AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

The University of Melbourne’s Old Quad features iconic, sandstone-arched cloisters. Located at the heart of the Parkville campus, these 19th-century cloisters form the perimeter of the university's oldest courtyard. The picturesque, Tudor-style spaces are a central hub for student life, cultural exhibitions, and campus ceremonies.

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SCIENCE GALLERY

The Science Gallery Melbourne is located in Melbourne Connect, the University of Melbourne's hub for innovation. It is a space that explores the collision of art and science and is part of the International Science Gallery Network, pioneered by Trinity College Dublin and connecting creative thinkers worldwide.

Entry is free and everyone is invited to explore, question, and imagine. The Gallery hosts exhibitions, events, learning initiatives, and research, in a space that challenges ideas, experiments and asks the visitor to look into the future, thinking about what may develop.

The global network of galleries linked to leading universities, bring researchers, academics, and students into conversations with artists, creatives and visitors. Such galleries invite new collaborations that break boundaries and shift how we all see the world.

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ALMA MATER

On the City Campus of the University of Melbourne. Despite the large number of new buildings that have gone up since I was a student there, it was heartening to discover that some green spaces have remained and little nooks such as this one have hardly changed at all.

This post is part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Nature Notes meme

AT THE UNIVERSITY

The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb north of Melbourne's central business district, with several other campuses located across Victoria.

The university comprises ten separate academic units and is associated with numerous institutes and research centres, including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and the Grattan Institute. The university has fifteen graduate schools, including the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School, the Melbourne Veterinary School, and the Melbourne Medical School.

In the QS World University Rankings 2025, the University of Melbourne was ranked 13th (1st nationally). Times Higher Education ranked Melbourne 33rd globally (1st in Australia) in the 2021–2022 iteration of its annual World University Rankings. In 2022, it ranked 33rd among the universities around the world by SCImago Institutions Rankings. I am proud to call this University my Alma Mater (all photos are from the Parkville Campus).

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WOMIN-DJERRING

 "Womin-Djerring" (Coming Together) is the court in the University of Melbourne's Science Gallery group of buildings.

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MELBOURNE TRAM

On Swanston St, outside the University of Melbourne, looking South. Early on Saturday morning and it's quiet there!

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme.

AT THE UNIVERSITY

A month ago I had to go the University of Melbourne, my alma mater, and as always found many changes, especially so as the last time I had been there was about 5 years ago. Nevertheless, some things had not changed and one of them was the art around the campus. The gallery of the University is the Ian Potter Museum of Art. It is worth visiting both for its collection and its own architecture. Designed by one of Melbourne's most interesting contemporary architects, Nonda Katsalidis, it incorporates parts of older university buildings such as the Napier Waller Art Deco stained glass window from the old Wilson Hall (which burnt down).

The gallery is a bequest to the university from the businessman, Sir Ian Potter. The very distinctive façade has this striking sculptural mural, where classical art burgeons forth from the interior of the museum! A tribute to the excellent collection of Greek pottery housed n the museum, perhaps. There are some very good 19th century paintings and many contemporary art pieces. Temporary exhibitions make the bulk of the exhibited material.

Whenever I visited the Baillieu Library as a student I could not help but notice the monumental sculptural group (picture below) just outside, on the lawn adjacent to the library. The bronze sculpture known as “Charity Being Kind to the Poor”, was originally the “crowning piece” of the massive entrance portico of the Equitable Life Assurance Society headquarters in Collins Street. The building was demolished in the late 1950s and the owners presented the sculpture to the University. Created by architect Edward W Raht and sculptor Victor Tilgner at the Imperial Art Foundry in Vienna in about 1893, the substantially-scaled Charity, sheltering a huddled family, is a clear statement on the advantages of buying life insurance. Originally situated at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning’s Mount Martha site, it was relocated to its present location in 1981.

The University as a place of intellectual pursuits, a temple of learning, a refuge for the arts and sciences, teaching and research, ensures that art will always have a place in its environs.

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.

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Melbourne's main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb north of the Melbourne central business district, with several other campuses located across Victoria. Melbourne is a sandstone university and a member of the Group of Eight, Universitas 21 and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities.

