The Queen Victoria Market

The Queen Vic Market in Melbourne, covering 17 acres, is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. It's been a major landmark since 1878. A few years ago it went "green" and has the largest solar panel grid in the Southern Hemisphere. You can buy fruits, veggies, meat, fish, deli meats and cheeses, clothes, souvenirs, pots & pans, wine, hardware and food to eat walking or sitting down.
Not many people realise that the land it is on used to be a cemetery with about 10,000 graves.  The market moved there when the cemetery was closed and 1,000 bodies were moved but there are still 9,000 under the present market!
There are often special events held at the market. I included some pictures of the World Street Food event.

The stalls have to be mobile for cleaning or special events.

Korean Potato Twists

And a jazz band for some fun...

Public Art in Melbourne

Statues and sculptures are all over Melbourne. Most are permanently installed but sometimes there are outside temporary exhibitions to delight your eye. Here are some of the artworks I found on my explorations in Melbourne.

Cow Up A Tree

The Echo

Shoal Flyby

Threaded Field

Blowhole

Signature Work

Aurora

Part of the "Walk of Stars" celebrating Australian entertainers.
This is Kylie Minogue.

Red Centre

Moomba Festival

The Moomba Festival in Melbourne is the largest free festival in Australia. For three days (and part of the nights) there is a carnival on both sides of the Yarra River, water skiing events, food booths, kids' events, music and entertainment and fireworks. And on the last day a parade, with floats and bands and representatives of all kinds of organisations. Fun for everyone! Also the Chinese community displays the longest dragon in the world.

The tail...

the middle....

the ferocious head!

Real Australian kangaroos.

 

Elsie

Elsie is 10 weeks old.

She doesn't care if you're impressed. She just wants a good meal and a nap!

West of Melbourne

To see another side of Melbourne I was off with the guided tour to Tottenham - a 3 minute train ride west of where I live - to see the industrial side of Melbourne. Actually most of the factories are closed now but the years between the World Wars were an economic boom for the area. This is a large flat area, filled in eons ago by lava. So the soil on this west side of Melbourne is not good for growing food, just grass for sheep. Eventually it became Australia's arsenal and other factories were built also. Then after the Japanese bombed Darwin it was realised that all the munitions shouldn't be manufactured in the same place and the area started a slow decline. We looked at a few of the Art Deco factory facades that remain and heard some stories about them from people on the tour whose fathers worked in them in the 1950s and 60s.

Elsie is 8 weeks old!

Cafes in Melbourne

Melbourne is a city of cafes! In the summer tables are placed on any space on the pavement,

 even better if there is a tree giving shade. Here are some of the interesting cafes I found.

Inventive use for a shipping container!

Dogs need cafes too!

Melbourne's Arcades

In the 1800s it was a popular pastime to "do the block" or promenade around the shopping streets in the city centre so some very elegant arcades were built. Good protection from the weather and lovely places to meet and be seen. Here are a few pictures of some of them.

Fun pictures...

My new camera has some interesting settings. There's a lot more to learn, but here are a few pictures I think are fun...