SUMMER'S GOODBYE

We are enjoying some sunny, hot days in Melbourne as Summer leaves us and Autumn is coming in. The last chance to enjoy the delights of the beach and the sea...

This post is part of the  Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Wednesday Waters,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

MEGGS MURAL FITZROY

David “MEGGS” Hooke is one of Australia’s most progressive and committed street and fine artists. MEGGS is recognised for his unique, expressive, and energetic style with references to pop-culture, the natural world, and socio-cultural issues. His technical use of colour and movement combines clean, bold, illustrative elements with intuitive, textural, and free flowing design. By constantly searching for the harmony between form, abstraction, order, and chaos, MEGGS pours his all-or-nothing personality into every inch of his work. His life manifesto is that the ‘journey is the reward’ and his work reflects his eternal search for balance. MEGGS’ emphasis on constant growth and passion for travel is demonstrated by his continual exploration of artistic techniques and mediums.

MEGGS was born and raised in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia and completed his Bachelor of Design degree at Swinburne University School of Design in 2000. He is a founding member of the Everfresh crew, a unique collective of street art pioneers who opened the world renowned Everfresh Studio in 2004. MEGGS’ adoration of comic book art, sci-fi fantasy, skateboarding, graffiti culture, heavy metal, and punk rock music are at the core what inspired him to pursue his career in fine art. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

This 2014 mural is in Brunswick St, Fitzroy, in one of inner Melbourne's 'Bohemian' neighbourhoods, well suiting MEGGS' style. The magpie in flight with a full blown rose in its beak is a vigorous image that jumps up and out of the wall it is painted on. Birds and roses feature frequently in MEGGS' work and this striking mural is one of my faves.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Monday Murals meme.

YULE HOUSE

Yule House is a five-story office building situated at 309-311 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, Australia. It was constructed in 1932 from a design by Melbourne-based architecture firm, Oakley and Parkes. The Yule House was one of Melbourne’s first commercial buildings to exhibit the Streamline Moderne style (a branch of Art Deco) of architecture and began the style's rise in popularity throughout the 1930s. The current Yule House stands as a redesigned fireproof replacement of the original, which was destroyed by fire in 1931. William Yule had been the owner of the land since the early 1900s and it remained part of his estate until 1985.

This post is part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

AUTUMN IS COMING

Autumn is making its presence felt in Melbourne these past few days. Some rain, cooler temperatures, shortening days and the leaves have started to turn yellow.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,

and also part of the I Heart Macros meme.

A WALK IN THE DANDENONGS

The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just called 'the Dandenongs') are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, approximately 35 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The ranges consist mostly of rolling hills, steeply weathered valleys and gullies covered in thick temperate rainforest, predominantly of tall Mountain Ash trees and dense ferny undergrowth.

After European settlement in the region, the ranges were used as a main source of timber for Melbourne. They were popular with day-trippers from the 1870s onwards. Much of the Dandenongs were protected by parklands as early as 1882 and by 1987 these parklands were amalgamated to form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, which was added to again in 1997. The ranges experience light to moderate snow falls a few times most years, frequently between late winter and late spring.

Today, the Dandenongs are home to over 100,000 residents and the area is popular amongst visitors, many of which stay for the weekend at the various Bed & Breakfasts through the region.

This post is part of the Friday Greens meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 108 - LEMON-SCENTED TEATREE

Leptospermum petersonii (or Leptospermum citratum), lemon-scented teatree is a tall shrub to small tree, growing to a maximum of 5 metres which is cultivated as an ornamental and for essential oils. It naturally occurs near sclerophyll forest or rainforest, on sandy or rocky escarpments, on the east coast of Australia. It has simple leaves, 20–40 mm long, with a distinctive, strong, lemony aroma. The flowers are white, followed by woody capsules.

The leaves are distilled commercially for the essential oil which contains citronellal, citral, and pinene. It is grown in plantations in Kenya, Zaire, South Africa, Guatemala and Australia. The leaf of lemon-scented teatree is also used as a flavouring ingredient in boutique tea blends with standard black tea, Camelia sinensis. The essential oil from L.petersonii inhibits the pathological fungi Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus.

Lemon-scented teatree is well known as a garden plant, popular for its scent and attractiveness. It is fast growing and can be kept to shrub height by pruning. The ability to be pruned regularly also makes it well-suited for hedges, windbreaks and harvesting for distilled essential oils. Leptospermum liversidgei is also called "lemon-scented teatree" due to the presence of lemony essential oils.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

EXHIBITION BUILDINGS

Originally designed for the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880, the Exhibition buildings and the surrounding Carlton Gardens are now World Heritage listed. The Royal Exhibition Building is Australia's only World Heritage listed building. Completed in 1880 for Melbourne's first International Exhibition, it was the site of Australia's first Federal Parliament in 1901. With its meticulously restored interior, expansive galleries and soaring dome, it continues to offer a magnificent setting for trade shows, fairs and cultural events.

