Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
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How it came to be
On 27 June 1878 the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne were announced as the site of an international exhibition. Joseph Reed won the design competition, Governor George Bowen laid the foundation stone on 19 February 1879, and the building was finished in about 18 months.
The Melbourne International Exhibition ran from 1 October 1880 to 30 April 1881. The Centennial International Exhibition followed in 1888, when electric lighting was installed.
On 9 May 1901 the first Parliament of Australia opened in the building, and the Victorian Parliament then sat there for 26 years, until 1927. It is the only surviving great hall of a major industrial exhibition of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. On 1 July 2004, with its gardens, it became the first building in Australia to be inscribed.
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