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Published: January 18th 2007
Town Hall
Used to be Melbourne's town hall but now is more of a theatre for musicals.Melbourne Town Hall
Melbourne Town Hall is the central municipal building of the city of Melbourne and it is the seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Melbourne. Melbourne was officially incorporated as a town on December 13, 1842, however, it wasn't until 1854 that its first Town Hall was completed. Begun in 1851, the work ground to a halt with the beginning of the Victorian gold rush. The foundation stone of a new, grander Town Hall was laid on November 29, 1867 by the visiting Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, after the demolition of the first. The current Town Hall officially opened on August 11, 1870 and is another piece created by architect Joseph Reed. The building is topped by Prince Alfred's Tower, named after the Duke. The Tower includes a 2.44 m diameter clock, which was started on August 31, 1874. The longest of its copper hands measures 1.19 m long, and weighs 8.85 kg. In 1925, a fire destroyed a large part of the town hall, including the main auditorium and pipe organ which they rebuilt and enlarged taking over the site of a hotel in the process.
Federation Square
Federation Square (or
Federation Square
Always lots of stuff happening in Fed Square. They have a giant screen usually showing sports along with a stage for outdorr entertainment. Fed Square) is a public square in Melbourne. It was built to connect the historical center part of the city a city moving into the 21st century. It opened in 2002, and is both loved and despised by Melburnians, because of the unusual architecture (the result of a design competition) and due to the budget blowout and delays in construction. The complex of buildings is in a rough U shape, surrounding a central ochre-coloured plaza which invokes images of the Outback. The Square includes the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Australian Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, National Design Centre, the BMW Edge auditorium, the local Special Broadcasting Service TV headquarters, Melbourne Tourist Infomantion Centre, and a number of cafès and restaurants.
There is always lots of entertainment going on at Fed Square from street performers to acts on the stage in the center of the "u". They also have a big screen in the square which normally shows sports, at least whenever I went by though that was also when the Ashes were on so no wonder.
They also have wine tastings of the different regions of Victoria at
St. Paul's Cathedral
Located right near Flinders Station and near Fed Hall, it really stands out. the Square on the first Wed. and Thurs. of every month. For $12, you can sample wines to your hearts (or minds) content and is much better then trying to do one of the winery tours which only see 4 places or so and costs you around $90. You also get a lot of smaller wine companys there that don't actually do tastings or tours onsite. When I mention the brands we get back in Canada, almost every one of them groans in disgust and says here, try a real wine! 😊 Now that I've been able to sample quite a few Shiraz's, real Shiraz's, I'm even more of a fan. Ones made in a cooler climate have a "white pepper" taste to them and those in a warmer one gain a "black pepper" taste which is very nice. I've even tried a Shiraz/Pinot Rose and a Shiraz sparkling wine which I never knew existed. Believe it or not, there are also 2 places in Australia (one in Victoria and one in Tasmania) that produce an ice wine. Obviously they cant get the 3 straight days of -7, I think, naturally but put the grapes into containers surrounded in a
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Located just behind the parliament buildings, it is the largest church in Melbourne. brine solution to achieve the desired effect. Not bad but never been much on the sweet wines in any case.
In addition the wine tastings, there are also microbrewery tastings there though only twice a year. I lucked out last November when I was popping into random pubs to see the atmosphere and try the different brands when the bartender told about it. You get 20 tickets for $20 and there were about 50 different ones to try. Throwing on some of my Canadian charm and being able to keep a conversation going long enough so that they forgot to take my tickets, I tried all of them without going through all my tickets and even got a free 6 pack for helping a couple girls from Brighton move the kegs once the tasting ended.
ACMI - Australian Centre for the Moving Image The Australian Centre for the Moving Image has two cinemas that are equipped to play every film, video and digital video format, with attention to high quality acoustics. The screen gallery, built along the entire length of what was previously a train station platform, is a subterraenean gallery for experimentation with the moving image. Video
St. Patrick's Cathedral
About the only water feature in the city to still be running though now that there is stage 3 water restrictions, probably off like all the rest. art, installations, interactives, sound art and net art are all regularly exhibited in this space. Additional venues within ACMI allow computer-based public education, and other interactive presentations.
