‘Incredible attraction’: Exhibition Building dome opens for first time in a century

It’s been a long wait – about 100 years – but Melburnians will soon be able to take in the extraordinary views of the city and beyond from the deck around the dome of the Royal Exhibition Building.

Standing 21 metres from the ground, visitors will be able to see the suburbs stretching out in all directions, with the Dandenongs and the Great Dividing Range flanking them in the distance.

Dr Michelle Stevenson at the Royal Exhibition Building Dome Promenade, which open for tours at the end of the month, allowing a view of the city unseen for a century. Credit:Jason South

For the past century, the stunning vantage point has been closed to the public due to the need for repairs. That was until 2012, when much-needed funds of $20 million were provided by the federal government. Repair, conservation and restoration works began in 2018, including the reinstatement of the Dome deck, and were completed in 2020.

From the end of this month the promenade will be open for four tours a day for a maximum of 30 people. It will also be available for hire for public events, from cocktail parties to weddings.

From 1880 to the early 1920s, a visit to the Dome was hugely popular, according to Dr Michelle Stevenson, head of history and technology at the Royal Exhibition Building, who has overseen the project for the past 10 years.

“It really was this incredible attraction, touring the Dome was one of the key things you could do,” she says, adding that more than 4000 people visited on Cup Day in 1880.

During the 1880 International Exhibition, there was also a camera obscura on the deck, a precursor to the camera as we know it, which projected an image onto a table of everything that was happening in the gardens below. Apparently, the show was one of the few events women could attend unchaperoned and a number of couples were caught with their beaus in hidden spots that weren’t as hidden as they may have hoped.

Part of the view from the top of the Exhibition Building.Credit:Jason South

Stevenson points out that Denton Corker Marshall, architects of the Melbourne Museum, took great inspiration from the Exhibition Building, another thing that becomes apparent from the deck.

“The forest gallery of the Melbourne Museum, stretching back; the glass facade to reflect the REB, the scale of it, its dimensions,” she says. “You don’t get that from ground level, you only see it from up here.”

Created by architect Joseph Reed, the then Exhibition Building was World Heritage-listed in 2004. The Royal is a recent addition, added to the title in 1980. (It is the first of only three buildings to receive the global recognition in Australia, followed by Sydney Opera House and various Australian convict sites including Tasmania’s Port Arthur.)

Reed’s design was inspired by an architectural style known as Rundbogenstil, popular in Germany in the early 19th century, while the dome was modelled on Brunelleschi’s 15th-century cathedral in Florence. Built of brick on a bluestone base, the Royal Exhibition Building cost £250,000 and was built by David Mitchell, Dame Nellie Melba’s father.

Reed also designed the Carlton Gardens surrounding the building, including the distinctive parterre or tiered raised beds, apparent in all their beauty from the deck. He intended that the gardens, including two ornamental lakes, would be viewed from this aerial perspective. When first built, Port Phillip Bay was visible but over time the height of buildings in the city have obscured that view. It is one of the last remaining major 19th-century exhibition buildings in the world.

Since then, the building has been home to the federation of the nation, used as a hospital during the Spanish flu in the 1920s – when it also doubled as a temporary morgue – taken over by the army and used as a training base during WWII, and the site of many university exams.

An exhibition tracing the history of the site opens at the same time as the promenade. It was once home to an aquarium, which burnt down in a fire in 1953; luckily, the main building or Great Hall as it’s known was not impacted. Renovation work done recently have revealed a treasure trove of historical items such as love letters written while the building was used as a hospital in the 1920s that had fallen through the floorboards.

Over time, the most popular shows at the Exhibition Building have been dedicated to cars: the Motorclassica is bumping in currently. The site continues to play a significant civic role too, from housing state parliament for a time, and more recently playing home to the Covid vaccination program.

The Dome Promenade opens on October 28, bookings essential.

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