Never ones to miss out on any freebies, Chris and I took ourselves off to the town hall on one day and Parliament House on another for more free tours of these historic buildings that help paint a picture of Melbourne’s history.
Melbourne’s first town hall was completed in 1854, 12 years after Melbourne was officially named a town. I’m interested in these dates because it’s a reminder of how young Australian towns and cities really are - I mean, if I think of what was going on in 19th century Britain, especially up in the North with the Industrial Revolution at its peak, it just reinforces in my mind how young Melbourne is. It was when gold was found in the state of Victoria that Melbourne could really thrive as a town and it’s for this reason that its current town hall building (opened in 1870, replacing the ’old’ one) is so grand. Famous local architect Joseph Reed designed the current building as well as the Royal Exhibition Building,, the Melbourne Trades Hall and also the State Library of Victoria where Chris and I have spent a few afternoons recently researching for our upcoming trip to New Zealand (once the seventh state of Australia!)
The guide, another spritely man in his eighties, took us on a journey through Melbourne’s history by explaining to us about the mayors of the town and also it’s coming to being. It seems that no-one can come to agree on who founded the town; many believe it to be John Batman but our guide explained to us that though Batman had recommended the site as an ideal place for sheep grazing and thus a new town, he was too busy making his fortune on Tasmania to actually found the place. By the time he returned many years later, Melbourne was a thriving town, the gold rush had already begun and Batman himself was apparently a raving alcoholic riddled with debt.
Retired Rotarians and their wives made up the tour group - Chris and I
brought the average age of the group down by a few decades, that's for sure!
The town hall certainly is grand - there is a huge pipe organ which we were led to explore. One of my favourite things about this tour was that Chris and I were the only participants except for a huge group of retired Rotarians and their wives who had come for a day trip! It was wonderful to chat to this older generation of Melbournians and learn even more about the town from them. One man was an organ player himself, even having played at the Sydney Opera House: he was able to explain even more about the pipes and structure of the organ than the guide could - I never thought I would have any interest in this kind of thing if I’m honest but Chris and I did quite enjoy learning about organs on this tour!
The concert hall with it's huge organ - the largest new organ to be built
during the inter-war period in the British Empire
A few days later it was the turn of the even more grand parliament building which houses not one room that isn’t coated in gold. Our guide was born in the Czech Republic but had lived in Melbourne for over 40 years. She explained that Parliament House was the oldest Victorian building in Australia still in use as a public building. Australian parliament is apparently similar to that of ‘the motherland’ (I’ve honestly heard Britain referred to as this on more than one occasion by Ozzies and they are being completely serious!). Whereas we have the House of Lords (coated in Red), here there is the equally red Senate or the upper house - unlike with the House of Lords however, the Senate are elected using proportional representation.
Instead of the House of Commons (green), here in Australia there is the House of Representatives (named after United States' House of Representatives). There are 150 members of this House and they are elected from geographical districts, as with our British House of Commons. It was great to be able to sit in the actual houses - there really is gold everywhere, all over the walls and chandeliers! Amazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment