Built in 1898 as a tribute to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Sydney's Queen Victoria Building is a shopping centre with an unlikely past.

George McRae designed it in the Romanesque Revival style: sandstone columns, arched windows and copper-clad domes that have since turned green. Its opening ceremony featured a commemorative solid gold key, which vanished exactly one hundred years later during the QVB's centennial celebrations. It has never been found.

Outside, a bronze statue of Victoria sits on a tall sandstone pedestal, with a smaller figure nearby: Islay, her Cairn terrier, who met his end in a dispute with a cat. Inside, a ten-metre clock covered in 23-carat gold tells Australia's story from both Aboriginal and European perspectives across 33 animated scenes.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the building's journey from civic monument to retail landmark. They explore its architecture, its royal connections, and the mysteries still tucked within its walls.