The station was built using
cut and cover construction. In December 1973, to permit excavation of the station, La Trobe Street and its tram tracks were temporarily relocated to the south, onto the site of what is now the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, and moved back on completion of the work in 1978. The pit was long and wide, deep at the Swanston Street end and deep at the Elizabeth Street end. Seven layers of struts were used to support the excavation, with 2,600 tonnes of steel temporary supports required. The station was designed by architectural firm
Perrott Lyon Mathieson, with initial layout by associate David Simpson, followed by detailed design by Graeme Butler. The design included the two pairs of platforms, a spacious concourse directly under La Trobe Street, with entries facing the Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street corners. The Swanston Street corner included a set of raised circular platforms above the entry; during a
Royal Visit,
Queen Elizabeth was shown around the not yet operational station on 28 May 1980, and unveiled a plaque naming it the Queen Elizabeth Plaza. The station was finally opened on 24 January 1981, and opened as
Museum, after the adjacent
National Museum of Victoria and
Science Museum of Victoria, in the
State Library of Victoria complex on the opposite side of Swanston Street. It was the first station to open on the City Loop. Initially, the station was only used by trains on the
Burnley and
Caulfield groups, using platforms 2 and 4, with services from the
Clifton Hill group beginning to use platform 1 on 31 October 1982, and trains from the
Northern group beginning to use platform 3 on 1 May 1984. The Elizabeth Street entrance to the station opened on 5 April 1982. The adjoining Melbourne Central Shopping Centre opened in 1991, being built around the existing escalators to street level, with only minor integration between the station concourse and shopping centre. The station was renamed after the shopping centre on 16 February 1997, and a few months later on 13 July, the National Museum of Victoria closed at the State Library site, in preparation for its relocation to
Carlton, where it reopened as the Melbourne Museum in 2000. The station concourse was extensively redeveloped in 2002/2003, as part of a redevelopment of the shopping centre, integrating it into the complex. The direct escalators from the concourse to Swanston Street closed in November 2003, and were replaced by escalators rising into the atrium under the cone in the centre of the shopping centre, making the path for rail passengers more convoluted. The concourse under La Trobe Street was integrated into the shopping centre with the installation of numerous shops. On 1 February 2026, the
Pakenham,
Cranbourne and
Sunbury lines were moved out of the City Loop and into the
Metro Tunnel. Metro Tunnel services can be accessed from Melbourne Central by changing to
State Library station, whose concourse is connected to Melbourne Central. Services on the
Frankston returned to the City Loop, accessed from the same platforms formerly used for the Cranboure and Pakenham lines. == Facilities ==