Down in Melbourne we visit a building that has lived all the lives one building could possibly live.

The Royal Exhibition Building has been apart of the federation, Olympic Games, and the World Heritage List, and is still a major landmark in the city today. It is also the oldest of its kind in the world still being used for its original purpose.

Before the building

So just to set the scene, prior to the white settlement of Melbourne, which is pretty much pre 1835, the gardens and surrounding areas of what would become the Royal Exhibition Building were used by the Kulin Nation. But a couple of years later in 1839, large tracts of land on the outskirts of the city were reserved as public parks, with the Carlton Gardens on an elevated site just to the north of the city.

The Build

Throughout the late 19th century, there were several great exhibitions throughout the world, with the Crystal Palace of 1851 and the Paris World’s fair of 1889 being some of the most remembered. There is one building, however, that was purpose built for the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880 and survives today for use by more modern exhibitions.

In December of 1877, a competition was announced for the design of a suitable building for Melbourne’s very own International Exhibition. 18 entries were received, and Joseph Reed of architectural firm Reed & Barnes was announced as the winner. Reed was awarded the first place premium of £300 for his round arch style and Brunelleschi influenced Dome design, after the 15th century Italian cathedral.

The foundation stone was laid in 1879 by Governor Sir George Bowen on the 19 February, as well as the redevelopment of the Carlton Gardens by Melbourne horticulturalist, William Sangster, which resulted in grand avenues, decorative fountains and parterre garden beds created to give an ornamental pleasure garden effect for the new Exhibition Building.

David Mitchell was the builder who won the tender to construct the main building. Mitchell did a pretty amazing job because the Great Hall of the Exhibition Building was the largest building in the country at the time and the tallest in Melbourne when it was built. Its base is bluestone and the brick hall has long central naves and stunted transepts with a triumphal entrance portico on each of the four sides.

According to Museums Victoria, when the building opened in 1880 it ‘epitomised the wealth, opulence, excitement, energy and spirit of “Marvellous Melbourne”’. Exhibitions for the World Fair were able to move in by May, while Melbourne was ‘basking in the wealth from the richest gold rush in the world’.

The building is set in ceremonial gardens featuring a wide avenue lined with plane trees that links the southern entrance of the Exhibition Building with the city, including Reed’s dome viewing platform which allows visitors to survey the progress of the booming city.

International Exhibitions

Together, both the 1880 and 1888 International Exhibitions attracted over 3 million visitors from across the world to Melbourne. The 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition alone attracted more than 1.3 million visitors over the eight months it was open.

For the exhibition an organ was built and installed by George Fincham from Richmond. The bellow was located in the basement and unfortunately the instrument never performed very well with it’s last concert in 1922, although it wasn’t until a while later in 1965 that it was finally removed.

The Melbourne International Exhibition Fountain was also built and installed for the 1880 exhibition. A competition was held, as they are for all great things and Josef Hochgurtel, a Cologne immigrant, and August Saupe, Josef’s colleague, were the winners with their fountain design. The fountain features young boys who illustrate innocence and the purity of youth with symbols of industry, commerce, science and art portrayed, as well as representations of Victorian flora and fauna.

When the 1880 International Exhibition opened on the 1 October, over 6000 people flocked to the main hall of the exhibition building to see the Governor, the Marquess of Normanby, open the Melbourne International Exhibition. 33 nations in all responded to the invitation to participate in the exhibition, and over 32 000 exhibits were displayed including from Great Britain, France, Germany, India, Japan, China, USA and all Australian colonies. The 30 April 1881 saw the official closure of the exhibition after having welcomed over 1.3 million people through its doors. This is in contrast to the Victorian population of just over 250 000 at the time.

Several years later in 1888, the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition was even larger than the first, with temporary annexes constructed from the building. The Centennial Exhibition opened on 1 August, commemorating 100 years of white settlement in Australia and displaying exhibits from nearly 40 nations. 1888 also saw the installation of electric lights, specifically for the Exhibition, over 96 kms of cabling were needed to light the interior and exterior of the building, meaning that 1888 was the first exhibition in the world to have night-time viewings.

