Pillsbury Press: Free History Walking Tour of Melbourne

Saturday was my kind of day! I went on a self-guided tour of the state library, and two free walking tours. Other than walking around the library, we spent the entire day outside in the sunshine. I learned lots of facts -- and some fiction -- and gained an appreciation for Melbourne.

I'll blog about the library in a future tour. There was so much to enjoy, and time was limited, so the tour took place in small sections over the span of three days. I later learned the app tour was created by the same people leading our walking tours: I'm Free Walking Tours.

At 10 am we met Desmond and another guide by the Sir Redmond Barry Statue in front of the State Library of Melbourne. The group was so large it was split in half with the other guide going on one direction and Desmond leading us in our direction. Throughout the tour we spotted the other group, but they finished first.

Our tour was slated for 2.5 to 3 hours, making it one of the longer free walking tours I have taken. We did break for the bathroom and food at the midpoint. The first part of the tour will focus on history. The second part on sightseeing ending at South Bank.

Desmond started giving these tours about eight years ago. He took free walking tours in Europe and wanted to start them at home. During the week he does digital marketing full time.

As has become the trend in the United States, the tour began with an acknowledgement that these lands first belonged to the Wurundjeri tribe, the oldest continuous culture in the entire world. The first humans date back 65,000 years ago from New Guinea to Tasmania. The first European settlers arrived in Melbourne in 1835. In the 1850's they discovered gold and become very wealthy. Many of their classic buildings are "gold rush buildings," including the State Library.

The statues in front of the library represent England (St. George the dragon slayer), France (Joan of Arc), and Ireland (Sir Redmond Barry). Barry is credited with creating Melbourne, including its library, but he is most famous for being the judge in the Ned Kelly case. Ned who? If we want to learn more, Desmond recommended the 1906 movie The Story of the Kelly Gang, the 1970 movie with Mick Jagger, or the 2003 film with Heath Ledger.

We walked to RMIT -- the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, an architecture university with a giant green glob on top that is supposed to represent their brains for creativity. Perhaps he made this up, but it sounds good. We walked through their campus to the courtyard of the Gaol (Jail). It was in use from 1840 to 1927. Their youngest prisoner was 3-year old Michael Crimmins for the crime of idleness. He served a six month sentence.

Ned Kelly was a bushranger, an escaped convict, a bank robber. He killed three police officers and was on the run for a year. The biggest criminal in the world at the time. He took people hostage. He thought of himself as a Robin Hood figure.

He wore body armor, but was shot in the leg, captured, and put in jail. His iron body suit is in the State Library. We stopped in to look at it later in our trip. There was a sign saying it was going on tour soon. I'm glad it was there during our trip.

Sir Barry is famous for saying "may God have mercy on you soul" and sentenced him to death. Ned Kelly responded, "I'll take that even further and see you in hell when you get there!" Barry died a mere ten days later from lung cancer. Before Ned was executed he was asked for his final words, to which he reputed to have said "such is life." Today the gaol is a museum, and a wedding venue. Gives a twist to the words tying the knot.

We walked to the Trades Hall, which is the working man's parliament building. There is a monument with 888 on it, for 8 hours work: 8 hours rest; 8 hours fun. In 1856 they were the first to achieve an eight hour work day.

Boston is considered to be Melbourne's sister city.

Melbourne has the largest tram system in the world. In the late 1800's it was horse drawn. In 1909 they had first electric tram. It fell out popularity post-World War II. Many cities around the world removed their tracks. The trade union rejected that idea. They argued it is more cost effective to repair trams than other modes of transportation and instead they advocated for more tracks. They now have 290 kilometers of tracks powered by solar energy -- the largest system in the world. The daily fare maxes out at $10AUS ($6.50 US).

We walked to Carlton Gardens, which are located just outside the city center. The metallic bands around the trees are to protect them from drop bears, said with as straight of a face as possible. Turns out the drop bears are a tale told to unsuspecting tourists.

We return to the history lesson. In he 1600's Dutch explorers "discovered" Australia. They included it on their trade route. In the 1770's Englishman Captain James Cook explored the east coast of Australia and deemed it "the spitting image of Wales." In 1831 Europeans started to settle here.

We learned about John Batman, one of the people considered to be the founder of Melbourne. He made an early treaty with the Aboriginal to purchase 600 acres of land.

Moving on to the Royal Exhibition Center was built in the 1880s for the World's
Fair. It was built with gold rush money. One third of all the world's gold was found in Melbourne. This was the first building put on the UNESCO list. Today, university exams are held in this bulding.

