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1866 Melbourne
Name: | Intercolonial Exhibition |
Dates: | 24 Oct 1866 – 23 Feb 1867 |
Days: | 147 days |
Venue: | |
Theme: | |
Exhibitors: | 2.955 – see splits in text below |
Awards: | |
Visitors: | 263,634 |
Legacy: |
Once again this Melbourne exhibition was organised to bring together exhibits that would be selected for a European event – this time it was the Paris 1867 Exposition Universelle.
The architects were Reed & Barnes, the venue had two main buildings, the Great Hall and the Rotunda. The buildings were constructed behind the Melbourne Public Library (now State Library Victoria), on the site where the La Trobe (Dome) Reading Room stands today.

You can watch a virtual reconstruction of these buildings on the State Library’s website.

For the first time the regional colonies exhibited – New South Wales (273 exhibitors), Queensland (36 exhs), South Australia (103 exhs), Tasmania (738 exhs), Victoria (1,479 exhs), Western Australia (196 exhs) and from New Zealand (85 exhs), New Caledonia (36 exhs), Mauritius (6 exhs) and Netherlands-India (3 exhs). Each colony was assigned a court for their display. Victoria’s comprised separate courts for the Sandhurst (Bendigo), Ovens & Murray, and Wangaratta districts.


The State Library of Victoria has a full copy of the Show Guide here

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