16 February 2012 - Sundowner Rockbank Caravan Park, Rockbank, Victoria

We caught the same train as yesterday and emerged out into bright warm sunshine in central Melbourne. We set off across the Yarra River and walked upstream along a wide path shared with runners and cyclists. There were a few rowers on the river and a tour boat glided up past us with a few passengers. We walked as far as the eastern edge of the Botanic Gardens, crossed the road and entered the thirty eight hectares expanse of trees and parklands. Founded in 1846, they must rate as one of the oldest in the country; however they have undergone several changes over the years. It was William Guilfoyle whose name has popped up across the state in the botanic context, who came up with the idea of the “volcano”. The raised hump at the top of the garden, thus named, is in fact a disguised water reservoir, the banks of which are planted out in arid friendly plants. Cacti and the like are fascinating plants, however don’t usually excite me much; these really are quite lovely and worth the effort of the uphill slog in the heat. We wandered down through the gardens, enjoying the variety of trees (there are apparently 52,000 plants and 10,000 species in the gardens) and left the formal part of the park beside the National Herbarium which boasts a collection of over 1.2 million dried specimens of plants, fungi and algae. Personally I was still feeling satisfied with the collection viewed in Adelaide, hence was not drawn to suggest that we have a look around this one.

We were intrigued to find that most of the labels or notices around the gardens related to water conservation and how wonderful they were doing here in recycling water. Given that there have been so many drought years here, it is no surprise that this should be of greater importance than lengthy descriptions about the plants and birds. Speaking of which, we were delighted to hear and see the Bell Minors, birds we have not heard since when we were in Queensland.

The green area on the south side of the Yarra River, bounded on one side by St Kilda’s Road and surrounding Government House, contains the Sidney Meyer Music Bowl, the Shrine of Remembrance and Alexandra Gardens, collectively the Kings Domain, and covers a total area of 36 hectares. One must assume therefore from this data gleaned from Google, that the total green area is actually seventy four hectares (including the Botanic Gardens).

Across from the Herbarium and down the street a bit is the grand construction honouring the war dead; the Shrine of Remembrance. The brochure says that this is contained within the Shrine Reserve of thirteen hectares, so whether this is additional to or included in the above area, I have no idea. Perhaps I should not have even started to ascertain the size of the parklands. This impressive memorial was built between 1928 and 1934 and was designed by a couple of returned servicemen, veterans of the First World War. Their design was inspired by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the tomb of King Mausolus at Halicarnassus, and was chosen from eighty three competition entries.

We entered from the rear and immediately found ourselves in the Sanctuary, surrounded in marble, with huge high ceilings and a sense of emptiness. From here we descended into the Crypt to find the Father and Son sculpture which represents the two generations of Victorians who served in the two World Wars. Here too was an exhibition of wall hangings depicting simple poetry describing the anguish of battle, all very moving.

From here one passes through the Gallery of Medals where 4,000 service medals representing one hundred Victorians who have served in war and peacekeeping operations. Beyond this is the Visitor Centre where there is an excellent display explaining the invasions and battles of both World Wars. These were very good but again too much information for one to absorb in what was to be simply a visit to this imposing building.

One view of the Shrine of Remembrance

We found a shaded bench in the park as we had yesterday and ate our lunch before pressing on down through the park intending to have a good look at the Meyer Music Bowl. Chris had attended a couple of concerts there in the past and wanted to indulge in a little more nostalgia however it was all fenced off ready for another concert this evening.

And so we continued on down back to the river and back across to the National Art Gallery and disappeared into the depths of this huge mausoleum-like building leaving the sun still bright and hot outside. We set off separately, cellphones switched on (a rarity for me) and started to explore this gallery so tantalising yesterday.

There is an excellent collection gathered from Chinese tombs, similar to that seen in Sydney, but smaller, simpler and therefore worth absorbing as a reminder of the amazing history of that civilization.

The collection of Italian works of art, paintings and pottery, most dating back to the fourteenth century, but some earlier, is amazing; so very old and in such excellent condition. Many of the paintings have yet to be matched with their artists; it is surprising how confused even the great international art curators can be in such matters.

When we emerged about one and a half hours later, dramatic black skies greeted us. We headed for the Information Centre and spent some time chatting with a couple of the volunteers about this and that, then came up to street level to discover the skies had opened up, and the foyer was full of those sheltering from the deluge. We squeezed on to a squab with others and found ourselves in conversation with a delightful Indian gentleman, an immigrant of twenty years ago who told us proudly about his successful children and he and Chris discussed the wonders of India. Finally the rain eased or had appeared to do so; we made a dash across Flinders Street to the railway station and we joined the rain sodden commuters on the 4.12 pm train. Not only was the train packed, but the roads out of Sunshine were even more so. It took us over twenty minutes to reach the Ballarat Highway, just a kilometre or two from the station. Bad timing!

This evening we have heard that there has been flash flooding and hail damage here in Melbourne. Here at Rockbank there are only puddles and intermittent showers.