Continuing my Melbourne walks

Just before I talk about today's walk, this past weekend I went to a place called the Heide Museum of Modern Art.  To start today's history lesson... John and Sunday Reed married in 1932 and established the 15 acre property that is today the Heide Museum.  John Reed is a renown Australian artist and Sunday a huge supporter and patron of the arts, and Heide became a focal point for progressive art and culture as the Reeds opened their home to like-minded individuals.  Many well-known Australian artists lived intermittently at Heide during some point in their careers - and this includes Sidney Nolan who painted his famous Ned Kelly series in the dining room at Heide.
Today there are three art galleries on the property at Heide - one in the original homestead where John and Sunday first lived (picture below), the second in a 'new' home that the Reeds built for themselves in the 1960's and the third is a purpose-built gallery which was built in 1992.

And now on to today's 'adventures' - walk # 5 which is called "The Cosmopolitan".  Now let me say that today was probably not the best choice of days for me to be doing this walk as I did, most certainly, look a bit out of place.  For those of you who do closely follow world news you would know that Dame Elisabeth Murdoch died earlier this month and her state funeral was held today at St. Paul's Cathedral (the Anglican cathedral here in Melbourne - pictured in one of my first posts from Melbourne).  Many of the 1000 invited guests clearly stayed around after the service and wandered some of the sophisticated streets of Melbourne - they in their beautiful black dresses and suits and me in my old purple shorts and top.  Oh well, I walked as if I belonged with the crowds.

I started today by going back to the Federation Bells, which actually weren't a part of the walk but I wanted to hear them play.  So between the cathedral bells that rang beautifully at the end of the funeral and then the mini-concert of the Federation Bells my noon-hour today was filled with melodious sounds.

Today's walk was through parts of Melbourne that would be like Yorkville and Chinatown, with a good wander by some of the old theatres here in Melbourne as well.

My first stop was at the Manchester Unity Building.  You might remember a photo of the original elevators in an earlier post - well here is the outside of that wonderful art deco building, built in the 1930s.

Collins Street is Melbourne's most sophisticated shopping street, home to Tiffany & Co., Hermes, Louis Vuitton and many other well known names.  Majestic, tree-lined Collins Street is one of Melbourne's most prestigious addresses.

This is the Regent Theatre (top photo), built in 1929, and across the street from it is the Melbourne Athenaeum which was founded in 1839 and is now the home of the Melbourne Opera.  If you look closely at the photo you might be able to see Athena on the parapet.

Further up the street is Scots Church where Dame Nellie 'Melba' sang in the late 1800s.  Dame Nellie was born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell and she adopted the name "Melba" after her birthplace Melbourne.  Her father was the builder of the church which was the first Presbyterian Church to be built in Victoria state, built in 1839.

Beside Scot Church is St. Michael's Uniting Church - it was built in the 1860s and has beautiful polychrome patterns all over its exterior.

101 Collins Street, located at the "Paris" end of Collins Street, is the most influential business address in Melbourne.  The interior of the building is amazing with four water pools, stunning marble, granite columns and gold leaf panelling.

Further along Collins Street is the prestigious Sofitel --- and the view from the windows of the washrooms on the 35th floor was quite spectacular!!  (I was most definitely under dressed wandering around here!)

At the end of Collins Street is the Gold Treasury Museum which is Victoria''s Old Treasury Building.  It was built between 1858 and 1862 and hosts the original gold vaults where the gold bullion was stored during the gold rush era.  The fellow who designed the building, J.J. Clark, was only 19 years old.

Melbourne's Windsor Hotel is the grandest surviving hotel from the 1880s and The Windsor's afternoon tea is almost an institution.

Parliament House has been the seat of parliament in Victoria since 1855 and it definitely is a grand, old building.

Across the street from Parliament House is the Princess Theatre, built in 1886.  Frederick Baker was an actor who died on stage here in 1888 and many say his ghost still haunts the building.  (I wonder if "Phantom of the Opera" has ever played here?)

Her Majesty's Theatre is the last one that I passed in my travels today.  The original building was built in 1886 and then had significant renovations and was renamed Her Majesty's Theatre in 1934.  Since that time it has staged over 100 musicals.  As you can see from the banners, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" is playing here currently ... and yes I've seen it ... and Geoffrey Rush is absolutely brilliant as Pseudolus!!

