Can't remember if I mentioned that I'm sitting in on a lecture course at Melbourne Uni called "Marvellous Melbourne: A Cultural History." So far I've attended two lectures, neither particularly exciting (perhaps I've got American expectations that lectures be exciting or at least entertaining), but it is certainly nice to be learning more about the city! The main thing so far is how recently it all happened, this history: Melbourne went through three buildings and rebuildings in the 19th century: the founding, 1830s-40s; establishment of civic institutions and grand building with gold money, 1850s-60s; then, after an economic downturn, the "marvellous Melbourne" of the 1880s, when the city put on not just one but two international exhibitions. These two pictures show
Melbourne in 1901, when Federation gave Australia something like independence. The first looks like the Kremlin but is in fact Flinders Street Station. The second is the Queen's Gate, one of
nine gates put up throughout the city (including a Chinese gate draped in silk, and a German gate). A statue of Victoria presides over the intersection of Collins and Russell St. The actual Victoria, alas, died at the same time as Federation, so celebrations were muted.
Can't remember if I mentioned that I'm sitting in on a lecture course at Melbourne Uni called "Marvellous Melbourne: A Cultural History." So far I've attended two lectures, neither particularly exciting (perhaps I've got American expectations that lectures be exciting or at least entertaining), but it is certainly nice to be learning more about the city! The main thing so far is how recently it all happened, this history: Melbourne went through three buildings and rebuildings in the 19th century: the founding, 1830s-40s; establishment of civic institutions and grand building with gold money, 1850s-60s; then, after an economic downturn, the "marvellous Melbourne" of the 1880s, when the city put on not just one but two international exhibitions. These two pictures show 
Melbourne in 1901, when Federation gave Australia something like independence. The first looks like the Kremlin but is in fact Flinders Street Station. The second is the Queen's Gate, one of nine gates put up throughout the city (including a Chinese gate draped in silk, and a German gate). A statue of Victoria presides over the intersection of Collins and Russell St. The actual Victoria, alas, died at the same time as Federation, so celebrations were muted.