Exploring Melbourne's Cultural Quarter - A Short Photo Parade

 

Every time I come to Melbourne, I spend a lot of time around the Cultural Quarter - the creative zone that stretches from Federation Square (opposite Flinders Street Railway Station), down to the National Gallery of Victoria. I've been there twice this week and the above photographs are a tiny sample of the hundreds I took. The first images relate to the NGV of course, where I went to see  Vienna Art & Design, marvellous exhibition which is due to finish any day. From there I wandered down to Federation Square (the hefty grey buildings shown above), which I've written about several times before on this blog. (You can read that by clicking on Federation Square in the label lines below).

That's where you'll find NGV's Ian Potter Centre and the Australian Centre for Moving Image, along with crowds of people enjoying the terrific public spaces. The entire area is marvellous for people-watching and photography and I will be sad to say goodbye to them when I leave Australia in two days' time.

Back to wobbly old Christchurch and reality.

Melbourne -City Glimpses

Bourke Street Mall

Block Arcade

Union Lane

City Reflections

Eureka Tower

Flinders Street Railway Station

Sightseeing in Australia - 8

I don't know why I spend so much time trying to photograph Australian gum trees - it's not as if we don't have plenty of the good old Eucalypts in New Zealand after all, but there's something special about them in their own Aussie environment; and they're so quintessentially Australian. Call it a challenge - and it is most definitely that. I have come home with hundreds of photos of gum trees and most have ended up in the delete bin. Turns out it's actually quite difficult to capture all those forms and shadows without it looking like...well.... a boring solid mass of trees. I was reasonably happy with this shot - taken one soft, sunny morning on a massive drive around the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide in 2007. If you just happen to be travelling to Adelaide, I'd strongly advise you to pick up a rental car and make a day of it - better still a couple of days because there are plenty of wineries, beautiful landscapes and interesting towns to visit. The south of the peninsula also gives you access to Kangaroo Island. I love Melbourne's Flinders Street - that one mile long (exactly they tell me) stretch named after explorer, Matthew Flinders, that runs almost parallel to the Yarra River. It's where you'll find the incredibly busy Flinders Railway Station which is, in my view, just about one of the best people-watching places on the planet; and just across the road, Federation Square with its galleries, cafes, restaurants and events. I'm heading across the Tasman in a few weeks' time and you can be reasonably certain that I'll be spending an unnatural amount of time hanging out here with my camera. This is the very handsome State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, which is located in front of the Queensland Museum of Art. It opened after extensive redevelopment in 2006 at the hands of Australian architectural practice, Donovan Hill Peddle Thorp. In 2007, it was voted Australian Building of the Year by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. I spent half a day in both buildings back in 2008, on my way home from a wild adventure in the Queensland Outback. Brisbane, it must be said, seemed tame and very civilised by comparison. A perfect little building in the Victorian town of Malmsbury - little more than a speck on the map, with just 587 people (or thereabouts), 96km northwest of Melbourne. Gold was discovered here in 1858 and the town became a centre for diggers on their way to Bendigo and Castlemaine. I discovered it in 2010, when I hit the road in rural Victoria with a map, a camera and an assortment of drinks and snacks. From Woodend, an hour north of Melbourne, I headed north past Kyneton, and turned off the highway, heading for Malmsbury, then in a giant loop back to the south, and north again to Woodend. It was one of those magnificent days of taking ten hours to do a trip that would normally take 3-4 hours - stopping all along the way to explore and take photographs. My idea of heaven.

Sightseeing in Australia - 5

You're never short of a photo opportunity when you stand anywhere near the Flinders Street Railway Station in central Melbourne. The place pulsates with people and the building itself is stunning (if you click on Flinders Railway Station below, you can see other shots of the station). I usually park myself somewhere in Federation Square, opposite the station and people-watch for a few hours. A Buzzard's Nest Cunnamulla Southeast Queensland Outback 2008. A street scene showing off some of the fine architecture of Bendigo, Victoria. November 2009

A man after my own heart - people watching with a camera.

He's lying on the lawn below the new Melbourne Age building (click on The Age Melbourne below to see the building)

just across from the Swanston Street Railway Station. Central Melbourne, 2010.

Favourite Melbourne People

Waiting at the lights, Flinders Street Station. An unexpected encounter, Chinatown, Little Bourke Street

Wombat art and pink umbrellas, City square, Swanston Street

A short call, Flinders Street Station

Lunchtime reading, City Square, Swanston Street.

A construction Go Slow, Little Bourke Street

A Small Melbourne Architectural Overview

The Melbourne Age building on Spencer Street may have caused controversy – both for its design and its location – but I like it. And, as a journalist myself, I suppose it’s only natural that I would like the giant screen that highlights the headlines of the day.

Even more controversial at the time of its construction, was the gigantic Southern Cross Rail Station (Grimshaw Architects) [completed 2006] that sits directly across the street from The Age. Its enormous waving roof construction adds a distinctive, modern form to the city that, to my mind, looks nicely ahead to the future. It’s also a perfect introduction to the Docklands area that it borders – a precinct that favours some stunning contemporary architecture that I featured on this blog in 2008. (If you click on Docklands in the label line below, you’ll be able to see a few examples).

Federation Square on Flinders Street is another of my favourite Melbourne architectural statements. I hear so much about the need for modern architecture to be ‘contextural,’ for it to conform to the style of the surroundings; but to my mind, a city should reflect its many layers of time and style and if architecture is done well, it will fit regardless of the surrounds. Take Federation Square for instance; it sits happily across the street from the classical elegance of St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, the classic grandeur of Flinders Street Rail Station and in the rear, across the Yarra River, the unmistakable contemporary form of Eureka Tower piercing the sky.

The rather spectacular Flinders Street Railway Station, which always reminds me of being in India.

Part of the Crowd

Flinders Street Intersection, Melbourne, Australia. Nov. 2008 Ajr

As a seasoned people-watcher I love a good crowd.

You're guaranteed of a good crowd when you hang out around Flinders Street Station and Federation Square in Melbourne. Flinders Street Station is the busiest suburban railway station in the Southern Hemisphere with more than 10,300 passenger-carrying train services operating to and from the station each week. That's about 110,000 people traipsing through every day so you're assured of interesting foot traffic.

More Melbourne Eating

Chocolate Buddha, Federation Square, Melbourne. Nov 2008. Ajr

If you're a fan of Japanese food, make sure you visit one of my favourite Melbourne restaurants, Chocolate Buddha, which you'll find in that splendid architectural icon, Federation Square - also home to the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Visitors Centre and a number of other cafes and restaurants. It's all just across the road from the famous, the hectically busy and the endlessly fascinating historic Flinders Railway Station. The interior here is simple and beautiful and the food is exquisite. www.chocolatebuddha.com.au