My walk back took me through Melbourne's "Chinatown" - not dissimilar to the one in Toronto but what it doesn't have is an area like Kensington Market.  What it does have though is the Chinese Museum with an incredibly unique decoration on the front facade.

(Look closely to see what this is made out of - if you can.)

This is the Methodist Mission in Chinatown - and I don't think you can read the sign on the side of the building but it warns 'Commit No Nuisance.'  I knew to be on my best behaviour here!

Back in the heart of Melbourne's downtown area again - kind of like being at Yonge and Queen or Yonge and Bloor - there are four weather vanes, one on each of the four corners of the intersection.   They are a horse, a pig, a fish and a bird and sit high up on tram poles.  Like the Public Purse statue, they are a part of Melbourne's urban art.  Unfortunately I couldn't get all four in one photo so here are two that you can see.

And lastly I walked past another of Melbourne's urban art pieces, "Three Businessmen Who Brought Their Own Lunch" - built to commemorate three of Melbourne's founding fathers; Batman, Swanston and Hoddle.

I'm leaving Melbourne again tomorrow, flying to Adelaide and then I'll be spending the holidays and some time afterwards with friends who live in South Australia.  Although I will have computer access (for those of you who would like to email - hint), I don't think I'm going to have a lot of access to WiFi and therefore there may not be any blog postings for awhile.  As always though, I will do my best to keep you updated - so just be a bit patient if you don't see a new post for a while.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and wishing everyone the best in 2013!

Back to my walking - in Lilydale and back in Melbourne

Well after my weekend on the houseboat (with so much exercise and physical activity as I'm sure you  could tell) I thought it might be a good idea to at least go for a walk, and so that's what I did last Monday - on my last full day with my friends in the Yarra Valley.

Lillydale Lake (and yes that is the correct spelling, despite the fact that the suburb is spelled 'Lilydale' (for all of you who I'm sure noticed)) is an artificial lake and wetlands area in Lilydale (which is the closest urban centre to where my friends live and Melbourne's most eastern suburb).  The lake is only one part of the large park area, which covers over 100 hectares.  There are about 10 kms of walking trails throughout the whole park, of which I probably walked about 2 or 3 kms.  It was a lovely spot.

Tuesday found me travelling back into the city of Melbourne again, and I'm spending this next week back with my friend Jude again.  And given that the weather on Wednesday was 34 degrees with brilliant blue skies, I thought it would be good day for a walk - doing walk # 4 which was called "Arcades and Lanes".

Melbourne's many little laneways began life as rear access to properties facing big streets.  Many were later roofed as 'arcades' to provide refuge from the weather and crowds and to provide more space for shops.  Today, many of these lanes have been reborn and hum to the rhythm of daily city life, and it was along some of them that today's walk took me.

Degraves Street is a mecca for Melbourne's cafe society, and at the end of Degraves Street is the Majorca Building.  Built in the heyday of the 1920s the building has both Spanish and Moorish influences.

Centre Place is a breeding ground for cafes, some of them so small you can barely turn around after buying your coffee.

The Block Arcade was built in the early 1890s and it was where 19th century Melbournians liked to promenade or 'do the block'.  Today it is still a hive of activity, with interesting shops and beautiful mosaic floors.

Mog and Magog, two legendary giants of the ancient Britons, stand guard at one end of the Royal Arcade.  Gog and Magog have been striking the time on Gaunt's clock since 1842 and the Royal Arcade came into existence in 1869.

The Public Purse statue was the winner of a competition in 1994 to design unique and distinctive forms of street seating.  It is located on Bourke Street - and a section of this very busy street in downtown Melbourne is closed to traffic, making it the pedestrian only Bourke Street Mall.

The Underground Public Toilets are historic - built in the early 1900s and they are now classified by the National Trust.

At one end of Niagara Lane you can find a row of historic warehouses built in the 1880s.  The picturesque barrel hoists are still there and are still functional.

Hardware Lane is another laneway that epitomises Melbourne's laneway renaissance.  With cobbled stones underfoot and cafe umbrellas overhead, this is another great place to meet friends and have a coffee (or red wine).

