Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building just opened a 'room' nobody has seen in 100 years

Ask most Melburnians what is at the top of the Royal Exhibition Building and you will get a shrug. That is exactly the point.

The building's Dome Promenade sat closed to the public for close to a century before reopening as a guided tour experience, and it remains one of the most underrated things to do in the city. The one hour tour takes you through the building's history at ground level before climbing up into the dome itself, where the views stretch out over the Carlton Gardens and the city skyline beyond.

For context, the Royal Exhibition Building is not just any old hall. It opened in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition, hosted the opening of Australia's first federal parliament in 1901, and is the only building in the country to hold UNESCO World Heritage status on its own. Most people walk past it on their way to Melbourne Museum next door without realising there is an entire hidden level above their heads.

The tour covers three lower levels, the basement, mezzanine and lower promenade, all wheelchair accessible via lift. The upper dome promenade itself is not accessible and involves around 20 steps, but it is where the payoff is. Standing under the dome looking down at the building's ornate interior, then stepping out to the exterior walkway for the skyline view, is a genuinely different way to see a part of Melbourne most people never think to look up at.

Winter is actually a solid time to do this one. It is indoors, it does not depend on the weather, and it gives you somewhere to point interstate visitors who have already done the NGV, the Botanic Gardens and Lygon Street to death.

Tickets are bookable through Museums Victoria alongside general Melbourne Museum entry, and tours run regularly rather than as a one off event. If you have lived here for years and never done it, that is not a personal failing, it is just how invisible a building can become once it is part of the furniture.

Consider this your reminder that Melbourne's best view might be one you have walked past a hundred times without looking up.