Who am I?

I am almost as old as Australia’s colonial history. Built only 49 years after Arthur Phillip founded a penal settlement at Sydney, I have stood silent and staunch while the gold rush of the 1850’s raged and men and women railed in Victoria’s Eureka Stockade in 1854.

I was here when many of Australia’s colonies were born and I was here when they unified into a single nation in 1901. I was here when Canberra was founded in the year of 1911. I’ve seen two world wars and more – including the Boer, Korean and Vietnam wars.

I watched our men and women despair through the great depression. I witnessed the decimation of the oldest living culture on earth and saw the threads of humanity bind together as we tried to right so many wrongs. I watched as the 1967 referendum paved the way for constitutional change – removing the section which excluded Aboriginal people from our official census.

I was here before our first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, took office in 1901 and have seen every Prime Minister that has come and gone since then and still I am here!

I am The Old Victoria.