They had a special exhibition here called "Eyes, Lies & illusion" which basically chronicalled the evolution of entertainment prior to movies. Everything from anchient times where they used shadows to optical illusions. Quite interesting but not worth the $14 price to get in.
Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia The Ian Potter Centre houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). There are over 20,000 Australian artworks, including paintings, sculpture, photography, fashion and textiles, and the collection is the oldest and most well-known in the country.
The Labyrinth In the one photo from the Rialto tower I have attached to this blog, you can see all the train tracks heading under Federation Square which forms...(pause for effect)...THE LABYRINTH!! The so-called "Labyrinth" is a passive cooling system sandwiched above the railway lines and below the middle of the square. The concrete structure consists of 1.2 km of interlocking, honeycombed walls. It covers 160 m2. The walls
City Baths
Was built to prevent people from bathing in the Yarra river but now has a swimming pool and fitness center. have a zig-zag profile to maximize their surface area, and are spaced 60 cm apart.
During summer nights, cold air is pumped in the combed space, cooling down the concrete, while heat absorbed during the day is pumped out. The following day, cold air is pumped from the Labyrinth out into the Atrium through floor vents. This process can keep the Atrium up to 12 °C cooler than outside. This is comparable to conventional air conditioning, but using one-tenth the energy and producing one-tenth the carbon dioxide. During winter, the process is reversed, whereby warm daytime air stored in the Labyrinth overnight, to be pumped back into the Atrium during the day. The system can also partly cool the ACMI building when the power is not required by the Atrium.
St. Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, is the metropolitical and cathedral church of the Anglican diocese of Melbourne. It is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Metropolitan of the Province of Victoria.
Although there was no established church in colonial Victoria, most of the colony's establishment were Anglicans, and the Church of England (as it was then called) was given the best
Old Melbourne Gaol
Old home to the first convicts and where many a hanging was performed. Ned Kelly was a resident along with his mom and was also hanged here too. site in Melbourne for its cathedral. At the time of its construction, St Paul's was the tallest building in central Melbourne and dominated the city's skyline. Unfortunately the growth of multi-storey buildings in central Melbourne during the 20th century robbed St Paul's of its commanding position and restricted views from many angles. With the construction of Federation Square, a pair of adjacent highrise buildings were demolished and has improved the Cathedral's visibility from the south.
St Paul's is built on the site of Melbourne's first Christian service, conducted on the banks of the Yarra a few months after Melbourne was founded in 1835. The area was a market until 1848, when St Paul's Parish Church, a bluestone church, was built on the site. In 1885, as Melbourne grew rapidly, this church was demolished to make way for the new cathedral. In 1986 Pope John Paul II made a visit to the cathedral in recognition of the dialogue between the Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy in Melbourne.
St Paul's is built in a revival of the style known as Gothic transitional, being partly Early English and partly Decorated. The foundation stone was laid in 1880 and the Cathedral was
Immigration Museum
The $6 entry was well worth it to learn how immigration in Australia has changed over the years as well as the history of Station Pier and a special Bollywood exhibit. consecrated on 22 January 1891, but the building of the spires did not begin until 1926. An organ was imported from England and is acknowledged as the finest surviving work of T. C. Lewis, one of the greatest organ-builders of the 19th century. (Through that in for Les) St Paul's has one of the few peals of thirteen bells outside the British Isles, and their chimes are a regular feature of Wednesday evening in Melbourne. The cathedral also has a tradition of a daily choral evensong, one of the few Anglican cathedrals outside the British Isles to do so.
