Melbourne State Library Tour
Are you the sort of person who loves books and learning the stories behind local archtecture? The Victoria State Library offers regular 45 minute tours which enable visitors to learn about the history of the building and its vast collections. If you arrive after the last tour has already begun, you can sit down and read while you wait for the next tour, or you can explore outside to pass the time. Open your eyes to see what you can learn.
As you gaze up around outside, you will notice the State Library of Victoria is located at the corner of Swanston and La Trobe Streets at in Melbourne's central business district (CBD). A fabulous vision of 19th-century civic architecture, the building and main entrance is blessed with landscaped gardens and lawns. You may meet a gardener and ask him what plants are growing right in front of you. Imagine what you may learn from the locals?
You may not know that it used to be surrounded by a picket fence and later, by a wrought-iron fence. Its a comfortable place to sit and take in the area, eat a snack or quietly read. if you're lucky, you may be visited by a flack of birds or witness an impromptu musical concert or local demonstration. Its seldom empty.
Nearby, you'll see a statue of Sir Redmond Barry, Supreme Court judge and key founder of the Library. Designed by James Gilbert and completed by Percival Ball, this statue has the company of Jeanne d'Arc - a bronze replica of a statue by French sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet, and St George and the Dragon - a bronze statue by English sculptor Sir Edgar Boehm. A bronze statue by Peter Corlett of Charles Joseph La Trobe, the state's first Lieutenant-Governor and another of the Library's key founders, sits on the north lawn. Not far away, is a contemporary bluestone sculpture by Petrus Spronk. If you look closely, you'll realize this sculpture reflects the Library's portico.
You can enjoy the State Library on a sunny or a rainy day. This is truly a piece of local history.
Hours: 10am-9pm Mon-Thu; 10am-6pm Fri-Sun. http://www.slv.vic.gov.au
While you wait for a library tour, you may choose to take a library gallery tour. You have the choice between the Keith Murdoch Gallery tour and the Cowen Gallery tour. Both are eye-opening and insightful. You may not realize you can visit the galleries inside the State Library. The Keith Murdoch Gallery regularly hosts touring exhibitions, while the Cowen Gallery is home to a permanent display of at least 150 of the library's most significant historical and documentary artworks. You need not be an art historian to appreciate the art here.
