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Melbourne, Australia

Agenda: Elton John concert, free street tour, online work…

I landed in Melbourne but spent my first day getting ahead online. That has been my strategy. Work like a demon to plan further out before doing anything else, build quizzes, look at the resources I had already had in place for the rest of the school year and adjust… I also created screencasts of a simulation I wanted them to use but they may have trouble opening in China.

I’ll start with Elton John. It’s the reason I flew here as I saw I could see one of his shows before I move on to another area. Earlier in the day I stumbled on this street art from his last world tour.

The concert

Amazing. 3 hours with no other band and no intermission. I am so glad I went. All my favourite songs!

My favourite is Philadelphia freedom. It brings back good feelings.

Free tour of Melbourne

The first person to establish a settlement was named Batman. He was the only one in Australia who made a treaty with the aborigines. But the settlement was not sanctioned by England. He called it Batmania and looked like a shanty town. It was later renamed after the prime minister of England. And then there was the gold rush.

The design of the city was based on neoclassical architecture. This is the Treasury building.

The Parliament building was the first capital for the 1st 30 years in Australia. Now it is Canberra as Sydney and Melbourne fought for the right to be the capital.

Windsor hotel

House of Pisco which is a Peruvian cafe and bar.

ACDC lane features grafitti art as the murals have bands represented such as Rage against the machine, Beatles… Though the grafitti is illegal it keeps it off the main streets and some are even commissioned by businesses.

Lanes like these kept the rubbish and deliveries and human waste off the main streets. The city’s nickname was Smellbourne.

This purple rat stencil is from Banksy.

The glass room.

St. Paul’s cathedral.

Flinders Street station

This Lisa King art is in Centre Place where restaurants are.

The Block Arcade. This is what the inside of buildings back then used to look like.

Inside, the Tea House is exactly the same since late 1800s. The treats look yummy and they serve high tea. This building is in the Milanese style. Its purpose was a place to meet people you want to date. They would walk past each other. Men line on one side and women on the other. They then walk past each other and if you liked summertime you talked. If you weren’t the best prospect you would leave and walk around the block to go through again! Block arcade!

The royal arcade was the first arcade with shops. 1870.

Bourke street. This shopping area had a saying that caught my eye.

This used to be the post office. When posts came in they would run a flag up the pole to let people know. It is a very large building that wraps around the block.

This Chinatown is the oldest continuous one in the Western world since Gold Rush. It is also the oldest immigrant group here. Some came from CA after that gold rush.

This restaurant is called Section 8. It has an Orphans Christmas Day for those people whose family is on the other side of the world. It is found on Tattersalls lane.

State library of Victoria which is a library, gallery, and museum. This is also a place for protest action. Today was Climate change protest.

RMIR architect university. This is a sustainable building and interesting architecture.

Front gatehouse of the Melbourne jail. 1840. All prisoners kept together in one big pen whether female, male or child. Many died of violence and disease.

1880, Ned Kelly and gang became an infamous prisoner. He was a Bush ranger, then a term for criminals on the run. He was a poor Irishman and the oldest of 8. He started with Petty crime and then a policeman was shot in the arm when confronted him. He then became roadside robbers with 3 others. They made iron suits of armour from stolen plows. He was liked by people even though he never gave money directly. He would burn all the loan receipts in the banks. No evidence left of what people owed. Farmers helped them then!

The telegraph invention could tell police where they would go and they caught up with the gang. The gang took the town hostage and there was a gun battle. Many died. He got away but ambushed the police. They noticed his armour did not protect his legs and he was shot in the knees.

Ned Kelly to hang in Melbourne. Took him to the pub to hide in case of jail break.

Why this story? He was taken to Captain Melville’s hotel when they feared people would try to break him out of the jail. It is the oldest pub. Ned’s last words: Such is life! His quote.

A run around Dove Canyon circuit at Cradle Mountain

I ran from my campground down the road to cradle mountain lodge where I picked up one of the trails.

The wallabies were not only out in the campground but along the walk/run I took that morning.

Sorry, they are adorable and I tried not to scare them too much.

I walked on the enchanted walk. I have to say it was enchanted. Wallabies were there but not the platypus I was hoping to see. Regardless, Tasmania is truly unique. Australia and Tasmania developed differently from the rest of the land masses. They did not evolve much. There are many marsupials here as well as tree ferns (though smaller than a long time ago). It feels a bit prehistoric.

Knyvet falls

It is at this point that I do not have any other pictures. I decided to go down the Dove Canyon circuit which was tough. It involved rock climbing, again, and I stowed away my phone. If I had more time I would take it out to show the rocks I climbed up but I needed to get back, check out, and get on the road to get back to Hobart. Time was tight. I did run every boardwalk and trail ran many other sections, then cursed when I had rock climbing to do.