St Paul's in unusual among Melbourne's great 19th century public buildings in that it is not made from bluestone, the city's dominant building material. Instead it is made from sandstone imported from Sydney, giving the cathedral a warm yellow-brown colouring rather than Melbourne's characteristic cold blue-grey. Since the spires are made from different stone and are thirty years newer, they are of a darker tone than the older parts of the building. St Paul's Moorehouse Tower is the second highest Anglican spires in the world, the tallest being Sailsbury Cathedral's. By the 1990s the constant traffic vibration of central Melbourne
Melbourne Museum
They built this right next to the Royal Exhibition to much public out cry. Quite a big museum and comtains an imax as well. had led to concerns about the structural soundness of the cathedral, particularly the spires. A public appeal raised AU$2.5 million to restore the spires, work which is continuing.
St. Patrick's Cathedral
St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, is the cathedral church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne. It is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.
In 1847, only 12 years after the foundation of Melbourne, the Colonial Secretary of Victoria granted the Roman Catholic church a block of land for a church in the Eastern Hill area. Since the Catholic community of Melbourne was at the time almost entirely Irish, the Cathedral was dedicated to St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. Due to the Gold Rush of 1851, there were severe labour shortages so the foundation stone was not laid until 1858. The Cathedral was designed in the Gothic Revival style, based on the great mediaeval cathedrals of England, a style at the height of its popularity in the mid 19th century. The nave is in the style known as Early English, while the rest of the building is in Geometric Decorated,
Princess Theatre
Oldest theatre in Melbourne a somewhat later Gothic style.
Although the nave was completed within ten years, construction proceeded slowly, and was further delayed by the severe depression which hit Melbourne in 1891. It was 1897 before the Cathedral was consecrated, and even then it was not finished. Given the size of the Catholic community at the time, the massive bluestone Gothic cathedral was an immense and very expensive undertaking, and there were long delays while funds were raised. St Patrick's was the largest church brought to substantial completion anywhere in the world in the 19th century. The spires of the building were't added until the late 1930's and the building was officially completed in 1939.
In 1970 Pope Paul VI became the first Pope to visit the Cathedral, and in 1974 he conferred the title and dignity of minor basilica on it. In 1986 Pope John Paul II visited the Cathedral and addressed clergy during his Papal Visit. The Cathedral is built on a traditional east-west axis, with the altar at the eastern end, symbolising belief in the resurrection of Christ. The plan is in the style of a Latin cross, consisting of a nave with side aisles, transepts with side
Arts Center
This iconic spire stands out along the waterfront near Federation Square and marks the Performing Arts area of Melbourne aisles, a sanctuary with seven chapels, and sacristies. It is 103.6 metres long on its long axis, 56.4 metres wide across the transepts and 25.3 metres wide across the nave. The nave and transepts are 28.9 metres high. The central spire is 105 metres high and the flanking towers and spires are 61.9 metres high. To celebrate the centenary of its consecration in 1997, the Cathedral was restored and underwent conservation work.
City Baths
In Melbourne’s founding years, a bathroom in the home was a luxury only the wealthy could afford and, for most, a weekly wash or dip in Port Phillip Bay or the Yarra sufficed. By the 1850's, the Yarra had become quite polluted and an epidemic of typhoid fever hit the city causing many deaths, however people continued to swim and drink the water. It was decided to build public baths and urinals in the city and in 1860 the City Baths was opened. People flocked to the baths and it was reported that 79,096 men and 2,950 women enjoyed the facilities in the first year. For financial reasons the council decided to lease the Baths but lack of maintenance resulted in such deterioration of
National Gallery of Victoria
Not being too much into art, just a shot of the outside was enough for me! the building that it was closed down in 1899. In 1901 the corporation of the City of Melbourne advertised a national competition for the design of new public baths on the same site as the previous Baths. The winning entry was from a well-known architect J J Clark, who also designed Melbourne’s Treasury Building.
