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Today we are celebrating my first winter birthday, and it comes as Bob and I are wrapping up our lovely Melbourne (Burwood) housesit. Our homeowners return Monday afternoon.

Today began with strong winds and rain. The rest of the day has been mixed. It’s rainy crazy again at the moment, but Bob and I had purchased tickets to an exhibit at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, ACMI, in the city, and we had good weather for getting there and back.

The Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion exhibit provided a multi-media look at some of the film stars who defined and disrupted the feminist ideal. It was attractively presented, and I especially enjoyed the costumes.

Tonight my favorite chef (and husband) is making dinner, and there might be some sparkling wine. Here’s to love, life, and seeing the world!

Bob found us a nice, quiet walk to an Italian market/deli that we had noticed from our tram rides into Melbourne. Today was to be one of the few non-rainy days this week, so we headed off for an 80 minute walk to Monaco’s market in Camberwell. The walk took us through a bit of Deakin University as well as a number of nice neighborhoods via sidewalks and trails.

Coming off the path, we walked through a bit of Deakin University. This is a relatively new public university, founded in 1974. It is named after Alfred Deakin, the 2nd Prime Minister of Australia. It has a total enrollment of about 61,000 with both undergraduates and postgraduates. Wikipedia states that as of 2021, it is one of the top 26 young universities in the world. It’s highest ranking programs are sport science, nursing, and education.

After we finished at Monaco’s, we headed further into Camberwell to the library to peek inside and get a better photo of the typewriter keys statue out front. On the way, I took a photo of the Pompey Elliott Memorial Hall, which we also pass on the tram, to prompt me to learn more about this individual.

This is a short bit of what I have learned. Harold “Pompey“ Elliott was born in Victoria in 1878. He interrupted his studies to become a lawyer to serve in the Boer War. He became a lawyer and started his own firm but continued his military career by commanding a battalion for the compulsory military training established by Prime Minister Deakin (same as mentioned above).

He commanded a number of units during World War I. While he was known as an inspirational leader, his outspokenness often caused issues with superiors. He felt others had been promoted ahead of him unjustly. He was elected to the Senate where he continued to try to address wartime grievances. He ultimately took his own life.

Happy July! Bob and I are still in winter, though quite mild by Midwest US standards. Mostly highs in the low 50s and lows in the low to mid 40s, Fahrenheit, of course. Today, we had a true Australian adventure. We took in an Australian Rules Football game, or at least part of one.

This gave us an opportunity to see this unique (to us) sport as well as check out the Melbourne Cricket Grounds stadium where the game was played. The game itself is as active and fast-paced as soccer but has its own rules for advancing the ball and scoring. It’s played between 2 teams of 18 on an oval field, usually a modified cricket ground. There is some serious field to cover. It started in Melbourne in 1858 and has the highest spectator attendance and TV viewership of all sports in Australia. It is often referred to simply as footy.

We walked to the tram stop and had about a 50 minute ride to the Jolimont tram stop (stop #11), which left us very close to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG). As it was misting heavily all the way to the stadium, we were happy to see that our seats were covered. We explored the stadium a bit before we settled in for the game.

The game was between the Hawthorn Hawks, who play all but 4 of their home games at MCG and the remaining 4 in Launceston, Tasmania, and the Carlton Blues, from a Melbourne suburb. Almost half of the AFL teams are from the Melbourne area. We were cheering for the Hawks as the home team (and closely sharing the mascot name and colors of the University of Iowa), but the Blues were much better today. They won 112-52.

A week or so ago, Bob and I walked up to the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary to walk around the small lake there. Today, we visited a different part of the same ecosystem, a bushland corridor that runs east to west along Gardiners Creek in the Blackburn community of the city of Whitehorse. We walked the Blackburn Creeklands pathway that runs through two parks between the very busy Middleborough and Blackburn Roads.

It was a lovely short walk which allows you to feel you’ve escaped the traffic and gotten back into nature.

After we reached Blackburn Road, we headed back towards the house. On the way, we stumbled on a civic guide map showing us where we are situated in the larger community as well as a point of interest.

The Yarra River (once, per Wikipedia, the Yarra Yarra River) is a tidal river that flows through the heart of Melbourne. It is 150 miles long, flowing from the Yarra Ranges to Hobsons Bay. It continues to be used for container shipping, and the Port of Melbourne is the busiest on the continent.

Bob and I spent a non-active hour on the Yarra, cruising past much of the CBD to the port before returning. We used Melbourne River Cruises and were aboard the Yarra Queen, where we got to watch a captain in training. He did very well, although struggled a bit with the first docking.

The company offers a number of tours. We went down river past Southgate shopping/retail complex, Melbourne convention center, Crown Casino, World Trade Center, waterfront residences, and the port. We also went under a number of bridges (auto and pedestrian), some of which were quite low.

