1949
Work began on the Interstate Booking Office at Central Station (now incongruously
surrounded by a garish fast food outlet). The artist whom Peter Melocco chose
to work on the designs for the project was Guido Zuliani, whose paintings Peter
had come across at an exhibition in Spilimbergo the previous year. Immediately
he asked the curator who the young artist was, a meeting was arranged and Peter
persuaded him to come out to Australia on a two-year contract with Melocco Brothers.
Zuliani worked in the design office with Corado Tassie and Giulio Ciurletti,
first on the Interstate Booking Office and later on designs for the St Mary’s
crypt. Melocco Brothers work in the booking office includes travertine counters,
a wall frieze and a marble and terrazzo floor mural. The mural consists of a
white marble map of Australia, showing major rail links, over a terrazzo checkerboard
pattern and a series of wavy dissecting strips flanked by the emblems of the
six states of Australia. The technique employed for the wall frieze involved
sand blasting scagliola, which, despite its striking effect, was never used
by Melocco Brothers again.