Melbourne

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Mornington Peninsula is on the south east side of Melbourne and at its most extreme westerly tip is Point Nepean National Park. As opposed to our last visit to the peninsula, which required us to drive through the city, we took the 40 minute ferry ride from Queenscliff which is on the opposite side of the narrow channel protecting Port Phillip bay.

The National Park includes numerous hiking trails, the remnants of a quarantine centre and Fort Nepean, a 19th/20th century military installation. The quarantine centre, established in mid 1800’s, contained numerous outbuildings including a hospital and other facilities in which new immigrants were screened for communicable diseases. For example, the “Foul Luggage room” contained a semi automated method of decontaminating all luggage using formaldehyde and other chemicals.

We hiked the fairly easy 11 km return trail from the quarantine centre to Fort Nepean. The Fort‘s armament included numerous large canon placements that had the range and destructive power to protect the entrance to the bay during World War 1 and II. A very enjoyable day with complimentary weather and panoramic views of the Tasmanian sea and Port Phillip Bay.

We stayed 2 nights in the peninsula at the Dunes Golf resort. Valentines Day included a day of golf at the nicely designed Dunes golf course (links style course similar to CrowBush Cove in PEI) and an early dinner at Del Posto, a small Italian restaurant close to the Dunes. Of course Debra and I spent the rest of Valentines Day having a romantic scotch and cigar on the outside balcony of our room overlooking the golf course watching the sunset. The next day, before the ferry ride home, we visited some other small towns and areas of interest throughout the area. Overall Mornington Peninsula is a very nice area near Melbourne featuring numerous, small towns and lots of golf, wineries coastal scenery and beaches. For any future return to Australia this would be a good area to consider staying.

It was a treat to be able to meet up with Rose and Ken Wright in Melbourne for lunch after our return from the Mornington Peninsula. Rose and Ken are friends from Fredericton who have been on a “round the world” Princess cruise from early January to early April. Their original itinerary did not include Melbourne, but they were re-routed from New Zealand in order to avoid the forecasted Cyclone Gabrielle. They only had a few hours in Melbourne, so it was a short but enjoyable get together. For anyone considering this length of cruise, they gave it high marks.

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Photos

Sculptures in Sorento, Mornington Peninsula
Do you notice anything unusual about this piece of art?

Quarantine Station, Point Nepean National Park
Foul Luggage room processing equipment

The Dunes, Mornington Peninsula
Lovely course, well designed with lots of variety of holes. Quite a few blind shots which makes the game more interesting. Big deep bunkers very strategically placed. Slope 132 from White tees, 5600 meters.

Elephant rock - Mornington peninsula
This was on the Tasmanian sea side. On the cliff above was a lighthouse and a couple of cottages. Around one of the cottages there were about 12 archeologists from Australia university doing a dig. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but it was a fascinating process.