Ivanhoe is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 10 km north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Banyule. At the 2011 Census, Ivanhoe had a population of 11,085. Upper Heidelberg Road is the suburb's centre, where the former Heidelberg Town Hall, now known as The Centre Ivanhoe, is located. Upper Heidelberg Road features a newsagent, book store, numerous restaurants and cafés, various banks, real estate agents and two supermarkets.
Mary Immaculate Primary School is a Catholic Primary School situated on Rockbeare Grove, Ivanhoe, close to the Mary Immaculate Parish Church. The School values the strong bonds that exist between the school and the community. The photos below illustrate one of the projects that the School undertook with the support of Banyule Council and the Ivanhoe Traders Association. The schoolchildren created portraits of some of the traders on the shopping strip of Upper Heidelberg Rd, which were then put up on the wall of a prominent building, creating an interesting mural.
The portraits are colourful, lively and full of character and they encapsulate the very essence of a local, old style shopping strip: Community, small business enterprise, independence and friendly service in individualised shops that are well attuned to the needs and pulse of the local inhabitants.
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.
Darebin Parklands, in Fairfield/Alphington/Ivanhoe, is a pocket of natural bushland that is unique given it is only 7 km from the Melbourne CBD. There are hidden treasures within the park including remnant orchards and crops that were grown on the fringe of a growing city during the mid-1800s. A dairy farm, vineyard, quarry and tip site were all at times active industries within the bounds of the park, and clues of this can still be found if one knows where to look. Sunrise there is quite magical.
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.
Christmas is getting closer and Melbourne has been decorated. This unusual red and green tree is by the river side in Southbank.
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.
We recently visited SunnyRidge Strawberry Farm on the Mornington Peninsula, where visitors can pay a fee and enter the farm to pick their own strawberries. We have visited this farm on several other occasions in the past and we've always had a good time, picking the berries and taking away several kilos to make jam.
The operations of the farm have expanded and the attached shop and café have grown quite a great deal in the last few years. The containers that one is given to fill with strawberries have also grown smaller and the picking fee has increased, but at least the berries are still bright red, sweet and juicy...
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.
This photo is of Melbourne's classic tram. When the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board was formed to take over the operations of the various Municipal tramway authorities, it found itself with a unified cable system, but an absolute plethora of electric tram types, which it gave letter codes from A through to V. The board decided that it was time to introduce a standard design. The new W-class design, first introduced in 1923, was an outstanding success, and has been the mainstay of the Melbourne tram system for the bulk of this century. It is a two-bogie, drop-centre design, which has had many variants over the years. The oldest W-class tram still in active service was built in 1938!
This tram is the free City Circle line, popular with tourists who take in the sights all aroudn the City. It is going past Melbourne's Hotel Windsor, which is a luxury hotel. The Windsor is notable for being Australia's only surviving grand 19th century city hotel and only official "grand" Victorian era hotel. The Hotel Windsor has a 5-star rating and is considered one of the grandest hotels in Melbourne. The Windsor is situated on Bourke Hill in the Parliament Precinct on Spring Street, and is a Melbourne landmark of high Victorian architecture. The hotel has a significant role in the history of Australia as the place where the Constitution of Australia was drafted in 1898. For much of its 20th Century life the hotel, dubbed the 'Duchess of Spring Street', was one of the most favoured and luxurious hotels in Melbourne. It has hosted many notable national and international guests.
This post is part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme.
The Supreme Court of Victoria is the superior court for the State of Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1852, and is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited jurisdiction within the state. Those courts lying below it include the County Court of Victoria and the Magistrates' Court of Victoria. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which is not a court, serves a judicial function. Above it lies the High Court of Australia. This places it around the middle of the Australian court hierarchy. The building itself is on the Victorian Heritage Register.
The Supreme Court of Victoria is located on the corner of Lonsdale and William Streets, Melbourne; adjacent to the Melbourne Magistrates' Court and the County Court of Victoria. These buildings known collectively as the Melbourne Law Courts comprise a complex of two story brick constructions, resting on a Malmsbury bluestone and Tasmanian freestone base. The combination stone base is acknowledged for the expert masonry craftsmanship used in its construction. The site is contained within a square block with a court positioned at each of its corners. Additional courts are located along the lateral, north and south wings. Administration offices and Judges Chambers enclose a circular central courtyard from which rises the Supreme Court Library with its central tower and dome.
Johnson and Smith were English immigrants who designed public buildings in a Classical style. Their design for the Melbourne Supreme Court is no exception, and draws on the style of Renaissance revival architecture. The Library tower is particularly expressive of this style with its three floors appropriating to form a base, piano nobile and attic story. A former Chief Justice, Sir William Stawell, suggested that the building may have had design origins in James Gandon's Four Courts building in Dublin.
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,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme.
The following two photos of the interior are from:
http://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/
And the following photo is from:
https://victorialawfoundation.wordpress.com/
Looking down the Yarra River towards the East and Queen's Bridge.
This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme.
