Melbourne: first impressions

We arrived in Melbourne on the night of June 26, 2023, after our three-day Great Ocean Road trip. Founded in 1835 with a current population of about 5 million, Melbourne is the capital of Australia’s southeastern state of Victoria. The city extends along the Yarra River towards the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges to the east.

Melbourne has been the capital of Victoria since 1851, and it grew rapidly and became very wealthy during the Victorian gold rush from 1851 till the late 1860s. The city also served as the first capital of the Australian commonwealth (1901–27), until the newly established city of Canberra became Australia’s current capital. Second in size to and a rival of Sydney, Melbourne is a center of industry, commerce, and finance and the home of several universities.

We took a walking tour of Melbourne on June 27 that started at the State Library of Victoria, Victoria’s largest public research and reference library, built in 1856. We would return later to go inside; you can see some interior pictures in another blog post.

Below is the site of the Former (or Old) Magistrates’ Court, which operated in this building from 1911 to 1994. (The building is now part of the campus of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.) The famous (or infamous) Australian “bushranger” or outlaw Ned Kelly was sentenced to death here in 1880. Kelly  was a kind of Robin Hood figure who murdered three policemen. More on him in other blog posts.

Below is the Old Melbourne Gaol, where the Australian “bushranger,” outlaw, and folk hero Ned Kelly was hanged in 1880.

Below is a monument to commemorate the 19th-century Victorian movement for an eight-hour day: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what you will.” Ridiculous that in 2023 many people—probably most people—still have to work longer than eight hours a day.

Speaking of the labor movement, below is the Victorian Trades Hall, which opened in 1859. “Built by workers as an organising place for the labour movement in Melbourne, and as a medium to educate workers and their families,” it is reportedly the world’s oldest trade union building. It is also the birthplace of the Victorian Labor Party, which was in power when we visited.

Below is an example of some 19th-century Victorian architecture in Melbourne.

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And some very modern, futuristic architecture, the Shangri-La Melbourne luxury hotel:

Below is Melbourne’s Carlton Gardens, north of the city’s Central Business District. Our walking tour guide Lachlan is in the green jacket.

Eventually our walking tour brought us to the Parliament House, meeting place of the Parliament of Victoria. Built in stages between 1856 and 1930, the Parliament House has a facade of high steps and big columns that reminded me a little of the US Supreme Court building. Among the flags at the top of the building is the Australian Aboriginal Flag, representing Aboriginal Australians.

 Melbourne’s Chinatown (located in the Central Business District) was established in the 1850s during the Victorian gold rush. The gold rush attracted immigrants from around the world, including tens of thousands of Chinese prospectors.

No walking tour of Melbourne would be complete without a look at the street art that is ubiquitous in the city.

The Royal Arcade, opened in 1870, is a historic shopping arcade located in the city’s Central Business District.

Large carved figures of Gog and Magog flank the Royal Arcade’s southern entry. (In the Hebrew Bible, Gog is a prophesied invader of Israel, and Magog is the land from which he comes; see Ezekiel chapters 38–39. Apparently these figures are based on similar ones in London's Guildhall.)

The Flinders Street Station, lying between the southern edge of the Central Business District and the Yarra River, is Melbourne’s main suburban railway station and gateway for the more-than-a-million commuters who pass through the station every day. The building dates back to the early 1900s. When Melbournians say they’ll meet you “under the clocks,” they mean the row of clocks at the station’s entrance.

Panoramic photo of the Melbourne skyline and the Yarra River: