Parliament of Victoria

This guide to the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne follows Peter Kerr, an architect who left work on London's Palace of Westminster in 1852 to sail for the gold-rush colony, and the decades he spent raising the building wing by wing from 1856 onward, chamber by chamber, then the library, then the soaring Queen's Hall in 1879. It traces his plan for a great dome to crown the whole structure, and the 1889 financial crash that arrived just as the money for it was ready. Look up at the roofline as you approach, where that dome was meant to stand.