While monuments like the Shrine of Remembrance provide tourists with a notable landmark to focus their trip around, Melbourne, Australia features many other significant attractions. Not all of them have the scope and scale of the Shrine, but all of them have helped the city to form a unique identity in relation to the rest of the region and Australia as a whole.
The Queen Victoria Gardens are Melbourne’s memorial to Queen Victoria. In the middle of them sits a granite and marble memorial statue that shows Victoria in ceremonial gowns looking across the ornamental lakes and the city skyscrapers. In addition to the large monuments to Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, the gardens are also notable for their wide array of sculptures, which include a bronze Olympic Hammer thrower in action as well as The Genie, which encourages direct interaction from viewers
The Eight Hour Day monument commemorates the 8 Hours Movement which was initiated in Victoria in 1856. Originally unveiled in 1856, the monument commemorates a campaign that brought about one of the most important changes to the rights of workers. During a march held in Melbourne, those attending the protest carried banners that held the symbol of three figure 8’s. The intertwined numbers ‘888’ represented the ideal that the workers were fighting for – “8 Hours Work, 8 Hours Recreation, 8 Hours Rest”. That symbol is featured prominently in the monument.
Hosier Lane has helped to make the Melbourne urban art scene known across the world. The pedestrian and vehicle lane features urban art of all kinds that is constantly changing, providing visitors with a unique experience every time they visit. The subject matter ranges from political to counter-cultural and is often supplemented with irreverent humor. Specialized tours provide people with context around the history and artists, but there’s plenty to see and take in regardless of how the art is being positioned.
These are just a few of the obscure and outstanding monuments that are spread across Melbourne. These pieces and places along with monuments such as the Wary Dunlop Monument, the Police Memorial and more have helped both residents and tourists engage with the city in different but equally powerful ways to impact the identity of Melbourne as a whole.
