The Murray River

Despite the fact that is was about 37 degrees yesterday, and it's tipping 40 degrees today, I did still manage to get out for a bit of a walk to check out the "mighty" Murray River which forms the border between Albury and Wodonga (and a good protion of the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria).

The Murray River is Australia's longest river, running for 2375 kms.  It originates in the Australian alps then flows northwest across Australia's inland plains until it turns south for its final 500 kms or so in South Australia where it eventually reaches the Indian Ocean.

Despite its length, the Murray River carries only a small fraction of the water of similar sized rivers in other parts of the world and there can be a great variability in its flow --- particularly during conditions of extreme drought.

I know that over the course of my time here in Australia you'll be seeing several photos of the Murray River as my travels are going to take me to it at a few different places.  It's quite amazing how different the river looks depending on where you are.
Here it is in the Albury/Wodonga area:

And these are a couple of little 'friends' I passed along the riverbank, like me they were out enjoying the beautiful weather.

And this is another reason why I love the Albury/Wodonga area so much --- the eucalyptus trees (a.k.a. gum trees), particularly along the river bank.  They are absolutely beautiful!

I'm leaving Wodonga tomorrow, and heading to visit friends who live just outside of Melbourne in an area known as the Yarra Valley.  I'm not sure about what my access to WiFi will (or won't) be, so if there aren't any posts for a while you'll know why.

Up on the Border

I know I promised a blog posting at least once a week, but unfortunately I'm not totally sure what I can be writing about right now because really, this past week has been all about me catching up with friends.

It's hard to believe, but it was nearly 17 years ago now (1996) when I did my first teaching exchange and for the past week I've been back in the town where I lived for that year - a place called Albury/Wodonga.

Albury and Wodonga are actually two different towns, each one on a different side of the border between the states of Victoria and New South Wales.  Wodonga is in Victoria and Albury is in New South Wales, and the Murray River runs between the two.  The year that I was here I lived in Albury and worked at a school here in Wodonga - this time I've been mostly in Wodonga because that's where most of my friends are living now.

Wodonga is a country town, with a population of approx. 40 000  (and Albury has about 80 000). Unlike being in a big city my days have been pretty quiet since getting here.  That being said, one of the local coffee shops has given me one of their 'frequent buyer' cards so who knows, I might even be able to get a free coffee by the end of the week.

And although I say my days have been quiet I've also been very fortunate to be able to catch up with many friends who I taught with the year I was here, some who are still working and some who have now retired.  Last Friday I was invited out of lunch to find that there were about 10 people joining us, all either retired or working part time, so lunch was an excellent way for me to touch base with them.  I've also been treated to dinner at many friends' houses as well.  I definitely must say I'm eating (and drinking) well!

To try and give you a little bit of an idea what the area is like here are a few photos.
This is the old water tower in the middle of Wodonga, which was built in 1923.

These were taken as I was walking from "downtown" back to my friend's house where I'm staying.  One of the things I always loved the best about this area were the hills surrounding both towns.

These are taken from the top of Monument Hill in Albury, looking down over the town.  I will be very interested to compare it to photos I have from 17 years ago, taken from this same location.

It's been a while since I took a photo with me in it, so I thought I'd better let confirm that I really am here.

(Nice bra straps, yes I know.  No one needs to say anything!)

It's been a very warm (aka hot) week this week - temperatures well into the 30s and by the end of the week we might be hitting 40 degrees.  I know, you're all saying; "that's just too bad", but it does (obviously) have an impact on how much I can be outside and walking around.  That being said, I am hoping tomorrow or Thursday to get down to the Murray River and take a few photos of it to share with you as well.  In addition to the hills, the river was another favourite spot of mine when living here.

And a bit more from Melbourne

I think I've finally got it --- I'm finally in the habit (again) of looking over my right shoulder first when crossing the street!!!  I think probably coming from south-east Asia helped, where there are absolutely no traffic laws and so as a pedestrian you really do take a chance when crossing a road, and you run across it, looking like a chicken the whole time!  And unlike home, here pedestrians don't have the right-of-way.  Not that drivers are running down pedestrians on purpose but it really does force you to be a bit more aware when walking.

Now though, because I know you're waiting with baited breath, I will tell you that yes, I did go on walk # 3, and like the previous two that I have done, this one also resulted in a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Walk # 3 is called "On The Waterfront", and as the name suggests, it was a walk along the Yarra River.  Certainly when the Yarra is passing through the central part of Melbourne there are beautiful paths and boardwalks, in most places along both sides of the river.  In places there are parklands, but it is also a part of the city with stretches of apartments, offices, hotels, shops, restaurants, wonderful ice-cream/gelato shops (that's another goal I have while I'm here - to try every ice-cream/gelato shop along Southbank),... and some fabulous urban art.

Within about 3 kms there are also 9 bridges that cross over the Yarra.  Some are for vehicles, but many have been purposely built only for pedestrians and cyclists, making the banks of the Yarra a very popular place to hang out.

Webb Bridge is one of these - an interesting, snaking, pedestrian and cycle link over the Yarra.  The design is an analogy of Koorie fishing traps, drums, baskets and the gestural flow of the river below.

For those of you interested in some Australian history, in 1835 the ship 'Enterprize' sailed up the Yarra from Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) to create a commercial settlement.  For the Indigenous people who had lived along the river for thousands of years, the landscape would change forever.  At one time, this section of the river was very shallow and there was also a small waterfall that prevented saltwater from entering the river.  Also, this was the only place for kilometres where Aboriginal people could cross the river over a reef of rocks.  They believed the falls were created by Bunjil (the eagle hawk), and in its original form the area was a habitat for animals and resources that weren't found anywhere else.
The waterfall was destroyed in the mid-19th century and this area is now known as Enterprize Wharf. Five carved figureheads mark the spot where the waterfall used to be.  (Unfortunately the destruction of the waterfall also ruined the ecology of the area with salt water now flowing into the freshwater wetlands.)

Enterprize Park is the site of the 'Scar Project'.  Traditionally, Indigenous people would take pieces of bark from some trees to make canoes, shields or baby cradles, and these 'scar trees' would serve as a signpost for other clans to know they had entered the land of another community.  These trees are rare today - and the 'Scar Project', located here on the 'pool' of Melbourne, is representative of these scar trees and was constructed by Indigenous artists.

Early port facilities were also located here, as well as bond stores and the Customs House, which is now the Immigration Museum.

After gold was discovered in 1850, thousands of people from all over the world descended upon Melbourne in their quest for fortune, and this harbour was their first port of call.  The impact on the local Kulin population was devastating - the destruction of natural food sources and the introduction of diseases meant that the 1839 population of 1225 Indigenous people was reduced to just 181 by 1863.

There's no doubt about it, hanging about the Yarra, with all the comings and going along the river, is definitely a fun thing to do.

Tuesday was a beautiful day, 30 degrees and sunny, so I decided to take myself to a Melbourne suburb called St. Kilda.

St. Kilda is about 6 kms south-east of central Melbourne and it's right on Port Phillip Bay - hence it was "the" place to be today.  It has a beautiful esplanade and of course the beach was very popular today.  That being said, although the beach was very popular being in the water was not quite so, and after going in to about my knees I certainly didn't need to go any further to feel sufficiently cooled off.  There's no doubt that Lake Huron this past summer was far warmer!

St. Kilda Pier is a local landmark, with its Edwardian pavilion a very important building to the locals.  St. Kilda also has a very long breakwater that shelters a marina and is also home to a Little penguin colony.  Sunset and early evening is the time to see the penguins so you can guess what I'll be doing some evening in the future.

The other very well known landmark in St. Kilda is Luna Park.  The laughing face facade and the roller coaster have both been classified by the National Trust.  Mr. Moon first opened his giant mouth to St. Kilda in 1912 and Luna Park has been an operating amusement park ever since.

I'm going to take a little break from Melbourne now - or more precisely I'm going to give Jude a little break from me - and I'm going to head up to Albury/Wodonga for a few days.  Albury/Wodonga is where I did my first teaching exchange, and it's located about a three and a half hour drive north-east of Melbourne.  I'm looking forward to seeing 'the gang' up there.

More in Melbourne

Despite the fact that I'm sure my friend Jude is tired of bringing me coffee in bed every morning (yes everyone, she is actually doing this - terrible isn't it!), I am still here in Melbourne and loving having the time to explore the city in a way that I haven't been able to before.

Melbourne is a very friendly "tourist" city!  It has one of the most extensive tram networks of any city in the world and trams have been running here since 1884.  Trams are the second most used form of public transport in this city, second only to the commuter train network.
And for tourists there is a free City Circle Tram that goes around the central downtown area of Melbourne - in Toronto it would be like a tram going along Front St. (or maybe Queen's Quay), up Yonge St., across Bloor and back down Bathurst St..  And this is FREE - and runs every 10-15 minutes, 7 days a week!

And then if you want to go a little bit further afield there is also a FREE Tourist Shuttle - which operates exactly like a hop-on, hop-off bus (or you can ride the whole loop which takes about an hour and a half), and stops at 13 of the most popular tourist destinations within the city centre.

I'm sure I mentioned that both of these are FREE - and used extensively by tourists and locals alike!  So between these two services, and a city tram only one block away from my friend's house, getting around Melbourne has been very easy.