As Australia was becoming a real continent in the mid to late 19th century there inevitably became a huge debate between Sydney and Melbourne as to where to put the nation's capitol. The first Parliament met here in Melbourne. Formal documents were signed here. They had the wealth that came with the 1850's gold rush. In 1851 Melbourne thought about becoming their own colony, but were old the had to ask Queen Victoria for permission. They formed Victoria. Eight years later, Queensland separated from New South Wales. By the 1860s the gold rush was over, but they invested their money into the economy.

In 1880 Melbourne was the second wealthiest city in the entire British empire.

In 1893 their economy burst, and 50,000 people left.

In 2020, Melbourne was the most locked down city in the world, which has really hurt their economy.

Australia decided to follow the model set in the United States and create a city halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, and at least 100 miles from the coast to become the capitol: Canberra, which is pronounced as if it is two syllables: CANbra. Canberra is a planned city. It wasn't ready until 1927. From 1901-1927 Parliament met in Melbourne.

St. Patrick's Cathedral is behind it.

Back to the Central Business District (CBD). It is a rectangle 1/2 a mile by a mile. Tram #35 is an historic wooden tourist tram that goes around it that everyone can take for free. It is painted burgundy or green and gold. We saw it on the track, but was never close enough to catch it.

Melbourne derived its name from William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, the Prime Minister at the time. It was orginally named after the river. There were discussions to name it Batmania after John Batman.

We walked through Chinatown. Mandarin is the second largest language spoken in Melbourne.

I found the entire area to be very photogenic. Our Airbnb was two blocks away from here.

Beautiful blue sky

Lonsdale Street marked the original Greek section.

We officially reached the break in the tour. I suspect we lost a few people when they realized just how long the tour was, and how dense it was with dates and unfamiliar names. As usual, I was the only one taking notes. At the QV Center (Queen Victoria Center) we dispersed for bathrooms and food.

Back together we walked through a street art laneway, which is legal in Melbourne. We passed the Section 8 restaurant which is made from shipping containers. Don and I explored this street and others two days earlier on our self-guided street art tour.

The focus for the second half of the tour was more on culture and less on history. We did cover the history of Australian sports. First came cricket, a summer sport. Then came football because the athletes needed a sport to play in the winter so they would stay in shape. Sounded similar to why New Zealanders play rugby. Australian Football League (AFL) is played on a cricket field, but rugby has a different shaped field (Eden Park modifies their field to play both sports, but that is not always the case). Cricket games can go o for up to five days. AFL only lasts a fast-packed two hours. It is a full contact sport. In the beginning they would decide on the rules the day of the game, in 1848 they formalized the rules. While the ball is in play, it must be passed or kicked pretty quickly. They are passionate about football in Melbourne, and consider this the sports capital of Australia. The Melbourne Sports Museum is under the field.

The walk continued to Bourke Street, a pedestrian walkway filled with shopping, including the largest H&M in the world located in the former post office building. This is the dead center of Melbourne's CBD. Myers opened in 1914, it is the biggest department store in the Southern Hemisphere, a caveat often heard during our adventures. The Southern Hemisphere has about 10% of the world's population.

We passed through the Royal Arcade, one of 200 laneways in the CBD. We also walked through Block Place, which is full of cafés and shops. The dome in the center was modeled after the one in Milan.

Then onto Centreway Lane, which is full of cafés, and where we returned to eat lunch. It also looks just like Diagon Alley in Harry Potter.

In 1932 Australia declared war on emus, yes the animals, and the emus won. Desmond told us to look it up, I did so, and it is a strange story about life between the world wars.

In 1909 a modern train station was built on Flinders Street. The story goes it was supposed to be built in Mumbai and not Melbourne, but plans were mixed up. There had been a train station in that location since the mid-1850s (the gold rush era).

There is a saying "meet you at the clocks," which means meet you in front of the clocks on the station. They tried to go digital in the 1980s, but there a one day protest and the analog clocks were returned.

Flinders Street Station clocks

Across the street is Federation Square, a public space where many gather. For the 100th anniversary there was a contest to design how the square should look. Over 170 designs were submitted and THIS was chosen. It has since appeared on the list of the 10 ugliest buildings in the world. The red bricks represent the open spaces of the Outback. Its symbolism is not easily apparent.

We crossed the river from North Park to South Park. South Park has the posh arts center that was built in 1984. It also has a museum, and further down the street is the War Memoria, Shrine of Remembrance, which was listed as a must-see attraction. It highlights Australian and New Zealand soldiers who have fought in wars. As with most museums in Australia and New Zealand, it is free.