It was once one of Melbourne’s best urban legends, like the tunnels under La Trobe University or the Crown casino having a secret morgue: was there really a preserved ballroom above Flinders Street Station, that barely anyone had seen for decades? Until members of the public were allowed in two years ago, for a Patricia Piccinini show, many didn’t believe it was real; even after that, some still didn’t quite know whether to believe it or not.
Street artist Tyrone Wright, better known as Rone, was one of them. “Just being in Melbourne, you hear rumours that there’s a ballroom but you don’t really know if it is there until you see pictures,” he says. “I asked around if anything was planned up here and was told nothing – which wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no. I basically didn’t stop hassling people until I could be up here.”
