A tribute to the spirit of Migrants

Nice hobby - a tribute to the spirit of Migrants.

I think for somebody born here in Australia this is very interesting - to find a part of your parents or grandparents courageous act to migrate to Australia ..
An old man was selling pictures with the ships. Very impressive to see the lists he has with the ships, names and photos...

Very impressive collection - "Your migrant ship -- 50 years ago" and very interesting times ....

Well, can you do the same for the migrant today ? Maybe collect some pictures with airplane models ? :))

Palais Theatre

A former cinema (DION), now functioning (!?) exclusively as a concert venue, The Palais Theatre is located in St Kilda right next to Luna Park. It is the largest seated theatre in Australia(a capacity of 2,896 people).

From outside, it doesn't seam to be functioning. This is, I think, because - "the redevelopment attempt failed to go ahead and the planned $20 million restoration of the Palais was abandoned".

Abandoned ... yes, by looking at the building it seams the builders ran away ... Not good for a building that is on the Victorian Heritage Register and is considered one of the finest examples of Art deco architecture in Australia.

But it still hosts shows, for example right now you can see "SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR" so go there and enjoy.






From one side and from the back you can see a combination of Art deco architecture and modern construction plastic pipes.

Luna Park

We finally visited Luna Park - a historic amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, Victoria, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
It opened on 13 December 1912 and has been operating almost continuously ever since.

This was the first of the four Luna Parks that were built in Australia, of which only Melbourne and Luna Park Sydney are still operating. The other two, now defunct, Luna Parks were at Glenelg in South Australia (1930–1934) and at Redcliffe in Queensland (1944–1966).


Location: 18 Lower Esplanade, St Kilda VIC 3182

"C" is for cookie?

"C" is for cookie? No!!! Right now "C" is for bloody Cold !

Melbourne - yesterday morning - 4C, cold
Melbourne - this morning - 6C, windy - bloody cold ....

So 2 things for you :
- don't come in Australia (Melbourne) with the impression that the weather is very hot, as it isn't (last summer for example there were 2-3 days with temperature around 40C, but the rest of the days were colder than we were used in EU)
- search for a house to rent with ducted heating, preferably few minutes from the train station (you might have to walk to the train station when/if you don't have a car).

But, as we've been told, this year is a strange year - it was not like this before... who knows what to think about this global warming ... But if this is global warming, I wouldn't be surprised to see snow in Melbourne soon....

Visit at the Farm

Yesterday we visited the Collingwood Children's Farm - located only 5km from the centre of Melbourne.
- established in 1979 as a not-for-profit community resource providing country experiences for city people.
- open every day of the year
- address : 18 St Heliers St Abbotsford, Melbourne, VIC, 3067


View Larger Map

Some photos below.

Nice map of the farm :




Beware of snakes !!



* there wasn't any at that time :)






















It was an interesting and relaxing experience.

Melbourne - night lights

The winter is coming so the day is shorter. The only good thing about this is that before leaving the office it is dark so I can admire the city lights & night sky.

Melbourne - photo taken from CBD facing western suburbs

Middle left - Southern Cross train station bridge and Docklands