Flinders Street Station and the Eureka Tower Melbourne

Acrylic on canvas   102 X 76 cm / 40 X 30 inches

"I'll meet you under the clocks" 

The steps of Flinders Street Station have been a meeting point for over a hundred years. Couples fly from overseas to take wedding pictures in front of this uniquely federation era icon, one of the world's busiest commuter stations.

At 300m tall, the Eureka Tower looms behind, another example of Melbourne's quirky and distinctive architecture.  

While their architectures are radically different, both buildings share a common root, the year 1854.

In that year, a railway station first opened on this site. Victoria was in the midst of its gold rush that saw Melbourne grow rapidly. 

A gold miners' rebellion also occurred in 1854 at nearby Ballarat. Known in local folklore as the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, the namesake of this building, it resulted in 27 deaths and scores of injuries. The vertical red stripe on the building, incorporated into the painting, represents the blood spilt in the uprising.

In this picture, I've used abstraction to represent the peak hour crowds rushing under the clocks and along the footpaths. The eyes on the domes represent the station watching over generations of Melburnians.

As a Melburnian myself, this is a natural inclusion in my Worldscape Collection of globally significant sites.