Ballarat and after (Days 6 to 8)

This covers our days in the CBD and back to Mallacoota.

Further proof of the Englishness of Melbourne, A Q at the QVM! Note English spellin g of the pastries in question!

Our plan was to visit at least one major Gallery in Melbourne so we headed off down Swanston St. I looked back at the indoor climbing wall, but it was only just getting going. A climber in a red shirt is visible in the background.

It being a Sunday morning churches were open for business. I suspect this one was catering to a Chinese audience (potential members of which were very evident in the area). We didn't sample their service(a) not wishing to find we suddenly had a lot of new friends.

Hosier Lane was still colourful and well populated by tourists.

Rutledge Lane, which runs off Hosier, was also well decorated. Also well inhabited by rough sleepers.

I was impressed with the underlying poster which seems to have been produced by CrankInstitute which seems to be the trade name for Chris Murray. He (I think, but with that given name could be she) has some other amusing works here.

We went down to the banks of the Yarra to eat our lunch. It was well populated by people, and Hawthorn supporters, heading for the G where the Hawks, after an average first quarter, flogged North.

Coming the other direction was a very colourful group including these musicians (the guy in the red strides was playing a trumpet - rather well).

I presume they were some form of anti-football group. We last saw them all going into this pub on Flinders Street, although Frances heard them a couple of hours later as we took a tram up Swanston.

Our final outing was to fire up Polly and go to meet Ingrid and the kids on the beach at Princes Pier. I don't think it would be possible to navigate there from the Ibis Hotel on Therry St without a satnav. The outer bit of the pier is rather conceptual - a pity considering this was the main embarkation point for Australian forces in WW2.

Going back to the Ibis even satnav couldn't deal with the mess where Dudley St intersects with the freeway. I have no idea what the solution to this mess is but the Government(s) responsible for the road layout to the South and West of the CBD should be ashamed.

On the Monday we decided to explore - on foot - the area directly North of the Ibis. We began going down Bouverie St seeing city skyline behind a colourful building on that street.

We then got into the campus of the University of Melbourne. There was a bit of sandstone about, but most of the buildings weere of redbrick style. This is a quadrangle.

An excellent mosaic of glazed tiles, signed Tom Sanders, on a building devoted to some aspect of indigenous studies. From Googling the artist's name it appears that John Olsen was also involved in this work.

All the residential colleges along the edge of the campus appeared to be well secured against unauthorised access. This was Ormund College, looking more like a church.

As people who have followed our travels will known we find cemeteries interesting places to visit (with Woodlawn in NYC being the top example). So we took ourselves into the Melbourne General Cemetery to see what we could see. The first spot, right inside the gates, was the Prime Minsters Memorial Garden. The memorial by the fence here was to Harold Holt: as Frances noted it couldn't be his grave!

At the back of the garden they had a wall listing all the Prime Minsters, including those still vertical!

The graves were interesting in the various styles adopted but few had biographic detail. This was an exception, with the small bronze addition from the CFMEU being added interest.

Many of the graves of Jewish people used Hebrew script. This one didn't but did as with many others show the year according to the Roman and Jewish calendars. There was some accompanying material giving a link to Auschwitz (to which people interned in Thereiseinstadt were sent.

Typical Collingwood: get the Latin wrong. Pica is the European Magpie not ours!

After leaving the cemetery we walked down Lygon St. The outer stretches were a major road, not the narrow restaurant and frock-shop strip I had expected. Then we got to the restaurants and were afflicted by sticker-shock. An exception was this little kiosk, by Argyle Square, doing very brisk business. We partook of some sandwiches and iced coffee.

We then moved on to historic (and other) buildings. This shows the crenellated top of Trades Hall with a very new building under construction in the background.

We went into the State Library. My gast was well flabbered by seeing the actual suit of armour worn by Ned Kelly at Glenrowan.

The main reading room ...

.. and the dome.

In the nearby Victoria Gallery they had a selection of images of Victorian rural scenes. This shows Bruce Pascoe at his property on the Wallagaraugh. Other images showed Don Ashby and Phil Piper working on rebuilding Don's house on the edge of Mallacoota.

We took the circle tram ride. We didn't get off at St Patricks Cathedral - just as well as we wouldn't have been able to get inside as we found out later that Kimberly Kitching's funeral was happening and thus the place would have been well secured. As the tram went past Parliament House I snapped this bunch of desperates - presumably a vaccine protest.

Flinders Street station is certainly an historic building!

We did try to get into St Paul's Cathedral, but it was locked up. I am fascinated that most Protestant Churches etc are sealed except for services but Catholic ones are always open. Please explain?