MELBOURNE IMMIGRATION MUSEUM

The Immigration Museum focuses on Melbourne and Victoria’s immigration history. First opened in 1998 as a division of Museums Victoria, Immigration Museum is located at the restored Old Customs House Building on Flinders Street in Melbourne, Victoria.

The architects of Customs House were Peter Kerr, with additional input by J.J. Clark and Arthur Ebden Johnson. Constructed between 1855 and 1876, its creation was a reflection of vastly expanded trade and soaring revenue from the goldrush, resulting in one of Melbourne's grand buildings. The museum's most important space, the Long Room, is a notable piece of Renaissance Revival architecture. The site was listed in 1948 as one of the key sites for the modernisation of Melbourne. An 11 storey £750,000 Customs House office tower was proposed, which however, did not proceed.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme

MELBOURNE MUSEUM

The Melbourne Museum is a natural and cultural history museum located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Located adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building, the museum was opened in 2000 as a project of the Government of Victoria, on behalf of Museums Victoria which administers the venue. The museum won Best Tourist Attraction at the Australian Tourism Awards in 2011.

The last few days of Winter here in Melbourne have been windy, cold and wet, so museums, libraries and art galleries are definitely the places to be!

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

CACTUS GARDEN

Amazing cactus garden in "Collectors Corner at Gardenworld", 810 Springvale Rd Braeside Vic. 3195. An amazing retail enterprise with plants, gems, minerals, bonsai, fossils, as well as dozens of displays that highlight the diversity of the wonderful planet Earth. Well worth a visit!

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme

IN WILLIAMSTOWN

The St Kilda Ferry about to approach Williamstown pier.  In the background, HMAS Castlemaine (J244/M244/A248), named for the city of Castlemaine, Victoria, was one of 60 Bathurst-class corvettes constructed during World War II, and one of 36 initially crewed and commissioned solely by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

Launched in 1941 and commissioned in 1942, Castlemaine operated during World War II in the waters of Australia, New Guinea, and Timor. She remained in service until 1945, when she was decommissioned into reserve and converted into an immobilised training ship. In 1973, Castlemaine was presented to the Maritime Trust of Australia for conversion to a museum ship. She is one of two surviving examples of the Bathurst class, the other being HMAS Whyalla.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

MONTSALVAT

Montsalvat was originally established as a true artists’ colony in over 12 acres situated in Eltham, an outer suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It was founded by architect and artist Justus  Jörgensen (1893-1975) in 1934. It is home to a small hamlet of various buildings, houses and halls set amongst extensive established gardens. The colony of Montsalvat reflects very much the life of Justus Jörgensen and his friends and family.

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

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

AT THE MUSEUM

Melbourne Museum is adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building. It was designed by Denton Corker Marshall Architects and finished construction in 2001. It was commissioned by the Victorian Government Office of Major Projects on behalf of Museums Victoria. The museum is a rich response to Melbourne’s urban condition, and provides a place for education, history, culture and society to engage with each other in a contemporary setting. It is now an important part of Melbourne’s soft infrastructure.

It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, and is a venue of Museum Victoria, which also operates the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. The museum has seven main galleries, a Children's Gallery and a temporary exhibit gallery on three levels, Upper, Ground and Lower Level and was constructed by Baulderstone Hornibrook.

The Touring Hall is where temporary exhibits are displayed. Past exhibits include mummies from Egypt and dinosaurs from China. The Big Box is part of the Children's Gallery. In addition, the museum has other facilities such as the Sidney Myer Amphitheatre and The Age Theatre. The Discovery Centre, on the Lower Level, is a free public research centre. The museum also has a cafe and a souvenir shop.The IMAX Theatre, which is situated on the Lower Level is also part of the museum complex. It shows movies, usually documentary films, in 3-D format.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

JACK 2

Knucklebones, also known as Tali, Fivestones, or Jacks, is a game of ancient origin, usually played with five small objects, or ten in the case of jacks. Originally the "knucklebones" (actually the astragalus, a bone in the ankle, or hock) were those of a sheep, which were thrown up and caught in various manners. Modern knucklebones consist of six points, or knobs, proceeding from a common base, and are usually made of metal or plastic. The winner is the first player to successfully complete a prescribed series of throws, which, though similar, differ widely in detail.

The simplest throw consists in either tossing up one stone, the jack, or bouncing a ball, and picking up one or more stones or knucklebones from the table while it is in the air. This continues until all five stones or knucklebones have been picked up. Another throw consists in tossing up first one stone, then two, then three and so on, and catching them on the back of the hand. Different throws have received distinctive names, such as "riding the elephant", "peas in the pod", "horses in the stable", and "frogs in the well".

