Immigration museum PDF

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Summary

Graphic Analysis building assignment of the Immigration Museum - H1 standard. ...

Description

Esther Morgan, 1079518, ABPL1004, Tuesday 11:00am, Toby Wolley

History

The Immigration Museum Source: Museums Victoria

THE IMMIGRATION MUSEUM The Immigration Museum is located at 424 Flinders St, Melbourne, right in the heart of the city. The building its self is actually called The Customs House building and it is one of Melbourne’s most important 19th century public buildings.

Urban context 19th century

Present

It’s positioned within the Hoddle grid, the contemporary name given to the grid of streets that form the central business district of Melbourne Australia. It was surrounded by Western Markets to the north, numerous hotels to its west and access sheds at the Queens Wharf.

The museum being established on Flinders Street now means it can be easily accessed by a number of tram routes and two train stations. The accessibility of the building provides for regular visitors, both locally and internationally. The museum sits to the south of the business district and faces the Southbank entertainment district, on the other side of the Yarra River.

Three Customs buildings have occupied the current site of the Old Customs House, culminating in the existing grand structure. The first iteration of Customs House began as a white tent pitched on the banks of the Yarra, soon to be replaced with a ‘shabby, weatherboard cabin’, erected in the 1830s.

leaving Victoria, thus the necessity for the building to be built close to the Queens Bridge, Melbourne’s then major avenue of exporting and importing trade. The Custom’s House is a tangible reminder of the former location of the city’s port facilities, which now currently resides in the Port of Melbourne.

With vastly expanding trade and revenue from the Gold Rush between 1848 to 1855, the Victorian colonial government commissioned Peter Kerr to design a new Custom’s house,. The building process began in 1856 but was shortly halted in 1858 due to a shortage of funds. Completion of the building was recommenced in 1873 and finally completed in 1876, to a modified design by Kerr and two other government architects, Arthur Ebden Johnson and John James Clark.

The customs duties the officers collected formed the backbone of government revenue. After the gold rushes, Victoria became a strong advocate of protection, reflecting a desire to foster the industries that had been created by the demands of a growing and increasingly wealthy society. Protection was enforced by way of customs duties on imports, making the customs house a vital component of colonial economic management and development. The grand and imposing character of the Former Customs House reflects this important role.

In the first years of settlement boats and ships were docked on the Yarra between Queen Street and William Street, now known as Queens Wharf. Within the Custom’s House officers recorded all goods entering or

Melbourne from the Falls Source: Museums Victoria

Sketch of Custom House post renovations Source: Museums Victoria

The Customs House was converted to Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in 1965 and became an immigration museum in 1998 after intensive renovations.

Sketch of current Immigration Museum Source: Esther Morgan

First Custom House Source: Museums Victoria

Hoddle Grid Map Source: Melbourne in 100 streets

Victorian Custom Officers examing baggage

Source: Museums Victoria...