Derby Day Damsels

These lovely ladies are dressed in their finery for the Victorian Derby.

Derby Day in Melbourne is the Saturday before Melbourne Cup, and is run at Flemington. For those going to the races it is a day for dressing up, fascinators and a rollicking good time.

Skywatch Friday - Blue Skies

Just on sunrise - from my backyard facing east.

To see other skies around the world click here.

The Tourist Shuttle

The bright orange and white Melbourne City tourist shuttle bus is free and runs daily every 30 minutes from 9.30am to 4.30pm (excluding Christmas Day and Good Friday). It takes you around the city of Melbourne stopping at 13 key tourist attractions and destinations in and around the city of Melbourne.
From Chinatown to the Shrine of Remembrance, to the Queen Vic to the Sports complex, it is a good way of seeing Melbourne without being hampered by which bus, which tram.
So look out for the bright orange sign for the stops and take the ease out of navigating your way around a major city.

For more information click on the link at the side listed under 'Melbourne Information.'
Happy travels.

Bath Time

Fancy a dip?
This rather odd looking metal sculpture is at Birrarung Marr down on the Yarra and has the look of an eccentric bath-tub.

In the background are five shields representing the five groups that comprised the Kulin nation. I'll be writing about this at a later date.

Elephant and Wheelbarrow

Traditional English Pub
When you enter this lovely old building, you have a feeling of having stepped back in time to a gentler era - the dark, timbered walls and bar, button-backed leather Chesterfield sofas - the hallmarks of the quintessential English touch. Decorated with London Tube maps, and other trinketry, offering various Irish, English and Scottish beers, it is one of Melbourne's friendliest pubs.

Sprawling over three levels on the corner of Bourke St. and Exhibition St., the E&W is just the spot for a quiet drink or a night out. There is music most nights, and with a DJ and live music on Saturday nights it gets very lively. With food prices ranging from $15 up and generous servings, you will find that from the backpacker to the well-heeled there is something for everbody. So next time you're in Melbourne pop into the E&W and check it out.

View from Bourke Street. Check out the lead light windows on the ground floor.

Melbourne Cottages

Olde Worlde Grandeur
This pair of double storey cottages are a fine example of the many homes built in the inner city suburbs of Melbourne at the turn of the century. Built in the Victorian Italianate style, they feature the arched windows and extensive lacework reminiscent of the era and have been restored using heritge colours.
Below is a photo showing the ground floor windows.

Faces

I have my eye on you
This is the companion piece to yesterday's photo (Life in a bottle). As you walk along the side street to the main road, the eye is drawn to the sea of faces watching which leads you to the next painting, which in turn shows you the restaurant name - Turkish Place.

Life In A Bottle

The beautiful briny sea
Another great work by one of our talented street artists, this time on the wall of a restaurant (Turkish Place) in Bay Street Brighton about 1500 metres from Brighton Beach.

Ghostly Gums - Skywatch Friday

Early one morning, just as the sun was rising
Outside my front door, facing north(ish) the wind was something fierce, it rocked me back and forth.

To see skies around the world click here

Spring Harvest Festival 2009 - 04 Random Shots

"White Nest 09" by Chaco Kato
The annual Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards which take place each spring. Above is one of the entries.

A few random shots taken over the course of the day.

Spring Harvest Festival 2009 - 03 Meet the Producers

Gateway Estate
Gateway's fresh produce include capsicums, tomatoes (Truss, Roma and Cherry), eggplant, basil, lettuce.



Jam Lady Jam
From Healesville comes aromatic hand made jams using fresh seasonal produce and Organic sugar - Raspberry Grappa, Blackberry Shiraz, Strawberry Aniseed, Spiced Syrian Figs, Pear Vanilla Ginger are just some of their product range.

My basket of goodies - Silverbeet, potatoes, broccoli, butternut pumpkin, mandarins, cucumber, tomatoes, bananas.

Spring Harvest Festival 2009 - 02 Something Sweet

Delicious Decadence
For lovers and sweethearts or to satisfy that sweet tooth - a hamper of pure indulgence - lemon tarts, meringue kisses, whipped cream (real cream), and tiny pastries. Show someone you care - say it with food! Each hamper is beautifully decorated with hand made cards wrapped in organza ribbon.

