December-January exloring local: walking the Birrarung

The banks of the Yarra River are one of our exercise circuits. The River, the Birrarung, flows past Naarm (where Melbourne City now squats with a great sense of ownership!). Naarm is the traditional land of the Wurundjeri people; in the Woiwurrung language ‘wurun’ means the Manna Gum which is common along ‘Birrarung’  and ‘djeri‘, the grub which is found in or near the tree. Wurundjeri are the ‘Witchetty Grub People’. When I walk by The River I like to let my mind drift back to a time before European settlement. 

Our morning walk takes us around seven of the 9 bridges that span the Yarra River from Punt Road Bridge (the site of a punt service in the mid 1800s) to Spencer Street Bridge.

David Greybeard the first chimpanzee to interact with Jane Goodall sixty years ago. Artist Lisa Roet created this intriguing inflatable 'sculpture' in association with Jane Goodall Institute Australia. The sculpture will tour to 6 countries and 4 continents to help raise awareness of habitat and species protection.

There are many quirky scuptures along the banks of The River 

This one is one of Deborah Halpern's, the artist who created the 'Angel', my absolute favourite.

And here she is! My favourite, 'Angel'. I could spend hours looking at all the images the artist has worked into the ceramics.

Dervish in oxidised steel

Shearwater (I'd call it red-tailed cockatoo!)

'Sukkah' is a relatively new, temporary work of public art installed in Birrarung Marr (meaning beside the River of Mist, depending on who's telling the story).

Like all large cities on rivers this could be called a river of bridges. This is looking under the Prince's Bridge (the third iteration) towards what many of us call the Skipping Girl Bridge because at some point there was a animated neon sign of a skipping girl advertising Skipping Girl Vinegar - it's a long story. Beyond that bearly visible are the Sandridge and Queen's bridges.

Spencer Street - the first pile for this bridge driven in 1927, had to go very deep to reach bedrock. At 20 metres below sea level they struck a red gum stump that took three weeks to remove. It was dated at about 8,000 years old and appears to have lived for well over 400 years.  But the important thing in this photo is the red helicopter! On my bucket list but where to go? hmmm ... somewhere exotic.

This is one of the 'Travellers' sculptures at the south end of Sandridge bridge.

The Sandridge Bridge built in 1850s was the first steel bridge over the Yarra and linked the growing metropolis to Port Phillip where thousands of immigrants landed. The bridge was redeveloped 14  years ago as a pedestrian and cycle path and features public art 'The Travellers' most of which move along the bridge (you have to be lucky to spot them moving though). The sculptures were intended to depict the diversity of people coming to Melbourne.  Along the length of the bridge were glass panels each one dedicated to a country from which people had emmigrated to Melbourne. The bridge was vandalised when 'someones' used a sledgehammer to smash 46 of the 128 glass panels of the Travellers exhibit.

Enterprize Park beside what is know as the Turning Basin, commemorates the spot where the first settlers aboard the ship Enterprize went ashore on 30 August 1835. Today, it is the site of the Scar Project, a collaborative installation by Aboriginal artists who used original wharf poles from Queens Bridge to engage with the tradition of tree scarring.  It's wonderful but I don't have a pic yet!  What I love are a collection of five carved-wood figureheads represent a dragon, woman, bird, man and lion reflecting ethnic and cultural diversity of those who used the Turning Basin during the early years of settlement. This was Melbourne's first port.

I love these bees! a colony of giant golden shining bees hover on the side of the Eureka Tower, on the Southbank. The artist used these lovely creatures as a gleaming metaphor for the hive of frenetic activity and harmonious high-density city living. He could be right!

This is an appetiser for inner Melbourne’s 'public' artworks. I adore this bronze angel, such attitude! More later.

November 26 plus Home Sweet Home!

Hooray our wee garden survived our long absence in spite of our cobbled-together irrigation system and masses of snails - and no TLC!  What we came home to was actually a bit of a jungle. 

We gathered as many of these hungry little gastropods as we could find and in the garbage they went. Some tried to escape up the wall - I hate killing them but ..... maybe I should find out how to prepare them for a tasty entree! 

