SERIES 36 | Episode 16
Garden Show Special
We’re at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building, a site of many major milestones in Australia’s relatively short national history.
However the site has been significant for millennia before that; local Wurundjeri Elders say the area was an important meeting place for clans long before it was chosen as the location for the exhibition building in 1879.
About 45 years after Melbourne was founded, the young colony of Victoria wanted to show the world how well it was going, so it hosted a grand 1880 international exhibition in 1880. This elevated site was chosen for the new building, and it did so well it was used for a second international exhibition in 1888. It was designed by prolific architect Joseph Reed and built by David Mitchell, the father of opera singer Dame Nellie Melba.
In 1885 Melbourne’s first Aquarium opened here, although it was destroyed by fire in 1953 and never replaced.When Australia formed a Federation in 1901, the exhibition building was the venue for the first parliament. After WWI, the exhibition buildings served as a makeshift hospital when Spanish flu threatened the nation in 1919. In the early ‘40s it was used as a barracks and training ground for troops before they left for WWII.After WWII the 30 Nissan huts on the grounds were used to house refugees and migrants moving to Australia. This continued until the 1960s.Basketball, wrestling and weight-lifting events were held here during the 1956 Olympics. Thousands of students have sat their school and university exams here, and and there have been many exhibitions of all kinds over the years. In 1980 Princess Alexandra bestowed the Royal title on the building. In 1995 the first Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was held here and, 30 years later, the show is now an institution that attracts more than 100,000 people across its five days. 2004 the Royal Exhibition Building was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List – the first built heritage site in Australia to be included.
