Immigration Museum, State Library of Victoria

This post about my afternoon in Melbourne today will probably be short.

For one thing, I didn’t finish lunch and leave the NGV until a few minutes after 2:00, so I had a short afternoon. (Regardless of what the clock says, the afternoon doesn’t start until after lunch. Lunch is its own period, neither morning nor afternoon. Morning follows sleep and precedes lunch. My journal. My rules.)

For another thing, the rain intensified after I left the NGV and I didn’t feel like traipsing around Melbourne. However, I did visit the Immigration Museum and the State Library of Victoria.

Immigration Museum

First, an apology. The Immigration Museum is in a stately old building. But with the rain falling and one of my hands holding my umbrella, it didn’t occur to me to take a picture of it. And I didn’t think the exhibits inside were picturesque, although they were interesting. So there aren’t any images in this section.

The museum is housed in Melbourne’s old Customs House. The original permanent building was constructed in 1841. (Tents on the same site served as the customs house before that.)

Over the next few decades, they expanded the building. Not only did they enlarge the footprint of the structure, but they lopped off the top of the then two-storey building and replaced that one chopped-off storey with two.

Much of the original 1841 ground floor forms part of the structure that stands today.

Now that the building has a heritage designation, it’s very difficult and lengthy for them to get approval to make any changes to it, even to fix things that are falling apart.

(I went on a brief orientation tour of the museum and got the above information on that.)

One section of the museum focuses on the reasons people immigrate to Australia. The reasons are, needless to say, varied. War, famines, natural disasters or ethnic oppression force people to flee their countries. Families reunite. People come to join their new or future spouses. Economic opportunity draws people.

Another section provides a timeline of immigration events over the centuries and up to the present day, including the interactions with and effects on the First Peoples who were already in what’s now called Australia.

The display does not ignore some of the, shall we say, less-than-ideal behaviour of Australia when it comes to immigrants and refugees. For example, there was once an official government policy of a white Australia, I forget when that was.

And fairly recently, Australia had a policy of offshore detention of refugees. That policy was roundly criticized on human rights grounds, including by some official bodies, and was ended.

Another section of the Immigration Museum explores diversity. It examines how we look at “the other” and on what dimensions we tend to differentiate us from the other. Needless to say, it thinks that acceptance and embracing the other is a good thing. I agree.

I’ve probably forgotten a few of the museum’s galleries. Sorry about that. The museum also has a library and study area, but I didn’t use them.

State Library of Victoria

“A library? Why are you visiting a library? You’ve seen books before.” Yeah, but I haven’t seen the State Library of Victoria before and it’s worth a visit.

To start with, the State Library is in another stately old building, with lots of columns and a statue out front. This time I remembered to take a photo of it. I put it at the top of this post so you wouldn’t have to wait so long to see a picture here. I’m always thinking of you. Or, if not you, then the other person who reads this journal.

But the jewel of the State Library is inside. The main reading room is a glorious space. The lower level has a lot of work desks and bookshelves resting on a beautiful dark wood floor.

The second level, a mezzanine, forms a balcony that encircles the broad opening to the lower level. Work desks line the balcony railings, looking down on the first floor.

Cream and dark brown colours dominate those two levels. And the cream colour rises to the ceiling, which is arched, with broad skylights. It is a gorgeous space.

The State Library also has a small gallery with paintings and photographs primarily (entirely?) from the 19th through 21st centuries. In an adjacent room, there was what I think is a temporary exhibit. It’s a two-screen video projection installation, with a couple of large, angled sets of mirrors in the room.

Elsewhere in the State Library, close to the entrance, there was a temporary exhibition titled “Luminous.” It presents a collection of various Jewish manuscripts that date over the past millennium and up to the present. The exhibit has book-form and scroll Torahs, Haggadoth (I think that’s the plural of Haggadah, the book read at Passover seders), and ketubot (I think that’s the plural of ketubah, a Jewish marriage certificate), and more.

There are also text panels discussing the Jewish diaspora from 547 BCE to 1650 CE, and Jewish life in general. Some interactive screens allow people to listen to short videos of local rabbis and other Jewish people discussing various aspects of Jewish life.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to encounter that in the State Library of Victoria. I have only one complaint. It was smack dab in the middle of Chanukah when I visited, but there wasn’t a single menorah on display.

The State Library of Victoria is more than just a library. (Not that there’s anything wrong with just libraries, quite the contrary.) And it’s well worth a visit.

Melbourne Summary

Tomorrow, I’m scheduled to catch a flight at 12:30 pm for Canberra, Australia. So I’ll post only one journal entry tomorrow and, unless something particularly notable happens here in the morning, this will probably be my last post from Melbourne.

So, it’s time for a summary. Melbourne is a great city. Lots to see. Lots to do. A nice river runs pleasantly through it. There are parks and gardens galore.

I probably could have done with a couple more, or maybe more than a couple more, of days here, particularly if the sun came out and I could comfortably spend more time in the parks and do more exploring along the river. And, while the river is mostly salt water at this point, I never did make it out to the nearby ocean. Plus, there are day trips from Melbourne that I considered, but didn’t take.

I’m particularly glad I came. I’m 70 years old and can only say that for not much more than a week. It’s a big world and there’s a lot of it to see. But if I have time, I’d like to come back here.