Melbourne's musical clock and shot tower

In this SitAwhile 360 video, you get to see two things you don’t generally see every day in a shopping centre. A musical clock and an old shot tower. Both are housed in the Melbourne Central shopping centre.

I happened to be in this shopping centre to film at Nestlé’s KitKat Chocolatory concept store. It seemed that every time we started to record an interview, it would be interrupted by the loud sounds of the musical clock.

So, if you can’t beat them, join them – which is why I set up “Marvin”, the Insta360 Pro 2 camera, to capture the sounds and sights of the clock the following hour.

The giant fob watch clock, known as the “Marionette Watch”, puts on quite a show every hour.

The chimes start and it opens to reveal an Australiana scene: cockatoos and (I think) galahs dancing as a couple of kids play Australia’s favourite non-anthem, Waltzing Matilda.

Apparently, the watch used to have a 12ft gold chain extending off it but that’s now gone, sadly.

And in a true pantomime manner, you have to remember to “look behind you!” 

If you do, you’ll see the Coop’s Shot Tower. This is a stunning example of preserved Australian industrial history and was the tallest building in Melbourne up until the 1940’s.

What do you do in a shot tower, I hear you ask? Well, you take molten lead up to the top, then pour measured drops of it out. If you drop the lead drops from a high enough point, they then have time to form perfect spheres on the way down – spheres that then make perfect gun shot! 

You can read more about the history of Coop’s Shot Tower here. 

Now, I’m obviously not the only person to find this clock and shot tower fascinating as this particular 360 VR video is by far our most-watched video on YouTube VR – go figure!

Don’t forget to wear headphones or a VR headset as this video contains spatial audio. Enjoy!