Author Archives: Benjie Layug

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Loch Ard Gorge (Australia)

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Loch Ard Gorge

From The Twelve Apostles Visitor’s Facility, it was just a short 4.1-km. (5-min.) drive northwest, again via the Great Ocean Road/B100, to Loch Ard Gorge, one of the best-loved stop-off points along the road and the site of the most famous shipwrecks on the aptly named Shipwreck Coast.

Check out “The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: The Twelve Apostles”

Jandy (in green jacket) making his way down the gorge via the stairway

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the gorge:

The Tom and Eva Pillars

Part of Port Campbell National Park, the gorge was named after the 3-masted clipper ship Loch Ard, one of over (since 1797) 800 known shipwrecks in Victoria, of which only 240 of them have been discovered.

On March 2, 1878, the clipper ship Loch Ard, on its fifth and final voyage, left England for Melbourne. Captained by the 29-year old newlywed George Gibb, it had a 36-member crew and 18 passengers. On June 1, 1878, approaching the end of a tumultuous three-month journey, it got lost in a pea soup type of fog, collided with a rock reef and ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island. Of the fifty-four passengers and crew, only two survived – 15 year old Tom Pearce (a ship’s apprentice) and 17 year old Eva Carmichael (an Irishwoman emigrating with her family).

The bruised and dazed Tom, who jumped off the ship, clung to an upturned lifeboat and was washed ashore.  After hearing cries for help, he swam back into the ocean for an hour to rescue Eva, who was clinging on a chicken coop and ship’s spar, from the water. Tom dragged the barely conscious Eva into a cave and then proceeded to climb out of the gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists. Two stockmen from the Glenample Station, three miles away, rushed to their help and immediately set into plan a rescue attempt. However, only four bodies were retrieved and buried. Eva’s parents, three sisters and two brothers drowned that night.

The world wanted a satisfying ending and thousands of people sent letters and telegrams calling for Tom and Eva to be married. However, they hailed from different social classes (Eva’s father was a doctor) and they went their separate ways. After three months in Australia, Eva sailed to Ireland where she went on to marry an aristocrat Captain Thomas Achilles Townshend. Tom, hailed as a hero (he received £1000 for heroism and the first gold medal struck by the Victorian Humane Society), returned to England and lived until age 49 and was buried in Southampton. Eva died in 1934 at the age of 73. 

The author at Loch Ard Gorge

To soak up the incredible rugged scenery, a flight of stairs allow us and other visitors’ access to the picturesque gorge. We descended down to an undeveloped, orange-colored beach surrounded by jagged cliff tops.  A sharp sea breeze was blowing inland. The beach was fronted by a smooth, pearlescent bay and an inlet of clear, blue water flanked by two yellow-washed unconnected rock pillars, with tufts of vibrant greenery, of the nearby Island Archway.

The author, Kyle and Grace

A clear example of the process of erosion in action, the pillars once formed a natural bridge over the gorge but collapsed in June 2009.  They are officially named Tom and Eva after the two teenage survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck.

Tom Pearce’s Cave

The loch also has two small caves which served as shelter for Tom and Eva and are aptly named Miss Carmichael Cave and Tom Pearce’s Cave. After getting to shore, Tom and Eva spent most of June 1st sleeping in the same cave but Victorian sensibilities demanded that they could not spend this time together unsupervised. Thus that cave became Miss Carmichael’s Cave, while the big cave to the east became Tom Pearce’s Cave.

The weathered cliff face

Unusual for this section of coast, Loch Ard Gorge has a relatively calm interior. Its low energy beach has a moderate sloping dune that, in most tide and ocean conditions, makes the beach accessible with caution.

A pathway also allowed access to the eastern side of the gorge. There are also numerous plaques (detailing geological features), a small museum (detailing the site’s history as well as housing some artifacts salvaged from the wreck), a rest area and a cemetery housing many of the people that died.

Loch Ard Gorge: Great Ocean Road, Port Campbell National Park,  Victoria 3269, Australia.

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: The Twelve Apostles (Australia)

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The iconic 12 Apostles

From the Cape Otway Lighthouse, it was a longer 1 hour 15 min. (77.2- km.) drive, again via the Great Ocean Road/B100, to the Twelve Apostles along Victoria’s coastline, the highlight of our day-long tour and the jewel in the crown of the Great Ocean Road.

Koala on the ground. Though poorly adapted to walking on the ground, when disturbed, they can break into a bounding gallop, moving at speeds of up to 30 kms. per hour.

