Walking Group Visit to Supreme Court

The Supreme Court was established in 1852 and is the highest court in Victoria. 

The Walking Group were recently able to do a Guided Tour of the Supreme Court Library at 210 William St, a magnificent domed building of four levels which houses a collection of over 120,000 law books.  

The Library itself was established by Sir Redmond Barry in 1853, the building opened in 1884 and shows the wealth and opulence of the Gold Rush Era.  Sir Redmond was an early Barrister and Judge of the Victorian Colonial Court and he was the Presiding Judge for the Eureka and Ned Kelly cases.

The Dome room, shown in the photo at right, includes a decagonal reading table and a dominating central light, now converted to power.   

The building was refurbished in 1999.   It is well worth a visit, either daily hours 8.30 to 6pm or a Melbourne Open House Tour.

After lunch, five of us then sat in a case in the County Court for an hour, also an interesting experience.

Thank you to Margaret Bond for the report.