Immigration Museum, Melbourne

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Immigration Museum, Melbourne
Old Customs House Melbourne.jpg
Immigration Museum in Old Customs House
Immigration Museum, Melbourne
Established1998
Location Melbourne, Australia
Coordinates 37°49′09″S144°57′37″E / 37.8191°S 144.9604°E / -37.8191; 144.9604
TypeCulture museum
Website museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/

The Immigration Museum focuses on Melbourne and Victoria's immigration history.

Contents

First opened in 1998 as a division of Museums Victoria, Immigration Museum is located at the restored Customs House building on Flinders Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. [1]

History

The first Customs House on this site next to teh original river port was a tent, which was replaced by a two storey bluestone building in 1841. The great increase in wealth and trade of the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s led to a much more impressive design by Peter Kerr with a grand portico above prominent stairs, begun in 1856-58, but never fully completed. In 1873-76, the remainder of the building was built, with a simpler entrance facadein Renaissance Revival style, designed by Kerr with J J Clark and A E Johnson in the Public Works Department. [2] The end result is one of Melbourne's grandest 19th century public buildings. Across the rear at first floor level, dramatic scale of the columned Long Room emphasised the importance of the Customs department. [3]

The site was listed in 1948 as one of the key sites for the modernisation of Melbourne, when 11 storey £750,000 Customs House office tower was proposed [4] .

Customs officers moved out in 1965, and the building was used as the Melbourne offices for the members of the Federal Parliament, and the interiors were variously altered.

Vacant since the early 1990s, it was then decided to create an museum of immigration. Designed by Daryl Jackson, the building was extensively restored and upgraded, with small extensions to the rear.

Reference

  1. ↑ "Celebrating Victorian communities". Museums Victoria.
  2. ↑ "VHD". vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original on 7 June 2024. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
  3. ↑ "Old Customs House". Museums Victoria.
  4. ↑ "NEW CITY BUILDING WILL CHANGE MELBOURNE SKYLINE". The Herald . No. 22, 274. Victoria, Australia. 11 October 1948. p. 4. Retrieved 13 February 2024– via National Library of Australia.
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