| Submitted by: David Stybr United States |
| Submission Date: 14 February 2005 |
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With Victorian splendour, Melbourne is rated one of the 'most liveable' cities on Earth.
Melbourne was established by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner in 1835 and named after British Prime Minister William Lamb, Lord Melbourne. It is the youngest city of its size on Earth. Its grid pattern was laid out by military surveyor Robert Hoddle in 1837. Its major period of development coincided with the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901, and the city reflects this era both architecturally and socially. Unlike Sydney, Melbourne was a free settlement and refused to accept convicts, although in 1845 they did accept 5 ships of convicts known as exiles. Eventually the settlers separated from the colony of New South Wales. The separate colony of Victoria was formed in 1851, with Melbourne as its capital. This coincided with the discovery of gold which swiftly catalysed the growth and development of both.
Gold bought a huge influx of immigrants, and the wealth of the nearby gold fields created a city of extravagant proportions with magnificent Victorian architecture. Within 30 years the designs of the city planners and architects, the skills and culture of its many European tradespeople and the designation of large areas for public parkland had established that city that became known as 'Marvellous Melbourne - the Paris of the Antipodes'.
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B. Hume Highway: Victoria border to Melbourne.
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Wodonga.
Beechworth.
The 2nd half of our long drive on Hume Highway from Canberra to Melbourne took us from the Murray River to Port Phillip Bay south of Melbourne. The Murray River is the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria, and Wodonga is the first city in Victoria. Hume Highway immediately improves in Victoria, and is a freeway the entire distance from Wodonga to the northern suburbs of Melbourne. We took a sidetrip between Wodonga and Wangaratta via picturesque Beechworth in the rolling countryside of the Ovens River Valley. Beechworth was an important mining centre during the gold rush in the 1850s and is today filled with picturesque Victorian buildings, quaint shops, bakeries, and restaurants. We soon discovered that 'Victorian' refers to both the state and to the architecture, often equally aptly. Beechworth was filled with friendly Australian tourists on holiday. Denise found 10 or 12 good inexpensive used books in a 2nd-hand shop named Searcher's Paradise.
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Nelson Place.
Williamstown Beach.
Port Phillip Bay.
We left Hume Highway in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and drove to Williamstown via the Western Ring Road, a new freeway which skirts the western suburbs. My advance research again paid off handsomely when we decided to stay in the nearby southern suburb of Williamstown, near the mouth of the Yarra River on Port Phillip Bay. We really went against conventional wisdom because many Australians erroneously think Williamstown is just a run-down industrial area. Au contraire! Industry is along part of the way, but Williamstown itself is lovely.
Williamstown is one of the oldest parts of Melbourne, with many interesting old buildings and elegant renovated Victorian houses. Nelson Place has charming restaurants and cafés, and we dined at a superb small Italian trattoria. The Strand has the finest views of Melbourne city centre across Port Phillip Bay. Our bed & breakfast was The Grange on Osborne Street, an elegant restored historic Victorian home in a quiet tree-lined street. Our hosts Joan & Jock Williamson were wonderful and made our stay most enjoyable. Only 3 blocks away is Williamstown Beach where we saw some lovely sunsets to the southwest over Port Phillip Bay, which were at 8:45 PM in the southern summer of late December.
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Yarra River.
Southgate Complex.
City Circle Tram tour.
Sunday our exploration of Melbourne began at Southgate, a complex of shops, wine bars, snack stalls and restaurants on the south bank of the Yarra River. We strolled across Prince's Bridge to Flinders Street Station, a grand Victorian railway building completed in 1901 at the corner of Flinders Street and Swanston Street. Nearby we boarded the free City Circle Tram which makes a circuit of the city with 41 interesting attractions. Melbourne has the largest network of trams on Earth. The tram service is convenient and cheap, and the best way to travel the city. We also strolled through Bourke Street Mall, the main pedestrian shopping thoroughfare. Melbourne is a city of extravagant proportions with magnificent Victorian architecture and great charm. Its major period of development coincided with the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901, and the city reflects this era both architecturally and socially. The modern skyscrapers actually complement the old Victorian buildings.
Melbourne weather can be very unpredictable, mainly due to the competing winds from the hot desert interior of the continent to the northwest and the cold ocean to the southwest. We enjoyed almost perfect weather during our stay, with high temperatures of about 25°C (77°F), but Melbourne had heat waves above 35°C (95°F) both a few days before and a few days after our stay.
