Hello, I created this blog because Melbourne is my city and I want people to see what a beautiful place it is. So come with me on a journey of discovery as we traverse the dining precincts, the culture, the laneways and hidden gems that make Melbourne marvellous.
Waltzing Australia
Showing posts with label Swanston Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swanston Street. Show all posts
It has been some time since I was last here. Health problems had been plagueing me and as they started settling down, I have been staying with my daughter. I trust you all had a wonderful Christmas. Thank you for the good wishes and may the New Year bring good times ahead.
Above:A Chair on Swanston
We were on our way to see Mary Poppins when I spotted this lovely seat on the corner of Swanston and Little Lonsdale Streets and thought now there's something worthy of a photo. I was quite taken with the lovely filagree work and the four large sunflowers. Photo was taken on an angle to try and get most of the seat in the picture.
A search finds it was created by Bronwyn Snow in 1994 and is made from steel and jarrah. Below is the only available information I was able to find.
Bronwyn Snow's Resting Place is a sculpture that combines aesthetics and function. Commissioned through the City of Melbourne's Percent for Art Program, this double-sided seat of steel and jarrah offers the urban flâneur a place to rest, take stock and take in the urban environment. The decorative elements of the seat include two serpents-traditionally a symbol of healing, rebirth and female power-towering sunflowers, which watch over the seated, and ivy. Snow claims of the work that it is 'a stopping point, a resting place for the weary spiritual traveller'. Source eMelbourne
Today's quote: A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
On the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane is a beautiful piece of art work. Titled Beyond the Ocean of Existence, this patinated bronze sculpture was created by Loretta Quinn in 1993. It comprises a single large ball surrounded by eight bronze coils and a series of smaller balls and lengths of column, both triangular and circular in cross-section, surmount these coils. At the sculpture's top is a stylised angel. The work is a mounted on a granite plinth of dressed and polished blocks.
About the artist
Loretta Quinn was born in Hobart and studied sculpture at the Tasmanian School of Art and the Victorian College of the Arts. She was commssioned by The City of Melbourne in 1992 to create Beyond the Ocean of Existence as part of the Swanston Walk redevelopment. The sculpture was unveiled the following year. The city also commissioned Quinn's Within Three Worlds, located in Princes Park
Beyond the Ocean of Existence demonstrates Quinn's reflective approach, and it is a work replete with religious references. There is a sense of 'folk religion' in much of her art, and whether the symbols derive from the mystery of a Latin mass or the animist universe, a Celtic myth or a Japanese garden, she says they are 'visual references to which others will relate'.
Further information about Loretta Quinn can be found at the Harrison Galleries.
In the background
The tall Gothic building in the background is the Manchester Unity building built in the 1932 and designed by Marcus Barlow which was once Melbourne's tallest building, the modern piece of architecture slightly to the left and in front is Wales Corner (Bank of NSW) 1973 by Wolfgang Sievers. And if you look very carefully through the trees, you can see the Painted Poles in City Square.
Today's Quote: It is not known precisely where angels dwell - whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God's pleasure that we should be informed of their abode ~Voltaire
Three Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch: Batman, Swanston And Hoddle
Nicknamed the Metal Men, this sculpture is one of the most popular pieces of public art in Melbourne and must have the longest public art name in the world!
The whimsical, life-size bronze sculpture of three businessmen carrying lunchboxes, is located in the heart of Melbourne, on the corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets. Artist Alison Weaver claims that while the men are named and motionless, they are also intended to be anonymous and to represent being 'trapped in the perpetual motion of consumerism'. Weaver figures these three Melbourne pioneers as 'pedestrians of vast time' who have returned to the city streets, and says her interpretation of them is driven by humour rather than by iconoclasm.
The Businessmen looking East
Created by Alison Weaver and Paul Quin, "Three Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch: Batman, Swanston and Hoddle" was commissioned in 1993 as part of the Swanston Street Art Works Program, and was a gift to the City of Melbourne from the Republic of Nauru to celebrate the City's 150th Anniversary and unveiled on 20th April 1994 by His Excellency, the President of Nauru, Hon. Bernard Dowiyogo M.P.
This life-sized sculpture pays homage to Melbourne’s three pioneers, returning them to the city’s streets as pedestrians observing Melbourne’s development throughout time.
Whenever I see this sculpture, I am reminded of the short poem about businessmen -
She was Susie up in Sydney, she was Penny down in Perth,
She was Betty up in Brisbane the greatest gal on earth,
She was Molly down in Melbourne, the best of all the bunch,
But down on his expenses, she was petrol, oil and lunch!
Today's Quote: All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them ~ Walt Disney
Poles or jousting sticks?
You could be forgiven for mistaking this tall pole of considerable height for a jousting stick reminiscent of the days of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table!
This sculpture by Indigenous artists Maree Clarke and Sonja Hodge is one of three poles that have been painted with the Rainbow Serpent design and with native Australian animals. The work references Jennifer McCarthy's similar three poles (which I posted about in March) sited outside the State Library of Victoria. The work was part of the Swanston Street Walk Public Art Project and is not considered permanent.
About the artists
Maree Clarke is a Mutti Mutti, Wamba Wamba and Yorta Yorta woman who has been working to revive the Koori art of possum skin cloak-making. Her designs are influenced by the patterns of the landscape and the stories told by her ancestors.
Sonja Hodge is a Mildura-based artist and helped create the Yuyu cloak for the Possum-Skin Cloak project and worn during the opening ceremony of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Today's Quote: Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures ~ Henry Ward Beecher
It was on this day 30th August, 1835 that the city of Melbourne was founded - the day the first European settlers landed on the north bank of the Yarra River from the schooner Enterprize in 1835.
