Today, we signed up for a Free Walking Tour. We've done these in other cities. They are not really free as you pay what you think the tour is worth at the end of it. Ours was a 2.5 hour, 6 kilometer general tour. Our guide was Matthew a theater student at Melbourne University. His energy made it clear that he is a theater major. Melbourne is the Education State; it says so on their license plates. There are 8 universities and a number of university
extensions in Melbourne.
The tour was very good; Matthew was the star. He gave us lots of info about the establishment of Melbourne including the huge impact of the gold rush. Melbourne or actually, the state of Victoria was impacted greatly by the discovery of gold. Between 1851 and 1871 the Australian population quadrupled from 430,000 people to 1.7 million as migrants from across the world arrived in search of gold. This put Melbourne on the map, so to speak.
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8 8 8 monument for achieving
40 hour work week |
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| 8 8 8 monument |
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| neighborhood built during the gold rush |
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| Victoria Hall from the Melbourne Exhibition |
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| there's a theater district |
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| Chinatown |
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| skylight dome in a shopping gallery |
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| Matthew the guide |
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| main tram and train station |
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| Melbourne cricket grounds in the distance |
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| matthew says - it's an ugly radio tower |
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| NGV building 2 |
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| NGV building 2 |
After the tour we doubled back to visit Hosier Lane and the Redmond Barry Reading Room. Why the reading room? No brainer here. Why Hosier Lane? It is one of the best graffiti laneways in Melbourne. Since, today was International Women's Day, there had been a "call out" to women graffiti-ers to do some work on Hosier Lane. They did, and were still hanging around when we arrived.
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| Hosier Lane |
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| Hosier Lane |
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| Hosier Lane |
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| Hosier Lane |
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| even Betty made the wall |
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| chatting after a days graffiti |
We discovered on the tour that the actual "armor" used by Ned Kelly at the time of his capture was in the state library in the Redmond Barry Reading Room. Redmond Barry was the judge who sentenced Kelly to be hanged. I guess he had first dibs on Kelly's stuff.
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| Ned Kelly's actual armor |
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| Ned Kelly's actual armor |
We had a res at Coda, a French/Vietnamese restaurant. The chef, Hendri Budiman, was working the bar where we were seated. Interesting guy originally from Paris.
Tomorrow, another day in Melbourne and surrounds.
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