Along the way, we made a short stopover to observe adorable, spoon-nosed koalas, in the wild, on the ground or perched between the forks of eucalyptus trees.

12 Apostles Visitor’s Center

Interior of Visitor’s Center

The 12 Apostles are a collection of magnificent limestone stacks off the shore of Port Campbell National Park and their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. The road going there was breathtaking in its rugged splendor, with its dramatic, rugged cliffs carved from the sea and its panoramic views across the rich and azure waters.

Check out “The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Cape Otway Lighthouse“

Until the 1960s, the stacks were originally known as the Pinnacles and then, later, nicknamed the Sow and Pigs (or Sow and Piglets), with Muttonbird Island being the sow, and the smaller limestone rock stacks being the pigs or piglets.

The boardwalk leading to the viewing platform

For marketing purposes, they were then coined as the Apostles, which slowly turned into the 12 Apostles (although you could only see eight at the time of the name). In fact, there are thirty different limestone masses stretched along the coast.  However, the only visible ones from the viewing areas are the eight apostles left.

Grace, Cheska and Kyle at the viewing platform

Upon our arrival at the Twelve Apostles Visitor’s Center (has toilets, coffee shop and souvenirs), we walked, along a wooden boardwalk, towards the viewing platform where we were awestruck in wonder at their size, splendor, myth, mystery and beauty.

However, only seven of the original eight stacks, spread out along 17 kms. of the Shipwreck Coast, have remained standing tall and proud along the shore, after a 50-m. tall (160 ft.) stack collapsed in July 2005.

The additional stacks located to the west

Though the view of the Twelve Apostles, from the promontory, never included twelve stacks, additional stacks, not considered part of the Apostles group, are located to the west within the national park.

Beginning 10–20 million years ago, the iconic as the incredible  Twelve Apostles were formed by constant erosion (up to two centimeters a year) by harsh and extreme weather conditions from the blasting winds, powerful surf and the salt of the tempestuous and stormy Southern Ocean which gradually eroded the soft limestone, carving out cavernous caves in the cliffs.

These caves then become arches that eventually collapse, leaving rock stacks or columns up to 50 m. (160 ft.) high which were left isolated from the shore and susceptible to further erosion from waves.

In the future, due to wave action also eroding the majestic, 70 m. high cliffs, the existing headlands are also expected to become brand-new apostles emerging from the coast in the near future.

The reason for the irregular shape of the erosion is due to the stacks being made up of layers of varying soil types.  The main layer is limestone but the other layers are a mixture of clay and mudstone. Because of the lower density of the mudstone and clay layers, they tend to be more narrow and much more easily eroded by the weather than the slightly denser limestone.

A glorious photo opportunity of the Apostles, in all their splendor, is during sunrise and sunset when the 12 Apostles change color, from dark and foreboding in shadow to brilliant sandy yellow under a full sun.  As the sun rises on her mast, the golden colors, with flecks of rose and red, spill across the rocks.

As the sun starts to fall, the sky explodes with burnt oranges and lavender hues, and the same colors drip across the rocks, adorning the apostles with rainbow colors before they look into foreboding shadows.

12 Apostles: Great Ocean Rd. and Booringa Rd., Princetown, Victoria 3269, Australia. Tel: +61 1300 137 255.

How to Get There: The 12 Apostles are located 275 kms. west of Melbourne, approximately a 4 to 4.5-hour scenic drive, along the Great Ocean Road, from Melbourne via Geelong. You can return to Melbourne on the 3.5-hour inland route along the Princes Highway.

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Cape Otway Lighthouse (Cape Otway, Australia)

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Cape Otway Lighthouse

From Apollo Bay, we continued on our way for the short 30-min. (28.2-km.) drive, via the Great Ocean Road/B100, to a turn off. Turning left, it is a further 15-min. drive from the turn off to the Cape Otway Lighthouse on Cape Otway in southern Victoria. This lighthouse, a leading attraction on the Great Ocean Road, is a must for all visitors.

Check out “The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Apollo Bay“

Lighthouse entrance

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this lighthouse:

  • It was the second lighthouse completed on mainland Australia
  • The light house remains the oldest surviving working lighthouse in mainland Australia.
  • During winter to spring (My to October), as 25 species of migrating whales (Southern Right Whales, Humpback Whales, Blue Whales, Killer Whales, etc.) swim very close to shores, the lighthouse is a vantage point for land-based whale watching.
  • For many thousands of 19th century migrants who spent months travelling to Australia by ship, Cape Otway was their first sight of land after leaving Europe, Asia and North America. 

