State Library Victoria
Interesting facts
- When the library opened, anyone over fourteen could use it free of charge, on one condition: their hands had to be clean.
- It is Australia's busiest public library and in 2023 ranked as the third busiest library in the world.
- On 3 July 1854 Governor Charles Hotham laid the foundation stones of both the library and the University of Melbourne on the same day.
- The domed reading room was originally planned to hold more than a million books and up to 600 readers at once.
- The dome's skylights were sheathed in copper in 1959 to stop leaks, leaving the reading room in dim light for over four decades.
- The colonial novelist and journalist Marcus Clarke worked at the library as sub-librarian from 1874 until his death in 1881.
- For more than a century the block also housed the National Gallery of Victoria and the state museum, which moved out only in 1968 and 1997.
- The library holds part of the Anderson Chess Collection, ranked among the three largest public chess collections in the world.
- Statues of Saint George and the Dragon by Joseph Edgar Boehm and a replica of Frรฉmiet's Joan of Arc have flanked the entrance since 1889 and 1907.
- The library's faรงade appears in the closing scenes of the 1959 film On the Beach, set after a nuclear war.
Why it is worth it
State Library Victoria is one of the grand public buildings of nineteenth-century Melbourne, and its heart is a single breathtaking room. The La Trobe Reading Room, opened in 1913, sits under a dome 34.75 metres wide and just as high, with an oculus almost five metres across letting daylight fall onto desks for some 320 readers. When finished it was the largest dome of its kind in the world, overtaken within months by Centennial Hall in Wrocลaw. The shelves around the room hold some 32,000 books, and the light from above gives the space its calm, even glow.
The library itself is older. It opened in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library with some 3,800 books and was one of the first free libraries in the world, open to anyone over fourteen. Joseph Reed, whose design won the 1853 competition, designed the original building on Swanston Street; the domed reading room came from Bates, Peebles and Smart, the firm that succeeded him. The dome's skylights were covered in copper in 1959 and restored in 2003, when the space was officially renamed the La Trobe Reading Room. A large refurbishment by Ancher Mortlock & Woolley ran from 1990 to 2004, and a further redevelopment was completed in 2019.
The collections run to millions of items, and some are national icons: the armour of the bushranger Ned Kelly and his Jerilderie Letter, the diaries of Melbourne's founders John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and folios connected with James Cook.
Getting there
The library fills a block in Melbourne's city centre, bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell and Little Lonsdale streets. State Library and Melbourne Central stations are next to it, and many tram routes run along Swanston Street. The nearest airport is Essendon (MEB), about 10.6 km away; most long-distance flights arrive at Melbourne Airport at Tullamarine, about 22 km from the centre, linked to Southern Cross Station by express bus.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Block Arcade, Melbourne 0.7 km ยท covered-passageway
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the world. It is also Australia's busiest public library and, as of 2023, the third busiest library globally.
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