The Royal Exhibition Building is Australia's only UNESCO World Heritage-listed building, a vast brick-and-stucco pavilion designed by Joseph Reed and completed in 1880 for the Melbourne International Exhibition. It is one of the very few 19th-century world's-fair buildings still in use anywhere — most of the others were demolished within years of their exhibitions closing.
The building's main hall, the Great Hall under the dome, is still in active use for trade fairs, exam sittings and the occasional formal banquet. Guided tours run most days from the Melbourne Museum next door and include access up to the dome promenade for views over the Carlton Gardens and the city skyline. Tour times rotate; book at the museum.