Original article: Well, it’s not the most interesting news in the world, but apparently Dight’s Falls is to be rebuilt so that it looks just the same. Apparently they’re going to have a public consulation. They’re going to make an even better fish ladder to help little fishies, and eels to get over the big bump. Did you know that the eels that live in the Yarra can actually get out, walk around the falls, and get back in? That’s what the web says. What I’d like are some stepping stones across the top so you can walk over it safely. Anyone else?

Now this is what I call a great inovation: Bikely.  It plots bike paths, and users’ favourite on-road bike routes, on a street directory, and lets you look at the map in three views: standard street directory, Google world satellite imagery, or the latter with key roads superimposed (‘hybrid view’). Check out the 10 km loop taking in the Yarra Boulevard here, for example, and the instructions here.  All Abbotsford routes here.  The first hyperlink in this post are to all Victorian routes — 1616 of them. It also has running routes, which must also be walking routes.  It will be interesting to see whether it is possible to put links to Flickr images in the instructions. Maybe one day I’ll finish this blog’s first ever post, and plot the King Walk from the Carringbush to Dights Falls on the site as a running route. The beautiful photo is courtesy of A J Shcroetlin of Colorado.  Leave a comment if you think this site is as great as I do.

Did you hear? At 2 p.m. yesterday, a walker found a woman’s corpse wrapped in a blue sheet, weighed down by a large backpack full of weights. It was resting against the concrete barrier over which Dights Falls flow. We will know who it was soon enough: she had “Reggie” and “Elsie” tatts adorning her two wrists, and a gold navel stud, but the body has been in the water long enough for police to venture only that it appears to be a caucasian corpse. Keep you posted.

Update: the woman was 27 year old Balaclava woman Lynette Phillips. Her family is from the country. According to Sky News Online, she was a former heroin addict studying drug counselling at Swinburne University, and last seen in her flat on Monday. She is pictured in this Age article. Something I read suggested that the corpse is thought to have been dumped in the Merri Creek at Northcote.

But who was the walker? Abbotsford Blog wants to hear from you.

The other way Dights Falls have been making the news recently is in the government’s contemplation of the possibility of diverting “after-storms water” at Dights Falls and storing it in underground acquifers or in Yan Yean or Sugarloaf Reservoirs. By the end of the year, we will know whether Melbournians are set to drink Yarra River water from close to the centre of the city.

It was only a matter of time until I brought Google Earth’s Abbotsford to this blog. Here it is.

With thousands of lycra clad fittos (and some notsofittos), I twirled through a few laps of Yarra Boulevard on 12 March when Bicycle Victoria blocked it off to cars (the next “cyclovia” is on 28 May 2006: 4 km of Sydney Road in Brunswick for 6 hours). It is one of the world’s few events where the coffee is free but water costs. It was all good. There were free muffins, and an Oxfam stall where these wonderful bags made fruit juice packs were for sale. I wonder if everyone else was as ignorant as me about Yarra Boulevard. Did you know that by going to the river end of Gipps St, following the bridge across the Yarra, and continuing up the path straight ahead, you reach Yarra Boulevard, and can then ride along an undulating and winding riverside bushland boulevard which starts nowhere in particular, ends nowhere, and is seemingly only used by late model Mercedes?

It’s 6 km long with just one intersection (and couple of side roads, one to Galatea Point, and another, happily, to the Studley Park Boathouse). Once you hit the Boulevard, you can turn left and ride to the end at Calder Highway having crossed over the Eastern Freeway and then u-turn back to the other end, Walmer St in Kew, and then u-turn back to where you started. You can also turn off towards the Kew end and ride along the loop of road closed to cars which the gate to Galatea Point gives off.

I didn’t actually know where the Botanic Gardens’ bats had ended up, but great views of the huge colony are had from the road, as well as of the Collingwood Children’s Farm and Abbotsford Convent. It was all good. There were free muffins, and an Oxfam Store where these wonderful bags made fruit juice packs were for sale.

There are hills; when I said “undulating” before, I was speaking as a driver not a cyclist. The fastest cyclists were doing the 12 km loop in 18 minutes. I did it in about 30, and was pretty buggered at the end of it. Riders would soar past me on hills in a nonchalant fashion as if they were on entirely different machines. Some of them were of course, but I overtook plenty of galahs with more money than sense on $8,000 bikes.

Yesterday I thought a few laps before breakfast would be a good thing and rode 24km up and down the hills, so tiring myself that while visiting my mother in law I fell asleep.

I took Miss K down to Galatea Point in Yarra Bend Park, just off Studley Park Road, a great little 20 minute walk you can drive to and be guaranteed a park (directions below). This is one of the beautiful views of the Yarra a great loop of which makes the Point feel like a promontory. Across the way is green lawn, and autumnal European trees (in the general vicinity of the Studley Park Boathouse). The combination of the bush and the park separated by the river is particularly pleasant, the best of both worlds, and I daydreamed of installing a kangaroo on the point, but have since confirmed my suspicion that kangaroos are excellent swimmers.