I am really going to miss Tasmania. Walking outside and seeing these incredible creatures has been amazing.

Tasmanian Devils at Devils at Cradle Sanctuary.

In the evening I went to the sanctuary just to see the devil’s feed and hear them screaming.

They were named devils as when settlers first arrived they would hear these screams and chomping of bones and saw these black creatures running around. Devils…

These guys are young at about 6 months old. They have a life span of 5 years. Since especially the facial tumor disease that had claimed the life of much of the population, this sanctuary had rebreeding and re-entry program as they are endangered.

We learned about mating and reproduction, feeding behaviour, and maintaining healthy devils. These are marsupials as well and can give birth to 40 young each the size of a piece of rice. Only 4 will make it as that is how many mammary glands they have.

This video shows them playing and asserting themselves. Basically the loudest devil wins. Size doesn’t always matter.

We watched the Tasmanian devils being fed. They will be predators and hunt if need be but they are primarily scavengers. They find dead carcasses. They have the strongest jaws of any mammal and can crunch through bone giving them the calcium they need. Watch:

Eastern quolls. This is another marsupial that is not currently endangered.

They feed the same way though they are known to do from a tree down onto prey much larger than themselves. They have the second strongest bite next to the devil’s.

Tasmanian National Park trail walk and baby wombat!

I drove to Cradle Mountain particularly to see different ecosystems and view the Tasmanian Devil.

On the way I stopped in the little town of Sheffield. They have many murals but I really only took pictures of one (I actually did not look very for many. I was looking for a bathroom. Sorry, Sheffield.)

After checking on assignments and making sure all questions were answered, I went for a walk. Dove Lake circuit was easy and beautiful.

Wombats! I decided to extend the walk to another loop and so glad I did as this mother and baby were grazing off of the boardwalk.

Here is a video of these little cuties. They are about 50 pounds full grown.

After that I went back to do more work at the campground and wait for Tasmanian Devil feeding later that night at Devils at Cradle.

Mountain climbing Mt. Amos, Freycinet National Park

Before we drove to the park we looked at sunrise at the beach near the cottage.

On the way it reminded me of Western PA with deer that had been hot on the road only it broke my heart it was kangaroos and wallabies.

This is an 8 km track and the most challenging in the national park. According to them: It is only challenged by those with good fitness and features rigorous climbs with steep sections of slippery rock and scrambling over boulders. Mt. Amos is one of the peaks of an area called the Hazards.

Beth wanted to do it. I agreed but several times along the way I almost went back. It was tough.

The first km is gravel track then it gets really tough. It is 4 km to the top. Though I grumbled all the way, I was more concerned with hugging granite boulders to not slide down the steep slopes, finding foot holds in crevices, and scrambling up rock faces.

Focusing on one section at a time kept me occupied and the view at the top made it totally worth it.

We ate lunch at the top to enjoy the view some more. The area belows is called wineglass bay. Not for the shape but because they used to bring whales ashore and bleed them, making the water red. What a horrible story!

Coming down I crab crawled or scooted down the faces. I was impressed we were up and down in 3 hours with minimal bleeding and clothing tears.

Muir’s beach to cool down the feet in the water.

Maria Island, Tasmania

I had wanted to do this tour but it was not available the days I was in Hobart. As I would be traveling to Coles Bay up the East coast of Tasmania I did not realize it was directly on the way. I met a new friend Beth on the Bruny Island tour and we decided to roam the island together. I had a car and an accommodation but much further than the island. We set out early to be on the first ferry.

You can camp in the islands or just visit. There are no cars on the island.

You know the day will be great when you see a wombat right away… And Cape Barron geese.

Painted Cliffs

We made our way down the trail to Painted Cliffs. Since it was already low tide it was the perfect time. In high tide it is inaccessible. These variations are caused by ground water moving through the sandstone and leaving behind iron oxides which stain the rocks.

Mussels, other mollusks, and a brown algae called Neptune’s necklace.

The purple blobs are sea anemones. During low tide, the retract their spines.

Darlington

The little area that had outbuildings about the history.

Reservoir circuit

On the way to the reservoir we saw many wildlife.

A wallaby resting to the right of the tree.

Bishop and Clerk trail

This trail climbed towards a slope and had the most spectacular views.

Fossil Cliffs

When there were inland seas, many organisms like mollusks were abundant. The fossils are evident in the rocks. Those was when Australia’s broke away from Pangaea as a land mass known as Gondwana.

