STATE LIBRARY, MELBOURNE

The State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district. The library holds over 2 million books and 16,000 serials, including the diaries of the city's founders, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner, and the folios of Captain James Cook, R.N.. It also houses the original armour of Ned Kelly.

This post is part of the Things in a Row meme
and also part of the Signs, Signs meme.

ROYAL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL

The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) is a major children's hospital in Melbourne, Australia. As the major specialist paediatric hospital in Victoria, the Royal Children's Hospital provides a full range of clinical services, tertiary care and health promotion and prevention programs for children and young people.

The hospital is the designated statewide major trauma centre for paediatrics in Victoria and a Nationally Funded Centre for cardiac and liver transplantation.Its campus partners are the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, which are based onsite with the hospital.The hospital is surrounded by the parkland of Royal Park, with views of trees and lots of natural light.

The hospital was established in 1870 and moved to its present site in Parkville on the corner of Flemington Road and Gatehouse Street in 1963. The Royal Children's Hospital was founded by Doctors John Singleton and William Smith, in response to their serious concerns about infant mortality in the fledgling city of Melbourne. The original "Free Hospital for Sick Children" was set up in a small house at 39 Stephen Street (now 49 Exhibition Street) and treated more than 1,000 children in its first year of operation.

In 2005, the Victorian State Government announced plans to build a brand new 334-bed home for RCH adjacent to the current site. The winning bid of the redevelopment is led by Babcock & Brown with architects Billard Leece Partnership and Bates Smart Architects. HKS Inc. Architects of Dallas, Texas provided Paediatric Design and Planning Services and consulting engineers Norman Disney & Young.

Work commenced on the site in late 2007, and was complete in late 2011, opened by the Queen on her Royal Tour. The current hospital will be demolished by 2014 after the transition to the new facility. Patients were moved into the new hospital in November 2011.  After the move, much of the old site will be turned into a park, creating a new gateway to Royal Park.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme,
And also part of the Things in a Row meme.

MELBOURNE SPRING FASHION WEEK

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week (MSFW) 3-9 September 2012 is a well-established event that occurs annually in Australia's fashion city, Melbourne. The MSFW team and many volunteers are in and around all events to help with visitor enquiries and to ensure everyone has a great time! All wear black t-shirts with the MSFW brand. Visitors can also ask City of Melbourne tourism volunteers, they can visit the Melbourne Visitor Centre at Federation Square, or the Melbourne Visitor Booth in the Bourke Street Mall to obtain copies of the program. Plus, the MSFW team has daily information on events and activities displayed on the big screen at City Square.

The event is sponsored by the City fo Melbourne Council and supported by many corporate sponsors. There is a diverse range of events and experiences located throughout the heart of Melbourne, so MSFW is a great opportunity for visitors to discover parts of the city they may never have been to before, or uncover some hidden treasures in spots they are already familiar with.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme,
and also part of the Things in a Row meme.

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY - MEDICAL HISTORY MUSEUM

The Medical History Museum in the University of Melbourne was established with a grant from the Wellcome Trust, London, and was opened in 1967. It was largely the initiative of medical historian and bibliographer Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell (1911-87) who held a personal chair in anatomy and medical history at the University of Melbourne. Situated in the Brownless Biomedical Library, the Museum was the first of its kind attached to a medical school in Australia, and remains the largest collection, with around 5000 items, many of national heritage significance.

Historically, the collection is focussed on the history of the Melbourne Medical School, its teachers and clinical schools, and the achievements of its graduates, but in 1994, with the acquisition of the Australian Medical Association collection, the scope of the Museum broadened to reflect the history of medical practice in Victoria. The Museum houses a complete 19th-century Savory & Moore pharmacy, relocated from its London address, and re-installed exactly as it appeared when it closed there as a practising pharmacy in 1968. As well as containing the original furniture and fittings, additional decorative bottles and drug jars of the 1880s acquired from Palmer's Pharmacy, Ballarat, are displayed on the shelves, in some instances with their original contents.

Also included in the collection are three large, ornate exhibition cases made by Melbourne cabinet-maker Charles Beauchamp for the 1880-81 Melbourne Exhibition. Today these cabinets house a display of historic microscopes and microtomes, as well as bleeding and cupping and early amputation sets. Within the Museum's collection of scientific instruments are examples of original medical research carried out at the University of Melbourne by researchers such as William Stone, who experimented with the making of X-ray tubes soon after Roentgen's discovery; H.J. Grayson who developed his microruling machine; and Nobel prize winner Macfarlane Burnet's microscope, used in his microbiological research.

A wide range of diagnostic and surgical instruments cover 200 years of technological innovation and change, while archival photographs, letters and diaries, certificates and other documents pertaining to medical training, doctors' notebooks and records, ceremonial and commemorative artefacts, and a collection of artworks, further strengthen the Museum's collection.

The Museum has close links with other University medical resources including the Rare Books and Medical History Collection within the Brownless Biomedical Library, and with the University of Melbourne Archives. Strong ties also exist with the Dentistry Collection, and with the renovated and renamed Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology, opened in 2004 to commemorate the life and work of the first Melbourne-trained professor of anatomy and pathology, and the museum he established in 1882. The Medical History Museum has broadened its original terms of reference to give more consideration to the social aspects of health and medicine, addressing the contemporary issues of public health, ethics, aged living, and indigenous and women's health.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme,
and also part of the Things in a Row meme.

Medical students 1879-80

The first women medical students admitted in 1887

Beautifully crafted 19th century microscopes on exhibit

LUNCHING IN MELBOURNE

Melbourne is the "Foodie Capital" of Australia. When people first move here or when they visit, they are excited about the prospect of eating lunch in the city that seems to "eat out" every day. One can go broke like that of course, especially if one has a discriminating taste and a limited budget!

However, it doesn't have to be like that, of course. Melbourne's CBD is overflowing with lunch options that won't break the bank. With so much competition out there, reasonably priced meals of excellent quality in lovely surroundings are de rigueur in Melbourne.

This post is part of Lesley's Signs, Signs Thursday meme,
and also part of Pat's Things in a row meme.

WINTER SOLSTICE IN MELBOURNE

We've had windy and rainy weather last night, and the rain continued to fall this morning. Quite appropriate considering it's Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. There was a cancellation of two trains at my station this morning, but I still managed to get into the City before 7:00 am. It was very crowded on the trains and at the Flinders Street Station, and look at those rows of umbrellas! A very dark and wet Winter morning in the City!

This post is part of Lesley's Signs, Signs meme,
and also part of Pat's Things in a Row meme.

MAY DAY 2012 IN MELBOURNE

On May Day at lunchtime I was walking back to the office after a meeting and chanced upon a May Day demonstration in central Melbourne. It was a rather mild affair with a few dozen of protesters, but they did manage to stop the traffic for a few minutes while the crowd watched with expressions ranging from apathy to mild amusement to annoyance. The police were there to keep an eye on things and the demonstrators moved on after a while.

We are still relatively fortunate here in Australia in these terrible times of economic crisis. The unemployment rate tends to be quite low compared to other Western nations, the economy (although not booming) is still fairly healthy, and our lifestyle is still quite relaxed. We are counting our blessings, but the question is, till when? How long will the mining boom that has buoyed up the economy last? Will international pressures force our economy down sooner rather than later? One thinks of the fat and lean cows, and we must prepare ourselves for the worse…

This post is part of Pat's Things in a Row meme, which in this case is demonstrators and police officers in a row!
It is also part of the Challenge Walk In The Street meme.