HOBBY historian Dallas Robertson’s grand Minecraft reimagining of Perth’s historical cityscape has inspired at least one youngster to follow in his foosteps, with 7-year-old Alex Giovenco reconstructing Viking House in the 3D Lego-like game.
Mr Robertson spent countless hours recreating what Perth was like in 1870, going to great pains to craft as accurately as possible buildings like Government House from hundreds of old photographs. A founder of the Museum of Perth, he hoped using Minecraft would inspire kids to get more interested in history.
Young Alex from Huntingdale loves buildings and architecture (“his favourite show in the world would be Grand Designs,” mum Cheryl says) and the Museum of Perth provided him with a slew of pics to use for inspiration.
He settled on Viking House, loving the medieval spikey look to it, and it only took him a couple of hours to put together his rendition. Built as a replica to the early Gothic style by the Fremantle architects Allen and Nicholas, Viking House was demolished to make way for the AMP building and now exists only in pictures (and Alex’s saved game).
by DAVID BELL
Perth Voice Interactive 
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