Brighton Bathing Boxes

Aside from these cheerful, bright yellow beach daisies, Dendy Beach in Brighton is home to 82 of the 1860 bathing boxes located around Port Philip Bay & Westernport Bay.

For many years in the late nineteenth century, Brighton was Melbourne's favourite seaside destination. Brighton is located in the City of Bayside, which has 17 km of foreshore to Port Phillip Bay. Nestled on Dendy Street Beach, the Brighton bathing boxes are a popular Bayside icon and cultural asset.

The 82 Brighton bathing boxes are unique because of their uniform scale and proportion, building materials, sentry order alignment and a Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay on a beach owned by Bayside City Council. As simple structures, all retain classic Victorian architectural features with timber framing, weatherboards and corrugated iron roofs. They remain as they did over one hundred years ago, as licensed bathing boxes. No service amenities such as electricity or water are connected.

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Millionaires Walk, Sorrento, VIC

This stunning cliff top walk has historic significance as it was the first time the Union Jack was used to claim possession of Australia. On the 9th March 1802, Acting Lieutenant John Murray, commander of the 'HMAS Lady Nelson' took possession of Point King, later to be renamed Port Phillip Bay, in the name of His Sacred Majesty George III of Great Britain and Ireland. 

You can start the walk at either Point King Road or Lentell Avenue. Limited parking is available at both Point King Road and Lentell Avenue.

Although there are gates at both ends of the track and at points along the way, there is a public right-of-way along the easement. The undulating track is well-maintained, on mostly natural surfaces, which makes it an easy walk for all ages.

The walk allows you to gain an insight into how Melbourne's elite spend time at their summer mansions, and the chance to quietly peruse some highly-priced private architecture.  

At certain points it feels as if you may be trespassing, due to the intimate nature of walking on front lawns which would usually be hidden behind high fences.

On one side, there are elegant houses with beautifully landscaped gardens; on the other, a low shrubby cliff dropping down to rows of boat houses and private jetties that stretch out through the shallows of a bay.

The water views across Port Phillip Bay to the Bellarine Peninsula, Melbourne and Mount Dandenong are breathtaking.

The Sorrento-Queenscliff passenger and car ferry makes regular trips multiple times each day.

Millionaires Walk makes up a small part of the Sorrento Portsea Artists’ Trail, with four of the fourteen sites that comprise the trail located along Millionaires Walk. Paintings by Sir Arthur Streeton, Arthur Boyd and Ray Hodgkinson are displayed along the walk.

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PRINCES PIER, Port Melbourne, VIC

As a photographer, one of the places on my photography "bucket list" for quite some time was Princes Pier in Port Melbourne, Victoria. While in Melbourne in 2014, we visited there on 2 separate occasions in order to gain some images that I had in mind -- but the weather was a little moody both times. It was certainly worth the visit though!

Princes Pier is a 580 metre long historic pier on Port Phillip Bay, in Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

The pier was constructed between 1912 and 1915 by the Melbourne Harbour Trust to supplement the adjacent Station Pier (originally the 'Railway Pier'). From completion in 1915 until 1969 it was also a major arrival point for new migrants, particularly during the post-war period. In addition to a pier, there was a gatehouse and barriers, terminal building, amenities rooms, goods lockers, ablution blocks, railway sidings and passenger gangways.

With the containerisation boom the pier became unused, being closed to public access in the early 1990s due to the poor timber condition, and squatters caused a fire in the late 1990s that destroyed the store structures. In the three years to 2004, 14 fires occurred.
A refurbishment estimated to cost $14 million was announced by the State Government in April 2006, with the first 196 metres of the Pier fully restored, beyond that point the decking would be removed and the original pylons preserved. A full restoration was estimated at $60 million. A contract for the work was awarded in June 2007, and work began in October of the same year. The pier reopened to the public in December 2011.

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Exploring Melbourne City

In May 2014, I traveled to Melbourne, Victoria for my Mum's 80th birthday. We stayed in the city for a night and I took the opportunity to do a little exploring. I have previously shared my night photography from this trip here.
Here are some of my images from a photo walk in the city...

Flinders Street Railway Station is the oldest station in Australia (1910), although the first station on this site opened in 1854.
Flinders street is the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere and its 700 metre main platform is the longest in the country.
Flinders Street Station is 'the' meeting place for 'Melbournians', expressed simply as "meet me under the clocks", a reference to the clocks above the main entrance. (source: Only Melbourne website)

Flinders Street Station

Hosier Lane is Melbourne’s most iconic Street Art lane way and is one of the main tourist attractions in Melbourne.
Melbourne is known as one of the world's great street art capitals for its unique expressions of art on approved outdoor locations. Street art includes stencils, paste-ups and murals and does not include graffiti or tagging which is illegal.
To see some of the city's best street art, head to Hosier and Rutledge Lane, opposite Federation Square.

The Shrine of Remembrance is Melbourne's most iconic landmark, where Victorians have been coming since 1934 to honour the service and sacrifice of Australian men and women in war and peacekeeping.
It is a site of annual observances of ANZAC Day (25 April) and Remembrance Day (11 November) and is one of the largest war memorials in Australia.

Victoria Barracks was the administrative headquarters for the Australian Army but to ensure the close coordination of the three services necessary to the war effort, the Barracks also became the administrative headquarters of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force.
Located on St Kilda Road in Melbourne, Australia, Victoria Barracks Melbourne is of architectural and historical significance as one of the most impressive 19th century government buildings in Victoria, Australia.

The Arts Centre is the flagship of the performing arts in Victoria, and the focal point of Melbourne's cultural precinct, owned by the people of Victoria.

Although Melbourne is situated on the shores of one of the largest bays on the Australian coast, the city's main water feature is the Yarra River. That's because the city grew from the banks of the Yarra and even today the focus for the city is still very much on a one-kilometre section of the river. Within that one kilometre are some of the great sights and attractions of Melbourne.

The Coop's Shot Tower, built in 1888; 327 steps to the top, 9 stories & 50m high. It was saved from demolition in 1973 and was incorporated into the Melbourne Central complex in 1991 under and 84m high glass roof. When you visit the Melbourne CBD, this is one of the essential spots to visit... And photograph!

Princes Pier is a 580 metre longhistoric pier on Port Phillip, in Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was known as the New Railway Pier until renamed Prince's Pier after the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) who visited Melbourne in May 1920.

There are a lot more famous sights in Melbourne, which I hope to be able to photograph and share later in the year when I head "home" for Christmas and my parent's 60th wedding Anniversary.

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