Something else that Melbourne has done is publish a series of 7 self-directed walks, ranging from about 4 - 7 kms, each one highlighting a different aspect or area of Melbourne.  They all start and end at Federation Square (the Times Square of Melbourne - see previous post), and the brochures that go along with each walk are wonderfully informative.  And I've decided I'm going to do all 7 (hopefully) during my visits to Melbourne.

At the beginning of last week I was on a very specific shopping mission, for something I knew I wouldn't be able to get at your typical (rather tacky) souvenir shop, and so I headed to the Melbourne Museum to see if the gift shop there might have what I was looking for.  Shopping success - but I figured while I was there I might as well spend some time at the museum as well.  It's an excellent space - not too big and not too small with lots of informative displays.

And on my way to the Museum I walked through an area which would be similar to our CNE grounds, and contained a beautiful old building known as the Royal Exhibition Building (have I mentioned that there are many similarities between Melbourne and Toronto?)!
The Royal Exhibition Building was built in 1880, and when built it was the largest building in Australia and the highest building in Melbourne.  In 2004 it became the first building in Australia to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status.

The next day I did Walk # 1 entitled "A Walk in the Park".  Now I know in my first post about Melbourne I commented on how beautiful the Royal Botanic Gardens here are, and they are hardly the only gardens and parkland in downtown Melbourne.  Today's walk had me going through two more beautiful gardens, and in one there was a conservatory, built in 1930, which houses floral displays that change 4 or 5 times each year.

Cooks' Cottage was shipped from Great Ayton in Yorkshire and re-erected in Melbourne in 1934 as a Victorian (Melbourne is located in Victoria State) centenary gift.  The explorer James Cook may never have lived in the cottage, but his parents probably did.

Melbournians (or Melbournites?) definitely do make use of their gardens and parklands, and this means adults as well as children.  During my walk today I discovered a marvellous "Fairies' Tree" which I found as interesting as the many toddlers that were there.

One of the beautiful fountains (called the River God Fountain) I passed on this walk, with St. Patrick's Catholic Cathedral in the background.

After leaving the garden I was in, I went over to the Cathedral for a closer look.  The cathedral was built between 1858 and 1897,

and across the street, hidden behind the trees, is the Lutheran Church which was built in 1853.  Both are beautiful buildings.

At the end of the walk I went to see the Federation Bells sound sculpture, which is 39 electronic bells which range in size from a small handbell to a bell that stand 1.8 metres high and weighs 3.5 tonnes.  Although the bells weren't playing when I was there, they do play every day and so I'm hoping to go back and hear them sometime.

Another little area that I discovered quite by accident, is a small little alleyway called Hosier Lane.  Hosier Lane is opposite Federation Square and is famous for its sophisticated urban art - which is constantly changing.

Mid-week saw me and Jude going to a place just outside Melbourne called Montsalvat which is Australia's oldest artists' colony and today is still a working arts centre and home to practicing artists. Set on 12 acres of established gardens, with buildings built in the late 1930's, it was quite a lovely place.
This is the chapel and Great Hall - both of which were housing a display of water colours.

We met a friend at Montsalvat who wanted to do a bit of showing off for us...

Walk # 2 was on my agenda for the end of the week, and this walk is called "Secret Gardens" (see what I mean about gardens and parklands here????).

This building might look familiar - it's the Arts Centre - with the photo taken from the Queen Victoria Gardens where I was walking.

This walk took me back into the Royal Botanic Gardens (where I was happy to go), this time meandering along some paths that I hadn't been when Jude and I visited.

And look at something else about the Royal Botanic Gardens --- look at what colour they've painted all of the water taps located in the gardens??!!  It's no wonder I love this place!

A little 'secret' garden is the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden which was created during Victoria's centenary in 1934-35 to commemorate the courage and contribution of women pioneers.  And nowadays, surrounding the garden there are also many other memorials to women - Aboriginal women, women during wartime, etc..

Yesterday (Sunday), Jude and I, along with Jude's granddaughters, spent a lovely day at the Melbourne Aquarium.  Hands down, the penguins were my favourite exhibit - with the King penguins (the second largest species of penguin, second to Emperor penguins) looking very majestic.

 
Even this one, looking very fluffy as he/she was moulting, still looked rather regal walking around.

What was really lovely though were the Gentoo penguins (the third largest species of penguin) as there were many baby chicks, some of which were only a few days old.

Not surprisingly, there was also an amazing coral reef exhibit.

And how could you not love this octopus???

Now it's a beautiful, sunny Monday morning for me and I'm going to go and enjoy the day.  I hear Walk # 3 calling to me.