The previous Royal Melbourne Mint, the constructing the Hellenic Museum is proud to name house, is celebrating 150 years since its official opening on June 6, 1872. To have a good time this unbelievable milestone, we have rounded up 15 of our favourite details concerning the web site and its historical past – one for every decade!
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1. Residence of Melbourne’s first cricket match
The Metropolis of Melbourne was first surveyed in 1836, at which period the tract of land bordering William and Queen Streets was put aside for public use. However earlier than it was developed, the open plot hosted Melbourne’s first cricket match! Army and civilian gents gathered to play towards one another in November 1838, close to the nook of William and La Trobe streets – the place the museum now stands.
2. Pasture for police ponies
As city growth elevated, police barracks have been constructed on this public land on the block south of Little Lonsdale Avenue. In 1839 – shortly after the momentous cricket match – the grassy grounds to nerd of Little Lonsdale was appointed an agistment for the horses of the mounted troop to relaxation and graze.
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3. The unique Exhibition constructing
In 1854, Melbourne was booming and the grounds have been redeveloped into Melbourne’s first exhibition constructing. Within the wake of the Paris Worldwide Exhibition, house was wanted to accommodate Melbourne’s exhibitions of artwork and trade. The constructing was rapidly constructed from wooden and iron and designed as a small scale mannequin of London’s Crystal Palace.
4 years later, in 1858, the constructing was renovated for concert events, balls, bazaars, flower reveals and receptions. Within the following decade it was house to many occasions, together with the Victorian Exhibition in 1861 and Melbourne’s first civic fancy gown ball in 1863. It might come to be demolished within the late 1860s and was changed by Carlton’s Royal The Exhibition Constructing, which was constructed for the 1880 Melbourne Worldwide Exhibition.
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4. Pippet on the submit of Sydney
Victoria’s Gold Rush started in 1850, and with the inflow of the dear steel, the need for a Melbourne department of the Royal Mint started to emerge in 1852. The Victorian Legislative Council petitioned the Imperial Authorities however was turned down – when Sydney’s software was reviewed first, and authorized. Sydney was formally named in 1853 and by 1855 the primary department of the Royal Mint outdoors England was in operation.
5. An unstoppable power
For now, the Victorians let the matter relaxation. However because the output of the gold rush solely elevated, the need for a mint in Melbourne was revived within the election of 1859. The Victorian Parliament renewed its petitions and at last, on 7 August 1869, the British agreed. The quantity of gold that may very well be minted regionally couldn’t be ignored.
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Picture supply: Metropolis of Melbourne Artwork and Heritage Assortment.
6. A joint effort
Because the new colonial mint was a British establishment, it needed to be beneath British management. This meant that each one workers have been classed as British civil servants and the officer in cost was often called the Deputy Grasp – that’s, the deputy to the Mint Grasp in London. Even the constructing design needed to conform to the plans of the London Mint, and all cash needed to adhere to strict rules.
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JJ Clark
7. In good architectural agency
Building was accomplished from 1869 to 1872, with the ultimate design signed off by architect John James (JJ) Clark of the Victorian Public Works Division. It’s possible you’ll know JJ Clark from a few of Melbourne’s different iconic buildings – the Previous Treasury Constructing, Customs Home (now the Immigration Museum) and the Melbourne Metropolis Baths.
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Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli by Raphael. Etching by Joachim von Sandrart, 1675. Royal Assortment Belief RCIN 854163.
8. Renaissance & Rome
The constructing’s architectural type is called Renaissance Revival, a time period for a broad group of Nineteenth-century kinds that have been neither Greek nor Gothic Revival, however as an alternative drew inspiration from a variety of classical Italian types. In the present day the constructing is without doubt one of the few surviving examples of the Renaissance Revival in Australia. The design is thought to be primarily based on Raphael’s Palazzo Vidoni Caffarelli in Rome.
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9. Chopping corners
The unique mint advanced was a sq.: a U-shaped manufacturing unit, framed by the administration constructing and containing a central courtyard. It was accomplished with fences and two guardhouses for police and army on the north and south gates.
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Kids of Deputy Grasp Edward Stanfield Wardell, who was Deputy Grasp 1904–1915. Picture taken within the mint’s central courtyard.
