Since 1856, the State Library of Victoria has stood tall on Swanston Street — an imposing marble monument to knowledge, civic pride, and, for many uni students, the sacred lunchtime nap.
It’s Australia’s oldest public library, and one of the first in the world to let anyone — anyone — walk in and touch the spine of a book without paying a cent.
Out front is a mixture of chaos and calm. Students with cracked phones. Lovers on the lawn. Chess matches waged with oversized pieces. It’s one of the CBD’s rare open spaces where time slows down just enough to read a paragraph — or lose an entire afternoon to people-watching.
Presiding over it all is Sir Redmond Barry — lawyer, library founder, and the man who sentenced Ned Kelly to hang. He launched the library with books from his own collection and carved his family crest into the stone above the door. Then, twelve days after condemning Kelly, Barry promptly dropped dead himself. Drama ’til the end.
The forecourt wasn’t always this open. Once fenced off with prim picket fences and wrought iron gates, it finally threw open its arms in 1939 — a civic gesture of sun, grass, and gravel paths. Today, it's a meeting point, a refuge, a protest ground, a first kiss, a final cry.
This is Melbourne’s Greco-Roman temple of books, archives, and ideas — where history is kept, shared, challenged, and re-read every day. And now, you can bring this history home.
Grab the Suburban Icons print of the State Library forecourt — and own a slice of Melbourne’s literary history baked under the Swanston Street sun.
