Melbourne and the Victorian Empire

In the 1880s, this style of Venetian Gothic architecture was fashionable in Melbourne. It looks just like the buildings of medieval Venice with its pointed arches and its very hardly decorated surfaces. This was Melbourne showing off really. And it even has some relevance, I think, to the story of Federation. For a long while, New South Wales has reservations about Victoria's enthusiasm for Federation,. They fear that that Melbourne will dominate it too much.