The administration constructing contained workplaces in addition to residing quarters for the deputy grasp, his household and home servants. The unique imaginative and prescient for this constructing was a lot bigger, however by the point orders have been signed in 1869, the state authorities had dedicated itself to a number of building tasks and subsequently needed to devise methods to scale back the general building prices.
As equipment was already on its technique to Melbourne, the design of the manufacturing unit buildings needed to stay the identical.
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Picture supply: Working Heritage Victoria
After which it fell to the administration constructing to scale back these prices. One ground was eliminated and the general size of the constructing was minimize by 80 toes with minimal ornamentation on the facade.
In the present day, solely this administration constructing and its two guardhouses survive. After the mint ceased operations in 1968, the opposite buildings have been demolished. Stays are believed to be cemented beneath the automobile park now at their web site, which is managed by Working Heritage Victoria. The income funds the conservation of 16 heritage buildings on Crown land in Victoria, together with the previous Royal Mint.
10. A hidden element on the coat of arms
The official opening of the Melbourne Royal Mint is recorded as 6 June 1872. On at the present time the primary two sovereigns have been struck by the then Governor of Victoria, His Excellency Viscount Canterbury KCB. The governor stored considered one of these cash and handed the opposite to the deputy grasp. In case you look intently, this date is inscribed on the royal coat of arms that decorates the 2 wrought iron gates on William Avenue.
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11. Quick details concerning the first decade
The Mint’s first decade of operation noticed the minting and circulation of £15m value of gold sovereigns and half-sovereigns. Throughout this time the mint additionally produced cash for India, New Guinea and Papua.
Photos of the mint corridor, the examiner’s room and the smelter, respectively.
12. Not all that glitters is gold
Earlier than the 1910s, the Melbourne Mint produced solely gold sovereigns and occasional commemorative medals. Within the 1870s and once more within the Nineties after the invention of Damaged Hill, the federal government thought of the difficulty of a silver coin. Lastly, in 1909, the newly united Commonwealth of Australia determined to have its personal foreign money and requested the Melbourne Mint to start out producing silver cash.
The primary silver coin was issued in 1916, adopted by the primary copper pen in 1919. From then on, the Melbourne Mint produced all of the silver coin and far of the bronze for the brand new Commonwealth, with the remainder of the bronze equipped by the Perth Mint. This might proceed for a number of a long time till…
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13. Decimal decimation
1964 could be the start of the top. It was determined that Australia would transfer to decimal foreign money and plans have been made for a brand new Commonwealth coin to be positioned in Canberra. The vast majority of this new mint’s technical and administrative workers might be recruited from Melbourne, leaving the prevailing mint with inadequate workers to help its operations.
Regardless, the Melbourne Mint continued. It recruited current migrants, borrowed engineers from the Division of Provide, and made preparations to delay transfers of key personnel. In mid-1964, Melbourne started hanging the one cent coin from 1966, turning into the primary mint to strike Australian decimal coinage.
Nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient – Canberra’s Royal Australian Mint opened on 22 February 1965 and its superior tools left no room for the outdated coin. Canberra – which immediately are the only real producers of all circulating Australian cash – would quickly exchange Melbourne & Perth.
In 1968 Melbourne ceased operations and its equipment was bought. The next yr, the buildings of the operational departments have been demolished. On 29 Could 1970, HM Queen Elizabeth II gave the official proclamation that each Melbourne and Perth could be discontinued as departments of the Royal Mint with impact from 31 July 1970.
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The efficiency of a civil marriage within the Seventies. The picket paneling behind the visitors is the doorway to the mint’s vault, the place gold would have been saved after coming from the goldfields earlier than being weighed and assayed. In the present day, guests can see the inside of the vault within the Gods, Myths & Mortals exhibition, the place it incorporates collectibles.
14. From face worth to ‘I do’
After the mint ceased to exist, the surviving administration constructing was restored and reused. The bottom ground would come to be shared by the Victorian Academics Tribunal & the Registry Workplace, which used the outdated Bullion Room for the efficiency of civil marriages. To at the present time, folks typically go to the Hellenic Museum to see the place the place they acquired married! The picture above was given to the museum by one such customer.
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15. The current
In the present day, the Administration Constructing and its adjoining buildings are preserved by Working Heritage Victoria, who’re liable for the care of heritage buildings on Crown land. Their workplace is positioned within the southern gatehouse of the previous Royal Mint subsequent to the administration constructing, which since 2007 has been house to the Hellenic Museum.