INVERLOCH, VICTORIA

Inverloch is a seaside village in Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Bass Highway 143 kilometres southeast of Melbourne, at the mouth of Anderson Inlet, in the Bass Coast Shire and is located close to Australia’s southernmost stand of mangroves. At the 2006 census, Inverloch had a population of 4,140.

Inverloch is a popular tourist destination, particularly for surfers, kitesurfers, windsurfers and fishers. The town hosts a jazz festival each Labour Day long weekend in March. Inverloch's amenities include a visitor information centre, two Pubs, three motels, seven bed and breakfasts, three caravan parks and a foreshore camping reserve. Like most other Australian coastal towns Inverloch has a local surf lifesaving club. During 2005 and early 2006 the RACV built an eco-village holiday resort on the Cape Paterson Road near Inverloch.

Inverloch is a popular holiday resort town for Melbournians and many of them have holiday houses here.

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

MELBOURNE BOTANIC GARDENS

The Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne are internationally renowned botanical gardens located near the centre of Melbourne, Australia, on the south bank of the Yarra River. They are 38 hectares of landscaped gardens consisting of a mix of native and non-native vegetation including over 10,000 individual species. The Botanic Gardens opened in 1846.

They are widely regarded as the finest botanical gardens in Australia, and among the best in the world. However, the gardens are also noted for their historical contribution to the introduction of invasive species. The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne are adjacent to a larger group of parklands directly south-east of the city, between St. Kilda Road and the Yarra River known as the Domain Parklands, which includes; Kings Domain Alexandra Gardens Queen Victoria Gardens.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme.

FITZROY MURAL

Fitzroy is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Fitzroy is Melbourne's smallest suburb in terms of area, being approximately 100 Ha. Planned as Melbourne's first suburb, it was later also one of the city's first areas to gain municipal status. It has a long associations with the working class and is currently inhabited by a wide variety of ethnicities and socio-economic groups and is known for a culture of bohemianism.

There are many beautiful Victorian terrace houses in Fitzroy, as well as more modern industrial and commercial buildings. The many alleys and laneways of the suburb afford ample opportunity for graffiti artists, mural painters and unfortunately, taggers. These terrace houses are on Gore St and the little alleyway running to their side has been painted with a rustic mural in nostalgic sepias and browns. Unfortunately taggers have defaced part of it.


This post is part of the Monday Murals meme.

FAIRFIELD BOATHOUSE

Fairfield Boathouse was established in 1908 by John St Clair as a picnic, camping and refreshment room area. John St Clair was a piano tuner from Smith St, Fitzroy, with a vision. He firstly wrote a letter to the Premier suggesting that he open a refreshment room and boat shed area, with motor boats at Fairfield Park. The Premier had to seek the approval form Yarra Bend Hospital of the Insane because the proposal for the boat shed was actually on the hospital grounds. The Premier gave his permission for the boat shed project to go ahead. Mr St Clair built the boat shed and six years later Fairfield Park was set aside from the same grounds. However Mr St Clair had seven troubled years with Crown Bailiffs over building permits. Eventually in 1915 the Heidelberg council bought him out. In 1923 the boathouse was raised by 12 feet to help minimise flood damage, a frequent threat to boathouses along the Yarra. Boat and canoe carnivals and open air carnivals were common sights at Fairfield until the 1950’s. Boating popularity declined until finally the Fairfield boathouse was closed in 1980 as it was declared unfit for human habitation. In 1985 the boathouse was restored and re-opened. The derelict building had recently housed squatters and possums. The project took 30,000 hours of restoration work. Meticulous work and an eye for detail was required for rebuilding. Even the gardens have been restored to encourage native birds. It now enjoys renewed popularity and is a pleasure to visit. This post is part of the Scenic Sunday meme, and also the Sunday Bridges meme. View of the Fairfield Pipe Bridge from theBoathouse. This can also be used by pedestrians and cyclists following the Yarra trail Boating and kayaking along this stretch of the Yarra are very popular The Fairfield Boathouse The Boathouse has been beautifully restored A variety of refreshments and light meals can be had at the Fairfield Boathouse. Those who wish to have picnics or barbeques are also accommodated in the surrounding parklands This impressive bluestone Amphitheatre, set in the midst of Fairfield Park, is an great venue for performances and ceremonies.   The Amphitheatre can accommodate up to 350 people Good to know that Fairfield Park has its own mailbox so you can write it a letter!