Manchester Unity Arcade was my last stop on the tour today.  The arcade is attached to the Manchester Unity building, a neo gothic skyscraper built in 1932.   The building contains the first two escalators ever in Melbourne - as well as its original elevator.

And that brought me to the end of 'Arcades and Lanes'.

Something's missing ...

Well Melbourne is certainly gearing up for Christmas, in much the same way that many other cities around the world are.

This is a selection of photos that I took when I was wandering around central Melbourne yesterday - but I think that something is missing from all of them.  Let me know if you can figure out what I'm talking about - and if you agree or not.

And I couldn't resist taking this one ... what one does after a long, "hot" day of Christmas shopping here.

A weekend on the Murray River

Yes I will get to my weekend, but before that I'll let you know what the rest of last week was like as well.

So as you already know, I'm staying in the Yarra Valley which is an area with may wineries, so what could be a better thing to do than take a wine tasting tour??
I couldn't think of anything either, so while my friends were at work/school on Tuesday that's what I did.  The tour took us to four different wineries in the area and it also included lunch at one of the wineries.

Wednesday saw me at a place called Mont De Lancey which is an historic homestead.  For you history buffs ... the Land Act of 1865 (obviously here in Australia) released virgin bushland beyond the city of Melbourne for settlement and it was at that time that the rich, red, farmland of the Yarra Valley saw its first settlers.
A condition of the lease of the land for the new settlers was that they had to clear and cultivate one-tenth of the allotment within one year, and this condition was strictly enforced.  Raspberries were often planted in the early years as they produced a quick return, and then fruit trees, which take several years to produce a crop, were planted later.
If a settler had fulfilled the conditions of the lease they could then apply to purchase the land at a cost of one pound per acre.  Rent paid previously was deducted from the purchase price.  And so in the 1870's and 1880's the first homesteads were built in the Yarra Valley.

Mont De Lancey was built in 1880, built from bricks made by clay on the property and the original house stands today, as solid as ever.  And the view over the valley is magnificent!

Just out behind the house is the detached homestead kitchen.  Rough slab walls and a brick paved floor would have been warmed by the fire burning in the open fire place.

Also on the Mont De Lancey property is St. Mary's Chapel - the original Anglican church of the area.  It is a small, wooden church, built in 1926 by the efforts of a small group of nuns from the Melbourne area who firstly established a retreat in the area and were then instrumental in the building of the church.  The church was moved from its original site to Mont De Lancey in 1993 when a larger church was being built on the original site.

And these are not really related to Mont De Lancey at all, except they were in the gardens on the property and I thought they were beautiful.  They are torch lily flowers.

On Thursday Fiona only worked until noon, so that afternoon she took me on a drive up Mt Dandenong.  Mt Dandenong is located in the Yarra Valley.  It is 633 tall and is dotted with small villages along what is basically the one road that leads up the mountain and down the other side.  As you can probably imagine, these little villages are host to a plethora of cafes, restaurants, pubs, spas, wine and find food stores, and many, many stores selling arts and crafts and fashions.  I was very good this afternoon and only did a small amount of shopping!!

Friday was the day to do the food shopping for the weekend and then we were off --- back up to the Murray River, this time to a place called Torrumbarry, which is about 250 kms west of Wodonga, and it took about 3 hours for us to drive there from the Yarra Valley.  Houseboating on the Murray is a very popular thing to do, and how lucky am I that my friends have their own houseboat!!

We arrived at the boat on Friday night, and rather than rushing around when we got there we decided to spend that first night on the boat at the marina.  Even though we were technically at a marina, it was still a very quiet and peaceful place.  You can see a little bit of pink still left in the sky from sunset as I looked out over the Murray River.

And sunrise the next morning was spectacular!!

As soon as everyone was up we got ourselves out of the marina and out onto the Murray River.  And this is how I spent my weekend - looking at scenery like this, doing absolutely NOTHING!!!

Not that I really need a lot of rest and relaxation in my life these days - in fact I've probably had nothing but for several months now - it was still a marvellous way to spend the weekend.  We just picked a spot along the river to stay overnight on Saturday and then on Sunday we did a bit more cruising again before heading back to the marina for the inevitable end to a wonderful weekend.

I even took a turn at "captaining" (is that a word?) - and as you can see, it was not hard to watch the scenery slip by.