Merri Creek flows about 60 km from the Great Dividing Range through Melbourne’s northern suburbs to the Yarra River. Merri Creek is an environmental, heritage and recreation corridor that draws its significance from its role as a continuous corridor as it does from the qualities of individual reaches. All areas of the Creek are important because they contribute to the linking of areas of environmental, heritage and recreational value along the Creek.
In the vicinity of Queens Pde/Heidelberg Rd, the Creek wends its way through several suburbs as it meanders to join the Yarra River in Abbotsford. An idyllic little spot along the creek is this little cul-de-sac in Clifton Hill, where a footbridge crosses the water. The many oak trees along the waterway give a European appearance to the locale.
This post is part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the My Sunday Photo meme.
The Parklands beside Darebin Creek in Bellfield are a green buffer zone between the light industrial/retail area to the West and the residential areas to the East. Always pleasant to walk along the creek and look at the wildlife, like this kookaburra sitting on a gum a tree...
This post is part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.
Rhododendron section Vireya (vireyas) is a tropical group of Rhododendron species, numbering about 300 in all. Vireyas are native to southeastern Asia and range from Thailand to Australia. Vireya are morphologically diverse, and characterised by seeds with tailed appendages, the presence of leaf idioblasts and capsule valves which twist upon opening.
Vireya is the largest of the three sections constituting subgenus Rhododendron, and includes about a third of all Rhododendron species. The exact classification has varied among various authors, some authors considering Vireya to be a separate subgenus rather than as here, a section of the Rhododendron subgenus. It has been suggested that taxonomic nomenclatural correctness requires changing the name of the Vireya rhododendrons to Schistanthe. Thus the term 'Vireya' has been used to refer to Section Vireya (Sleumer), Subgenus Vireya, Section Schistanthe, or the majority of the Malesian tropical rhododendrons. (Fayaz). Goetsch (2011) gives the number of species as 320, and the total taxa including subspecies, forms and varieties as 380.
The cultivar shown here is Vireya 'Maid Marion', often encountered in Melbourne gardens. Vireya are perfect for adding bright bold colour to the garden. Ideal for under planting trees and other shrubs they are also happy in containers and some of the more spreading varieties could be grown in hanging baskets.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
Walhalla is a small town in Victoria, about 180 kilometres east of the state capital Melbourne. It is located in the Great Dividing Range, in the steep Stringers Creek valley, approximately four kilometres upstream of the creek's junction with the Thomson River. The area around the town is designated as an historic area which then adjoins the Baw Baw National Park.
It was founded as a gold-mining community in early 1863 and at its peak home to around 2,500 residents. Today, the town has a population of fewer than 20 permanent residents, though it has a large proportion of houses owned as weekenders. It attracts large numbers of tourists and is a major focus of the regional tourism industry. The town's name is taken from an early gold mine in the area, named for the German hall of fame, the Walhalla temple (Valhalla from Norse legend).
Gold mining was already becoming largely unprofitable int eh early 20th century and the last of the major mines closed in 1914. With the disappearance of the main industry in town, the bulk of the population soon left. Until the growth of the tourist industry in the 1970s and 80s, Walhalla survived as a ghost town for most of the twentieth century. Several major public buildings including the Mechanics Institute and Star Hotel were destroyed in two fire events in 1944 and 1951 and a number of buildings were destroyed without being rebuilt. The school closed in 1965 and further fires, floods and neglect slowly chipped away at the remains of the town.
Since around 1977, Walhalla has experienced something of a renaissance with a booming tourist industry and the restoration or reconstruction of numerous historical buildings in the town, including the Star Hotel, Mechanics Institute, Windsor House, Elliott's Bakery and reconstruction of the Thomson–Walhalla section of the former narrow-gauge railway.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
The mural below
is found in Collingwood, at the corner of Campbell and Perry Sts, as indicated by
the red asterisk in the first image below. The artist is Gus Eagleton and the
following artist statement is from his website, which statement I quote:
“As an artist, I
take on the role of philosopher, with the idiotic intention of transcending
incomprehensible conceptual barriers through visual representation.
Endeavouring to understand life itself through images expressionistically
within the conceived idea. Central to my latest body of work is an interest in
the dichotomies of order and disorder in relation to people, and the tension
between these poles that manifest in the urban landscape.