This pioneering group was led by Captain John Lancey with Launceston builder George Evans and his servant Evan Evans, carpenters William Jackson and Robert Hay Marr, ploughman Charles Wise and blacksmith James Gilbert and his wife Mary making up the party.
It was on 30 August 1835 that these first settlers landed and commenced with the building of a thatched storage hut and the clearing of land along the north bank of the Yarra River. This location today is known as Enterprize Park where Williams Street and Flinders Street meet near the old Customs House.
And so we say Happy Birthday Melbourne - 175 Years.
The City of Melbourne had several events and attractions to mark this auspicious occasion.
Traditional Owners
The people of the Kulin nation are the traditional owners of the land that became Melbourne, including the Boonwurrung, Woiwurrung, Taungurung and Djadjawurrung people, who gathered in this place for ceremonies and cultural activities.
At City Square on the corner of Swantson and Collins Streets, was the birthday cake and entertainment.
Below is a photo of Wurundjeri dancers preparing to perform a traditional dance -
The Story of Creation - Bunjil the Creator
I took this with my camera yesterday - it is the story of creation and tells of Bunjil. This is part of the Dreamtime.
Melbourne Day celebrates more than just the day the city was founded. It represents the point at which the proud community of Melbourne began.
And it is a day to celebrate all that makes Melbourne one of the world's most liveable cities.
Melbourne Day Song 30 August 2010
A special song was written to mark 175 years. This is the first public performance and is sung by Melbourne school children from various primary schools.
When I made this video yesterday, I tried to get all the children in the choir on here. Steven Spielberg I am not, but hopefully I will get better with practice.☺
Lyrics Under blue skies
Southern Blue Skies
Melburnians always meet together
Under grey skies,
Southern Grey skies,
Melburnians meet in any weather.
The Wurundjeri
And the Boonerwrung
People of the Kulin Nation
We've had settlers here,
Welcomed migrants here,
People from all destinations.
More people who care!
More people who come
To share this day!
Melbourne then and now
The city has changed a great deal in the last 100 years or so. Today, Melbourne is a great city with a passion for life, a zest for living and the best place in Australia for fashion, dining, cultural and theatre events, sport and recreation. So come on down to Melbourne and enjoy a day in one of the most convivial of cities.
Today's Quote: When you look at a city, it's like reading the hopes, aspirations and pride of everyone who built it ~ Hugh Newell Jacobsen
A fallen building?
One could be forgiven for thinking this to be a broken building from the classical Greek era. This bluestone sculpture titled "Architectural Fragment" is the creation of Petrus Spronk. Born in Holland, he immigrated to Austrlia in 1957 and trained as a ceramicist and sculptor in South Australia, He was commissioned to undertake Architectural Fragment for the Swanston Street Walk Public Art Project in 1992, the work was unveiled the following year.
Located outside the State Library of Victoria, this Port Fairy bluestone sculpture represents a fragment of the library emerging from the footpath as an archaeological artefact might. It was conceived to engage with its environment, visually connecting to its surroundings through form and material.
His inspiration was Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias". Quoting from the poem, the pedestal reads: "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my work you Mighty, and despair." Architectural Fragment is a Pythagorean triangle, which expresses a strong association with the geometry of ancient Greece. Like a fallen classical monument, it reflects the past and alludes to the transcience of the present.
Today's Quote: Life is short, the art long - Hippocrates.
Another display of Melbourne's beautiful public art.
Standing outside the State Library of Victoria in Swanston Street, these elaborately painted metal poles are the work of Jennifer McCarthy and were painted in 1992. Her work involves three poles painted in a colourful, highly decorative style. This work is not considered permanent. The City of Melbourne commissioned this work as part of the Swanston Street Walk Public Art Project.
You can see one of Melbourne's trams in the background. A city with trees in almost every street.
Today's Quote: I'm painting an idea not an ideal. Basically I'm trying to paint a structured painting full of controlled, and therefore potent, emotion - Euan Uglow
Peter Corlett sculpted this 3 metre high bronze statue of Charles Joseph La Trobe which was unveiled 21st November 2006. It shows La Trobe reading the Proclamation of Separation looking rowards the city and dressed in full uniform.
Reading the Proclomation
The statue stands outside the Victorian State Library near La Trobe Street in the CBD.
Portrait of Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801 - 1875) by W. A. Hirschmann, 1851. State Library of Victoria.
About La Trobe
Charles Joseph Latrobe was born on 20th March 1801 and was the first lieutenant-governor of Victoria. On 30th September 1839, he arrived in Melbourne with his wife and daughter, a couple of servants and a prefabricated house.
The population of Port Phillip in 1839 was less than 2,000 - when he resigned in 1854 Melbourne was the then richest city in the world with a population of over 76,000. From a small settlement of wattle and daub houses, Melbourne now had a telegraph line, a railway line, gas lighting and the foundation stones had been laid for a public library as well as a university.
Unlike mmany colonial governors, La Trobe had no army or naval training and little or no administrative experience. He was a talented and cultured gentleman with high principles. Melbourne owes a great deal to Charles La Trobe, most of our gardens, national parks and societies we have are the result of his vision.
La Trobe's Cottage
La Trobe's cottage originally stood in Jolimont, but with the passing of time fell into disrepair. It was purchased in 1960 and relocated to King's Domain near the southern entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens and restored by the National Trust. Many of the original furnishings were found and are on display in the restored cottage.
To get to the cottage, catch the No.8 tram heading south in Swanston Street and get off at stop 21 or 22.
Today's Quote: I am convinced that we shall get more than one strange animal before we have finished - Charles La Trobe 1847.
Hello, I created this blog because Melbourne is my city and I want people to see what a beautiful place it is. So come with me on a journey of discovery as we traverse the dining precincts, the culture, the laneways and hidden gems that make Melbourne marvellous.
