Precinct 8: The Capital

Parliament House and Old Treasury dominate the precinct. In the distance along Macarthur Place are the bluestone spires of St Patricks Catholic Cathedral (commenced 1858 —consecrated 1897). Between Old Treasury and Parliament House are several notable statues:

• Justice George Higinbotham (1826-92), radical judge and politician
• George Gordon, British general whose heroic death in the Sudan in 1885 inspired Melburnians to patriotic fury
• horseman and poet Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-70)
• the fountain carved by William Staniford during his stay in Pentridge gaol while imprisoned for stealing horses on the Bendigo diggings.

Across the street is the Windsor, the last of Melbourne's grand Victorian hotels. It opened in 1883 as the Grand but three years later was sold to landboomer James Munro who turned it into a Coffee Palace.

Stop 23
Since 1851, Melbourne has been Victoria's capital city. From its position at the top of Bourke Street Hill, Parliament House has witnessed many dramatic moments in Australian history. In 1856, stonemasons working on the building struck in support of an eight-hour working day. Four years later it was besieged by working men calling on parliament to ‘unlock the lands’ from the grip of the squatters. From 1901 to 1927, when Melbourne became Australia’s first capital, it housed the Commonwealth Parliament.

Stop 23 
Built on gold
Old Treasury (1857) is widely regarded as the finest 19th century public building in Australia. It was designed in the Italian palazzo style by goldrush immigrant and architectural prodigy J.J. Clark who signed the plans while still a teenager. Upstairs treasury officials kept the colony’s accounts. Below, in the basement, were bluestone vaults for storing the gold sent by government escort from the goldmining fields.

Stop 24 
The people’s house
In 1854, miners at Eureka near Ballarat staged Australia's most famous rebellion when they called for every man to be given the vote. Two years later Victorians elected their first democratic parliament. Goldrush immigrants, J.G. Knight and Peter Kerr, designed a new Parliament House, which was erected between 1856 and 1892. Peter Lalor, leader of the rebels, later became Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. From 1901 to 1927, the Commonwealth Parliament met here.

Stop 25 
Ghosts and spider dances
In 1856, Lola Montez, the miners’ favourite entertainer, was performing her sexy 'spider dance' at the Royal Amphitheatre. The Royal later became the Princess and in 1886 the pre-Second Empire style building by Charles Webb was completed. In 1888, a 38-year-old singer, Federici, playing Mephistopheles in Gounod’s ‘Faust’, collapsed and died under the stage. His ghost, according to legend, still haunts the theatre.