The author

Known as the “Beacon of Hope,” the 21 m. high Cape Otway Lighthouse, a conical tower with balcony, sits on approximately 200 acres of land, 91 m. above the pristine ocean of Bass Strait.  The solar lantern’s light characteristic is three white flashes every 18 seconds and 1 revolution per 90 seconds. It weighs 4,318 kgs.

Here is the historical timeline of the lighthouse:

  • In 1846, the construction of the Cape Otway Lightstation began using stone quarried at the Parker River, 5 kms. east of the lighthouse, and transported to the Cape by oxen.
  • On August 29, 1848, its light was first lit using a first order Fresnel lens, manufactured in London, consisting of 21 polished parabolic reflectors and lamps, in three groups of seven, mounted on a frame and each burning sperm whale oil.
  • In 1891, the original light was replaced with a modern revolving lens, burning a single colza oil wick lamp.
  • In 1905, an incandescent kerosene mantle replaced the oil and wick lamp, increasing the brightness to 100,000 candles.
  • In 1939, the light and turning mechanism was converted to electricity and powered by a diesel generator, increasing the brightness to 1 million candles.
  • In 1962, the lighthouse was connected to an electricity main.
  • In January 1994, after being the longest continuous operating light on the Australian mainland, the lightstation was decommissioned and replaced by a low powered solar light in front of the original tower whose focal plane is at 73 m. above sea level.
  • In 1859, a telegraph station was added to the site when Tasmania was connected to the mainland by a submarine telegraph line from Cape Otway to Launceston.
  • In 1942, the Americans built a radar bunker on the cape which is now open to the public.

Any visit here is not complete without climbing the lighthouse and, after climbing the spiral stairs to the observation deck, we were rewarded with a breathtaking view overlooking Bass Strait on the left and the Southern Ocean on the right.

The stairs leading up to the observation deck

The wind here was fierce and strong and we can hear the noise of the wind even over ordinary conversation. Still, it was an amazing and awesome feeling on the observation deck. 

View from lighthouse

Within the grounds is the Lightkeeper’s Café and Souvenir Shop housed in the former assistant lighthouse keeper’s cottage (Open 9 AM – 4 PM) built in 1858.

Metal Kangaroo Sculpture

Nearby is a metal kangaroo sculpture and the anchor from Eric the Red which was wrecked on the Otway Reef on September 4, 1880.

Anchor of Eric the Red

At the keeper’s cottages of Apollo Bay, accommodation is available in two double studios (suitable for couples) or in the Lightkeeper’s Cottage and Lodge that can sleep groups ranging from two to sixteen people.

Interior of lighthouse

Lighthouse lens

Cape Otway Lighthouse: Otway Lighthouse Rd., Cape Otway, Victoria 3233, Australia. Open daily (closed Christmas Day), 9 AM – 5 PM (last entry 4:30 PM). Admission: adults ($19.50, $18.50 online), children 5 -7 years ($7.50, $7.00 online),  family of 2 adults and up to 4 children ($49.50, $47 online), seniors ($17.50, $16.50 online) and children 0 – 4 years (free). Discounted tickets can be pre-purchased from Apollo Bay and Lorne Visitor Information Centres, or the Otway Fly. Website: www.lightstation.com. Location: latitude 38° 51’ south, longitude 143° 29’ east.

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Apollo Bay (Australia)

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Apollo Bay

From the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, we again proceeded on a 1 hour 10-min. (57.3 km.) drive, via the Great Ocean Road/B100, to the picturesque seafood village of Apollo Bay, a popular stop for package bus tourists at the foothills of the Otways, where we were to have our lunch.

This popular tourist destination and main fishing port is located between the Wye River and Cape Otway on the Great Ocean Road.

Check out “Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch“

Visitor Information Center

The town’s commercial center and main shopping strip, along the Great Ocean Road (Collingwood Street), features a good selection of decent restaurants, cafes and several lively pubs situated along one side of the Great Ocean Road, overlooking a wide, grassy foreshore which fronts the main swimming beach.

Start of the Great Ocean wall

Green rolling hills, overlooking Apollo Bay, create quite a scenic backdrop when viewed from the beach, foreshore and shops.

L-R” Cheska, Bryan, the author, Jandy, Kyle and Grace

Jandy and I tried out the 200-pax George’s Take Away, the largest restaurant along Collingwood Street, where we tried out their pasta.  Their menu also includes pizza, fish & chips, coffee, vegetarian meals and roast chicken.