The pastry chef

Afternoon Tea anyone?

Spring Harvest Festival 2009 - a series 01

Food, Flowers, Flavours, Fun
A little under an hour's drive from Melbourne lies the beautiful Yarra Valley - Victoria's premier wine region - and the 3rd Sunday of the month is Farmers Market in the Yarra Valley. Held in the historic "Barn" at Yering Station it is a gourmand's delight! Yesterday (Sunday 18th) was the Spring Harvest Festival.

It's a lively place with lots of chatter, food tastings, glorious home grown produce, tantalising aromas and a visual feast of colour, cakes and crepes! As well as a great selection of fresh fruits and vegetables in season, and free range eggs (no battery ones here), you will find an array of many other wonderful foods - stalls with mouth-watering biscuits, scrumptious cakes, fruit vinegars, unusual sauces, preserves and jams, freshly ground coffee and beans, buffalo sausages, gourmet pies with the crispiest pastry that literally melts in your mouth, ice-cream, delectable chocolates, honey, locally baked breads, home-made pasta, honey and honeycombs, and a wonderful range of lavender products from furniture wax to body sprays and hand-creams .. and much more.

The historic "Barn"

Sharing...

Let me fix the paper
A young boy shares his ice-cream with his little sister.
It was lovely to watch and created a "feel good" moment.

Eureka Tower

The Eureka Tower soars 300 metres (984 ft) in the air and is located in Southbank and took four years to build, opening on 11 October 2006. It is the world's tallest residential tower when measured to its highest floor.

The observation deck (Eureka Skydeck 88) occupies the entire 88th floor of the Eureka Tower and is the highest public vantage point in a building in the Southern Hemisphere at 285 m (940 ft).
Southbank
For those unfamiliar with Melbourne, Southbank is the area that stretches along the southern bank of the Yarra River and was once an old and neglected area, mostly industrial, but has now been rejuvenated as the heartbeat of the central city area. This has been done by using the Yarra River as a central feature and by introducing entertainment facilities along the river bank.

Floral Friday - Barringtonia Calyptrata

This lovely flower known as the Mango pine and Cassowary pine is a species of mangrove, and can be found in Australia and New Guinea. It also has another interesting name too - The Corned-beef Wood Tree, due to the scent of its wood. Below is a photo of the buds.

An interesting little fact
This flower also appeared on a postage stamp.
These photos were taken when I was up in Cooktown in FNQ up on the Cape York Peninsula.

Wind Contrivance

This large, bronze sculpture created by Pauline Fraser in 1995. It features vegetables, fish and an Aboriginal fishing net, and takes a whimsical look at the relationship between the land and the city, tradition and lifestyle, production and consumption.

Contrivance stands outside the Queen Victoria Market - an appropriate place - a centrepoint between land and city and a cipher through which the country harvest is distributed to city dwellers.
About the artist
Born on Christmas Island in 1953, Pauline Fraser studied sculpture at Monash University and RMIT and her works have been exhibited widely in Australia. This work was sculpted at her studio at Lurg, 20 kms from Benalla and cast at the Meridian Foundry in Fitzroy. The medium used was bronze, red gum and Harcourt granite.

Melbourne's City Circle Tram & Tribute Video

Our free City Circle trams run along Flinders Street, up Spring St. across La Trobe St. down to Waterfront City, along Harbour Esplanade and back up Flinders St. They run every 12 minutes and go in both clock-wise and anti-clockwise direction. It's a great way to navigate the city and see some of Melbourne's sights.

Below is a video tribute to our tram conductors who at the decision of government were abolished.
There is good footage and history as well as humour and a little over half-way, one of the "connies" decided to do a full-frontal.
It should be pointed out that he kept his ticket bag on at all times.
And his hat.


Bring Back Our Connies

They may be returning in 2010, albiet in a limited number. We Melbournians loved our "connies" and want them back.

