Cooks' Cottage is a two-story stone structure with an English-style garden, located in Fitzroy Gardens. Its walls bear a lintel inscribed with the date seventeen fifty-five and the initials of James and Grace Cook, the parents of the…
Historic Melbourne
This walk traces Melbourne’s evolution from its early settlement and gold rush boom through its most iconic 19th-century architecture and heritage landmarks.
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1. Cooks' Cottage
2. Old Treasury Building
The Old Treasury Building is defined by its grand Renaissance Revival facade, featuring a rhythmic series of classical columns and a horizontal, palazzo-style design. Constructed between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen sixty-two, it sits…
3. Parliament of Victoria
The Parliament of Victoria dominates the top of Spring Street with a massive neoclassical colonnade and a broad staircase that reaches out toward the city grid. Construction of this seat of state government began on Boxing Day in eighteen…
4. Royal Exhibition Building
The Royal Exhibition Building rises above the Carlton Gardens with a massive octagonal dome modeled after the cathedral in Florence. Architect Joseph Reed designed the structure to embody the wealth and ambition of Melbourne during the…
5. Melbourne Town Hall
Melbourne Town Hall is defined by its corner clock tower, known as Prince Alfred’s Tower, which rises above the intersection of Swanston and Collins streets. Designed in the Second Empire style by architect Joseph Reed, the building…
6. Royal Arcade
The Royal Arcade is the oldest surviving shopping arcade in Australia, easily recognized by its soaring glass roof and a distinct, black-and-white checkered floor. Designed by architect Charles Webb after a competition in eighteen…
7. The Block Arcade
The Block Arcade is an L-shaped shopping hall defined by its soaring glass canopy and intricate mosaic-tiled floors. Built between eighteen ninety-one and eighteen ninety-three, the arcade was designed by architect David C. Askew to…
8. St James’ Old Cathedral
St James’ Old Cathedral is the oldest surviving church building in Melbourne. You can identify it by its Colonial Georgian architecture, constructed of sandstone with bluestone foundations, standing on the corner of King and Batman…
9. Polly Woodside
The Polly Woodside is an iron-hulled, three-masted barque that sits permanently moored in the historic Duke and Orr's dry dock. You can identify the ship by its tall masts rising above the surrounding wharf sheds. Built in Belfast in…