The gold-rush city, laid out as a grid on the land of the Kulin nations and made suddenly, spectacularly rich when gold was found in Victoria in the eighteen fifties. That fortune built a boom city of grand boulevards, ornate arcades and public palaces, and left behind a secret second city of narrow laneways now full of street art, coffee and hidden bars. From Flinders Street Station and the painted walls of Hosier Lane through the glass-roofed Block and Royal Arcades to the oldest Chinatown in the southern hemisphere, the centre is a maze to be wandered. Up the hill on Spring Street stand the parliament, treasury and theatres the gold built, and the gaol where Ned Kelly met the rope. Read the laneways and the boom city at your own pace.