Statement: As economic
growth fluxuates so too does infrastructure, infrastructure like a living
organism both expands and deteriorates always one step behind society. Sky
risers ascend and the long forgotten remnants of the old world deteriorate,
acting as a cultural doppelganger shadowing cultural traits and trends. By constructing
paintings I do not wish to undermine a deeper understanding of the history and
life that is captured by the city around us. Instead I aim to portray actions
placed together with life experience and personality within a location.
Everyday we take action, while remaining on the move; we suggest fluency and
ease in the city.
My paintings
capture, in one moment, the crossing cars, the comings and goings of people,
oblivious busyness. Allowing us a glimpse at aesthetic beauty and perhaps even
a look into the human condition. My style is a direct relationship to me as a
person, both precise and to the point as well as un-restricting and expressive.
For me the street relates to life always changing it for better and for worse.
I want to help the viewer to delve deeper to see the beauty that life has to
offer. Casting a side the monotonous issues that arise to look at the bigger
picture.”
This post is part of the Monday Murals meme,
And just for fun if we invert the colours, here is what happens!
Looking out of my window on a clear Winter's night when the full moon illuminated the gardens and the neighbours' roofs. The cold air made the indigo sky look like velvet and the stars appear like little diamonds.
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.
The Melbourne tramway network is a major form of public transport in Melbourne. As of June 2011, the network consisted of 250 km of track, 487 trams, 30 routes, and 1,763 tram stops. It is the largest urban tramway network in the world, ahead of the networks in St. Petersburg (240 km), Berlin (190 km), Moscow (181 km) and Vienna (172 km). Trams are the second most used form of public transport in overall boardings in Melbourne after the commuter railway network, with a total of 182.7 million passenger trips—a 4.2% year-on-year patronage decline—in the 2012–2013 year.
Trams have operated continuously in Melbourne since 1884, with the opening of a horse tram line in Fairfield. Since then they have become a distinctive part of Melbourne's character and feature in tourism and travel advertising. Melbourne's cable tram system opened in 1885, and expanded to one of the largest in the world. The first electric tram line opened in 1889, but closed only a few years later in 1894. In 1906 electric tram systems were opened in St Kilda and Essendon, marking the start of continuous operation of Melbourne's electric trams. Here are a couple of trams on Bourke St, mid-city.
This post is part of the Friday Greens meme.
Flinders Street railway station is a railway station on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets in Melbourne, Australia. It serves the entire metropolitan rail network. Backing onto the city reach of the Yarra River in the heart of the city, the complex covers two whole city blocks and extends from Swanston Street to Queen Street. Flinders Street is served by Metro's suburban services, and V/Line regional services to Gippsland. It is the busiest station on Melbourne's metropolitan network, with some 92.6 million passenger movements recorded in 2011/12.
It was the first railway station in an Australian city and the world's busiest passenger station in the late 1920s. The main station building, completed in 1909, is a cultural icon of Melbourne, with its prominent dome, arched entrance, tower and clocks one of the city's most recognisable landmarks. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The Melburnian idiom "I'll meet you under the clocks" refers to the row of clocks above the main entrance, which indicate the time-tabled time of departure for trains on each line; another idiom, "I'll meet you on the steps", refers to the wide staircase underneath these clocks. Flinders Street Station is responsible for two of Melbourne's busiest pedestrian crossings, both across Flinders Street, including one of Melbourne's few pedestrian scrambles.
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Travel Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
Akoonah Park is Crown Land reserved as a Show Ground and Recreation Reserve. It is situated in the City of Casey on the eastern edge of Berwick adjoining the Cardinia Creek. The area of 11 hectares has been developed by the volunteer committee of management to provide facilities for the Berwick Agricultural Society and recreational facilities for the community.
The Akoonah Park Committee of Management conduct a very popular weekly Sunday market from their main buildings and surrounds at the highway end of the Reserve. Undercover or outside stalls are available providing a wide range of diverse products for sale. The market operates rain, hail or shine, although it is not open on Berwick Show weekend (last weekend in February). The profits from the running of this market is the major source of funding for maintenance and capital improvements for this park.
We sometimes visit this market and although we invariably buy something or other, we mainly go for the "window shopping" and the "people watching", both of which provide quite a bit of amusement.
This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Through my Lens meme,
and also part of the Seasons meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
