Bob and I took our first journey into Melbourne proper for a booked 1 hour tour of the Victoria State Library. We wanted to see the library, but it also gave us a chance to compare the various public transportation options from where we are staying.
We ended up taking the tram in and the train/bus combo back. The tram is easiest in the sense that you just have the one mode of transportation, but it doesn’t go any faster than normal traffic, and it makes a lot of stops. It was a 10 minute walk to catch the tram and then another 50 or 55 minutes on the tram, and then a 15 minute walk to the library.
On the way back, we caught the train at a station directly across from the library. We unknowingly caught a limited express train, so that was a bit stressful as we didn’t know if it would stop at the station we needed or not. Happily, it did, and that was only a 25 minute ride. We then walked out of the train station directly into the bus bays to catch the 733 bus back to the house. The bus came right after we got there, and that was a stress free 15 minute ride to our stop. It seemed much more efficient, and we’ll likely opt for that for any future trips into the city center.
It houses a number of art galleries and exhibition spaces.
Per the guide, the library started with a collection of 3,846 books. It now has over 2,000,000 items. It is Australia’s oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It has an extensive collection of materials dedicated to the history, study, and practice of chess and and bridge, and many people come to the library to play chess, both inside and outside.
with a statue of Sir Redmond Barry out front,
who was a leading citizen and lawyer in Melbourne
and instrumental in the founding of the library.
The library was established in 1854, and the original portion of the building would have just been the central section without the portico.
on each side of the reading room and would have been used by the librarians to collect requested materials though not used today for safety reasons.
which is now part of the Children’s room.
This is based on the Library of Congress as well as the British Library.
an immigrant to Australia from Latvia.
The Victoria State Library provides 2 public tours a day. We did today’s afternoon tour. Our guide seemed new and was a quiet talker. By the end, we were sure we would have seen more on our own, but we did learn some interesting information.
Peckish Travels 
One reply on “Into the City for a Library Tour (6/13/23)”
A beautiful building inside and out
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