Dights Falls is located in Melbourne, Victoria just downstream of the junction of the Yarra River with Merri Creek, about 2 km east of the City. At this point the river narrows and is constricted between 800,000 year old volcanic, basaltic lava flow and a much older steep, Silurian, sedimentary spur.
Prior to European settlement, the area was occupied by the indigenous Wurundjeri tribe of the Kulin nation. The rock falls would have provided the Aboriginal people with a natural river crossing and place to trap migrating fish. It was also a meeting place for many clans where they would trade, settle disputes and exchange brides.
In January 1803, Charles Grimes, the deputy surveyor-general of New South Wales, was sent to Port Phillip to survey the area. Sailing on the schooner Cumberland, under the command of Acting Lieutenant Charles Robbins, the party entered Port Phillip on 20 January 1803. Grimes explored the Yarra by boat for several miles until he reached Dights Falls on 8 February. On a ridge above the falls, 250 metres to the east, is a historic marker commemorating the “first white men to discover the river Yarra reaching Yarra Falls on 8th February, 1803. Also to make the first crossing near here with the cattle by the first overlanders John Gardiner, Joseph Hawdon and Captain John Hepburn in December 1836”.
In the 1840s, an artificial weir was built on the natural bar of basalt boulders to provide water to the “Ceres” flour mill, one of the first in Victoria. In the early 1840s John Dight established Melbourne’s first water-powered flour mill on the site. In 1888 “Yarra Falls Roller Mills” built a water-turbine powered mill, which was the largest and most sophisticated of the thirty two water powered mills built in Victoria before 1900.
This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Scenic Weekends meme,
and also part of the Shadow Shot Sunday meme.
The Mill Park Library opened in 2002 at a cost of $8 million, and was the first library in Victoria to be designed on the concept of a hybrid digital/print library. It serves the northern outer suburbs. This iconic library building on Plenty Road has a spacious children’s library, a fully equipped training room with 12 PCs, an extensive Local History collection and a quiet reading area. As well as material in English, the library offers community language material in Italian, Greek, Maltese and Chinese.
This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Weekly TopShot meme.
Darebin Creek is a creek that runs through the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the main watercourse of the Darebin Valley and a major tributary of the Yarra River. For tens of thousands of years it was used as a food and tool source sustainably by the Wurundjeri people, Indigenous Australians of the Kulin nation alliance.
The creek rises on the northern urban fringe of Melbourne north of the suburb of Epping, following a general southerly route and meeting the Yarra at Alphington. The creek forms much of the municipal boundary between the City of Darebin and City of Banyule. Formerly an intermittent stream, increased stormwater runoff with urbanisation of the Darebin Creek catchment has resulted in permanent water flow. These photos are from the Preston/Ivanhoe stretch of the creek.
This post is part of the Friday Greens meme,
and also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.
Plumeria (common name Frangipani) is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. It contains seven or eight species of mainly deciduous shrubs and small trees. They are native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America as far south as Brazil but can be grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
The genus is named in honour of the seventeenth-century French botanist Charles Plumier, who travelled to the New World documenting many plant and animal species. The common name "Frangipani" comes from an Italian noble family (itself literally meaning "bread-breaker(s)" in Italian), a sixteenth-century marquess who invented a plumeria-scented perfume.
Plumeria is related to the oleander, Nerium oleander, and both possess an irritant, rather similar to that of Euphorbia. Contact with the sap may irritate eyes and skin. Each of the separate species of Plumeria bears differently shaped, alternate leaves with distinct form and growth habits. The leaves of P. alba are quite narrow and corrugated, whereas leaves of P. pudica have an elongated shape and glossy, dark-green colour. P. pudica is one of the everblooming types with non-deciduous, evergreen leaves. Another species that retains leaves and flowers in winter is P. obtusa; though its common name is "Singapore frangipani" it is originally from Colombia.
Plumeria flowers are most fragrant at night in order to lure sphinx moths to pollinate them. The flowers have no nectar, however, and simply dupe their pollinators. The moths inadvertently pollinate them by transferring pollen from flower to flower in their fruitless search for nectar. Plumeria species may be propagated easily from cuttings of leafless stem tips in spring. Cuttings are allowed to dry at the base before planting in well-drained soil. Cuttings are particularly susceptible to rot in moist soil.
The most common frangipani is Plumeria rubra. This species comes in many colours, from white to cream to yellow, even oranges, pinks (both pale and hot pink), reds and even deep cerise. They are also the ones with the most fragrant flowers. These trees are common in Melbourne and will grow well in sheltered spots.
This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.
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 Wednesday Waters,
and also part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
I have posted before about Yering Station Winery in the Yarra Valley (see here), which is one of my favourite wineries in the Yarra Valley. Last time we visited, we enjoyed a perfect Autumn day, and as we were leaving, the sun was beginning to set and gilded the avenues of trees and vines with a beautiful light. It was the perfect end to a perfect day...
This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Trees & Bushes meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.
Northland Shopping Centre is a major shopping centre in East Preston, approximately 11 km north of the Melbourne Central Business District in Victoria. It is the largest predominantly single-level shopping centre in Melbourne. It has more than 330 stores all spread on one floor but the cinemas, Timezone arcade and Pancake Parlour is on the top level.
Opening in 1966, Northland Shopping Centre was one of the first self-contained shopping centres in Melbourne. The shopping centre was built and owned by the Myer Emporium. The original shopping centre consisted of 3 malls radiating north, east and west from a centre stage area. It housed 73 tenants and 6 professional suites. Some of the original retailers included Myer, Coles New World Supermarket, Buckley and Nunn Department Store, McEwans, Woolworths Variety Store and Coles Variety Store. A feature of the shopping centre was the Northland Market located at the south-west end of the shopping centre. In July 1983, the Myer Emporium sold the shopping centre to the Gandel Group of Companies. It is currently owned 50-50 by GPT and Novion Property Group.
The little mural shown here is on the South entry and today was the first time I noticed it, meaning it must be fairly recent. The theme suits the bike rack in front of it...
This post is part of the Monday Murals meme.
Driving back from a day trip out to the Yarra Valley, I just had to stop and try to capture the gloaming, as evening fell...
This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.
