Royal Exhibition Building

This grand exhibition hall in the Carlton Gardens was built for the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880 and hosted the opening of Australia's first federal parliament in 1901. Its towering dome, modelled on Renaissance precedents, dominates the surrounding gardens and city skyline. One of the few surviving nineteenth-century exhibition buildings in the world, it earned World Heritage listing together with its gardens. Still used for trade shows, examinations and events, it can be visited on guided tours that climb toward the dome.