Category: Victoria

Springtime in Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria8 Comments

A few days ago, mild temperatures and sunshine were forecast. I took the opportunity to head into the Royal Botanic Gardens for some much needed exercise and sun. I had never properly explored them before, sticking mainly to the edges along St. Kilda Road, or climbing the hill to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, an outdoor entertainment venue that’s hosted hundreds of performers over the years. The Bowl sits in a valley surrounded by hills.

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Healesville Sanctuary, Yarra Valley, Victoria

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria16 Comments

Having spent months earlier in the year editing and publishing my travel memoir, Is this the Road to Stratford?, I needed a serious dose of nature to get me back in balance. My computer and I don’t get on well if we spend to much time together in our little room. Continue reading “Healesville Sanctuary, Yarra Valley, Victoria” →

Lakes Entrance, Victoria

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria10 Comments

The Gippsland Lakes are a network of lakes, marshes and lagoons, covering an area of around 350 square kilometres. From Bairnsdale, I followed the Princes Highway, as it snaked its way down and around a point known as Jemmy’s Point.

A view over Jemmy’s Point

In 1889, a wall was built to fix the position of a naturally occurring channel between the lakes and Bass Strait, to stabilise the water level, create a harbour for fishing boats and to open the lakes up to shipping. Hence the name, Lakes Entrance.

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The Lakes, South-Eastern Victoria

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria5 Comments

I decided last week I needed some R&R and some nature, so I headed down to Victoria’s lakes district on the south-east coast. I’d been promising myself I would explore the area for years but somehow hadn’t got round to it. I stopped the first night in Bairnsdale, before taking the last 38kms down to Lakes Entrance the next day.

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Coolart Homestead, Somers, Victoria

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria9 Comments

Recently my artist daughter exhibited some of her paintings in an art exhibition at Coolart Homestead at Somers, on the Mornington Peninsula, 80 kilometres south of Melbourne. I went down for a look.

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Edithvale Beach-Melbourne

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria2 Comments

I’ve just come back from a week-and-a-half stint with two of my teenage grandsons, while their parents were overseas. It’s definitely not hard work for me to leave the traffic and noise of my suburb and decamp to the beaches of Port Phillip Bay.

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Captain Cook’s Cottage, Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria11 Comments

The temperature was heading for zero (well, 10°), the wind was blasting and it was threatening to rain. But, intrepid traveller that I am, I headed back into the city. It’s years since I’ve been to Captain Cook’s cottage, settled in the gorgeous Fitzroy Gardens, stretching behind the State Parliament buildings.

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Shrine of Remembrance Melbourne

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria5 Comments

On my way to a matinee at the Melbourne Theatre Company, I hopped a tram up St. Kilda Road to the Shrine of Remembrance, to try out my new camera. The Shrine sits on a hill in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The Shrine with the Eternal Flame in the Forecourt
The Shrine with the Eternal Flame in the Forecourt

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William Ricketts Sanctuary Dandenong Ranges Melbourne

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria10 Comments

After my serious dose of nature in Sherbrooke Forest, and my communing with my first-ever lyre bird, I headed up the Tourist Road to Mt. Dandenong and the William Ricketts Sanctuary.

Entrance to the Sanctuary
Entrance to the Sanctuary:  God Love – pulsating in a rhythm that moves and sweeps through all life. To understand your highest self you must live in that rhythm.

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A Dose of Nature in the Dandenong Ranges

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Victoria8 Comments

Just 30 kilometres out of Melbourne’s city centre are the Dandenong Ranges. The Dandenongs are a set of low mountains, their valleys and hills covered in thick, temperate rain forest. Scattered throughout are walking tracks, magnificent gardens and pretty villages, with names such as Ferny Creek, Gembrook, Sherbrooke, Sassafras and The Patch.

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