CITY, LUNCHTIME

This photo was taken in the Bourke St pedestrian mall at lunchtime. The fellow in red is selling "The Big Issue". This magazine is a not-for-profit social enterprise that develops solutions to help homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people positively change their lives. See more here: http://www.thebigissue.org.au

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

ROSE MURAL IN FITZROY

This little neighbourhood in Fitzroy, an inner suburb of Melbourne, still has many Victorian brick terrace house dating from the 19th century. Many of these have been renovated and are well-maintained, with most of their original features intact. The rose mural was a surprise, but it was quirky and bright and beautiful.

The mural is signed Nate Gamble and the website http://nategamble.com/walls/ provides more details on this artist's work.

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

ST ANTHONY'S CHURCH, ALPHINGTON

St. Anthony’s Parish formally came into existence in 1915, after having spent a number of years under the Northcote Parish and operating as a “church of ease” for the growing number of Catholic families in the Fairfield/Alphington area. Fr. Michael Hayes was appointed as St. Anthony’s first Parish Priest in 1915 and a presbytery ,formerly the property “Rosebank”, was opened and blessed on St Anthony’s feast day 13th June 1915.

One of the primary objectives of the parish community was to secure a school building to provide for the educational and religious instruction of its youngest parishioners. It was with much enthusiasm that some 1,200 people gathered on St. Patricks Day 1917 to observe the official opening of the St Anthony’s Parish School, located at No 43 Austin Street.

In 1939 the parish suffered the loss of its original church which was burnt down by an arsonist. The Parish rallied to oversee the construction of a new church. This was achieved surprisingly quickly as it was blessed and opened in 1940. This is the building that exists with few structural changes to this day.

This post is part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme,
and also part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.

WINTER MORNING

Looking East on Bourke St, from the Southern Cross railway station, early one Winter's morning.

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

EARLY MORNING TRAIN

Waiting for the commuter train, early one morning!

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 81 - LAURUSTINUS

Viburnum tinus (Laurustinus, Laurustinus Viburnum, or Laurestine) is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae, native to the Mediterranean area of Europe and North Africa. 'Laurus' signifies the leaves' superficial similarities to bay laurel.

It is a shrub (rarely a small tree) reaching 2–7 m tall and 3 m broad, with a dense, rounded crown. The leaves are evergreen, persisting 2–3 years, ovate to elliptic, borne in opposite pairs, 4–10 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with an entire margin. The flowers are small, white or light pink, produced from reddish-pink buds in dense cymes 5–10 cm diameter in the winter. The fragrant flowers are bisexual and pentamerous. The flowering period is from October to June. Pollination is by insects. The fruit is a dark blue-black drupe 5–7 mm long.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

ZOO, MELBOURNE

The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, commonly known as the Melbourne Zoo, contains more than 320 animal species from Australia and around the world. The zoo is 4 kilometres north of the centre of Melbourne. It is accessible via Royal Park station on the Upfield railway line, and is also accessible via tram routes 55 and 19, as well as by bicycle on the Capital City Trail. Bicycles are not allowed inside the zoo itself. The Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens is a full institutional member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

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,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday 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.

COFFEE IN OAKLEIGH

Oakleigh is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 15 km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. Its local government area is the City of Monash. At the 2011 Census, Oakleigh had a population of 7,535.

Once a large independent city, Oakleigh was absorbed into Melbourne as part of the eastward expansion of the metropolis in the 1950s. As a result, it once had its own large historic Central Business District, its own municipality in the former City of Oakleigh and its own suburbs.

The area is traditionally known to have a strong Greek cultural influence, largely due to the influx of said immigrants to Australia in the mid-20th century. Fourteen per cent of those living in the suburb speak only Greek at home. It's always great to visit one of the cafés there, sit outside and order a cup of coffee and a pastry or cake...

This post is part of the Mandarin Orange Monday meme,

and also part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme.

MOSQUE IN RESERVOIR

The Albanian-Australian 'Prespa' Association at 111 Blake St, Reservoir, Victoria is in charge of a Mosque there. According to the 2011 Australian census 2,398 Albanians were born in Australia while 13,142 claimed Albanian ancestry, either alone or with another ancestry.

As in Albania and Kosovo, 80% of Albanian speakers in Australia subscribe to Islam. The predominance of Islam gave the Albanian population a degree of unity and the ability to build their own mosques, as in rural Mareeba, Shepparton and Melbourne metropolitan areas. The Shepparton Mosque was the first mosque built in Victoria and the Carlton Mosque was the first mosque built in Melbourne. Other mosques now exist, including this one in Reservoir.

This post is part of the inSPIREd Sunday meme.