Old Treasury Building

When visiting Melbourne’s Old Treasury building, travelers are left to decide for themselves which fact is more spectacular: That this striking example of Renaissance Revival architecture was designed by a prodigious 19 year old, or that the entire building was expressly built as a vault for housing gold. Constructed in 1858 in response to Australia’s Gold Rush, the Old Treasury building has vault walls that are over three feet thick, in addition to dozens of office buildings that even today are filled by members of Melbourne’s local government. In addition to the imposing building itself, which was built in the Italian “palazzo” style that was popular in the 19th century, visitors will find rotating exhibitions on the building and Melbourne’s past, from those depicting the flow of gold from the mines to the vault and wealthy elite, to a panorama of the cityscape from 1862.