The new Melbourne City Baths in 1904 and the design reflected all the social conventions of the turn of the century. There was segregation of the sexes for all facilities, right down to separate street entrances. Class distinctions were also apparent with second class baths in the basement and first class baths on the main floor. Facilities consisted of two swimming pools, 16 slipper baths and six spray baths each for the men and women. There were also Turkish and vapour baths, a Jewish ceremonial bath - Mikvah bath and a laundry. Mixed bathing was introduced into the City Baths in 1947 and the popularity of the swimming pool began to increase. The success of the Australian swimmers in the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956 further contributed to the popularity of the swimming pools, after which attendance rocketed to over 300,000 per year. In fact
Young and Jacksons
Oldest pub in Melbourne which is adjacent to St. Paul's Cathedral...coincidence?? the Baths had been considered as a possible venue for the Olympic swimming events but were disregarded due to the state of the facilities. Melbourne City Baths is now a leading health, fitness and wellness centre with innovative programs and state-of-the-art equipment, as well as being a significant historical icon that is visited by thousands of tourists.
Old Melbourne Gaol
The Old Melbourne Gaol is a prison located just north of the CBD. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard and is located next to the old City Police Station and City Courts buildings which are both now used by the RMIT University. Built in 1864, the gaol was the setting for 135 hangings, the most infamous being that of bushranger Ned Kelly in 1880. The jail was closed in 1926 and is now a museum.
Melbourne Gaol is Victoria's oldest surviving penal establishment. It currently exhibits 19th century gaol life, including the death masks and memorabilia of some of Melbourne's most notorious criminals, including the death mask of Ned Kelly. A skull said to be Ned Kelly's was also on display for many years until thieves stole the skull in 1978 and has never been
Coops Shot Tower
Shot towers were used to to produce shot balls used in firearms. This one was built in 1889-90 and has had Melbourne Central shopping center built around it. recovered. Whether the skull actually was Kelly's in the first place is also in question.
Immigration Museum
The Immigration Museum is located in one of Australia's finest 19th century buildings. Modelled on an Italian Renaissance palace, the building was completed in 1876 and the main customs business was conducted in the Long Room, with its grand ionic columns, plaster decorations and tessselated tile floor. The Old Customs House was built on a wide section of the Yarra River in the heart of the bustling port. From here Customs officers supervised trade into and out of the port, and the growing stream of immigrants attracted to the opportunities of the rapidly expanding colony. Prior to opening as the Immigration Museum in 1998, the Old Customs House was carefully restored to its 19th century glory.
Within the Immigration Museum now, they have displays showing how Melbourne has change each decade and also give stories of various immigrants and refugees who made their way to Melbourne. The Long Room now comtains a 17 meter long ship in the center which the first half is made to replicate the old style wooden ships that people making the long journey over would
Coops Shot Tower
The tower is in the center of the mall rising over 6 stories, covered by a giant glass dome. have lived in. The second half changes to the steel frigates that were then used almost up to air travel. They also have interactive computers so you can find out how and when the first immigrants from your country came to Australia and any prominent things they had done. For Canada, I think the first ones came in the 1840's or so as convicts. One of them made the flag used by the miners during the Eureka Stockade Rebellion which was caused when the government tried to impose fees for miners to mine gold.
Also within the museum, they had the evolution of Station Pier which I'll write about a little further down and a Bollywood exhibit showing how they make and advertise their films and also made correlations to the differences with the western cultures film making.
Melbourne Museum
The Melbourne Museum is located in the Carlton Gardens which it shares with the Royal Exhibition Building. It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere and contains seven main galleries. I didn't have much time to peruse all the exhibits since time was short and I also squeezed in an imax presentation on India which was
Station Pier
With the changes to how cargo is shipped, Station Pier was built to handle the shipping containers. Now it is where cruise ships and other large vessels dock. pretty good. I only managed to see the wildlife section and dinosaur exhibits and will have to plan a full day trip there at some point to see the rest. There is a bit of controversy with the museum because they built it right next to the Royal Exhibition and people feels it doesn't fit and that it detracks from the world heritage site.
Princess Theatre
The Princess Theatre is the second building on the present site - the first being Astley's Amphitheatre which opened in 1854 containing a central ring for equestrian entertainment and a stage at one end for dramatic performances. In 1857, the amphitheatre was renovated and the facade extended, then re-opening as the Princess Theatre and Opera House. Completed in 1866, re-development of the Theatre took place at a cost of £50,000. When completed, it featured the world's first sliding or retractable roof and ceiling. It also featured state-of-the-art electrical stage lighting.
