Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a life of crime and/or an act of subversion against British rule, depending on which side of
the economic and religious divide you were on.
In 1880 (and again in 1888) Melbourne hosted an International Exhibition, pulling well
over a million visitors. The Royal Exhibition Building was constructed for this event;
Melbourne's soaring paean to Empire and the industrial revolution is one of the few 19th-
century exhibition spaces of its kind still standing.
This flamboyant boast to the world was, however, to be Marvellous Melbourne's swan-
song. In 1889, after years of unsustainable speculation, the property market collapsed and
the decades that followed were marked by severe economic depression.
The Welcome Stranger, discovered in 1869 a few centimetres under the ground in the central Victorian
town of Moliagul, was, at 72kg, the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found. At the time of its unearthing
there were no scales capable of weighing a nugget of its size.