More wildlife

The 12 apostles which were buildings now in ruins. The wombats love it here.

At the port waiting for the ferry to go to the bed and breakfast I am staying in Swansea.

Wagner’s cottages in Swansea is beautiful. We picked up a scallop pie for dinner.

This is by far one of my favourite trips.

Bruny Island, Tasmania

I took a small day tour to Bruny Island to see the sites and sample some food. It was by far the best tour I’ve done. It is with Tassie Tours and the tour guide was fun and really worked at getting everyone talking amongst themselves and playing nationality games. The one Frenchman onboard was the designated DJ. Fun!

It is only accessible by ferry and we waited our turn to drive into the ferry.

On the island we stopped to get a good view of the scenery. Beautiful!

Our first food so was Get Shucked, an Oyster bar. They have their own Oyster catch across the road so these are as fresh as can be. Literally just from the sea.

These are the freshest I’ve ever tasted.

Next was a cheese shop.

Next we stopped at the neck. It is a tiny step of land that connects the South part of the island to the North. It is not much wider than the highway. Here is a penguin nesting ground.

The last original aborigine on the island.

Next was a berry farm. They make homemade ice cream!

We took a bush walk and found some wallabies!

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had amazing views. I ate smoked salmon roll which is the freshest and lightest I’ve tasted. The cascade beer has no preservatives and is so clear. It is bottled here in Tasmania.

At a beach we stopped at. Beautiful. The water was cool but that day the air was chilly. This water comes straight up from Antarctica. A couple people swam but I decided not to.

On the way to the lighthouse. You can see it at the top of the peak on the right.

Bruny lighthouse.

Walking down to the beach from the lighthouse. Graves of two of the 14 children one lighthouse keeper had. Yes there was not much to do here as it is isolated.

Hobart, Tasmania

Hobart has a small airport with fun art!

This island is beautiful. I did not have many hours after arriving to look around but made the most of my time walking down Elizabeth St. to the wharf to find food.

Down at Salamanca markets there is usually a large farm market on Saturdays but it just closed. Instead I bought Weetbix for breakfast.

This artist wanted to explore the connection between man and animal. What it did was spark a great conversation with a few other women standing around. The consensus: we didn’t like it.

On the way to eat at Fish Frenzy, I saw this cool party bus.

At Fish Frenzy, I ate lightly breaded and fried fish.

I took a different route on the way back and stumbled on war memorials with a clever bridge over a highway.

Last night walk, Sydney

I went through the Queen Victoria building as I just happened by it again. I’m glad I didn’t miss time looking around. It is a beautiful building on the outside…

And on the inside…

A camelbak store. It may be the only one that exists in the world!

A close up of the clock that was commissioned by Queen Victoria and made in England. There are 3D scenes in the clock, shows time in different places and parts rotate.

The ship at the bottom moves around the base.

I walked down to the harbour one last time. (I still may run there tomorrow.)

At the entrance to the Royal Botanical Garden.

I took a different way home and stumbled on the Sydney museum. It is built on the site of the first government house. I never made it there. I could have scheduled it but had other things first, and of course I needed to spend hours each day teaching online. Regardless, no matter how much time you have you cannot see everything and must learn to be content with that fact.

I did have a little time to go back to thee museum before checking out but not enough to time to tour all.

Bondi to Bronte beach coastal walk

After a morning of work for online learning, I headed to Bondi beach. It is a train/bus ride to the outskirts of Sydney. I finally linked my cards to Google pay ( a luddite I know but we don’t use cards in China). This allowed me to pay directly on the bus or train.

I took a train to Bondi junction and then the 333 bus to the beach. They packed as many people on the bus as they could including squished in the aisles – it is a popular place to go. It could be like a bus in some countries except no fast turns on curves overlooking cliffs or live chickens on board!

Once at Bondi, I went down to the beach. The waves are large as there is a big storm of the coast. The water was also cold.

I walked along the edge to get my feet wet then perused the shops of the town.

I walked along the coastal path. Such beautiful views the whole way!

Mackenzie’s Beach

Tamarama Beach

Bronte Beach

In the path up the hill, headlines from past newspapers were painted on the sidewalk. They were very interesting and included the year it appeared.

I also walked through a nature reserve area after Bronte which is a coastal swamp with many small shrubs and species of frogs.

I reached the end (or maybe this was supposed to be the beginning?)

A skywriter made this heart in the air. I thought it was for Valentine’s Day (which is today) but it had a web address after so must have been a stunt. It did get a lot of attention.

I walked back to Bronte beach. This worked out perfectly as that beach has a different bus stop there. The 379 is a pretty short distance and also is very light in passengers. It goes back to Bondi junction.