Royal Melbourne

During 2012, the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was celebrated – sixty years since she ascended the throne.

a crown and the letters RM made out of dots on a red background

This content is archived

17 May to 8 September 2012

To mark the occasion an exhibition, Royal Melbourne, at the City Gallery explored the relationship between the British monarchy and the City of Melbourne in particular royal visitors, from Prince Alfred in 1867 to Queen Elizabeth in 1954.

Royal Melbourne traced, too, the influence of royalty in municipal traditions and iconography which, even in the absence of royal visitors, link the young City of Melbourne and its people with an authority 17,000 km distant and a millennium old.

Curated by Robyn Annear

Robyn Annear is best known as author of Bearbrass: Imagining Early Melbourne (1995) and A City Lost and Found: Whelan the Wrecker s Melbourne (2005). She is a member of the Library Board of Victoria, and a past Creative Fellow at the State Library of Victoria.

Born six years after the 1954 royal visit, Robyn was a child of the TV age: the Beatles tour was her generation s royal visit.

Royal Melbourne is Robyn s second exhibition for the City Gallery. The first, in 2008, was UP: What Height Melbourne?, with artist Louise Forthun.