Melbourne is considered Australia's art and fashion capital.  If a visitor were to go shopping for clothes,  visitor guides strongly recommended doing it here.  On our third full day in this beautiful city we visited some of its most famous Victorian style malls very much like Sydney's Queen Victoria Building and the Strand.  The first one we visited was the General Post Office Building which is now the site of a very upscale retail store selling high end European and American men's and women's fashion.

On the sidewalk in front of the GPO Building is a famous sculpture by Simon Perry from 1994 called the

Public Purse

The informative plaque about the Public Purse

The Royal Arcade

The main entrance to the Royal Arcade. The store on the left was going out of business and crowds were lining up in droves to buy merchandise 50% off and more.

Inside the Royal Arcade

Gog and Magog

Gog and Magog guarding the Royal Arcade.  They also strike the bell every hour on the hour.

Gog

Magog

Another interior view of the Royal Arcade.  This is the side opposite Gog and Magog.

An angel standing in one corner of the Royal Arcade on the opposite side where Gog and Magog were located.

Right by the main entrance to the Block Arcade was the French Jewelbox which was an absolutely pretty patisserie and tearoom.  The place was packed and crowds had gathered outside to enter and have early morning brunch.

In front of the French Jewel box Patisserie and Tearoom

Inside the Block Arcade

The Block Arcade Melbourne

This is another mall in Melbourne close to the Royal and Block Arcades.  It was definitely modern.  It looked recently renovated.

Can you see the original exposed steel frames of the building?  This made the mall really quaint and different.

A SALE sign.  At the time of our visit, many locals were going nuts over the sale taking place all over Sydney and Melbourne.  In fact, news about how low merchandise had gotten made it to the local TV news and newspapers for a couple of days.  Apparently, a number of Australian department stores (principally Myers) registered low sales the previous year and tried very hard to reverse the apparent slow and low sales volume during the Australian winter season (July, August, September)