The sheep knucklebones below are from the collection of Museums Victoria and it is understandable how in a sheep-raising country like Australia, Jacks would have been traditionally played with sheep bones.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,

and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

ROYAL EXHIBITION BUILDING

The Royal Exhibition Building is a World Heritage Site-listed building in Melbourne, Australia, completed in 1880. It is located at 9 Nicholson Street in the Carlton Gardens, flanked by Victoria, Nicholson, Carlton and Rathdowne Streets, at the north-eastern edge of the central business district. It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81 and later hosted the opening of the first Parliament of Australia in 1901.Throughout the 20th century smaller sections and wings of the building were subject to demolition and fire; however, the main building, known as the Great Hall, survived. It received restoration throughout the 1990s and in 2004 became the first building in Australia to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status, being one of the last remaining major 19th-century exhibition buildings in the world.

It is the world's most complete surviving site from the International Exhibition movement 1851–1914. It sits adjacent to the Melbourne Museum and is the largest item in Museum Victoria's collection. Today, the building hosts various exhibitions and other events and is closely tied with events at the Melbourne Museum.

This post is part of the My Sunday Best meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme,
and also part of the Photo Sunday meme.

AT HEIDE

Heide Museum of Modern Art began life in 1934 as the home of Melbourne couple John and Sunday Reed and has since evolved into one of Australia's most important cultural institutions. Located at 7 Templestowe Rd, Bulleen VIC 3105, it is in a beautiful setting, relatively close to the City, within suburbia.

The Heide grounds are a stunning complement to the museum and are often the setting for events, weddings, picnics and filming and photography. Comprising 15 acres of gardens and sculpture park, one can choose between a variety of locations from intimate wooded areas to sweeping expanses featuring heritage gardens and contemporary outdoor art.

This post is part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the I Heart Macros meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

AT HEIDE

Heide Museum of Modern Art, more commonly just "Heide", is a contemporary art museum located in Bulleen, east of Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum comprises several detached buildings and surrounding gardens and parklands of historical importance that are used as gallery spaces to exhibit works in various mediums by contemporary Australian artists.

The museum underwent major redevelopment in 2005-06 which included the installation of several sculptural and installation art pieces, landscaping & redesign of the gardens, construction of a new education centre and gallery space, extension of the Heide III building and various other works. The gardens and parklands surrounding the museum are a joy to wander through at any season.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme,

and also part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

HEIDE REFLECTIONS

Heide Museum of Modern Art, or Heide as it is affectionately known, is a modern and contemporary art museum located in Bulleen, east of Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1981, the museum comprises several detached buildings and surrounding gardens of historical importance that are used as gallery spaces to exhibit works in various mediums by contemporary Australian artists.

The museum occupies the site of a former dairy farm that was purchased by the prominent Melbourne art benefactors John and Sunday Reed in 1934 and became home to a collective known as the Heide Circle, which included many of Australia's best-known modernist painters, such as; Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan, Laurence Hope, Joy Hester and others, who lived and worked in the former farm house (Heide I).

Between 1964 and 1967, a new residence was built (Heide II). It is considered to be one of the finest examples of modernist architecture in Victoria. In 1980, the Reeds sold Heide II, most of the adjoining property and significant works from their art collection to the Victorian State Government after several years of negotiations for the creation of a public art gallery and park. The main gallery (Heide III) was constructed in 1993 and the Heide Collection has since expanded through many individual gifts as well as four significant collections—the Museum of Modern Art and Design Collection, the Baillieu Myer Collection of the 80s, the Barrett Reid Collection, and most recently, the Albert Tucker Gift donated by Barbara Tucker.

The museum underwent major redevelopment in 2005-06 which involved significant extensions to the Heide III building by O'Connor + Houle Architecture, construction of the Sidney Myer Education Centre, restoration work on Heide II and surrounding gardens, and the creation of the Sir Rupert Hamer Memorial Garden, the Tony and Cathie Hancy Sculpture plaza and the Federation Way Car Park. In 2009 Chris Connell Design and McCorkell Construction completed the new Heide Cafe, currently occupied by Cafe Vue. This completed the capital works expansion and building upgrades at Heide.

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.

GRAINGER MUSEUM

The Grainger Museum is a repository of items documenting the life, career and music of the composer, folklorist, educator and pianist Percy Grainger (b. Melbourne, 1882; d. White Plains, New York, 1961), located in the grounds of the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

In the early 1920s, Grainger began to develop an idea for an autobiographical museum so that "all very intimate letters or notes should be deposited in an Australian Grainger Museum, preferably in birth-town Melbourne". Grainger was a devotee of words derived from Anglo-Saxon, and used the word 'hoard-house' for museums generally, but agreed to the word 'museum' in this case. The Museum was designed by the University's staff architect John Gawler of the local firm Gawler and Drummond, with input and funding from Grainger himself. It was built between 1935 and 1939 on land adjacent to the Conservatorium, provided for the purpose by the University of Melbourne, and officially opened in December 1938.

It is among a relatively small number of autobiographical museums in the world. The Grainger Museum was closed in 2003 for seven years, for restoration and conservation work, after waterproofing issues were detected. It reopened on 17 October 2010. Among displays of original manuscripts and published scores, musical instruments, field recordings, artworks, photographs, books and personal items, are Grainger’s whips and other items relating to his sado-masochism (which Grainger called the "Lust Branch"), the contents of his bedside cabinet, and a gallery devoted to his mother’s suicide.