The conductor of the London Royal Philharmonic society, Frederick Cowen, was brought in to oversee the musical festival of the Centennial Orchestra. Cowen had a pretty good deal with Frederick Sargood, vice-president of the Exhibition Commission, who offered to cover all expenses, and Cowen racked up an astronomical fee for the time at £5000. But Cowen was worth it, he assembled an orchestra of 73 professional musicians and a choir of 700 voices, which throughout the exhibition performed 263 concerts. Cowen eventually returned to England when the exhibition ended, but the orchestra continued to perform until 1891. So I would definitely call that a success.

The Centennial Exhibition closed on the 31 January 1889, and despite welcoming 2 million visitors through the doors, which was pretty much double the population of Victoria at the time, it was deemed a financial failure in having cost the state £238 000.

The Exhibition Building

Now, let’s explore the actual building itself. The building is kind of in a wonky cross shape, with two elongated rectangular wings extending to the east and the west making up the body of the cross. A transept to the north makes up one arm, and a truncated transept to the south makes up the other, slightly shorter arm. When it was built in 1880, the original building had green joinery on the windows and doors and unpainted rendered walls. But the effects of the trams, horse-drawn traffic and industrial pollution took it’s toll on the exterior and gradually discoloured the surface of the building. This meant that the whole building was able to be painted for the first time in 1888, as well as redoing the interior colour scheme for the Centennial Exhibition and the building continued to be repainted throughout the 20th century.

It was only a couple of years later in 1901, that the interior was again redecorated for the first Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. The decorating was managed by John Ross Anderson who was also known for designing the interior of the pretty cool ANZ ‘Gothic’ Bank in Collins Street. Fortunately, he chose a more appropriate scheme and the great dome was repainted to represent the sky with four mottos written underneath suitable for a new nation. A frieze shows the products of agriculture as well as other features representing the wealth of the new Australian nation, such as arches, women draped in costumes and plaster heads.

Carlton Gardens

The entire land block bounded by Victoria, Rathdowne, Carlton and Nicholson streets was originally designated to be a park by the Victorian Parliament in 1878. The Carlton Gardens are separated into two parts, the axial garden layout in the south, and the northern garden, which was landscaped after the close of the two great 19th century exhibitions to the north.

Throughout the run of the two International Exhibitions, the southern part of the garden became a pleasure garden with attractions. Known as the South Carlton Gardens, and the land remains as Sangster designed it with the southern entrance facing the city. A 24-metre wide avenue provides a ceremonial-esque approach with 2 other paths forming a radiating axis from the Westgarth Fountain, which was added in 1888. A level promenade was created along the front of the building with a semi-circular space at its centre for the Orange Fountain.

In the northern part of the gardens, temporary annexes were put up during the 1880 exhibition. The northern gardens were designed to become a complementary landscape once the temporary annexes were removed. Part of the north garden, specifically the main east-west path and some of the trees are remnants of the 1880 layout, and perhaps even earlier of the 1855, La Trobe Batman layout. The western forecourt of the building featured a circular drive and garden that was partly covered in 1888 by another temporary annexe built for the exhibition. The circular bed was reinstated when the exhibition closed in 1889, and remained largely intact until the 1950s when the whole site was covered over with asphalt.

The aesthetic significance of the Carlton Gardens lies in its 19th century layout. Including parterre or symmetrically-placed garden beds, significant avenues, a path system, clusters of trees, two small lakes and three fountains. The overall formal, ornamental palace garden is still relatively intact.

Big Big Changes

Throughout the 1880 International Exhibition, two temporary annexes stood to its east and west. And were even used as machinery halls during the 1888 Exhibition. In between the exhibitions, in 1885, a ‘World of Wonders’ was put on in the eastern annexe, where the displays ranged from natural history specimens, antiquities, fine arts, suits of armour worn by the Kelly Gang, a cyclorama, a children’s theatre, a planetarium, and an aquarium featuring two large seal ponds, penguins, turtles and even some crocodiles. Sadly the complex was destroyed by fire in 1953. And the exhibition oval was a very popular venue for early bicycle races, with many tournaments held and sponsored by the Australian Native Association.