The Exhibition Fountain by Josef Hochgurtel is of Portland cement built in 1880. Josef Hochgurtel was born in Cologne, Germany, and trained under Herr Fuels, who modelled the Cologne Cathedral. In creating the Exhibition Fountain, he was assisted by August Saupe, who had worked on similar pieces in Berlin, Dresden and Copenhagen. The colossal fountain stands some 10 metres high on the south side of the Royal Exhibition Building, outside the Great Hall. It was constructed for the first of Melbourne’s two grand international world fairs. The fountain’s visual elements were designed to display the young colony’s confidence and advancement, simultaneously signalling the purpose of world fairs to display the produce and industry of nations.

The interior of the building is as remarkable as the exterior and photos of it during one of the annual Flower Shows held there can be seen here.

This post is part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

MORNING LANE

Walking in Melbourne's lanes is part of the Melbourne experience that no tourist should miss. Numerous cafés, restaurants, boutiques, small quirky shops and lots of interesting people are to be found here. This is Hardware Lane, looking North, early in the morning. Admittedly, this lane is busier later in the day with lunch proving more popular here than breakfast...

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

ARTS CENTRE CIRCUS MOSAIC

The Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly officially called The Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia. It was designed by architect Sir Roy Grounds, the masterplan for the complex (along with the National Gallery of Victoria) was approved in 1960 and construction began in 1973 following some delays. The complex opened in stages, with Hamer Hall opening in 1982 and the Theatres Building opening in 1984. The Arts Centre is located by the Yarra River and along St Kilda Road, one of the city's main thoroughfares, and extends into the Melbourne Arts Precinct, with its spire a well-knwon landmark of Melbourne.

The sculptures are by Cole Sopov, who was born in Greece in 1938, and studied fine arts in Europe before immigrating to Australia in 1971. From 1973 to 1974 he attended the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, before being appointed lecturer in Fine Arts at Monash University from 1977 to 1995. Sopov was commissioned by John Truscott in 1983-84 to create two groups of figures, ‘Family of Man I’ and ‘Family of Man II’ for the entrance foyer of the Theatres Building. These two sculpture groups were moved in 2001 to their current prominent location overlooking the lawn area between the Theatres Building and Hamer Hall.

The circus mosaic commemorates the important association between the site now occupied by the Victorian Arts Centre and the development of circus in Australia., The area referred to as "near Princes Bridge" was favoured as a circus location and "outdoor Playground" from the 1870's. One of the first tenants was the American circus, Cooper and Bailey`s which pitched its tents on the banks of the Yarra in 1877. Wirth Brothers Circus took over the lease in 1907 and demolished the existing temporary building erected earlier by Fitzgerald Brothers Circus. They built their own Olympia on the re-named Wirth Park, complete with a circus hippodrome, roller skating rink, race track, water chute and lake. It remained Wirth's Melbourne headquarters until 1953 when the buildings were destroyed by fire.

Wirth Brothers` Circus was billed as "the greatest show on earth" and became an Australian institution during its long history ( 1858 - 1953). Conveyed by its own special trains and drawing upon the major circuses of the world for its performers, it was a circus in the grand style. May Wirth ( 1895 - 1980 ) first performed with Wirth`s as a child and displayed an outstanding talent for horseback acrobatics. She went on to great international acclaim and was widely acknowledged as the finest circus equestrienne in the world. Unveiled on 7 June 1988 to mark the 150th anniversary of circus in Australia. A joint project between the Circus Fans of Australasia Inc. and the Performing Arts Museum, Victorian Arts Centre. Created by Joe Attard and David Jack of the Melbourne Mural Studio. Supported by the Commonwealth Department of Communications and the Arts.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Monday Murals meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

ST FRANCIS CHURCH

St Francis' Church is the oldest Catholic church in Victoria, Australia. Located on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Elizabeth Street, it is one of only three buildings in central Melbourne which predates the Gold Rush of 1851. The church's foundation stone was laid on 4 October 1841, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, to whom the church is dedicated.

It was commissioned by Fr Patrick Geoghegan, the first Catholic priest in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, which became Victoria in 1851. In 1848, St Francis' became the cathedral church of the first Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, James Goold, and continued as a cathedral until 1868, when the diocesan seat was moved to the still unfinished St Patrick's Cathedral (which was not formally consecrated until 1897).

Centrally located in the Melbourne's CBD, St Francis' has never lost its place as one of the city's most popular and widely used churches, and today is the busiest church in Australia, with more than 10,000 worshippers attending each week. Since 1929, it has been a centre of Eucharistic Life in the care of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament.

The church is listed with Victorian Heritage Register, the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and the Australian Heritage Commission. Although there have been many changes made to the building, including the erection of a new tower, a gift from the Grollo family, to house the original 1853 bell imported from Dublin, the church remains essentially as it was designed by Samuel Jackson.

This post is part of the Spiritual Sundays meme,
and also part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.

DUCK POND

Duck pond in Darebin Parklands in Fairfield.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

YARRA RIVER SUNSET

The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Aboriginal: Berrern, Birr-arrung, Bay-ray-rung, Birarang, Birrarung, and Wongete) is a perennial river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches. From its source in the Yarra Ranges, it flows 242 kilometres  west through the Yarra Valley which opens out into plains as it winds its way through Greater Melbourne before emptying into Hobsons Bay in northernmost Port Phillip.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,

and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.