MELBOURNE CITY SQUARE

The Melbourne City Square is a pedestrian plaza and former civic centre located in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Australia. The square is currently bounded by Swanston Street, Collins Street, Flinders Lane and the Westin Hotel. Melbourne Town Hall (1870) and St Paul’s Cathedral (1891) are prominent landmarks to the north and south respectively. The square has been redeveloped several times and associated with a number of controversies over the years. A prominent feature of the square is the Burke and Wills Statue (1864) by Charles Summers (left).

In 1860–61, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led an expedition of 19 men with the intention of crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance of around 3,250 kilometres (approximately 2,000 miles). At that time most of the inland of Australia had not been explored by non-indigenous people and was completely unknown to the European settlers. The south-north leg was successfully completed (except that they were stopped by swampland 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the northern coastline), but owing to poor leadership and bad luck, both of the expedition's leaders died on the return journey. Altogether, seven men lost their lives, and only one man, John King, crossed the continent with the expedition and returned alive to Melbourne.

The rather ghastly Westin Hotel and private apartments behind the square (see above) were part of a Faustian deal by the City Council and developers: In order to restore the decaying Regent Theatre and upgrade the City Square, Council sold public land (eastern half of the square) to a developer for $12.5 million and a hotel and apartments were built on it. The council put that $12.5 million towards the restoration of the Regent along with $12.5 million offered by the state government. This allowed the restoration of the theatre and the construction of a hotel with apartments on the eastern half of the City Square. The redevelopment of the Regent took 3 years from September 1993, to its final reopening gala on August 17 1996.


The interior of the City Square apartments is much more appealing (which is necessary given their multimillion dollar price tag...). The two photographs below are not taken by me but published by the Herald Sun, one of our local newspapers, a few months ago when one of these apartments was put on the market.

This post is part of the Signs, Signs meme.

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY LAKE

La Trobe University is a multi-campus university, established in in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. Its main campus based in Bundoora, a northern outer suburb of Melbourne Australia. It has extensive grounds with much native vegetation and wildlife within an extensive lake and creek system, making it a very pleasant environment for its students and staff. The public can also access these grounds and at weekends there is Sunday market in the car park.

This post is part of the Watery Wednesday meme.

A black swan (Cygnus atratus) in the main lake

They are quite tame and will beg for food scraps!

A Noisy Miner bird (Manorina melanocephala). It belongs to the honeyeater family. 

As the common name suggests, the Noisy Miner is a vocal species with a large range of songs, calls, scoldings and alarms, and almost constant vocalizations particularly from young birds.

And of course the omnipresent ducks!

They are shyer and are scared off easily...

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, OLD ARTS

The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria. The oldest university in Australia is that of Sydney. The main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb just north of the Melbourne CBD. The university also has several other campuses located across Victoria. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" lobby group, the Universitas 21 and Association of Pacific Rim Universities networks. It is colloquially known as a "sandstone university" and has one of the largest financial endowments of any Australian university, standing at $1.173 billion as of 2010. I'm rather fond of this University as it is my alma mater...


Melbourne University was established by Hugh Childers by an 1853 act of the Victorian Parliament. Classes commenced in 1855 with three professors and sixteen students; of this body of students, only four graduated. The original buildings were officially opened by the Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of Victoria, Sir Charles Hotham, on 3 October 1855. The first chancellor, Redmond Barry (later Sir Redmond), held the position until his death in 1880. In the university's early days, an architectural master-plan was developed, establishing the intended prevailing building style as gothic revival. Early influential architects included Melbourne's own Joseph Reed, who was responsible for the design of many of the early campus buildings. Although the master-plan was followed until the 1930s, the 1950s saw the modernist style established as a new "house style", resulting in the mix of university buildings seen today. The inauguration of the university was made possible by the wealth resulting from Victoria's gold rush.


This post is part of the 'Our World Tuesday' meme.

Clock Tower of Old Arts Building (Built 1854)

The cloisters of the Old Quadrangle

The Old Quadrangle is the oldest building on campus. It was designed by Francis White, with apartments on the east and west wings for the professors. Camellia bushes have been a feature of the courtyard since the 1860s. The southern cloisters were finally realised in 1970.

MIRKA MORA'S FLINDERS ST STATION MURAL

Flinders St Station at the corner of Flinders St and Swanston St is a Melbourne icon. Within and around the station are many interesting things to discover and enjoy. One of these is a favourite of mine, the Flinders Street Station Mural, created in 1986 by artist Mirka Mora. The mural is on the inside wall at the Yarra river end of the station next to Clocks Restaurant. Only the central panel is a mosaic, with the decorative upper frieze being painted and the lower border being painted with low-relief outlines.

Mirka Mora (born 1928) is a prominent French-born Australian visual artist who has contributed significantly to the development of Contemporary Art in Australia. Her work includes painting, sculpture and mosaics. She is a noted colourist and symbolist. Her paintings are often bright and bold, drawing heavily on a stable of recurring motifs - innocent, wide-eyed children, angels, dogs, cats, snakes and birds.  This mural is typical fo her work and one can find endless sources of delight and amusement in its contemplation.

This post is part of the Monday Murals meme.

GREEK CHURCH IN COBURG

The Greek Orthodox church dedicated to the Presentation of the Lord (Υπαπαντή του Κυρίου - Ypapanté tou Kyríou) is located on 29 Victoria St, Coburg, an outer northern Melbourne suburb. Traditionally, Coburg is a working class suburb with many people of Greek, Italian, Turkish, Asian and now African origin. As a multicultural city, Coburg has many interesting shops, places of worship and celebrates many ethnic traditions and festivals.


The Presentation of the Lord is celebrated on February 2nd (Candlemas) and this particular church organises a feast and grand liturgy where a special celebration commemorates the church's dedication. The church, although fairly modern in its exterior architectural design still has all of the features of a functional Byzantine Orthodox church in its interior.


This post is part of the Sunday Psalms meme.

Church exterior

Church interior

The icon of the Presentation of the Lord. Note the oil lamp and the gold and silver votive offerings by the faithful whose prayers have been answered.

Candles lit by the faithful as they enter the church

Psalm 148, chanted by the Greek Orthodox monks of the Simonos Petra Monastery in Mount Athos, Greece.



Psalm 148

Praise the Lord from the heavens; give praise in the heights.
Praise him, all you angels; give praise, all you hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon; give praise all shining stars.
Praise him, highest heavens, you waters above the heavens.
Let them all praise the Lord's name; for the Lord commanded and they were created,
Assigned them duties forever, gave them tasks that will never change.

FITZROY GARDENS 1

The Fitzroy Gardens are a 26 hectare (64 acre) urban park located on the southeastern edge of the Melbourne Central Business District in East Melbourne. The gardens are bounded by Clarendon Street, Albert Street, Lansdowne Street, and Wellington Parade with the Treasury Gardens across Lansdowne street to the west. The gardens are one of the major Victorian era landscaped gardens in Australia and add to Melbourne's claim to being the garden city of Australia. Set within the gardens are: An ornamental lake, kiosk and cafe, a conservatory, Captain Cooks' Cottage (a house where James Cook reputedly spent some years of his childhood - the cottage was in England at that time and was transported to Australia - more of that in a future post). Sinclair’s Cottage (Visitor information), model Tudor village, fountains and sculptures, a band pavilion, the rotunda and the fairy tree.


The most notable feature of the Gardens is the wonderful trees that have been used to line many of the pathways (set out like the radiating stripes of the Union Jack). The gardens were initially designed by Clement Hodgkinson and planted by park gardener, James Sinclair, as a dense woodland with meandering avenues. The land originally had been swampy with a creek draining into the Yarra River. The creek was landscaped with ferns and 130 willows, but that did not stop it smelling foul from the sewage from the houses of East Melbourne. The creek was used for irrigation of the western side of the gardens for fifty years. In the early 1900s the creek water substantially improved when sewerage mains were installed to the residences of East Melbourne. During the 1880s and 1890s many of the blue gums and elms were removed to create more room for existing trees, as well as sweeping lawns and ornamental flowerbeds. Further landscaping and beautification features formed the gardens into what they are today: An oasis of green and urban serenity, within walking distance of the CBD.


This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

The "Grey Street" fountain is one of the oldest fountains to be found in Melbourne’s Gardens. It was first commenced in 1863 under the direction of C. Hodgkinson, the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Survey. In the distance to the right is the old, square "Bandstand" is of Corinthian design and enclosed by a low iron fence. It was designed and erected by George Dodd in 1864 at a cost of £322.

Serene reflections...

Two native rainbow lorikeets using the fountain as a giant birdbath!

The Common Indian Myna is an introduced species and it has become a serious threat to the ecosystems of Australia. They still look quite pretty, though...

This is the introduced rock dove, also known as feral pigeon or racing pigeon. 

The "Temple of the Winds" rotunda is located north west of the kiosk and was constructed in 1873 under Bickford’s curatorship. The building consists of a domed concrete roof supported by ten Corinthian columns. The temple was erected by Thomas Julian and Co. at a cost of £275. It has 10 columns as opposed tot he usual 8 or 12 (being more easily divisible to indicate the points of the compass).

WELCOME TO SUNNY FITZROY!

Fitzroy is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, 2 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. It was named after Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy, the Governor of New South Wales from 1846 to 1855. Its borders are Alexandra Parade (north), Victoria Parade (south), Smith Street (east) and Nicholson Street. Fitzroy is Melbourne's smallest suburb in terms of area, being approximately 100 hectares. At the 2006 Census, it had a population of 8,814. 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, being main home of Melbourne's Fringe Festival. Its commercial heart is Brunswick Street, which is one of Melbourne's major retail, eating, and entertainment strips. It has undergone waves of both urban renewal and gentrification since the 1950s.


In response to past planning practices, much of the suburb is now a historic preservation precinct with many individual buildings and streetscapes covered by Heritage Overlays, its built environment is diverse and features some of the finest examples of Victorian era architecture in Melbourne.


This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme, and also,
the Monday Murals meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 7

Eucalyptus melliodora, commonly known as Yellow Box, is a medium sized to occasionally tall eucalypt. The bark is variable ranging from smooth with an irregular, short stocking, to covering most of the trunk, fibrous, dense or loosely held, grey, yellow or red-brown. Leaves are stalked, narrow-lanceolate to lanceolate, to 14 x 1.8 cm, light green or slate grey. 


The tree is widely distributed on the eastern plains and tablelands from western Victoria, New South Wales to south-central Queensland. E. melliodora is considered to be the best native tree for honey production, the honey produced has a delightful golden colour and an excellent taste. The timber is pale brown, dense and heavy (about 1100 kg/m3), resistant to decay and has been used for sleepers, posts, poles and bridges. It is not known as a furniture timber. One often sees this tree planted in Melbourne, in parks, streets and gardens, but of course it is often met with in the countryside and in the bush.


This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

MELBOURNIA TERRACE, CARLTON

Melbournia Terrace is situated in 1-13 Drummond Street Carlton, an inner city suburb. It is a National Trust classified terrace of seven houses in a key position in Drummond Street, corner of Victoria Street. They are presently private houses and interesting as one of the known works of Norman Hitchcock.


Norman Hitchcock a Victorian architect,  had established a reputation in Melbourne for his distinctive use of decorative details in speculative terrace housing in the suburbs of Carlton and Parkville. Caught up in the collapse of the Melbourne housing market and financial "crash", Hitchcock was declared insolvent in May 1891.4 Hitchcock was later listed in partnership with O N Nicholson in Melbourne, but then disappeared from sight, until he turned up practising architecture in Western Australia, where he specialised in the design of small speculative housing, particularly in the Fremantle area. For many years he lived in Hubble Street, East Fremantle. Hitchcock's work is notable for his repeated use of distinctive design and decorative details that makes his architecture easy to identify.


This post is part of the Signs Signs meme.

BAYSIDE, MELBOURNE

The City of Bayside is a Local Government Area in Melbourne. It is located in the southern suburbs, with an area of 36 square kilometres and an estimated population of about 100,000 people. It comprises the City of Brighton, City of Sandringham, City of Moorabbin, City of Mordialloc and City of Bayside. As well as having quite exclusive and very expensive real estate by the seaside in Brighton, for example, it also has areas of industrial and business park usage, as in Moorabbin, for example.


Last Sunday we had gorgeous Summer weather and we went for a drive down the coastal road, visiting Elwood, Brighton, Hampton and Sandringham. The sea was perfect and there were many bathers, sail boat  and motor boat enthusiasts, as well as the jet ski devotees. Many lovely beaches exist along this stretch of Melbourne's suburban coast, so it is a popular are for fun in the sea and sun. Add to that large numbers of great cafés, restaurants and all sorts of other eateries and you have the recipe for a perfect weekend outing.


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