Start of the Great Ocean wall

The Great Ocean Walk, which hugs the coastline and stretches for 91 kms., starts here and ends at Grenample Homestead.  A short walk from the car park, along a scenic mountainside pathway, is the lookout where there are views of Apollo Bay’s town centre, the harbor and beaches up and down the coast.

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Lorne (Australia)

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The seaside town of Lorne and its surfing beach

During our 1 hour 10-min. (57.3 km.) drive, via the Great Ocean Road/B100, to the picturesque seafood village of Apollo Bay from the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, we made a short nature call stopover at the seaside town of Lorne, a popular destination on the Great Ocean Road (it extended to this town in 1922).

Check out “The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Memorial Arch“

This quintessential holiday retreat, attracting visitors for more than a century, has a relaxed Mediterranean feel, mild weather, charming picture-postcard scenery and beautiful Art Deco architecture.  Tall old gum trees line its hilly streets.

From the roadside, we had a panoramic view the 2-km. long, sheltered Lorne surf beach, the only patrolled beach in town, and bathers here were cooling off in the sparkling waters of picturesque Loutit Bay. On the foreshore, residents were picnicking under the trees.   At the pier, people fish for barracuda, whiting and trevally.

Great Pacific Hotel : home of one of the town’s two pubs

A tourist town, Lorne’s main shopping strip is filled with a large number of boutiques and clothing stores, boutique gift stores, cellars, restaurants (serving freshly caught seafood), sidewalk cafes and some art galleries/craft shops.

The foreshore

During the first weekend of January, the town hosts the 1.2 km Pier to Pub swim, described in the Guinness Book of Records as “the largest organized ocean swim in the world” with over 20,000 spectators.

The author, Jandy, Grace and Kyle

How to Get There: Lorne is located 140 kms. (a 2-hour drive) south of Melbourne. From Melbourne, daily coach services are available or rail/coach services via Geelong.

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Memorial Arch (Australia)

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The Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch

From Anglesea, a short 15 min./15.8-km. drive, via the Great Ocean Road/B100, 5 kms. after the town of Aireys Inlet,  brought us to our next stopover – the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, the gateway to the Great Ocean Road.  Possibly the most photographed spot on the Great Ocean Road, this is made evident by cars and buses parked on a car park on the ocean side of the road, with people hopping out to take photos.

Check out “The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Anglesea”

The iconic Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, the longest  war memorial in the world, was built in honor of the 3,000 returned servicemen who worked on the road after World War I and as a memorial to Mr. W.B McCormack, honorary engineer to the Great Ocean Road Trust.

Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch (Australia)

On September 19, 1919, they started construction on the Great Ocean Road and, in November 1932, completed the 243 km. (151 mi.) stretch of road which extends from the town of  Torquay to  Allansford, near Warrnambool, the largest city along the road.

Commemorative plaque

Due to the grueling task of building a road by hand, some soldiers lost their lives during the construction of the road. Their story is recorded on boards at the site.

Bronze statue of The Diggers

A bronze sculpture on the south side of the arch, unveiled on April 13, 2007 (the road’s 75th anniversary) by Bruce Billson (MP Minister for Veteran Affairs), features two returned soldiers working on the Great Ocean Road.  There are also commemorative plaques for the arches built and also plaques for the 50th and 75th anniversary of the road’s opening as well as an information board.

The Diggers plaque

Over the decades, the arch was replaced a few more times. The first arch, erected in 1939, weighed in at 50 tons.  To reimburse the cost of the construction, this first arch was one of the original toll points where money was collected from those travelling along the road. Once the cost of building the road was paid off, the toll point was taken down and a second arch, made mostly with wood, was built in 1973.  This arch was ruined when Ash Wednesday bush fires set it ablaze on February 1983.

 

Commemorative plaques

In the 1970’s, the government, seeing the arch as a hazard to drivers, had plans to take the Memorial Arch down but it was shot down as it was considered a lack of respect for the returned soldiers of World War I.

The third arch, made mostly with metal, was destroyed when a truck ran into the side of the arch.  The present Memorial Arch, the fourth on the site, was made out of wood and has sides made out of stone and cement for support. The original sign still sits on the top of the arch.

The author

From the arch, a sandy trail leads to easy access to the beige sand beach where we stretched our legs and took in the panorama of beach meeting forests.

