Last Saturday the Supreme Court of Victoria had its annual open day. I was a shade disappointed to see a line to enter the building, and frustrated to not be able to get through the metal detectors without beeping. The security may have been in dress-up, like the visitor welcoming judge out the front, because I eventually got through with my camera and my knife.
Inside was fascinating. It was surprising to find many rooms open, and no one round to keep us behaved. My biggest regret of the day is not opening the bar-fridge you see early in the videos above.
After a while we headed to the library. The books make beautiful patterns, and I thought between that, oil paintings of Santa, and a dungeon tour, I’d have plenty to use up the battery of my camera. I was occupied playing with compositions using all the ladders and books on the mezzanine floor, when Erin found me with news of a staircase she found behind a bookshelf. This staircase led to an office, with piles of books, a book binding machine, and a modest wee door. Behind that door was a narrow, stone, spiral staircase.
The video at this point is mostly me being very excited. The further up I went the more excited I got. The staircase provides access to the beautiful dome. Outside, and inside.
(This image was loaned from the Walking Melbourne forum, which is a wonderful place for researching Melbourne’s architecture. This thread has some information on the building.)
The battery gave up as I was trying to open a hatch at the very top—the final inserted photo shows it. I couldn’t get it open, and was too full of excited feelings that I would explode if successful, to try enough. The battery woke back up after we went back down, and you can here me commenting in the video regarding going back up to keep filming. Next year!
There was also a dungeon tour, that we missed. But I think our time was well spent.
Oh, and we also saw the Dachshund UN. It’s better as a comment on the audience, than it is on the UN, and a bit mean, really. But I got some great footage behind the setup. I seem to be anchoring a lot of my compositions to the top of the frame recently.