We’re actually still finding a few carrots hiding in the garden. . 

After clearing away dead stuff plus bags of errant passionfruit trailers which had grown out of the root stock and were clinging lovingly to almost everything, under all that tangle, low and behold we found some welcome-home pressies. Pretty sweet peas (Lindsay’s favourites and which have put in quite a burst of growth since we’ve been home), bunches of carrots, armfuls of silver beet (in spite of the snails!), masses of herbs - AND a few passionfruit plus more to come judging by the presence of a few flowers. The gorgeous pale green orbs had to be hauled back over the ‘fence’ because they were dangling over the footpath 5 floors below.  Wow!! Clever garden.

In the side garden, it was rather a mess, fragrant and pretty, but still a mess because the trellis, with its luxuriant perfumed Chinese star jasmin attached, had become detached from the wall (the glass wall of the terrace). We were chuffed however to find some broad beans (enough for a meal and the rest only good for seed stock) and a couple of dozen baby figs (now there are 5-6 dozen)! Under the thick blanket of Chinese jasmin and trellis, I found both the native Billardiera scandens (apple-berry), a passionfruit vine (which I had rescued from the community garden) trying valiantly to wave long trailers of pretty leaves and tendrils, and our one and only precious Helleborus (winter rose) still hanging in there.  We have installed a new trellis since and the vines are all firmly fixed back in place and are looking OK. 

It’s a tiny garden by almost all standards but after storms, winds and sizzling days we were tickled pink to find it so ‘healthy’ and edible.  We've planted a few veggies but we will be on the road again in less than 4 months (fingers crossed) so have restricted our planting to flowering plants for the bees and other insects and those veggies we can harvest before we go. Now it's time for some serious training in readiness for our next adventure!

While on the road I managed to get in some knitting and crocheting for KOGO and I am still going strong finishing a vivid jellybean-themed afghan rug for the bed in the caravan (12 or so more squares to go and then the ghastly task of hooking them all together - not looking forward to that but ....). And of course I’ll be packing kilos of yarn when we head off in April for another Australian Odyssey. 

November 22-25 Squeezing out the last drop!

Before heading south to our home in the big smoke we spent a peaceful rather glorious day driving through the Mitta Mitta Valley - that was after a delightful brunch with friends in Bright, our first experience dining in public since June! 

Of course once we could pull off the road, I was off into the heath looking at the pretty flowers, who wouldn't be? Lindsay was too. I was fortunate to have just touched one of the plants rather than stick my nose in as I often do because I disturbed what was probably an Australian native bull ant (they're actually wingless wasps). Boy did it hurt - for hours and I had a little lump for days. Sometimes the nose knows what not to get close to. Just imagine had I put my face into it. Double ouch!  

Our drive back to Clack Clack took us through the high alpine fields near Falls Creek and passed this expanse of still water, Rocky Valley Dam. Being up there was like being at the top of the world.  Then it was northward along rivers and streams which wind their way through narrow valleys. Quite superb.

This is Lightning Creek an idyllic little spot and  a conservation area for the critically-endangered Spotted tree frog. This small creature is restricted to  a small number of NE Victorian streams including this one. They like boulder streams with lots of rapids and rocky cobble banks fringed with native vegetation - I’m completely simpatico with these little guys (not much bigger than a mouse).

Tranquil lakeside caravan park at Chiltern which when we arrived, was filling fast with people lining up to cross the NSW border the next day, or indeed that night once midnight struck. 

All good things come to an end and it  was time to hit the road for home. Pointing our rig south was not without with many mixed feelings - it had been an amazing strip full of surprises and wonderful discoveries however .... On the way we stayed in the quaint hamlet of Chiltern, home to the World famous grapevine - the oldest according to the Guiness Book of Records. 

Last night of freedom (away from the big smoke) we stayed in a delightful caravan park on the banks of Broken Creek in Numurkah. 
From there we visited friends and had a long awaited visit with grandchildren and great grandchildren, and a catchup and lazy dinner with our eldest daughter and her partner. What a trip!