Today we hit Melbourne by train and on foot, and have arrived home looking forward to more days doing the same. We caught the train at Sunshine, one of the less salubrious suburbs of Melbourne, a melting pot of people; Asians, Africans, Middle Eastern folk and fair skinned Europeans such as us. We travelled through rail corridors of graffiti and litter until we reached the city centre where the rail disappears underground.
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| The old and the new: above Flinders Street Station in the background |
We stepped off the train at the Flinders Street Station and found Federation Square immediately across the busy street. This did not exist when Chris lived here and he was keen to explore it all. The buildings about are clad in the strangest of exteriors, and there are great expanses of paving and steps and seats for the populace to enjoy the space in a relaxed fashion. We came across the Federation Story told along a balcony in one of these odd buildings; a series of interpretative panels. We had of course had our first lesson in Australia’s history of Federation at Tenterfield, in New South Wales early last year, where Henry Parkes gave his famous speech in 1889. We have learned as we have travelled about that the states of this country were all separate colonies until Federation occurred in 1901, but what I did not know was that New Zealand was, until 1840, part of the colony of New South Wales. How ignorant, you may well say, and rightly so. I had been only too aware that New Zealand was the one colony that chose not to become part of Australia. Today there were many school children in Federation Square; probably having their own history lesson.
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| Federation Square in contrast to grand old architecture |
We happened upon an exhibition in another of these strange buildings, Screen Worlds; The Story of Film, Television and Digital Culture. What a fascinating exhibition this is, but with far too much information to absorb in one visit. Our appetite drew us away from the fascinating exhibits; we found a couple of canvas deck chairs in the sunshine and cool wind, not too far from the stage in the Square, and listened to a musician singing Stairway to Heaven and other like melodies, while we consumed our sandwiches and nectarines.
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| The State Library |
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| Conveniently placed deckchairs |
After lunch we decided that Screen World would have to wait for another time, we could go back and take in more another day. We walked up along Swanston Street, into Bourke Street, popping into the Post Office to ask unsuccessfully after mail that is yet to arrive, back to Swanston Street to the State Library. There we sought out the reading room where Chris had spent many weeks over forty years ago when he was temporarily disabled by an accident, and chose to utilise the opportunity to further his education in the great reading rooms of this wonderful library. There are two galleries on the second floor, one containing early paintings of Melbourne and the other, portraits of public figures of the city. The building itself is a fine example of the old architecture of the city, this opened in 1856. However the great old buildings of the city are dwarfed by the modern skyscrapers and so there is no particular style of architecture through the centre at all. Or at least that was the impression I had today, however we only explored the streets mentioned above, Elizabeth Street, Chinatown, and the lanes in-between, and I am probably a little premature to make such an observation.
I was delighted by the streets, wider than those in Sydney, full of trams and people; fellow tourists, students, office workers, buskers. It was truly alive and there was so much to see. We walked about, enjoying the city until we thought we should head toward home. We caught the train back to Sunshine, with hundreds of other commuters, the trip twenty five minutes long, then a further twenty minutes by car. We look forward to finding our way back in tomorrow to see more of this wonderful Victorian capital.
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