Arts Center
The Arts Centre is a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Southgate precinct of Melbourne. There are several distinct buildings at the Arts Centre: the Hamer Hall (formerly the Melbourne Concert Hall, which seats 2700) is
China Town
China town is a 2 block stretch right in the heart of downtown. There is also a greek area which is one block right in the center and the italians a just north of the CBD too. used for symphony concerts; and the State Theatre (which seats 2085) and is used for opera performances.
The Arts Centre is located by the Yarra River and St Kilda Road, the city's main thoroughfare. The Centre is unusual in that its theatres and concert halls are built underground. The concert hall, situated closest to the river, was initially planned to be almost entirely underground, thus providing a huge open vista between the theatre spire, the river and Flinders Street Station, however, construction problems with the foundations meant the structure had to be raised to three storeys above ground. Similarly, budget constraints meant that the original design calling for a copper-clad spire were shelved, and a shortened un-clad design was substituted. This was eventually replaced with the current 'full-height' un-clad spire.
The complex retains landmark status due to its massive steel spire and its wrap-around base. Built in 1996 at a height of 163m and is illuminated with roughly 6,600 metres (21,653 feet) of optic fibre tubing, 150 metres (492 feet) of neon tubing on the mast and 14,000 incandescent lamps on the spire's skirt. The metal webbing of the spire is influenced by the billowing of a ballerina's
Victoria Market
Huge market where people sell everything from merchandise to fruits and veg, meat, cheese, deli...all very cheap so I go there quite a bit for food. tutu and the Eiffel Tower.
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum and was founded in 1861. It is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. At that time the gallery began, Victoria had been an independent colony for just ten years, but in the wake of the gold rush it was easily the richest part of Australia, and Melbourne the largest city. Generous gifts from wealthy citizens made it possible for the National Gallery to begin buying a large collection of overseas works from both old and modern masters.
A famous event in the history of the gallery was the theft of Pablo Picasso's painting "Weeping Woman" in 1986 by a person or group who identified themselves as the "Australian Cultural Terrorists". The group took the painting to protest the perceived poor treatment of the arts by the state government of the time and sought as a ransom, the establishment of an art prize for young artists. The painting was returned in a railway locker a week afterwards.
Coops Shot Tower
A shot tower is a tower designed for the production of shot
Night Market
The market is closed on Mon and Wed but during the summer, Wed night plays host to the night market where they only use a small portion of the actual market but have various types of food and entertainment so have gone there every wed. since it started. balls, which were used for projectiles in firearms. In a shot tower, lead is heated until molten, then dropped through a copper sieve high inside the tower. The liquid lead solidifies as it falls and by surface tension forms tiny spherical balls. The partially cooled balls are caught at the floor of the tower in a water-filled basin. The now fully cooled balls are checked for roundness and sorted by size; those that are "out of round" are remelted. A slightly inclined table is used for checking roundness. To make larger shot sizes, a copper sieve with larger holes is used. However, the maximum size is limited by the height of the tower, because larger shot sizes must fall further to cool. A polishing with a slight amount of graphite is necessary for lubrication and to prevent oxidation.
Shot towers replaced the earlier techniques of casting shot in molds, which was expensive, or of dripping molten lead into water barrels, which produced insufficiently spherical balls. Large shot which could not be made by the shot tower were made by tumbling pieces of cut lead sheet in a barrel until round. Shot towers were replaced by the "wind tower" method
Night Market
They had camel rides for the kids and consequently, the night market is where I first tried camel and roo. Also got to refresh my memory on what emu and croc taste like too. by the end of the 19th century, which used a blast of cold air to dramatically shorten the drop necessary. Today the Bliemeister method is used to make smaller shot sizes, and larger sizes are made by the cold swaging process of feeding calibrated lengths of wire into hemispherical dies and stamping them into spheres.
