Day 103 - The Royal Exhibition Buildings, Carlton Gardens and Melbourne Museum, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Saturday 1st March 2014. The Royal Exhibition Buildings, Carlton Gardens and Melbourne Museum, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Well now it is March and officially autumn here in Oz. After breakfast at Glen's cafe we caught two trams over to Carlton Gardens which is home to the Royal Exhibition Building. Even though it is now autumn the weather was lovely. We strolled around the Carlton Gardens which are integral to the Royal Exhibition Builing's (REB) appeal. The gardens retain the same layout and many of the original features from their inception including trees, lakes and fountains We walked along a wide pedestrian boulivard lined with trees and decorative flower beds until we reached the magnificent REB. We walked to the right through the Carlton gardens until we came to the Stawell Stone Pillar. This pillar of stone was quarried from Stawell and placed in the gardens at the insistence of the Honorable John Woods MP (born Liverpool, England 1822, died Brighton, Victoria 1892) an engineer, politician and inventor, to express his indignation of the choice of NSW stone for Parliament House and to show the enduring qualities of local stone! Well its still here so we suppose he must have had a point.

We walked around to Melbourne museum where we were able to book ourselves on the next tour of the REB at 1.00 pm (there were only 3 places left). We were also just in time for the noon orientation tour of the museum. The orientation tour takes you through all the main galleries. The idea is that once you have completed the tour you would have a good idea as to the galleries where you wanted to spend more time. We started off with the Pigmy Blue Whale Skeleton which is hanging from the ceiling outside the Science and Life Gallery. Behind it was an old original Spencer Street Tram. We then entered the Science and Life Gallery where there was the Dinosaur Walk and the Wild Gallery containing stuffed animals from all around the globe (both extinct and extant). THe guide explained that every gallery in the museum with the exception of the Forest Gallery has been totally refurbished recently. It was very impressive and very hi-tech. None of the exhibits are labelled. Instead you have these binocular like contraptions (a bit like the things you get on seafronts where you put in your quid and you can look through the binoculars) which you look through and zoom in on the exhibit of interest and then the blurb about that exhibit
pops up inside the binoculars - it all works using laser beams. We finished the tour by walking past the Federation Tapestry (more of this later) and into the Melbourne Gallery where joy of joys there is Phar Lap - Australia's most famous race horse. After he was murdered in America his hide was salvaged and mounted on a wooden 'body'. It is incredibly realistic. The eyes are marbles. We saw his skeleton in Wellington and his heart is in Canberra. Melbourne has got the best bit though.

We just had time for M to grab a sandwich in the cafe before we had to meet for our tour of the REB. The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage Site-listed building, completed in 1880. It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–1881 and later hosted the opening of the first Parliament of Australia in 1901. Throughout the 20th century smaller sections and wings of the building were subject to demolition and fire; however, the main building, known as the Great Hall, survived.It received restoration throughout the 1990s and in 2004 became the first building in Australia to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status, being one of the last remaining major 19th-century exhibition buildings in the world. It sits adjacent to the Melbourne Museum and is the largest item in Museum Victoria's collection. Today,
the building hosts various exhibitions and other events and is closely tied with events at the Melbourne Museum.We walked across to the REB and were led inside by our guide. He took us to the centre of the Great Hall where we could look up at the dome. He explained that the REB is one of the world's most significant reminders of the exhibition movement. The building celebrates 19th century prosperity and limitless opportunities of life in a gold-enriched Victoria. It is the only major 19th century Palace of Industry exhibition building to survive substantially intact and to be used for its original purpose of hosting exhibitions. Next month it will host the Melbourne Flower Festival. We were taken up the stairs to the next level where there were exhibition boards with photos explaining the history of the building.

When the tour was over we returned to the museum so we could re-visit the places that interested us the most. The first thing we did was go to the Science and Life Gallery where we could experience a 3D volcanic eruption. We went inside and put on our 3D goggles. M sat on the floor to watch the show. It was quite good. Then we made our way to the Mind and Body Gallery where We spent some time looking at the brain and human body exhibits. The human body exhibition is quite ground breaking too, as real body parts are on display. Earlier our guide explained that there was some concern as to how this new exhibit would be reviewed in the press - apparently the body parts weren't an issue - the only thing that was mentioned was the fart machine. Of course we had to find this and have a go - it was quite revolting but the kids loved it! Luckily it only simulated the sound of a fart - there was no accompanying pong!

In the Science and Life Gallery there are some fantastic dinosaur skeletons with TV screens showing them with flesh and moving around, the computer generated images were incredibly realistic. In the Wild gallery is Sam the Koala (they seem to like stuffing their iconic animals in Oz!). The story of Sam the Koala has touched millions of people across Australia and around the world. Sam became the symbol of the terrible loss and also of the community spirit felt by so many in the aftermath of the devastating bushfires in February 2009. As the State
museum, Museum Victoria collects and records significant events, like natural disasters, so that future generations can learn and reflect on the events that have shaped our lives. Sam’s placement in Melbourne Museum preserves her story, and her extraordinary role in providing a source of hope to those devastated by the February bushfires. She also plays an important role in educating the community about issues relating to koalas, changes in habitat, the impact of fire on wildlife and the role of wildlife rescue. Sam is permanently on display as part
of the Wild exhibition. Sam was quite seriously burned in the bush fires and was photographed drinking from a bottle given to her by one of the fire fighters. This was incredibly unusual as Koalas don't drink. They take in all their fluids from the Eucalypt leaves they eat. Although she recovered from her burns she had to be put to sleep because she had a serious infection. She is now stuffed and mounted in a case complete with her bandaged tail.

Then we went to the Forest Gallery. This is the only 'gallery' that has not been updated and refurbished. This is a living temperate Victorian forest environment, complete with live birds, reptiles, and other fauna. We passed through the Te Pasifika Gallery which highlights the history and wate rcrafts of Pacific Islanders. The last gallery was the Melbourne Gallery which was where we had finished the orientation tour earlier. On the way to this gallery we had to walk past the Federation Tapestry. Twenty two artist-weavers from the internationally
acclaimed Victorian Tapestry Workshop, South Melbourne, spent an estimated 20,000 hours at their looms creating the Federation Tapestry. Almost 41 metres in length, the tapestry was commissioned to mark the centenary of Australia's Federation. It gives Australians pointers to who they are today...and why. The images in its 10 panels range from Aboriginal dreamtime legends to a solitary shepherd in the bush with his sheep and dog, from the clamour and rejoicing that marked Federation in 1901 to the enigmatic 'Sorry' etched across the sky above the
sails of the Sydney Opera House in the year 2000. After looking at the panels of the tapestry we finished our day in the Melbourne Gallery where M watched all the footage about the legendary horse Phar Lap. Phar Lap was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse whose achievements captured the public's imagination during the early years of the Great Depression. Foaled in New Zealand, he was trained and raced in Australia by Harry Telford - he was unbeatable and that caused his demise. He was murdered in America because he was just too good.

We returned to the YH and tried to call Ian again. He is going to meet us for breakfast before work tomorrow. We ate at Glen's cafe.

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