Jandy and Grace

Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch: 689/721 Great Ocean Rd., Eastern View, Victoria 3231, Australia

The Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour: Anglesea (Australia)

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Anglesea

Our sixth day in Melbourne was to be spent on Bunyip Tours’ day-long, 243-km.  Great Ocean Road Adventure Tour, one of Australia’s most scenic drives and an important tourist attraction in the region.  After a very early breakfast at our apartment, we walked to the nearby pick up point where we met Mr. Jake Smithers, our tour guide/driver.

Jandy, Kyle and Bryan at the boardwalk along the Anglesea River

As soon as all the tour participants were accounted for at their pickup points, we were on our way.

Our first destination was the town of Anglesea, a 1.5-hour/114 km. drive via M1.  Here, we had a breakfast of muffins and coffee, courtesy of Jake, and had glorious views of the Anglesea River.

Anglesea is well known locally for its regular riverbank markets (held by the river on the Great Ocean Road, Anglesea’s main street), its golf-course (renowned for its resident population of eastern grey kangaroos which graze on the fairways), the Anglesea Cricket Club (which competes in the Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association), the Angair Wildflower Festival (September), Surf Coast Walk, Point Roadknight, Point Addis and Harvey Street.

St. Paul’s Cathedral (Melbourne, Australia)

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St. Paul’s Cathedral

St. Paul’s Cathedral, an Anglican cathedral, is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne (who is also the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Victoria and, since June 28, 2014, the present seat of the Primate of Australia).

The cathedral’s Gothic transitional facade

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the cathedral:

  • The cathedral was designed by the English architect William Butterfield, known for his distinctive interpretation of the Gothic Revival.
  • It is one of Melbourne’s major architectural landmarks.
  • To fit the block, the cathedral was orientated in line with the central city grid, just off the north-south axis, rather than facing east, the traditional direction.
  • The location for the cathedral marks the place of the first public Christian service in Melbourne was conducted, by Dr. Alexander Thomson, in 1835.
  • In contrast to the bluestone Gothic of St Patrick’s Roman Catholic cathedral, on the eastern hill of the city, as well as other grand 19th century public buildings faced in light grey sandstone imported from other states, the cathedral’s interior stonework is  a mixture of sandstone from the Barrabool Hills and Waurn Ponds limestone, with contrasting stripes of Victorian bluestone, that gives the cathedral a warm coloring. Also, because the spires are built from Sydney sandstone and are 40 years newer, they are different and darker in color than the older parts of the building.
  • Once the Moorhouse Spire, the central spire, was completed to its full height of 95 m. (312 ft.), St Paul’s became the tallest structure in central Melbourne. With the retail heart height limit of 40 m., it has retained its dominance of the immediate area, dominating the city’s skyline when viewed from the south. For nearly 40 years, even without the spires, the cathedral presented a rather solid, horizontal mass.
  • From the southern approaches to the city, St. Paul’s Cathedral occupies a prominent and dominating location at the center of Melbourne, being situated diagonally opposite Flinders Street station (the hub of 19th-century Melbourne and an important transport center) and, immediately to its south, Federation Square (the new public heart of Melbourne). Continuing south down Swanston Street is Princes Bridge, which crosses the Yarra River, leading to St Kilda Road.
  • Besides Sunday and weekday Eucharists, the cathedral maintains the English tradition of a daily choral Evensong, being the only Australian Anglican cathedral to do so.
  • Its 2009 restoration project was acknowledged by the Australian Institute of Architects, the Victorian Chapter Heritage Architecture Award 2009 and the Lachlan Macquarie National Award for Heritage Architecture 2009.

Check out “Federation Square,” “Flinders Street Station” and “St. Patrick’s Cathedral”

Nighttime view of the cathedral

The awe-inspiring St. Paul’s Cathedral, planned in a traditional Latin cross, has a long nave, side aisles, short transepts, a tower at the crossing, with choir below, sanctuary and altar beyond, and a pair of towers framing the ceremonial main entrance.

Heritage Council of Victoria Plaques

The cathedral’s Gothic transitional architecture combines Early English and Decorative Gothic styles. Highlights include the fine polychromatic brickwork, beautifully patterned floor and wall tiles and mosaics, banded masonry stonework, exquisitely timbered roof and tiled dado walls.

The cathedral’s nave

It has played host to many prime ministers, premiers, governors, governors-general and other significant people; hosted many significant occasions in national, Commonwealth and international history; and continues to be the choice venue for many state funerals.

