Favourite places: Victoria State Library

The State Library of Victoria is located in the heart of the city, and as I've previously written, it's a popular place for protests. On days without protests, the front lawn tends to be dotted with roughly equal numbers of pigeons, seagulls, and people, lounging around reading or chatting in groups.

Not particularly dotted with students, seagulls or pigeons...

Despite the wonderful opportunities for fun outside the library however, it is the inside that is spectacular. The first time I went inside, especially inside the La Trobe Reading Room (most of the below pictures), I was awed by it, and to be honest, a little aroused. The blend of beautiful architecture and lots an lots of books gives me a feeling comparable to religious awe. If we lived closer to the city, I would definitely go there, at least occasionally, to study.

To emphasize how wonderfully nerdy the State Library is, there is a dedicated chess room, housing resources on the game of chess, and a number of chess boards set up so you can sit down to a game.

The State Library of Victoria is definitely among the top tourist destinations in Melbourne, at least for bibliophiles like me.

Some sights of Melbourne

Yesterday, I handed in my last assignment for several weeks, and celebrated by taking some time to wander around the city and play with my camera again for the first time in many weeks. I wasn't feeling too inspired, too brain drained I think, but here are a few of my better photos, though they're all photos of someone else's art.

A trip to the Old Melbourne Gaol

A few weeks ago, my husband and I did the touristy thing in Melbourne, and ended up at the Old Melbourne Gaol and City Watch House.

I've never been in a modern watch house or gaol. I have no idea how (in)humane they are, but the now closed watch house and gaol both looked barbaric. The scary thing is that the watch house wasn't closed until the early 90s, after I was born. The cells in the watch house were large and meant to hold about a dozen people. Some had benches, some (for the drunks) had just bare concrete floors. Except for those at risk of self-harm, who were put in a padded cell, there was no separation of inmates based on class of offence; being locked up was dangerous. Things like this make me realise that we're nowhere near as removed from the barbaric past as I would like to think.

The watch house was a bit of a shock, but the gaol was depressing. Really depressing. Throughout the cells there were displays and stories of the people who had been incarcerated, and the more I looked the more depressed I became. Sure, there had been violent criminals and murderers, but the primary crime seemed to have been poverty. There were a lot of women imprisoned for failing to provide for their children, while clearly having been unable to provide for themselves either. No men were imprisoned for that crime. One story that really got to me was of two sisters, in their early teens, thrown into gaol over Christmas. Their crime? Vagrancy. Their mother was dead, their father had pissed off to the gold-fields without them, and so they were left with nowhere to live, and no source of income. This was a criminal offence, and granted them a stay in a room like this. This was in the gaol, not in the watch house. They weren't put away for the night for their own protection, they had a trial and sentencing, and were found guilty of the crime of vagrancy. They should have been given help, not a criminal record.

The only way to not be utterly depressed by the experience was to reflect on the fact that our legal system has improved. Problems? Definitely. But we have a better support structure in place to catch people in poverty, and homosexuality is no longer a crime.