My name is Charlotte Smith and I am Senior Curator at Museum Victoria.
And my role in this project is to interpret the artefacts that we hope to dig up from the Western Forecourt, and to tell stories and how they relate to the Exhibition Building. And also to sort of help in terms of interpreting the German Garden when it's restored.
This building is highly significant for Victoria and indeed for the world. It was built in 1879 for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, and as precocious Victorians we sort of wanted to state to the world that we were capable of competing on their level. So 33 nations came out and exhibited under the very roof that we're standing [under] now. It was really Victoria's way of welcoming all nations but also showing that we were their equal in terms of what we could manufacture and in terms of events that we could put on.