The north aisle

Here’s the historical timeline of the cathedral:

  • In 1880, the foundation stone was laid by the Governor of Victoria, John, Earl of Hopetoun (later Marquess of Linlithgow), in the presence of the Rt Revd Charles Perry, Bishop of Melbourne.
  • In 1884, Butterfield resigned due to disputes between him and the church authorities in Melbourne. The job was then awarded to a local architect, Joseph Reed (of the Australian firm Reed, Henderson and Smart), who completed the building generally faithfully to Butterfield’s design
  • In 1889, Reed designed the attached chapter house in a style matching Butterfield’s.
  • On November 15, 1889, the cathedral’s bells were dedicated and first rung for the departure of Sir Henry Loch (later Baron Loch), the Governor of Victoria.
  • On January 22, 1891, the cathedral (without the spires) was consecrated by the Rt Revd Field Flowers Goe, Bishop of Melbourne.
  • In 1926, construction of the spires began to a new design by John Barr of Sydney, in a more traditional Gothic Revival style and with different stone from the Sydney area. It was also much taller than Butterfield’s original design.
  • In 1929, the pipe organ was rebuilt by Hill, Norman & Beard when the action was electrified and a new console supplied.
  • In 1932, the spires reached their full height
  • On April 30, 1933 a service of thanksgiving was held for their completion.
  • The 1960s saw extensive work completed to the exterior of the cathedral
  • On November 28, 1986, on his arrival in Melbourne, Pope John Paul II paid a visit to St Paul’s Cathedral in recognition of the dialogue between the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in Melbourne fostered by their respective former archbishops, the Most Reverend Sir Frank Woods (Anglican) and the Most Reverend Sir Frank Little (Roman Catholic).  As the Pope entered the cathedral, the choir sang “Ecce vicit Leo.” After this, the Pope prayed for Christian unity and lit a meter-long candle.
  • From 1989 – 90, the $726,000 restoration work of the organwas completed, by Harrison & Harrison Ltd, Durham, with the help of a major National Trust The façade pipe stenciling was done by Marc Nobel, Christine Holmes and John Dale after a design by Lyon, Cottier, Wells & Company.
  • On November 28, 2007, a carol service called Carols from St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne featuring the cathedral choir, was recorded by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and broadcast Australia-wide on Christmas Eve.
  • In 2009, the A$18 million, seven-year major restoration works, under the guidance of Falkinger Andronas Architects and Heritage Consultants (now Andronas Conservation Architecture) and undertaken by Cathedral Stone, were completed. Significant repairs were done to restore the spires. Stone heads of the former dean David Richardson and the philanthropist Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, created by Melbourne sculptor Smiley Williams and carved by stonemason Daryl Gilbert, were added to the spires.  Also installed were the colored glass “Eighth Day” lantern, in the Moorhouse Tower, and  new dalle de verre colored glass doors, created by Janusz and Magda Kuszbicki, and a glass walled airlock for the west Great West door.

The south aisle

The interior, compared to the exterior, feature rich colors and strident color contrasts, characteristic of Butterfield’s work, with all the stonework constructed using Waurn Ponds limestone, its stripes contrasting with the very dark-colored local bluestone.

Chancel and High Altar

The dado (created with patterned glazed tiles), floor (entirely paved with encaustic tile imported from the English firm of Maw & Co., featuring both patterned layouts and patterns within the tiles), high altar and reredos (made from Devonshire marble, alabaster and glittering Venetian glass mosaics) are outstanding examples of High Victorian Gothic polychromy.

The narthex

In Persian tile, on the rear wall of the narthex, is a replica of an 8-pointed star found in two churches of the Anglican Diocese of Iran (the church of St. Simon the Zealot in Shiraz and St. Luke’s Church in Isfahan).  There are two baptismal fonts – a round font of Harcourt granite (installed when the cathedral was first built) and a cruciform immersion font (built in 1912 in memory of Field Flowers Goe, third Bishop of Melbourne). One of the carved figures on the pulpit is said to be the image of a daughter, who died in infancy, of the former Mayor of Melbourne.

Baptismal Font (South Aisle)

The Chapel of Unity, a memorial chapel, commemorates the historic visit of Pope John Paul II: only the third time in four centuries when a reigning Pope had made an official visit to an Anglican cathedral.

Immersion Font

The pipe organ, commissioned from English builder T. C. Lewis and Co  (one of the most prominent organ builders of the 19th century) of Brixton, England, cost over 6,500 pounds for its construction, shipping and installation before it was played at the cathedral’s 1891 inaugural service .

Interior from the south aisle

Since then, various modifications and maintenance works have been carried out. After the 1989 -90 restoration, the organ, housed in the cathedral’s south transept behind newly stenciled façade pipes, now has four manuals and pedals with 53 stops, all with electro-pneumatic action.

