Summary

Black & white photograph looking eastwards along the Great Hall of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, on 8 November 1984 during a Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology exam. The installation of new timber flooring is only partial completed, but the exam tables have been set up over the underflooring which is already in place. The work was undertaken as part of a ten-month restoration and maintenance program carried out across 1984-85, called 'Programme '84. Work commenced on 14 June 1984 and was largely completed in time for the International Motor Show that opened on 7 March 1985.

This is one of 959 photographs (or images) of the Exhibition Building collated by the Exhibition Trustees as a 10 volume pictorial history of the Exhibition Building spanning the years 1880 to 1985. The pictorial history was instigated by the centenary of the Exhibition Building in 1980 and forms part of a larger Royal Exhibition Building collection of documents, photographs, objects and research files.

Description of Content

View from the southern entrance of the Great Hall of the Royal Exhibition Building looking into the northern transept during a Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology exam, held midway through 'Programme '84', a maintenance programe carried out across 1984-85 which included the replacement of the timber flooring. The interior of the Hall is still painted white prior to restoration work undertaken in the 1990s to reinstate the decorative 1901 colour scheme.

Physical Description

A black & white silver gelatin print on a page of a photograph album. There is a printed caption below the photograph.

Significance

The Exhibition Trustees' album containing this photograph provides an invaluable visual record of past maintenance and restoration work undertaken on the Royal Exhibition Buildings prior to the building being recognised with a World Heritage Listing in 2004.

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