The tallest shot tower ever built still stands in the Melbourne, Australia suburb of Clifton Hill which I have yet to make it out to and probably wont if that's all there is there. This brick structure was built in 1882 and is 80 metres or 263 feet high to the top of the small chimney. The Coops Shot Tower is located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. It was completed in 1890 and is 50 metres high. The historic building was saved from demolition in 1973 and was incorporated into the massive Melbourne Central complex in 1991 underneath an 84m high conical glass roof.
Station Pier
Station Pier, originally known as Railway Pier, was officially opened in 1854. Located in the suburb of Port Melbourne, the pier is approximately 5 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne. In order to facilitate
Southgate
Shopping mall just south of the CBD. Very nice food court and and Irish bar named PJ O'Brian's which is pretty good. the transport of passengers and goods from the pier to the city, a railway between Station Pier and Flinders Street Station was opened in 1854, known as the Port Melbourne line. This was the first significant railway in Australia.
The pier was kept busy throughout the 1850s, due to the increased passenger traffic created by the gold rush. In 1861, the pier was extended to a length of 661 metres, in order to accommodate the ever-increasing numbers of people settling in Victoria. In the early part of the 20th century, the original pier was unable to accommodate the new breed of larger and more powerful steamships. As such, it was replaced by Station Pier, which at a wharf length of 933 metres, is capable of berthing even the largest ships. In 1987, the railway line to Port Melbourne was closed, and replaced by a light rail service tram route.
China Town
Melbourne Chinatown was established in the Victorian gold rush in 1854 and is notable as the oldest Chinatown in Australia, the oldest continuous Chinese settlement in Australia and the longest continuously running Chinatown outside of Asia (San Francisco Chinatown was built earlier during the California gold
Dolphin Fountain
Located in Fitzroy park, I had to take this picture since I know Karen loves dolphins...too bad the water restrictions prevent it from running. rush, but rebuilt and repopulated after it was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake). Melbourne Chinatown is also home to Sun Loong (New Dragon) the world's longest Chinese dragon at more than 100 metres in length. The world's oldest Imperial (five-clawed) dragon is in Bendigo, Victoria. It is said that during a busy day, Chinatown, with its numerous Chinese restaurants and Chinese grocery stores, appears almost indistinguishable from a street in Hong Kong or in China but I will have to verify that for myself at a future date!
Victoria Market
The Queen Victoria Market is a major landmark in Melbourne and is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The market is named after Queen Victoria who ruled the United Kingdom, including the Colony of Victoria, and later Australia, from 1837 to 1901. Starting as a small market to the east of the city in 1857, it gradually expanded to space made available from the closure of a cemetery. The market was originally wholesale and retail fruit and vegetable, but has been retail since the wholesale market in Footscray Road was opened in 1969. The Queen Victoria Market is the only surviving 19th century
Royal Exhibition
Another shot of the building showing one of the fountains and gardens. They planning on fixing up the Carlton Gardens surrounding the Exhibition to revert them to the original layout. market in the Melbourne central business district.
Today the market is a tourist destination, offering fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry and seafood, gourmet and deli foods as well as specialty delicacies. It also has a large non-food related market selling a diverse range of things such as clothes, shoes, jewellery and handmade art and crafts. I frequent the market quite regularily to buy fruits and vegetables as well and meat and deli since it is much cheaper then from the store. Banana's are finally coming down in price from the $13/kg in nov. last year to around $3/kg now. There was a cyclone that decimated the fields last year and caused the price to sky rocket. For around $10, you can be walking with more food that you can comfortably carry which is always nice for those on a budget.
The Market is closed on Mon. and Wed. but in the summer months they have a night market on wed. which only uses a small portion of the whole place but gives a nice place to try different foods while enjoying some entertainment. I've gone there every wed. since they started it and it doesn't get old even
Rialto Tower Observation Deck
Highest point in the CBD to get a look out over the city. This shot is towards the west of downtown and shows the part of Docklands as well as Victoria Harbour and has Station Pier in the distance. though all the places are the same. There's quite a few to sample from!
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