Category: Parks

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I went for a walk to the brewery

I decided yesterday to stroll down to the CUB brewery and take some photos. I discovered the following things:

  • the Nash Hotel, one block west along Victoria St from Church St (on the corner of Lambert St) looks like a good if slightly sterile hotel with a spic’n’span dining room; I had written it off without ever having peered through its windows: can anyone speak of it from experience?
  • at the end of Church St opposite the back end of the brewery, and near this sign, is what appears to be a hidden residence with spectacular views;
  • there is a warehouse down this driveway off Victoria Crescent which seems to have some lucky folk living in it, luxuriating in views like this and this and this and this;
  • another warehouse is said to be the Victorian government’s secret art storage facility;
  • I rediscovered the hidden park Flockhart Reserve, down the end of Flockhart St, which has The Terminus on its corner, on the other side of the river from the path which leads from the Gipps St bridge to the Walmer St bridge (Victoria Gardens);
  • there is a massive prop and scenery building enterprise down there;
  • there are two horses on a vacant block which must be worth a fortune, adjoining the hidden park, on which is also to be found two antique horse-drawn carriages and the frame only of what must once have been a home — unfortunately it was at this point that my camera batteries ran out.
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Riding on a car-free Yarra Boulevard

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? Continue reading “Riding on a car-free Yarra Boulevard”

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I went for a walk to Galatea Point

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.
Continue reading “I went for a walk to Galatea Point”