Melbourne Shot Tower

There seems to be endless places to shop in Melbourne, with shopping malls everywhere. They mostly seem to have been built in the last fifteen to twenty years, although there are some older arcades.

Near where I'm staying I could see an intriguing cone of glass. I went to investigate. Here in Melbourne Central Shopping Complex, I came across a spectacular blend of old and new.

The Shot Tower...

Once it was the tallest building in Melbourne — all 50 metres of it. Even as late as the mid-1950s it stood six metres higher than the then city building limits.

...says this article in 1980 from The Age (which seems to be the best newspaper around here). A shot tower, by the way, was used to make lead shot for shotgun cartridges. The process was fairly simple. Molten lead was poured through a colander and fell down the tower into water. As it fell it solidified into spheres of shot. Those that were mis-shapen were sorted out and melted again to come down the tower once more.

The article goes on to explain the history of the tower and laments that it may be demolished in the name of progress.

But no. The tower has been preserved and the new shopping centre constructed around it in 1991. Here's how it used to look. But now it is encased in a 55 storey steel and glass cone. Very striking. Quite my favourite image of Melbourne so far.