Commemorative plaques along the wall

St. Paul’s ring of 13 bells, a gift from Thomas Dyer Edwardes and all cast by Mears & Stainbank of Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1889, consists of 12 bells set for change ringing in the key of C♯, plus an extra bell to allow different subsets of the full number to be rung still to a diatonic scale.  The tenor originally weighed 31 cwt but, after the whole set was sent to Taylor’s Bell Foundry in 1963 for retuning, it now weighs 29cwt.

One of the cathedral’s stained glass windows

St. Paul’s Cathedral : 198 -206 Flinders Street cor. Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia. Tel: 9653 4333. E-mail: welcome@stpaulscathedral.org.au. Website: www.stpaulscathedral.org.au. Open Mondays to Fridays, 8 AM – 6 PM; Saturdays, 9 AM – 4 PM and Sundays, 7:30 AM – 7:30 PM.  Masses: Sundays (8 AM, 9 AM, 10.30 AM, 6 PM), Mondays to Saturdays (12.15 PM).

Federation Square (Melbourne, Australia)

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Federation Square

Federation Square, a venue for arts, culture and public events on the edge of the Melbourne central business district, covers an area of 3.2 ha (7.9 acres) and was built above busy railway lines and across the road from Flinders Street station.

It incorporates major cultural institutions (Ian Potter Centre, ACMI, Koorie Heritage Trust, etc.) as well as cafes and bars, in a series of buildings centered around a large paved square, and a glass walled atrium.

Check out “Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia“

Melbourne’s central city grid was designed without a central public square, long seen as a missing element. From the 1920s there were proposals to roof the railway yards on the southeast corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets for a public square, with more detailed proposals prepared in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the 1960s, the Melbourne City Council decided that the best place for the City Square was the corner of Swanston and Collins Streets, opposite the town hall. The first temporary square opened in 1968, and a permanent version opened in 1981. It was however not considered a great success, and was redeveloped in the 1990s as a smaller simpler space in front of a new large hotel.

Meanwhile, in the late 1960s, a small part of the railway lines had been partly roofed by the construction of the Princes Gate Towers, known as the Gas & Fuel Buildings after their major tenant, the Gas and Fuel Corporation, over the old Princes Bridge station.

This included a plaza on the corner, which was elevated above the street and little used. Between the plaza and Batman Avenue, which ran along the north bank of the Yarra River, were the extensive Jolimont Railway Yards, and the through train lines running into Flinders Street station under Swanston Street.

This open public square had its beginnings in 1996 when the then Premier Jeff Kennett announced that the Gas & Fuel Buildings would be demolished, the rail yards roofed and a complex including arts facilities and a large public space to be named Federation Square would be built.

Lobby of Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia

It was opened in 2001, in time to celebrate the centenary of Australia’s Federation, and included performing arts facilities, a gallery, a cinemedia center, the public space, a glazed winter garden, and ancillary cafe and retail spaces.

Built at a cost of approximately $467 million (over four times the original estimate of between $110 and $128 million), its main funding came primarily from the state government, some from the federal government, $64 million from the City of Melbourne while private operators and sponsors paid for fit outs or naming rights. The square was opened on October 26, 2002.

Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) – Australia’s national museum of film, video games, digital culture and art

In 2006, the vaults under Princes Walk (a former roadway) were redeveloped by Federation Wharf into a large bar, with extensive outdoor areas on the Yarra riverbank, with elevator access to Federation Square.

In October 2011, Elizabeth II visited Federation Square. On October 2018, an interim decision to list Fed Square to the Victorian Heritage Register resulted in the square being formally listed in August 2019.

Occupying roughly a whole urban block bounded by Swanston, Flinders, and Russell Streets and the Yarra River, Federation Square is directly opposite Flinders Street station and St Paul’s Cathedral.

The precinct’s layout was designed to connect Melbourne’s historical central district with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr, a new park.

Its complex and irregular design had gently angled ‘cranked’ geometries (predominating in both the planning and the facade treatment of the various buildings and the winter gardens that surrounded and defined the open spaces) while a series of ‘shards’ provided vertical accents.

Interconnected laneways and stairways and the winter garden connects Flinders Street to the Yarra River. The open square, arranged as a gently sloping amphitheater, is focused on a large viewing screen for public events, with a secondary sloped plaza area on the main corner.

The 1.3 m. high bronze statue of the Fearless Girl by Kristen Visbal

Federation Square: intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets.