There are also sound-making devices Grainger used to make his innovative and experimental "Free music". The substantial archival collection includes some 50,000 items of correspondence (with people such as Edvard Grieg, Frederick Delius, Cyril Scott, Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) and the collection generally comprises over 100,000 items in total, only a small proportion of which are on display. The remainder of the collection is accessible for research by prior arrangement. The Grainger Museum is open Tuesday to Fridays, and Sundays, from 1 pm to 4:30 pm.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme.

GREAT HALL, NGV

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites. The main gallery, known as NGV International, is located on St Kilda Road, in the heart of the Melbourne Arts Precinct of Southbank, with a branch gallery at Federation Square.

The St Kilda Road Gallery, designed by Sir Roy Grounds, opened in 1968. and redesigned by Mario Bellini. The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square was designed by LAB Architecture Studio. At the time when the gallery opened, Victoria was an independent colony for just ten years, but in the wake of the Victorian gold rush, it was easily the richest part of Australia, and Melbourne the largest city.

Besides donations of works of art, donated funds from wealthy citizens have been used by the Gallery to purchase large collections of overseas works from both old and modern masters. The Gallery currently holds over 65,000 works of art.

The Great Hall, created by Leonard French between 1963-1967 is a magnificent space, often used for performances, concerts and all sorts of other functions. The ceiling is high (13.72 metres), vast (60.9 x 15.24 metres) and so heavy with glass and steel that its downward projecting triangles need to be held up by a series of slim steel columns.

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

GRAINGER MUSEUM

Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961) was an internationally renowned Australian-American composer and pianist. His extraordinarily full life also included pioneering work as a folk music collector and arranger, educator, social and musical commentator, clothing designer and Free Music inventor. He was a skilled linguist and became known, in addition to his musical accomplishments, for his forthright opinions on many subjects.

Percy Grainger preserved the evidence of his creative life - his archive, personal library and many of his possessions - in his Museum or 'Past-hoard-house' on the campus of the University of Melbourne, the city of his birth. When the Museum opened on 13 December 1938, it contained an intensely personal and largely unedited collection reflective of Grainger's interests across time, place, disciplines, cultures and musical styles.

Several years later, Grainger encapsulated his collecting tastes and principles in an observation that 'Most museums, most cultural endeavours, suffer from being subjected to TOO MUCH TASTE... TOO MUCH SELECTION, TOO MUCH SPECIALISATION! What we want … is ALL-SIDEDNESS, side-lights, cross-references.' The Grainger collection has continued to grow in ways consistent with its founder's legacy and, 75 years on, it is this 'all-sidedness' that is celebrated here in an eclectic selection of objects, each of which has a story to tell.

This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme.

RUBIK'S CUBE OF MELBOURNE MUSEUM

Melbourne Museum is in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building. It was designed by Denton Corker Marshall Architects and finished construction in 2001. The museum is a rich response to Melbourne’s urban condition, and provides a place for education, history, culture and society to engage with each other in a contemporary setting. It is now an important part of Melbourne’s soft infrastructure.

It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, and is a venue of Museum Victoria, which also operates the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum.The museum has seven main galleries, a Children's Gallery and a temporary exhibit gallery on three levels, Upper, Ground and Lower Level and was constructed by Baulderstone Hornibrook

The entire Children's Gallery (housed in what looks like a giant Rubik's Cube) is aimed at 3-8 year olds, (although it is proving to be popular with all ages), and consists of three spaces; the exhibition gallery Big Box, The Learning Environment and the Tattersall's Children's Garden.

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,

and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme,

and also part of the Pink Saturday meme.

MELBOURNE MUSEUM

Melbourne Museum is adjacent to the Royal Exhibition Building. It was designed by Denton Corker Marshall Architects and finished construction in 2001. It was commissioned by the Victorian Government Office of Major Projects on behalf of Museums Victoria. The museum is a rich response to Melbourne’s urban condition, and provides a place for education, history, culture and society to engage with each other in a contemporary setting. It is now an important part of Melbourne’s soft infrastructure.It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, and is a venue of Museum Victoria, which also operates the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum.

The museum has seven main galleries, a Children's Gallery and a temporary exhibit gallery on three levels, Upper, Ground and Lower Level and was constructed by Baulderstone Hornibrook.The Touring Hall is where temporary exhibits are displayed. Past exhibits include mummies from Egypt and dinosaurs from China. The Big Box is part of the Children's Gallery. In addition, the museum has other facilities such as the Sidney Myer Amphitheatre and The Age Theatre. The Discovery Centre, on the Lower Level, is a free public research centre. The museum also has a cafe and a souvenir shop.The IMAX Theatre, which is situated on the Lower Level is also part of the museum complex. It shows movies, usually documentary films, in 3-D format.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme.