Polly Woodside is a Belfast-built, three-masted, iron-hulled barque, preserved in Melbourne, Australia, and forming the central feature of the South Wharf precinct. The ship was originally built in Belfast by William J. Woodside and was launched in 1885. Polly Woodside is typical of thousands of smaller iron barques built in the last days of sail, intended for deep water trade around the world and designed to be operated as economically as possible.
Polly Woodside was closed to the public on 30 April 2006 to allow for the major redevelopment of the lower Yarra River's southern bank. The $1.4 billion redevelopment, announced by the Victorian Government in February 2006, included construction works for the new Melbourne Convention Centre immediately next to the Polly Woodside. The ship was temporarily relocated approximately 50 metres away to a mooring on the adjacent Yarra River on 26 August 2008 – its first move in 33 years – for a $13 million operational refurbishment and restoration of its dry dock home, board walk, and adjacent former wharf sheds.
Between this time and May 2009 the water within the Duke and Orr's Dry Dock was pumped out and a gated dam wall built at the entrance. The bottom of the dry dock was excavated and permanent keel supports built into the concrete base for Polly Woodside to sit upon, allowing the ship to be periodically dry docked for repairs. On 19 May 2009 the dam wall gates were opened allowing water to flow into the dry dock and Polly Woodside was returned to the Duke and Orr's Dry Dock. Polly Woodside was reopened to the public on 23 December 2010.
This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Photo of the Week meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme.
View towards the West from Southbank. The blue waters of Port Phillip Bay can be seen in the distance and the banks of clouds promise some Spring showers. The first image is a HDR, while the second one is the same as the first, but it has been post-processed with Photoshop.
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Geometric Friday meme.
Callistemon salignus, commonly known as Willow Bottlebrush or the White Bottlebrush, is an endemic Australian shrub or tree in the family Myrtaceae. The species occurs in New South Wales and Queensland. The species usually grows to between 4 and 10 metres in height and has narrow foliage, white papery bark, and new growth which is purplish-pink. The bottlebrush flower-spikes appear during spring. They are generally creamy white to yellow, though pink and red forms are also seen in cultivation.
The species was first formally described by botanist James Edward Smith in 1797 in Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, and named Metrosideros saligna. In 1826, botanist Robert Sweet indicated that the species should be transferred to the genus Callistemon in Sweet's Hortus Britannicus. In his 2006 paper "New Combinations in Melaleuca for Australian Species of Callistemon (Myrtaceae)", Lyndley Craven, a research botanist from the Australian National Herbarium, proposed that this species should be renamed as Melaleuca salicina.
Callistemon salignus can be used for providing shelter and screening and is well-suited as a street tree, or for planting in parks and gardens. Additionally, flowers will attract birds to a garden. The species is suited to a wide range of soil types, and can tolerate both wet and dry conditions, and near-coastal exposure.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
Rivers Nursery is located at 28 Kurrak Rd, Yarrambat, Victoria. Yarrambat is on the north eastern outskirts of metropolitan Melbourne, near Greensborough, Eltham and South Morang. We always enjoy our visit there because as well as a wide variety of plants, gift shop, friendly and knowledgeable staff, a good restaurant for refreshments, there is always the opportunity to admire the pond and feed the ducks!
This post is part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wild Bird Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.
Batman Market is a new weekend market located at 14 -22 Gaffney Street, Coburg. It is centrally located, 15 minute drive from Melbourne Airport and 8km from Melbourne CBD. Getting to Batman Market by public transport is easy, as it is located right next to Batman Railway Station (Upfield Line – 20 minutes from CBD) and the Sydney Road/Gaffney Street intersection where one can catch the #19 tram or several bus routes The market provides its surrounding communities access to a variety of Melbourne’s food, fresh produce and unique local products.
We visited this market last Sunday, on its opening weekend, when the weather was perfect: Temperatures around 30˚C, sunny and fine. The market was well-attended and a large variety of stalls were set up, predominantly selling street food of various kinds. Indian, Argentinian, Colombian, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Turkish, etc, etc. There were some art and craft stalls, fresh flowers and vegetables, clothing, some trash and treasure stalls and buskers. The politicians were not absent either, with Liberals handing out blue balloons and Labor handing out red ones - no surprise, a state election is nigh...
This post is part of the Nature Footsteps Floral Macros meme,
Federation Square, in Melbourne, is a mixed-use development covering an area of 3.2 hectares and centred around two major public spaces: Open squares (St. Paul's Court and The Square) and one covered (The Atrium), built on top of a concrete deck above busy railway lines. It is located at intersection between Flinders Street and Swanston Street/St Kilda Road in Melbourne's Central Business District, adjacent to Melbourne's busiest railway station. The modern buildings of the Square offset the heritage building adjacent to it, viz, St Paul's Cathedral and Flinders St Station.
This post is part of the Weekly TopShot meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is the name given to two adjacent buildings next to the Yarra River in South Wharf, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Owner and manager of the venues is the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Trust. The Melbourne Exhibition Centre was opened on 14 February 1996, and hosts thousands of large exhibitions, some being annual events.
It has a pillarless floor space of 30,000 square metres, making it the largest pillarless floor space in the southern hemisphere. This building is also known as "Jeff's Shed" after the then premier of Victoria, Jeff Kennett. The building was designed by Denton Corker Marshall, an architectural firm responsible for many of Melbourne's larger buildings through the early 1990s, and features their characteristic "blade" entrance. In 1998 a covered footbridge was erected between the Exhibition and Convention centres, parallel to the Spencer Street Bridge.
This post is part of the Geometric Friday meme,
and also part of the Photo of the Week meme.
South Wharf is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District. Its local government areas are the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip. At the 2011 Census, South Wharf had a population of 66. South Wharf is a small inner suburb south west from Melbourne's CBD.
Its borders are the Yarra River to the north, Wurundjeri Way to the west, the West Gate Freeway and a small private car park bordering Ford Street and Munro Street, which is part of the City of Port Phillip, to the south and the former Port Melbourne railway line and Clarendon Street to the east. Gazetted in 2008 and formerly part of the industrial and shipping area of Southbank, the renaming is part of a wider urban renewal strategy to link Southbank with the Melbourne Docklands.
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.
Doryanthes is the sole genus in the flowering plant family Doryanthaceae. The genus consists of two species, D. excelsa and D. palmeri, both native to the coast of Eastern Australia. Plants grow in a rosette form, only flowering after more than 10 years. They enjoy a warm environment, good soil, and much water during the warmest time of the year.
The genus Doryanthes was first described in 1802 by the Portuguese priest, statesman, philosopher and botanist José Francisco Corrêa da Serra (1751–1823), a close friend of Joseph Banks. Doryanthes excelsa or "Gymea Lily", endemic to southern Sydney and the Illawarra. The family Doryanthaceae, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots, has only recently been recognised by taxonomists. Formerly the genus was usually placed in the family Agavaceae.
Doryanthes palmeri (the Giant Spear Lily), shown here, grows in a rosette and the leaves can reach the length of about 3 m. The flowers arise in springtime on a stalk which may reach 5 m in height. A succulent herb, its leaves are hairless and grow in the shape of a sword. The Giant Spear Lily is listed as 'vulnerable' under the New South Wales Threatened Species Act (1995). Here it is seen growing in Melbourne's Fitzroy Gardens, close to the Conservatory.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