Ian Potter Center: NGV Australia (Melbourne)

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Ian Potter Centre – NGV Australia

The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, an  art gallery that houses the Australian part of the art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), is a legacy of the businessman and philanthropist Sir Ian Potter. It presents the story of Australian art through a comprehensive program of temporary exhibitions and extensive displays.

Check out “Federation Square”

Museum entrance

The country’s first public art museum dedicated to Australian art, it houses one of the oldest and most well known art collections in the country and has almost 25,000 Australian artworks, including paintings, sculpture, prints, photography, fashion and textiles.

Museum lobby

At one time, approximately 800 works are displayed in the new building and many of these are rotated frequently to show the full breadth and diversity of Australian art, and to provide visitors with fresh insights. The NGV’s international works are displayed at the NGV International on St Kilda Road.

The author at the museum

The collection, also acknowledging the power, primacy and cultural diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, presents some of Indigenous art’s major historical and contemporary works. The collection includes works in a range of media by male and female artists, including William Barak, Judy Watson, Emily Kngwarray and Uta Uta Tjangala.

Autumn Memories (Frederick McCubbin)

Well-known and superb works featured at the Ian Potter Centre include  non-Indigenous art, from the Colonial period to the present day, including some of the genre’s most iconic paintings such as Frederick McCubbin‘s poignant triptych The Pioneer (1904), Tom Roberts‘ Shearing the Rams (1890), and works from Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Arthur Streeton, John Perceval, Margaret Preston, Bill Henson, Howard Arkley and Fred Williams.

The Bathers (E. Phillips Fox)

The Ian Potter Centre, designed by Lab Architecture Studio in association with Bates Smart of Melbourne, headed by Peter Davidson and Donald Bates, has earned the designers the RAIA National Award for Interior Architecture as well as the Marion Mahony Interior Architecture Award.

Black Sun (Inge King)

There was plenty to see in the normal free exhibitions so, unless you have a particular interest in the special ones, you’ll still see lots and enjoy the visit.

Faun and Nymph (Rayner Hoff, bronze)

As we arrived just a little over an hour before closing time during our visit, we just saw the free exhibits which were Lucy McRae Body Architect, Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic, Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou, Marking Time: Indigenous Art from the NGV, Roger Kemp: Visionary Modernist, The Joseph Brown Collection, Civilization: The Way We Live Now, 20th Century Australian Art and Late 20th and 21st Century Australian Art.

Check out “Lucy McRae Body Architect Exhibit,” “Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic Exhibit,” “Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou Exhibit,” “Marking Time: Indigenous Art from the NGV Exhibit,” “Roger Kemp: Visionary Modernist Exhibit,” The Joseph Brown Collection Exhibit,” “Civilization: The Way We Live Now Exhibit,” “20th Century Australian Art Exhibit” and “Late 20th and 21st Century Australian Art Exhibit.”

Marking Time: Indigenous Art From the NGV (Level 3, August 17, 20 19 – June 14, 2020) explores drawings and markings of figures, signs or text made on public surfaces across Indigenous Australia, from rock face to now.

Marking Time

Reko Rennie and Brook Andrew translated incisions, on carved trees or shields, into bold neon icons, whereas Josh Muir and Hannah Brontë used video art to communicate voices of dissent, create dialogue between groups and to effect change.

Marking Time

The Joseph Brown Collection (Level 2) displays the outstanding private collection of Australian art of artist, soldier, scholar, connoisseur, successful businessman and art dealer Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, donated in May 2004, the most generous single gift of works of art ever made to a public gallery in Australia.

The Joseph Brown Collection

The Joseph Brown Collection

Civilization: The Way We Live Now (Ground Level, September 13, 2019 – February 2, 2020), an international photography exhibition of monumental scale, exhibits over 200 original photographs of over 100 contemporary photographers from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.

Civilization – The Way We Live Now

In this increasingly globalized world, the exhibition explores photographers’ representations of life in cities as its key theme and presents a journey through the shared aspects of life in the urban environment.

Bryan, Cheska and Kyle at the Civilization: The Way We Live Now exhibit

The modern and bright Crossbar Café, on Level 3, has lovely views of the Yarra River.

White Sacred Baboon (Brett Whiteley)

Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia: Federation Square, Flinders St. and Russell St., Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia. Open daily, 10 AM- 5 PM. Closed Christmas Day and Good Friday. Admission to the permanent collection is free. Fees may apply to special exhibitions, as advertized. Tel: 8620 2222. E-mail: enquiries@ngv.vic.gov.au. Website: www.ngv.vic.gov.au.