Wednesday 15th December

I planned to complete the National Gallery today by visiting the Ian Potter Gallery in Fed Square (you might guess that I did achieve this goal due to the previous post). However I was hindered. Filling Fed Square were hundreds of gowned and capped people. I believe that for one of Melbourne’s Universities this was graduation day and the ceremony was taking place in the public arena of Fed Square. It would have been a lovely idea but unfortunately the weather had turned a little sour and the caps and gowns were getting a little damp.

So this being the case I thought I would try to access the gallery from another entrance, so strolling down the river alongside Fed Square I kept reading the signs but to no avail. However I was experiencing a case of déjà vu. This had been part of the elegant enclave walk, which passes by the Old Treasury, which... da da... is open on a Wednesday. So the Old Treasury was due a visit.

The Old Treasury was built in the 1850’s due to the gold rush in Victoria. It was designed by a 19 year old lad and was used as a hold for all the gold dug up and as the governor’s offices. Another impressive building, the exhibits covered several parts of Melbourne history including Ned Kelly and other criminal aspects, Burke and Willis and their journey into the centre of Australia (they used camels!), political developments and much more. The main exhibit is housed in the basement of the Old Treasury building, this is based on the gold rush and how the gold affected Melbourne.

The basement has several vaults (they once held the gold) they now each tell part of the story. For example the first one had two projected images and showed the exchanges that would have taken place in the tents at the goldmine between the gold miners and the gold buyers (they tried to do them out of money!).

Other vaults showed videos, fake newscasts, images and spoken word. All in all I spent about 2 hours in the building. It was not a busy venue, there were 4 other people in the place while I was there, but this did mean that the guide managed to speak to all of us giving some extra detail, particularly useful in the governor’s office which had no written information. She told me about the decoration of the room, someone in the 1960’s had decided to paint it white (argh!), they managed to remove the coating of paint and it has been restored to its former colourful glory (the ceiling is very pretty).

This is a free exhibit; it is only open on a Wednesday and Sunday. But if you didn’t want to pay to go to any other museum you get a good overview of Melbourne’s History here. 3 Stacey Stars (definitely worth dropping into for the gold rush exhibit).

So after exiting the building, I notice the police are blocking the road towards the parliament buildings, and there is a protest going on outside (again it was still raining). It seemed like the city was busy today, and I headed back to the Ian Potter Gallery and did some absorbing of culture and art to finish my outing.

On a completely different note:

Today was Thursday, and I got free juice, I had walked miles again and I really wanted a drink so I looked in a cafe, the juice was $4.

I was going to get it but I didn’t want to carry it, so decided I would buy juice at the closer super market.

Then as I walked back there were people handing out bottles of juice for free (the same type I saw in the cafe). I put my hand out and it was filled with a bottle of juice. The juice was apple (my favourite) and it was cold!

YUM!

I drank my juice sitting on a bench in the sun next to the Yarra River listening to a saxophone player.

Small things can make you very happy (especially when you don’t have to pay for them).