When the government of newly formed Australia was looking for a place for parliament to sit, they naturally leant towards the buildings already constructed. And their eye fell on the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, where the first Commonwealth Parliament of Australia was held on 9 May 1901. 12 000 guests filled the building to witness the opening of the first federal parliament by the Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V). There were even 10 days of festivities planned to mark the occasion and honour the royal visitors. Once the new federal parliament was formed, they kicked the Victorian state parliament out and took over the State Parliament Building on Spring Street. Those bastards. So the poor State Parliament of Victoria had to move into the western annexe of the Exhibition Building, which was converted into rooms and offices just for them. They were there for over 20 years until 1927, when the federal parliament, finally, moved up to the newly built capital of Canberra.

1919 was a tough year for many as it heralded the spread of the Spanish flu. And to combat the numbers of the sick, the Exhibition Building was converted into a makeshift hospital with the morgue in the basement. The building housed 500 beds, and as the pandemic grew, the hospital did as well to accommodate 2000 patients. In an attempt to make the hospital less ‘draughty and cheerless’, nurses called on the public for donations of plants and flowers, with electric lights slung from wires hung above each bed.

As the Spanish flu finally subsided, a new decade brought in by 1920, and the start of a string of royal visitors saw the Prince of Wales (future Edward VIII) attend a People’s Day at the building. A similar event was held for the Duke and Duchess of York (or George VI and Queen Elizabeth) in 1927, with the Duchess returning in 1958 with her new title of Queen Mother. It was in 1954, that a new Queen Elizabeth and her consort Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, attended a Lord Mayor’s Ball in the Royal Ballroom and a state reception in the Exhibition Building. As well as a gala reception in 1970, for the royal family who were, this time, accompanied by a young Prince Charles and Princess Anne. 1981 also saw a revisit to the Exhibition Building from the Queen for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The Australian War Memorial Museum was installed in the eastern annexe in 1921. 80 000 visitors came to see the exhibition of photographs on display. And on ANZAC Day 1922, a more permanent display of military relics and dioramas of battle scenes opened in the newly renamed Australian War Memorial Museum. This time 800 000 people visited the display before its relocation to Sydney in 1925, and then again to its permanent location of Canberra in the 1930s.

When the State Parliament were finally able to move back home to the State Parliament Building, the western annexe was taken over by the Country Roads Board in 1927. Who was shortly joined by the Motor Registration Branch in 1932 and the Transport Regulation Board in 1934. Now with three large departments working out of one annexe the conditions started to become rather cramped for roughly 30 years, until new offices were found in the 1960s. Throughout their stay, the three branch’s made themselves at home, by making the courtyard on Rathdowne Street a vehicle inspection area, and building a temporary weigh-bridge behind the annexe.

The Exhibition Building also did its part throughout the war, with the RAF occupying the building from March 1941 to December 1945. At the time it was the number one School of Technical Training with 2000 personnel camped on the floors of the Great Hall. The building also accommodated the shower block, a recreation room, a kitchen, hospital, laundry block and store room.

In 1948, the Building narrowly avoided being demolished when the Members of the Melbourne City Council put the proposal forward to replace the building with government offices. The motion was defeated and the next year, in 1949, the Exhibition Trustees leased the oval at the rear of the Building to the Commonwealth Government, in order to establish a migrant reception centre. The centre was made up of 29 bungalows over 1.4 hectares, they were freezing in winter and boiling in summer, but they did provide temporary accommodation for thousands of recent British arrivals. The centre ended up closing between 1961 and 1962.

In the eastern annexe, a Royal Ballroom opened in 1952, it had two air-conditioned ballrooms that were decorated in shades of rose. And at its peak it hosted 250 functions a year. 1968 saw the ballroom close for renovation, but unfortunately it never reopened and was eventually demolished in 1979.

