MELBOURNE - The City on top in the Land Down Under - Page 2 of 2

Herring Island Sculpture Park

Ah, now this is more like it…an island in the middle of the Yarra river, a quiet haven for wildlife and nature lovers to stroll with feet on marshy ground. A delightful punt will carry you across in only a few minutes in the summer months and deliver you gently upon the swampy shores of the only island of its kind.

Herring Island was artificially created in 1928 by silt dredged from the Yarra as part of a plan to straighten, widen and deepen the river.

Apart from the island being an important haven for indigenous wildlife to thrive among a rare urban environment, Parks Victoria are ensuring that this valuable ecological habitat is preserved for native birds such as willy wagtails, honeyeaters, cormorants, laughing kookaburras, warbling magpies and graceful white-faced Herons.

A sculpture park has become a popular addition to the island as a scattering of art works by various artists including Andy Goldsworthy have been installed under the guardianship of River Red Gums, Silver Wattle trees, Manna gums, Southern Mahogany and native spiky grasses.

The Royal Botanic Gardens

Hugging the winding southern banks of the Yarra river is one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world. It has several wrought-iron gates as its entry points that lead deeper into a haven of green and gold, past garden beds and sweeping lawns, peppered with over 12,000 exotic and native plant species. Would you believe, Harry, Mike and I have our favourite tree – a Mexican weeping pine! I have been known to go out on a limb in the gardens for the sake of a great photo for a guest post but don’t tell anyone, ok?

The gardens were established in 1846 by Lieutenant Governor Charles La Trobe and it took sixty years to transform the marshy swampland to its presentday landscapes with fern gullies, rockeries, and picturesque shelters like the Temple of the Winds – a memorial to La Trobe.

The citizens of Melbourne and millions of visitors each year can all enjoy the masterpiece of William Guilfoyle whose vision for the city in 1873 continues to be a magical garden as a place to linger, whispering sweet dreams to lovers basking under its leafy canopy of serenity.

National Gallery of Victoria

As we come full circle to bathe in the wealth created by the mid 1800s gold rush era, and remember the first settlers who built the city of Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria plays an important role in reconnecting the city of Melbourne to our European roots and to the rest of the world. The NGV not only possesses the largest art collection in Australia with unique pieces from Masters like Bernini, Canaletto, Cézanne, El Greco, Monet, Rembrandt, Rodin and Rubens to name a few but also hosts the annual Melbourne Winter Masterpieces Exhibition.

Each year, an international collection of masterpieces takes up residence for a season within the dimly lit labyrinth of the NGV: artwork from the Musée d’Orsay, France, the Guggenheim Collection, New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Salvador Dalí’s Liquid Desire exhibition and Napoleon’s Revolution to Empire have been some of the past collections enjoyed by Melbournians and overseas tourists alike.

And here concludes our tour of Melbourne for surely I must leave some treasures for you to uncover for yourself…the harbour at Docklands, the Melbourne Museum, Hamer Hall and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Ballet company, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Melbourne Aquarium, the Shrine of Remembrance, the Queen Vic market, Captain Cook’s cottage, St Kilda promenade and pier, the Casino Royale….and as sure as the roulette wheel spins into the 21^st century, Melbourne continues to ride the golden wave as the city on top in the land down under.