880 - Melbourne International Exhibition, attracts 1.3 million visitors.

1882 - Temporary Annexes removed and northern gardens re-landscaped.

1885 - The Aquarium opens in the Eastern Annexe.

1888 - The Centennial International Exhibition attracts two million visitors, but operates at a loss.

1890s - Northern gardens re-landscaped and new curator’s cottage built.

1901 - The first Australian Federal Parliament is opened on 9 May.

1901 - Victorian Parliament sits in the Western Annexe until 1927.

1912 - The first Motor Show is held in the building.

1919 - A temporary hospital is established in the building to cope with the Influenza Pandemic (otherwise known as the Spanish Flu).

1922 - The Australian War Memorial Museum (later to become the Australian War Memorial) opens in the Eastern Annexe.

1930 - At the height of the depression, Sidney Myer provides a free Christmas Day dinner for 11,000 people.

1930s - Thousands of students sit for school and university examinations in the Great Hall. University examinations continue to be held in the Great Hall.

1941 - The RAAF School of Technical Training occupies the building until 1946.

1948 - After a media campaign a Melbourne City Councillor proposes that the building should be demolished. The proposal is defeated.

1952 - The Royale Ballroom opens and becomes a popular meeting spot until its demolition in 1979.

1953 - The Aquarium is destroyed by fire; most of the exhibits are destroyed.

1956 - Olympic weight lifting, basketball and wrestling are held in an annexe built on the site of the old aquarium.

1980 - The building is re-named the ‘Royal Exhibition Building’ in its centenary year during a visit by Princess Alexandra.

1985 - The building’s interior is restored to the decorative scheme of 1901 (completed 1995).

2004 - The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens is added to the World Heritage List and the National Heritage List.

2011 - Following a two year restoration project, the western forecourt is reopened to the public.

Discover the history and beauty of the interior of this magnificently restored building, on a guided tour.

Tours are held most days at 2pm, subject to availability. Tours may not run when the building is in use for certain events and exhibitions.

Built in 1879 for Melbourne’s first International Exhibition, the building was chosen as the venue for the opening of the first Commonwealth Parliament of Australia on 9 May 1901, and recently became Australia’s first World Heritage Listed building.

The display at the Royal Exhibition Building interprets the history of the building from its construction in 1879 and Federation in 1901 to its function today. Major changes, key events and people feature on the 15 display panels alongside an interactive screen with beautiful historical images and film footage that highlight the grandeur of the building.

Experience the lives, stories and affections of millions of people that have contributed to this national icon, Museum Victoria’s largest collection object.

For more information about the tour call 13 11 02 or visit Royal Exhibition Building Tours.