Inside the media scrum as Bendigo MP Jacinta Allan became premier

Parliamentarians would nip out looking for the loo and find a wall of cameras and cacophony of questions.

The nearest toilets were in the same corridor Spring Street's press gallery was camped out in, leading to some very awkward moments - and not just for those with small bladders.

"Is that a real phone call?" a journalist yelled as one person walked out of the caucus room with a mobile pressed to his ear.

More on this story: We invited Allan to the regions. She said thanks for the invite

The phone call appeared too absorbing for the press pack to get a detailed answer.

Inside the party room, parliamentarians milled around waiting to decide Victoria's future.

This reporter and Addy photographer Darren Howe were outside the ALP's caucus room as the party lurched into a leadership showdown on September 27.

We were at Melbourne's Parliament House for what was supposed to be a straightforward coronation of Bendigo East MP Jacinta Allan.

She is the first actively-serving Bendigo member to take the reins since Sir Albert Dunstan became premier in 1935.

Sir Albert may well have approved of Wednesday's intrigues. The United Country Party leader was no stranger to wheeling and dealing behind the scenes to cement his positions.

Jacinta Allan and Daniel Andrews were nowhere to be seen as Wednesday's meeting started and (now deputy premier) Ben Carroll made noise about a leadership challenge.

"Sh** may be about to hit the fan, be ready" was the message back to the Addy's newsroom and its team of live-bloggers.

Parliamentarian Lily D'Ambrosio appeared to be acting as a go-between as rival factions thrashed out a deal - not that she was confirming any of that.

"We've got a process to go through," was all she would offer on one of her multiple trips back and forth between different parts of Parliament House.

Parliament House is a grand old building but it is ageing and we had plenty of time to map out every creaking floorboard and peeling bit of paint in the hallway outside the ALP caucus room as leadership intrigue played out on the other side of the wall.

It would be nice to think one of this newspaper's greatest editors (and also one of our more illustrious Bendigo MPs) Angus Mackay trod these same corridors mulling the headaches of governing in the 1870s.

Mackay would not have needed to negotiate the cameras running live feeds but would have been part of the leadership spectacles that drew crowds and "our own correspondent" from the Advertiser, as they were known in the 19^th century.

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I don't know if the Bendigo Advertiser went down to Melbourne when Sir Albert assumed power in the 1930s.

Hopefully its journalists did and - with any luck - they are not turning in their grave at our modern-day coverage.

I would like to think they would have appreciated that we used an afternoon press conference with a victorious Allan (and Carroll, who is now her deputy) to very deliberately ask about regional Victoria under the new leadership.

Meanwhile, in Spring Street, Labor MPs are no doubt happy not only to have a new leader, but the privacy to once again go to the toilet in peace.

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