BOURKE ST, MELBOURNE

The corner of Elizabeth and Bourke Sts in the centre of the City is a hive of activity almost any hor of the day and evening. It's a good spot to see the comings and goings of the crowds and reflect on city life...


This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the 'Challenge Walk In The Street' meme.

PIXEL BUILDING, CARLTON

Melbourne’s Pixel Building is the first carbon-neutral office building in Australia and has set an impressive environmental benchmark by achieving the highest ever Green Star score awarded by the Green Building Council of Australia. Melbourne company Grocon’s ambitious project achieved a perfect score of 100 points under the Green Star rating system for building design, with 75 points being the benchmark for a 6 Star, Green Star rating. LEED is the environmental rating tool of the United States Green Building Council. Pixel has achieved a Platinum score under this rating system.

Situated on 205 Queensberry Street, Carlton, the Pixel Building has renewable energy sources on the site that are generating all of the energy that Pixel requires to run, plus surplus energy to be fed back into the grid to offset all of the energy that was used and the carbon that was generated in the manufacture of the materials and equipment that enabled Pixel to be built. Pixel has also been designed to be water balanced. This means that on the basis that Melbourne returns to the 10-year rainfall average 1999-2009, Pixel could be disconnected from the mains supply and would be self-sufficient for water supply.

The building features Pixelcrete – a type of concrete which halves the embodied carbon in the mix – as well as wind turbines invented in Bendigo, a Melbourne University designed ‘living roof’ which re-introduces Victorian grassland species to the Melbourne area, and tracking photovoltaic roof panels. The sun shade system on the exterior of the building provides the maximum amount of daylight into the office space, protecting it from glare and heat in the summer, while smart window technology ensures windows will open automatically on cool nights to enable air flow into the building.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

TROPICANA

The Tropicana Juice/Bar on Elizabeth St in Melbourne's CBD is a striking shopfront. The colourful sign is complemented by the eye-catching bags of oranges hanging outside and the tropical theme tables and chairs on the sidewalk. It offers a great variety of juices and healthy food options (and also some not-so healthy ones ;-).

Great place to go and have snack and/or juice. The juices are a particular favourite of mine and as well as having the "boring" pure orange juice you can also try some luscious and exotic blends of juices, smoothies and other beverages. Staff is friendly and service is quick. And no, I don't own shares in the place.

This post is part of the Signs Signs meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 10

Brachychiton discolor is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia of the family Sterculiaceae. It grows in drier rainforest areas. Scattered from Paterson, New South Wales (32° S) to Mackay, Queensland (21° S). There's also an isolated community of these trees at Cape York Peninsula.  Common names include Lacebark Tree, Lace Kurrajong, Pink Kurrajong, Scrub Bottle Tree, White Kurrajong, Hat Tree and Sycamore.

It is an attractive tree up to 30 metres tall featuring pink flowers without petals. The trunk is straight, grey and cylindrical, up to 75 cm in diameter. The tree flowers from November to February. The flowers are pink, almost without stalks, 3 to 4 cm in diameter. There are separate male and female flowers. The fruit is a hairy boat shaped follicle maturing from December to July, 7 to 20 cm long, containing up to 30 seeds, 9 mm long. Germination from fresh seed occurs without difficulty.

This is an unusual tree in Melbourne, however, it grows well and flowers prolifically. Perhaps it should be planted more as it is highly attractive and the flowers and seed pods are very beautiful.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Clusters of large showy flowers are typical of this tree

Honeyeaters love the nectar of these flowers

The flowers are large and feel as though they are made of soft cloth

They fall down to the ground

...And will not wither for some days

KAYAKING ON THE YARRA

Although Melbourne is situated on the shores of one of the largest bays on the Australian coast, the city's main water feature is the Yarra River. As it winds down from the Yarra Valley, it enters the City and provides much opportunity for leisure activities along its banks and in the water. We are lucky to live close to a beautiful spot along the Yarra, here shown. It is the Yarra close to Fairfield Boathouse.

You've got to love dogs!


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