Since 1872 various residential colleges have become affiliated with the university. There are 10 colleges located on the main campus and in nearby suburbs offering academic, sporting and cultural programs alongside accommodation for Melbourne students and faculty. Melbourne comprises 11 separate academic units and is associated with numerous institutes and research centres, including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and the Grattan Institute.

Amongst Melbourne's 15 graduate schools the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School and the Melbourne Medical School are particularly well regarded. Times Higher Education ranked Melbourne 32nd globally in 2017-2018, while the Academic Ranking of World Universities places Melbourne 39th in the world (first in Australia), and in the QS World University Rankings 2018 Melbourne ranks 41st globally. Four Australian prime ministers and five governors-general have graduated from the University of Melbourne. Nine Nobel laureates have been students or faculty, the most of any Australian university.

This post is part of the Travel Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,

and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

AUTUMN IN THE SYSTEM GARDEN

One of my favourite places at my alma mater, the University of Melbourne, is the System Garden. The System Garden was designed by the University’s first Professor of Natural History, Frederick McCoy in concert with architect Edward Latrobe Bateman in 1856. The garden is unusual because unlike a botanical or ornamental garden, the plants were selected and planted according to an evolutionary system of classification – hence its name, System Garden.

In the original design, visitors could walk from the middle of the garden to the outer edges and trace the natural history of the evolution of the plant kingdom. You rarely see such gardens today, because it’s a scientific garden, and though it is ornamentally attractive, that’s not its key function. The garden originally covered a quarter of the University’s grounds and featured an octagonal glasshouse at its centre that housed several plant habitats. The gazebo, which still stands in the garden today, was the glasshouse’s central structure and marks the exact centre of the original garden.

It was originally bounded by an acacia hedge, and though this was removed to make way for the Botany and Zoology Buildings which now occupy much of the original garden, some of Professor McCoy’s original plantings are still flourishing, including three towering palm trees, the Osage orange tree (Maclura pomifera), and some of the larger conifers.

Twenty years ago the garden was updated to reflect a more current system of classification – the Cronquist classification system – with the beds laid out according to plant subclasses. Although the garden is designed to highlight the science of Botany and the evolution of plants, it is also a beautiful space often used by students and staff as a quiet place to reflect, read or eat lunch. Property and Campus Services has recently commissioned a new conservation and management plan for the System Garden, which will enhance its ongoing value as a scientific, teaching, and recreational resource.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

Haemanthus coccineus - Bloodflower

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae - New England Aster

Brachychiton bidwillii - Little-Kurrajong

Solanum betaceum - Tamarillo

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

The University of Melbourne (informally Melbourne University, Melbourne Uni or simply Melbourne) is an Australian public research university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria.

Times Higher Education ranks Melbourne as 33rd in the world, while the QS World University Rankings places Melbourne 31st in the world. According to QS World University Subject Rankings 2015, the University of Melbourne is ranked 5th in the world for education, 8th in law, 13th in computer science and IT, 13th in arts and humanities, 14th in accounting and finance, 14th in dentistry and 18th in medicine.

Melbourne's main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb north of the Melbourne central business district, with several other campuses located across Victoria. Melbourne is a sandstone university and a member of the Group of Eight, Universitas 21 and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities. Since 1872 various residential colleges have become affiliated with the university. There are 12 colleges located on the main campus and in nearby suburbs offering academic, sporting and cultural programs alongside accommodation for Melbourne students and faculty.

Melbourne comprises 11 separate academic units and is associated with numerous institutes and research centres, including the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and the Grattan Institute. Amongst Melbourne's 15 graduate schools the Melbourne Business School, the Melbourne Law School and the Melbourne Medical School are particularly well regarded.

Four Australian prime ministers and five governors-general have graduated from Melbourne. Seven Nobel laureates have been students or faculty, the most of any Australian university.

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

MELBOURNE POSTCARDS

Melbourne is a tourist mecca in the Southern Hemisphere and knowledgeable world travellers ensure it is on their itinerary. Spending some time here is sure to make any traveller want to return again.

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

Southbank vista

City Baths

Melbourne Central Shot Tower

National Gallery of Victoria Great Hall

City Laneway

Mornington

St Paul's Cathedral

Melbourne Theatre Company

University of Melbourne

Queen Victoria Market

South Melbourne Market

The City