Description
Built on Gold presents the story of the journey of Victorian gold, from the diggings, as it passed through the hands of the gold buyers, escort troopers and on some occasions, bushrangers until it eventually left the colony bound for the northern hemisphere.
The exhibition describes how Victoria's new-found riches shaped Melbourne's future and paid for the many grand public buildings which continue to grace the city's streets. The central Victorian goldfields yielded so much gold that Melbourne's Treasury offices in William Street could not secure the weekly convoys of gold bullion. In 1857 John James Clark, an 18 year old architectural draftsman, was commissioned to design a new Treasury building to house the precious metal and to serve as Victoria's principal administrative centre. Eight of the former gold vaults beneath the Old Treasury in Spring Street have been transformed to present Built on Gold.