Below are photos of our excursion. First things first though as Bob found a big head statue!

Okay, now for the cruise photos.

Bob and I ventured into Melbourne proper today to visit the Botanic Gardens and the Shrine of Remembrance. It was a good day to get out with temps in the lower 50s F but wind and rain predicted for mid afternoon.

We again took the tram in, as we knew that it runs every 10 minutes. We got to the stop just as it was pulling in. We had an hour ride in — from stop 66 to stop 5. It is slow but reliable.

We got off near Flinders Station and crossed the Yarra River to head towards the Botanic Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance.

Before we made it to the Botanic Gardens, we walked through the lovely Alexandra Gardens, Victoria Gardens, and Kings Domain.

We saw signage for the Shrine of Remembrance, so we headed there next. It brought back memories of having stopped there in 2003 during a trip for our 10-year wedding anniversary. At the time, we visited Melbourne and Sydney and were on a city bus to St. Kilda when we saw the Shrine and decided to get off the bus to visit. It still impresses.

Next, we were off to check out some of the Botanic Gardens. The Botanic Gardens were established in 1846 and contain over 8,500 plant species, representing 98% of the world’s sovereign nations. It was being enjoyed by many humans and pets on this Saturday, and amazingly, both the gardens and the shrine are free to visit.

We opted for the train/bus combo on the way back. The train was in the station when we got there and we caught the 735 bus (new one for us) when we got to Box Hill. All of that meant we were back in the house for about 20 minutes or so before the skies opened up. Good times and good timing!

On the two occasions when Bob and I have taken the tram to or from Burwood, we noticed an area closer to the city center that we thought looked like it might be interesting to explore a bit. Today, we used our recently topped-off Myki cards to catch the #75 tram to go from Stop #66, Burwood, to Stop #37, Tooronga Road in Camberwell.

Camberwell lies about 6 miles east of Melbourne’s CBD within the city of Boroondora local government area. It is apparently considered as one of Melbourne’s most prestigious and exclusive suburbs based on its grand, historic homes. We may have to go back to see those. We just checked out a local park and the Burke Road shopping strip as well as some municipal buildings.

Yesterday, was a seriously rainy day, and today was the coldest morning (37 F) in five years based on the local news. However, having been in most of the day yesterday except for a midday hair appointment, we were ready to head out in the sun today, brisk or not. It ended up being a nice day for a walk.

We headed to Box Hill to explore Box Hill Central that we’ve usually just breezed through on the way to catch a bus or train. We wanted to see what all was in the center, and we also wanted to top off our Myki cards for more local public transport travel in the future. Finally, we wanted to head to the Box Hill Gardens that we had noticed on Google Maps.

Box Hill is a suburb of Melbourne, about 9 miles east of the CBD, located in the city of Whitehorse local government area. It was founded as a township in the 1850s and was absorbed into Melbourne in the 1950s as part of Melbourne’s eastward expansion. It serves as a major transportation hub for the eastern suburbs and is otherwise notable today for its large Chinese community and home of the tallest high-rise buildings outside of the CBD.

Bob and I walked a little over 30 minutes into the city of Monash (we’re in the city of Whitehorse) to check out the Damper Creek Reserve that we had seen on Google Maps. As we learned when we got there, Damper Creek is at the uppermost reaches of the Gardiners Creek sub catchment area of the Yarra River. The Reserve was established to provide an important wildlife corridor, protection of natural vegetation, as well as a green space for humans and their pets.

We thought it was lovely and wished it was longer. It felt worlds away from the busy street we needed to walk to get there.

The other purpose for the walk was to check out another train station near us, the Mount Waverly Station. It’s an alternative to the Box Hill train station that we have been using, although it is only served by one train line instead of 2 out of Box Hill. Still, the retail area around the Mount Waverly Station was cute.

It is a windy day in Victoria, although not as bad in town as out in the surrounding areas. We headed out anyway to explore the Blackburn Lake Sanctuary that we had found on Google Maps. It seemed to be a decent size and, as it was about an hour’s walk from the house, would make for a good outing.

On the way to the sanctuary, our walk route took us on part of the Wurundjeri Trail that we had walked last week as well as by two other small parks.

The Blackburn Lake Sanctuary is located at the edge of a lovely neighborhood. A sign at the sanctuary informed us that the natural watercourse here was dammed in 1888 by the Freehold Investment and Banking Company to create the current lake as a key feature of its Model Town Estate.

In the 1880s and 1890s, the area was a popular picnic spot. In the early 1900s, it was the site of a home “for aged, infirm, and feeble minded deaf mutes.” (So glad our understanding and terminology has progressed.). Local citizens began campaigning to protect the land from further development in the 1960s, and the area was classified as a significant landscape in 1976.

We enjoyed the short hike around the lake and a short chat with a local who was watching the ducks at one of the viewing areas near the lake.