Government House

This guide to Government House in Melbourne opens with Sir George Bowen, the governor sent from London in the 1870s who built a residence he boasted was twice the size of Dublin's Lord Lieutenant's home, with a ballroom deliberately longer than Buckingham Palace's. You'll hear how newspapers back home mocked the plain exterior while gilded interiors silenced critics, and about staff who once scanned Port Phillip Bay from its tower for approaching ships. Look up at that tower as you listen.