Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne too late to really get any information about what to do in Melbourne. I pretty much wandered around near the train station in search of a place to stay until I stumbled on a hostel. I hadn't done much thinking on where I would stay, unfortunately (but not surprisingly), so I had to wander around.

The next morning, I waited for the hostel's travel office to open and went in to find out about the local amazing area, the Great Ocean Road. There are a number of tours available to check out this coastal tourist area. It was easy enough to book myself a tour of the area, but it was a matter of choosing how best to experience the area. I settled on a two-day tour with a local company. More on that later. It was leaving the following day, so I had all of this day to figure out Melbourne.

One of the nice things about Melbourne is that there is a free tram, and a free bus, to take visitors around the central district of Melbourne. This is where most of the historical stuff about Melbourne is located. I headed out on the tram. One of the stops for the tram was conveniently located practically right outside the hostel. The total length of the tram's route is probably 3 or 4 kilometers. As the tram travels its route, a running commentary about the history and sights around each stop plays on the speakers inside the tram. The commentary is really quite interesting. As we reached one stop, down by the parliament building, the commentary mentioned that the Old Treasury Building hosts free exhibitions and is open on Sundays and Wednesdays. It was Wednesday, so I hopped off the tram to go have a look, as free is my kind of price.

The Old Treasury Building was built in the mid-19^th century and was designed by a nineteen year old engineer. It was built in response to the need for a place to house the gold from the nearby gold fields. I couldn't design a building now and I am so much older than 19. Nowadays, the gold is long gone and the gold fields have finished breaking the dreams of fortune seeking prospectors. But the exhibitions inside the building are just as intriguing. There are presentations of history, from the history of the Aborigines and how they were dealt with by the arriving Europeans...

...to the history of the Australian version of Jesse James, Ned Kelly. 

In between are presentations about the rebellion of miners against unfair government fees...

and the rebellion of women as they fought to gain suffrage and the right to vote. There is also a part of the world's first motion picture, which was about the life, capture and death of Ned Kelly and his gang. Unfortunately, only a part of this movie still survives. It was banned by the government when it was deemed too sensitive for those who had lived through the violence of Ned Kelly's murderous life. Still, a part of the film survives and is on display in the Old Treasury House.

Downstairs at the Old Treasury House is the living quarters of the caretaker of the building and his family. It must have been claustrophobic down there. The rooms are small and there were six or seven people living there.

And down the hall from the living quarters were a series of rooms that used to house the gold from the goldfields. Now they house different exhibitions from the kinds of criminals that were in Australia and how they were dealt with, to a explanation of how gold is used as the standard of money systems the world over. It is quite a fascinating building. I enjoyed the time I spent inside. And it was a good way to spend the day exploring the downtown area of Melbourne, even if I didn't see much else this day.