Rialto Towers and Royal Mint

Rialto Towers

Rialto Towers is the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere, with 58 floors above street level and 8 below. From street level up, it measures 253 m (830 ft).

The structure was built in 1986 by Australian developer Bruno Grollo, who was also responsible for the city’s new casino on the Yarra River. An observation deck was opened on the 55th floor in 1994 and now draws 1,500 visitors a day to see panoramic views of the city. There is also a half-hourly screening of a 20-minute film introducing visitors to the sights of Melbourne.

The lift travels from the ground floor to the 55th floor in 38 seconds and is one of the fastest in the world.

Royal Mint

This Former Mint, built between 1871 and 1872, contains two courts which were until recently used to cope with the overflow from the Supreme Court. The building replaced Melbourne’s first Exhibition Building, erected in 1854 and subsequently destroyed by fire.

When the mint opened in 1872 it processed finds from the Victoria gold fields and was a branch of the Royal Mint of London. The actual coining processes took place in an area now occupied by the car park. After the Commonwealth of Australia was founded in 1901, new silver coinage was designed, which the mint produced from 1916 to the mid-1960s. The Melbourne site ceased production in 1967 when the Royal Mint was relocated to Canberra. Although the Royal Mint building is now closed to the general public, visitors can still take in its imposing structure from the outside.