A People Learning

As Victoria's gold-rush generation matured and colonists began to think of themselves as Victorians, they sought to build a civic culture of learning. During the 1860s and 1870s, they created public institutions and subsidised voluntary initiatives so as to nurture an informed citizenry. In Melbourne, the Public Library, National Museum, National Gallery and Industrial and Technological Museum (collectively, the 'Institution'), with the Botanic and Zoological Gardens, were established as centres of learning and leisure for people of all classes. Progressively, they encouraged learning and individual self-improvement, fostered civic values and promoted the colony's economic growth as an industrialising, democratic society.