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E. Healesville Animal Sanctuary.
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Healesville Animal Sanctuary is one of the best places in Australia to view native wildlife, in simulated natural enclosures. About 200 species, many of them rare or endangered, live in a 30-hectare (77-acre) bush habitat. We set aside all of Monday for it and were well pleased. Admission is AU$12.00. One of the highlights was a wombat, a placid but powerfully built marsupial which sleeps a lot, but he happened to be happily pacing his pen when saw him ('takin' a walk, takin' a walk, takin' a walk, takin' a walk,' he seemed to say to himself). After 10 minutes he suddenly stopped in his tracks and took a nap for 2 hours. Healesville is 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Melbourne along State Route 34, the Maroondah Highway, but bring a good road map and be patient because the road goes through numerous suburbs and small towns with plenty of traffic signals and some confusing intersections.
At 2:00 Monday afternoon we phoned home, where it was 9:00 Sunday evening, just to let everyone know we still hadn't fallen off the edge of the Earth. We scraped together the maximum six AU$1 coins the pay phone accepted so we could talk 5 minutes.
On the return drive we stopped in Ringwood for dinner at Chili's Texas Grill, yet another chain of restaurants that has started to appear in Australia. Prices were reasonable, and the menu was the same as in the United States. It was interesting to see the Australians at other tables who made their first encounters with Tex-Mex food. 'How does one eat a fajita?' 'Why would anyone want to cut up a perfectly good steak?' etc. Although we generally dined in Australian restaurants, occasionally it was fun to try a U. S. restaurant just to see how much the food was modified for local tastes. It was very close.
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F. Ballarat: Sovereign Hill.
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Tuesday we visited Ballarat, the largest former gold mining town in Victoria, with its grand main street of impressive Victorian buildings from the wealth of the rich gold and quartz reefs. Sovereign Hill Goldmining Township re-creates the settlement of about 1860 on the site of the Sovereign Hill Quartz Mining Company. This is one of the finest historic attractions in Australia and gives a vivid sense of what the gold rush must have been like. Admission is AU$16.50 and well worthwhile.
Mark Twain visited Victoria in October 1895 and wrote: '[In 1850] the site now occupied by the City of Ballarat was a sylvan solitude as quiet as Eden and as lovely. Nobody had ever heard of it. On the 25th of August, 1851, the first great gold-strike in Australia was made here. The wandering prospectors who made it scraped up two pounds and a half of gold the first day -- worth $600. A few days later the place was a hive -- a town. The news of the strike spread everywhere in a sort of instantaneous way -- spread like a flash to the very ends of the Earth. A celebrity so prompt and so universal has hardly been paralleled in history. It was as if the name BALLARAT had suddenly been written on the sky, where all the world could read it at once. The smaller discoveries made in the colony of New South Wales three months before had already started emigrants toward Australia; they had been coming as a stream, but they came as a flood, now. A hundred thousand people poured into Melbourne from England and other countries in a single month, and flocked away to the mines.'
Ballarat is an easy drive 115 kilometres (70 miles) west of Melbourne on Federal Route 8, the Western Highway, which is a freeway for most of this distance. Just east of Ballarat is Kryal Castle, which features medieaval-style dinners and jousts. About halfway between Melbourne and Ballarat we also made a quick sidetrip through Bacchus Marsh, which is notable for its orchards.
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G. Colonial Tramcar Restaurant.
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Our final evening in Victoria was New Year's Eve, and as strangers in a strange land we wanted a truly special dinner. We also made sure to book several months in advance on this popular evening. Melbourne, Victoria has the largest network of trams on Earth and the finest restaurants in Australia. A vintage 1927 tram has been converted into the 5-star Colonial Tramcar Restaurant with burgundy carpet, plush velvet seats, beautiful brass fittings, 5-course gourmet cuisine and fine Australian wines. It actually cruises through South Melbourne as we dine! A movable feast indeed, and a very smooth ride. Despite the fact that we almost needed to squeeze ourselves into the small tables and seats with giant shoehorns, it was a wonderful experience and the food was scrumptious. New Year's Eve in the summer was quite a new experience for us. We boarded the tramcar at 8:30 PM on a beautifully clear evening as the Sun still shone.
Our compartment of the tram held 12 persons, and soon all of us introduced ourselves. |
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| Copyright © - "David Stybr" |
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