Along with nesting rainbow lorikeets, three eastern rosellas, and grey fantails, we saw, without even looking, one of the most splendid Australian birds, a flame robin, hopping around nonchalantly in front of us for as long as we cared to take in his scarlet beauty. My camera’s batteries had by then given out. Happily, I was able to borrow this photo from Julian Robinson of Flickr.
How to get there: One can only turn into the Yarra Boulevard from Studley Park Road while travelling away from the city, up the hill. This is how most people go to the Studley Park Boathouse. Having turned off, you can only go right, but if you do a U-turn and head back past where you entered, you come to a loop road which is gated off, much loved by cyclists. Veer right along it on foot after passing through the gate, and soon enough, you come to another gate announcing Galatea Point. Suddenly you are in the bush, though the din of the freeway is hard to ignore. One can also get there from Studley Park Road, walking along the river on the opposite bank from the one with the bike path on

Across the river is Kew, though for the purposes of this blog I have appropriated its parklands into greater Abbotsford. The Age has a suburb profile in it today with some interesting bits. The Age’s Domain’s suburb snapshots are slightly interesting: Kew is a suburb of 21,500 folks, while Abbotsford’s population is only 4,025. Kew’s average house price is over $800,000, while Abbotsford’s average is about $440,000. But back to the profile in The Age today. We learn or are reminded that:

• Xavier College Junior School, the imposing white building at the top of the Studley Park Road hill was first the home of a Catholic Businessman, T.M. Burke (hence “Burke Hall”) who gave it to Archbishop Daniel Mannix who gave it in turn to Xavier, with the Burkes later throwing in a chapel.
• Nearby Raheen, on Studley Park Road, meaning “little fort” in Gaelic, was Archbishop Daniel Mannix’s home, and is now Dick Pratt’s pad. “The Kew mansion was bequeathed to the church by none other than the controversial entrepeneur, John Wren. Mannix was known for his walks from Raheen into St Patrick’s in the city; his funeral procession followed the same route.”
• Booroondarra General Cemetry on High St “was once a popular place for a weekend outing, with people coming from all over Melbourne to see the memorials. A horse-drawn tram from Victoria Street brought some, while others would walk from Hawthorn or Richmond. According to historical notes, the greatest attraction was the glass-domed statue of the Springthorpe Memorial, with the David Syme Memorial being a close second. Plein-air artist Louis Buvelot, credited with leading the way for the founders of the Heidelberg School, is also buried here, as is John Wren.”
• There were 10 sales over $1.5 million between March 2005 and March 2006, two over $2 million, and for one, 29 Redmond St, someone paid $3.25 million.
• Kew Cottages formerly housed the Kew Lunatic Asylum and is still used as a home for the mentally ill, and that Wills St picnic area “has a wonderful lookout area” with “views of the golf course below and the city beyond” extending in the opposite direction through to the Dandenongs.

Here is a photo from Ne Koi’s Flickr pages of the Boorondarra General Cemetry.

The first Sunday Circuit was on 12 February 2006. There were over 4,000 riders who came out in the sun to do a few laps. The road was closed to motor vehicles at 6am and opened again at midday. The closure allowed drivers to get to the Studley Park Boathouse, and there were arrangements for residents who live on the river side of the road. It’s the same deal on 12 March 2006. This is part of a growing worldwide phenomenon of car free days initiated by the Mayor of Bogota and enthusiastically taken up by Parisians.Sunday circuits are part of a world wide movement. Parisians have access to car-free riding on roads on Sundays and public holidays when temporary traffic closures operate on streets around the city. The streets are then opened to pedestrians, bike riders and roller-bladers. The project is called Paris Respire or ‘Paris Breathes’. They describe Paris Respire as a ‘calmer, more convivial and pleasant way to rediscover the city’.

Columbia hosts a number of Ciclovia events. In cities such as Bogota, Cali and Medellin, 120km of roads are closed every Sunday and on public holidays from 7am to 1pm. It is claimed that one third of the population, around 2.2 million people ride and walk on the ‘open’ streets. Ciclovias were started in Bogota by Mayor Antanas Mockus.

Each year there are four Car Free Days in Centennial Park Sydney on the last Sunday of every season. The park gates are closed to vehicles from 9am to 5pm and given over to cyclists, rollerbladers and pedestrians.

Here’s the latest from In the Realm of the Senses short film festival in 12 days’ time:IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES 06 – BREAKING NEWS!

The countdown is on and with only 12 days to go until the 3 day short film and music festival extravaganza that is In the Realm of the Senses 06.

Everyone should have received an email this week to encourage you to ’spread the word like wild fire’ by nominating 2 – 5 friends that the festival is fast approaching. By doing so you will be in the running for 75 double passes + 10 festival passes (unlimited access). Get cracking!

Below is an introduction to what’s happening over the 3 days. Go to In the Realm of the Senses for more detailed info on programming, how to get there, purchase tickets etc

Friday 10th March – – 
Presented by Cafe Saffron
Gates open 5pm