For the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the circular garden to the west of the building was asphalted over as well as the area to the north for a car park. Even though these changes were made to the landscape, the original layout of the gardens remained unchanged. The building then went on to host competitions in weightlifting, boxing, fencing, the pentathlon and basketball.

The first Hot Rod Show at the Exhibition Building was in 1965. This show has since become the longest running continuous event housed at the building.

The western annexe was demolished throughout the 1960s and the eastern annexe was replaced with a very modern-looking mirror-fronted Convention Centre in 1979. This new addition was taken over by the Melbourne Museum in the 1990s.

In 1980, Princess Alexandra, the Queen’s cousin, gave the Exhibition Building its ‘Royal’ title and a program of restoration works began.

There was a big restoration effort in 1992, where it was discovered that the ceiling had been painted over four times and parts of the ground floor’s walls had over 25 layers of paint. Of the three major decoration schemes known to have inhabited the Royal Exhibition Building, it was decided that because the 1901 murals were the most intact that the 1901 scheme would be chosen for a major conservation restoration project. The project was finally completed in 2014 and is what you see when you enter the building today.

1995 was honoured with the largest Southern Hemisphere attraction in the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show. Over 100 000 visitors went through the gates in just 5 days.

1 July 2004 was an exciting day for the building and the country. This was the day that the building was listed on the World Heritage List, and is the first Australian building to do so. The list includes sites that exhibit

‘an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on development in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design’.

The building was also added the Australian National Heritage List on 20 July 2004. This list recognises and protects our most valued natural, Indigenous and historic heritage sites. So basically, the Royal Exhibition Building can never be torn down, or forgotten.

In October 2009, Museum Victoria and a number of other partners decided that a major project to reconstruct the 1880 garden layout of the western forecourt was in order. This began a massive archaeological site that was funded by a $5.3 million grant from the Victorian government. Many fascinating finds were had, too many to list here, but there are some cool resources that you can check out that are listed on our website. The reconstruction project was completed in February 2011.

A couple of years later in 2015, the Building was reimagined for White Night, which is basically the Melbourne version of Vivid in Sydney, but with a Melburnian twist to it. White Night is an annual event that projects illuminations onto the facades of buildings, with a definitive party atmosphere about the whole thing.

Currently, as in at the time of the making of this episode, the building is undergoing restoration work with the hope to restore the panoramic viewing platform around the dome. The Royal Exhibition Building Protection and Promotion Project started construction in 2018, with the expected completion to be in early 2020. BUT with the unexpected outbreak of Covid-19, all work has been put on hold, and unfortunately the reveal has had to be delayed.

As was done in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1919, the Royal Exhibition Building could once again step up to house the sick. This is just a back-up plan for now, as thankfully our hospitals are managing and are not overrun.

Today

Today the Carlton Gardens is made up of three parcels of Crown Land in the City of Melbourne. Two are Crown Land Reserves for Public Recreations and the modern Carlton Gardens, and one is dedicated to the Exhibition Building and the relatively new Melbourne Museum. The formal part of the Carlton Gardens, with its tree-lined pathways, fountains and lakes, is an integral part of the overall site design and is characteristic of exhibition buildings of the period.

Of all the exhibition buildings that popped up throughout the age of the World Fairs, the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne is the only International Exhibition Place of Industry that has its original garden setting and purpose relatively intact.

A true landmark of Melbourne, dozens of trade fairs and public expos are still held at the site each year, including bazaars, exhibitions, international meetings, community events, art shows, concerts, dog and cat shows and university exams. You can even drop by for a daily tour of the grounds and some general history.

Today Museum Victoria is responsible for the day-to-day management of the property in conjunction with the City of Melbourne Council which manages the Carlton Gardens.

The Royal Exhibition Building has had an extremely colourful life. I wasn’t able to cover everything here, so feel free to go and do your own research and reading. Let me know what you discover that wasn’t included in this episode. I’d love to hear from you.

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