Melbourne

Australia – Victoria | Anno 2024

 

Melbourne

 

 

 

Melbourne

 

Melbourne – Evan Walker Bridge over the Yarra

Sapphire by the Gardens with Carlton Gardens

 

On 1 January 1901, the six British colonies on the continent united to form the Federation of Australia. From 1901 to 1927, Melbourne served as the temporary capital, until Canberra took over that role

 

 

 

Docklands

 

CBD – Melbourne central business district

 

Flinders Street Station (1909) is the busiest station in Melbourne's metropolitan network

 

With its distinctive eclectic Edwardian style, Flinders Street Station is a cultural icon of the city

 

Matthew Flinders, the British explorer who first circumnavigated Australia in 1802–1803 and gave the continent its current name

 

St Paul’s Cathedral (1891). The spires were only added between 1926 and 1932

Western side entrance

 

The interior is characterised by rich colours and bright contrasts. The floor is completely paved with inlaid tiles

The reredos is made of Devonshire marble, alabaster and glittering Venetian glass mosaics

 

The Royal Arcade (1870)

 

Gog and Magog are two giants mentioned in both the Bible and the Quran. They are also part of the mythical stories about the origins of Britain, which the Trojan hero Brutus is said to have founded on an island called Albion. These statues, dating from 1892, are modeled after the statues that, from 1708 onward, guarded the entrance to the Guildhall, the former town hall of the City of London

 

Treats at the Royal Arcade

The Block Arcade (1893)

 

Bourke Street

 

Parliament House (1855). The Parliament of Victoria is one of the eight parliaments of the Australian states and territories

 

In the Old Treasury Building, you can still admire the old gold vaults. The museum documents, among other things, the turbulent times of the gold rush in Victoria (1850) as well as the tragic fate of the indigenous population

 

Queen Victoria Market (1878) – Meat and fish market. Covering over 7 hectares, Victoria Market is the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting approximately 10 million visitors annually

 

The oysters are arranged according to their 'terroir'

 

 

 

 

 

Magpie-lark

Common myna

 

Melbourne Museum (2000) houses a diverse range of natural history and cultural exhibitions – geology, zoology, palaeontology, history of indigenous peoples and cultures, …

 

A kooramookyan, a cloak made from opossum skins. Such cloaks protected their wearers from rain and cold. But they were more than that. Drawings told the wearer's life story – their travels, their connection to their family and homeland, the initiation rituals they had experienced. In short, the garment became a symbol of identity. Note, among other things, the "river" that flows over the skins

 

A baby was given a kooramookyan of four or five skins. As he grew, more and more skins were added until he was finally buried in it

Beautiful shells of snails from the Volutidae family. These sea snails are actually predators that can move quite quickly and paralyze other molluscs with their venom

 

"Strangers from the Ocean" depicts a ceremonial dance of a Koori community as a large (European) ship approaches the coast (drawing by Tommy McRae, an artist of the Kwatkwat community, circa 1860)

 

This Triceratops horridus was discovered in 2014 in the US state of Montana. It is one of the most complete fossils ever discovered. With its three horns and a bony frill covered in spines, it must have been a formidable creature – eight meters long, weighing six to eight tons. Yet, the species had already evolved into Triceratops prorsus and thus become extinct long before an asteroid struck Earth and wiped out all the dinosaurs

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Jaak Palmans
© 2025 | Versie 2025-08-20 14:00