In 2019, locally (and internationally) lauded Melbourne street artist Tyrone “Rone” Wright took over Burnham Beeches, a sprawling art deco mansion in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, for his huge Empire exhibition.

It became an immersive, beautifully dilapidated ode to an abandoned past, with large portraits of a woman’s face – part graffiti, part realist portraiture – covering the walls in 12 spaces.

Now, following his first comprehensive solo survey, Rone in Geelong last year, he’s back with his most expansive project yet, Time.

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He’s taken over Flinders Street Station’s mysterious, long-abandoned ballroom and hidden third floor. (It most recently housed Patricia Piccinini’s surreal, intimate and playful exhibition A Miracle Constantly Repeated, but Rone’s installation will include a few undiscovered rooms.)

More than three years in the making, the new, nostalgic choose-your-own-adventure installation will be somewhat of a time capsule of mid-century Melbourne.

There’ll be 11 distinctly different rooms to explore across the 112-year-old site, each themed to evoke a specific part of the city’s history – paying particular attention to the working class. Think typing pools, machine rooms and public libraries.

Expect to find painstakingly preserved period pieces – including 14 matching vintage typewriters, antique medicine bottles and more – as well as clever recreations by Rone and his team of collaborators. They include long-timers like set designer Carly Spooner, sound composer Nick Batterham and multidisciplinary artist Callum Preston.

In true Rone style, his signature ethereal portraits of women will loom over each room.

“For years, I had heard all these stories about the mysterious ballroom above Flinders Street Station,” Rone said in a statement. “I always wondered how much of it was truth and how much was urban myth. I was desperate to get in there.

“The Flinders Street ballroom has been my white whale. The work won’t last – it has been designed with a limited lifespan in mind – but I hope the stories will live on.”

Time will run from Friday October 28 to Sunday January 29, 2023, at Flinders Street Station Ballroom. Tickets go on sale at 10am today, Thursday September 29.

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