535 Bourke Street, Parks Victoria city office

Parks Victoria city office - 9th Floor, Parks Division

My workspace!

Parks Victoria City Office Christmas Party at the St. Kilda Yacht Club at St Kilda Beach. Was very strange have a Christmas Party overlooking the beach..not the same without the snow!

Was a fun afternoon event and a good opportunity to meet many of those who work in the office. Great food, and lots of entertainmnent.

St. Kilda pier and historic boathouse, managed by Parks Victoria. The boathouse recently burnt in a fire and was rebuilt following a strong community drive to have it rebuilt as it was prior to its destruction.

Chris Smith, Heritage Planner, Parks Victoria - my colleague and supervisor. Chris is also a Parks Victoria exhangee and will return to Canada in May to continue his assignment with the Eastern Ontario Field Unit, working in Smith Falls, on the Rideau Canal Landscape Management Strategy

St. Kilda Yacht Club

Induction program - Yarra Bend Park

Our second induction program took place at Yarra Bend Park office. The induction included learning about Parks Victoria's corporate governance, risk, sustainability initiatives and the Healthy Parks Healthy People philosophy and framework.

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After spending the morning learning about Parks Victoria, we had a beautiful lunch and headed out for a visit of the park with two rangers who were wonderful guides and presented lots of information about the parks history, both the natural and cultural values of the park as well as its many recreational features.

To get around the park we went by Parks Victoria cars as the park has quite a large area to cover. It is the largest area of natural vegetation near the City of Melbourne. We stopped at many areas and had some nice walks along trails to visit many of the parks features and sites.

The Yarra River runs through the Park and is a significant river in Melbourne that runs through the city and many communities outside of the city area.

Institutions were established in the park in the 19th century . Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum established at the end of Yarra Bend Road in 1848 was closed in 1925, the only remnants being mature Elms and Moreton Bay fig trees, and a bluestone pillar which

are protected and presented in the park.

Kanes Bridge leads across the river to picnic areas, sports grounds and the 18 hole Yarra Bend Golf Course.

Yarra Bend Induction
Originally uploaded by anwareendownunder

Here at the Studley boathouse you can rent a rowboat to travel along the river.

View from balcony, slice of the cityscape, Melbourne Central Business District towering over the roof of the train station and our view of Etihad Stadium which holds up to 70,000 people and is host to the Footy matches and to concerts. Also the concourse of the stadium links to the city and that is my route to and from work everyday.

Yarra Bend Induction (51)
Originally uploaded by anwareendownunder

This walk takes you through the park where the flying foxes sleep away, some restless and opening their wings from time to time.

Flying foxes! These bats are huge and it was amazing to learn about them. They are fruit bats and were moved to the park to protect the species which is endangered.

Flying foxes!!
Originally uploaded by anwareendownunder

Flying foxes at Yarra Bend Park. I was fascinate by these bats as I always had just assumed that bats stay out of the light during the day. Here they were sleeping away, well actually as you can see not all were sleeping, but not disturbed by our prescence at all.

Originally uploaded by anwareendownunder

The Parks Canada exchangees with the central business district in the background. We were told that the tv weather reports are sometimes broadcast from this spot.

View of Melbourne central business district from Yarra Bend Park.

Christmas dinner in Docklands

My overcooked but still delicious Aussie free-range turkey with three kinds of squash, pumpkin, corn, sweet potatoes, and of course my famous mashed potatoes!

To make it feel like the holiday season we had a relaxing day with the smell of turkey roasting in the oven wafting out to the balcony where we sat enjoying the sun while all the Merry Chrissy movies played on tv!

Yarra Bend

Yarra Bend
Originally uploaded by anwareendownunder

Dight's Falls, a weir built on a natural rock bar in the early 1840s to supply water to the Dight brothers' flour mill - the old bluestone water channel and ruins of the mill can still be found on the north bank.

Welcome 8 Waterview Walk

We found an apartment in Docklands an area that was once a busy industrial port which was abandoned as a port in the 70's and left to dilapidate. In recent years it has been gentrified and turned into a new urban community with a vibrant wharf side area with restaurants and modern condominiums and the area boasts some of the greenest buildings in Melbourne. Wind turbines on tops of buildings, and green roofs as well as one of the greenest heritage buildings in Melbourne.

We were lucky to find a fully furnished apartment that had only had one tenant prior to us! The apt. came fully loaded with furniture, tv, crockery, linen..the works pretty much. We have a balcony although no view of the water! Instead we have a slice of the cityscape looking over the roof of the train station and a view of Etihad Stadium which seats about 70,000 people and is host to the Footy matches and concerts.

Moving in! We had to take what is called a 'maxi' taxi to get all of our stuff from the hotel/apt. to our new home. It was like a little bus! Our property manager was late so we had to wait outside with all of our stuff until she arrived.

The south tower of The Watergate, our apartment is on the fourth floor around the left side of the building.

Kitchen + Living Area

Bedroom has only closet in the whole apartment!

December we arrived in Australia!!

We have been here in Melbourne, Australia for almost a month now and finally I am able to set up this blog site. The trip to the land down under started on December 6th. We left Ottawa in the evening and flew through Washington to L.A. We arrived in L.A. close to midnight and had to overnight at an airport hotel. It was so cold in L.A. that we had to go and buy hoodies to stay warm. We were surprised expecting to have landed in warmer weather. Most of the day in L.A. was spent relaxing. We were so tired from the house move of all of our stuff to storage that we needed to recuperate!! We went out to buy our sweaters, checked the airport to make sure we knew where to go (LAX is huge!!) and just relaxed at the hotel. We had a nice dinner and headed out to the airport. The flight to Australia was long 15hours but Virgin Australian airlines was great, free blanket, headphones, meals and great hospitality. We landed at Melbourne airport on Dec. 8th, quite disoriented with regard to time! After going through customs and immigration we went through a gate to find two Parks Victoria staff waiting for us and greeting us. How nice it was to have someone greet us at the airport and help us with our bags. Chris Smith and Catherine Bessant, two Parks Victoria staff who I am now working with, drove us to our hotel and gave us an introduction to Melbourne as we drove in to the city.