Buildings and Rooftops

The spire is that of St. Paul's Cathedral, the mosaic like building is the ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image), and in the foreground is Artplay which sits in a red brick warehouse - the sole remaining building of the Melbourne rail yards.

Artplay is at Birrarung Marr on the banks of the Yarra River.

Aurora

"Aurora"
Created by Geoffrey Bartlett, this wonderful artwork dwarfs any who walk under its arch. Standing at the corner of Harbour Esplanade and Bourke Street, it is a giant of gleaming steel with gracefull curves and is lit internally at night creating an impression of a floating ball.

William Barak Bridge

The William Barak Bridge is named after William Barak who was a member of the Wurundjeri people. He was a diplomat, negotiator and artist who was a powerful leader and advocate for his people.
The bridge is up to 9 metres wide and 525 metres long and gives lift access to the ground level precinct and the Number 70 tram - and the opportunity to enjoy commanding views of the City; a land bridge which joins Melbourne's CBD with the famous MCG and other nearby sporting venues.

AS you walk along the bridge, you enter a sonic corridor of voice recordings of people from the 53 Commonwealth nations represented in Australia. Central to the work are the voices of the area’s original custodians, the Wurundjeri people. Each person sings a traditional song from his/her background with the voices interwoven to create a continually shifting soundscape. Commissioned for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, it’s an evocative tribute to diversity.The installation includes applied paintwork, 60 grilles, 56 loudspeakers, 4 sensors and 24 channels. Below are close-ups of the artwork from which they can be heard.

Scrumptious Shortbread

A sweet selection
These look good enough to eat! Strolling through the Queen Victoria Market, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee wafting through the air, the tantalising delights of Italian shortbread before me, I could feel the temptation. I only have to walk past a Patisserie and I put on weight!

I confess - I bought two ..Ah belissimo!

Skywatch Friday - Clouds at 35,000 ft

Somewhere over Melbourne
Taken from my window seat on the plane.

Under the "Clocks"

"Meet me under the clocks" - is what we said when we were going into "Town". Everybody who went into town (now called "The City" always met their friends/mates/girlfriends/boyfriends under the famous clocks of Flinders Street Station.
Flinders Street Station is the meeting place for all Melbournians.

Flinders Street Station (on the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street) is the oldest station in Australia (1910) - although the first station on this site was opened in 1854 and is the busiest suburban railway station in the Southern Hemisphere, even after the completion of the city loop railway subway and its 700 metre main platform is the longest in the country.

Over the years, Flinders Street Station has become a famous Melbourne landmark, emerging as a symbol of Victoria's capital city and is an institution in the daily routine of nearly a quarter of a million people.
Flinders Street 1910.

And in 1927.

In 1854, Flinders Street Station was an interesting collection of weatherboard sheds known as the Melbourne Terminus. It was the first steam rail station in Australia, a fact that pleased Victorians who were used to taking second place to New South Wales, the mother colony.

Thousands of people assembled at the station and along the track to Sandridge (today known as Port Melbourne) to see not only Victoria's, but Australia's first public steam train.

An interesting tidbit
Rumours abound that the plans for Bombay railway station and Flinders St railway station were mixed up in the designers' office in London, and as a result the Bombay railway station now sits in Melbourne and the original Flinders St railway station was built in Bombay.

While there's no actual evidence to support this claim, Flinders Street Station has in fact had its influences reach further ashore. The Luz Station in Sao Paulo, Brazil was based on a design inspired by the lines of Flinders Street Station.

Men at Work

Look at me!
Driving along Bay Street near the corner of Little Bay Street (a short stroll from one of the best pubs in Port Melbourne), these men were hard at work, and after parking my car to take a few pics, I heard this young fella say, "Hey look, the lady's taking our photo". With that he hopped up on the truck, stuck out one leg and posing for me gave me a winning smile. Who said only ladies are vain?
(I've had to lighten it considerably so it may be a little blurry.)

Just thought I'd add, if you find yourself down at Port Melbourne one day, the best pub there (in my opinion) is the Prince Alfred - they do great pub meals - good, old-fashioned home-cookin'. The lamb's fry'n'bacon is superb - I can testify to that!