Visit to South Morang's historic sites - January 2010

I joined Chris on a visit to South Morang where he was meeting with Jan Penney, who is the executive chair of Mint Inc. a committee of management appointed by the Victorian Government to restore heritage properties located on Crown Land for commercial and community use. Parks Victoria has divested some its historic properties to Mint Inc. as they have the funding to take on the rehabilitation and restoration required to protect and maintain these resources on a long-term basis.

Mint Inc.'s mission is to ensure these buildings are expertly restored to protect their heritage values and provide a viable commercial or community use. They generates their funds from the leasing of these buildings and management of the very successful car park on the grounds at the rear of the historic Mint Building in Melbourne.

The historic properties we visited in South Morang are located along the nature reserve corridor that is managed by Parks Victoria. As such, Parks Victoria works closely with Mint Inc. with regard to land management and issues that affect both the nature reserve and the historic property.

Farm Vigano

This heritage estate provides an important link to Mario and Teresa Vigano, a prominent Melbourne Italian restaurant family.
The Vigano's owned one of Melbourne's seminal Italian restaurants, Mario's, mid last century. The family's influence on Melbourne's cuisine continued with their granddaughters.

The Viganos used the property as a retreat and also served as their city dwelling. It was originally a small weatherboard cottage enhanced by its spectacular setting overlooking a sweeping section of the Plenty River, near the Plenty Gorge. By the early 1950s, the cottage was extended and rebuilt in at least seven stages into a three-storied, imposing brick and weatherboard residence.

The house contains distinctive Italian cultural references, such as the stone walling on the drive, similar to mountain roads in Italy, and the boarded chalet style gable ends. The French doors and iron balustrades overlooked the formal garden terraces below and spectacular views of the valley. The garden gates were one of the first major commissions for noted metal craftsman and engineer Gio Batta Stella, who later established a large workshop in Carlton.

View from inside Farm Vigano.

Inside Farm Vigano - beautiful metal and woodwork,

and an impressive terrazzo bathroom!!

We enjoyed a nice tea with Jan and the gentleman who takes care of Farm Vigano on this terrace over looking the river valley.

Carome Homestead

The Carome Homestead is made of locally quarried bluestone and is located within the Plenty River nature corridor area
to the east of the Riverdale on Plenty land. Parks Victoria manages the nature reserve and has recently divested Carome Homestead to Mint Inc. who will continue to protect this historic property preserve and provide access to the public. It has been rehabilitated to a restaurant/ dining facility and its grounds are the site of a large community garden for the neighbouring communities.

Parks Victoria works with Mint Inc. on issues related to the site as part of its management of the nature reserve. The site is beautiful overlooking the river and we saw many birds and some kangaroos who were waiting for us to leave the homestead so that they could raid the community garden. They are not an easy pest to keep out of gardens!

These Kangaroos stopped in their tracks when they spotted me and just kept staring at me keenly waiting for me to go away so that they could safely continue their quest to raid the garden!

Carome is of historical significance to Victoria as the site of one of the State's earliest water powered flour mills. Remnants of the c1841 mill remain on the banks of the Plenty River, which forms the eastern boundary of the property. The site also contains other early elements including an 1860s bluestone homestead, primitive timber sheds, remnant orchards and a graveyard.

First 8 Days in Melbourne

Our first 8 days in Melbourne were spent at an apartment hotel in the heart of the city’s financial and business district CBD (central business district), catching up on sleep and finding an apartment to call home for the next 6months. During the day this part of the city is busy with “the suited and the booted” as referred to by the staff at the hotel. At night, the atmosphere changes to outdoor cafes, bars, restaurants and clubs. The first night we went out was absolutely nuts! I guess it was University end of year party night because there were people everywhere who had obviously consumed way too much alcohol before 10pm and
as such the police were in abundance. This was our first
impression of night life in the city but we soon learned that it was probably an end of school year theme downtown and

that every weekend wasn't as chaotic. Nevertheless, police seem to travel in groups of 3-5 always and are usually accompanied by a sniffer dog or two. The day time life in the CBD is such a contrast with men and women in suits and a quiet business like atmosphere. We stayed at the Quest hotel/ apt. on Little Collins street which was really close to the office. We had a really great staff at reception named Summer who was super friendly and extremely helpful. On arrival the first day I went to open my suitcase and noticed that it wasn't my lock that was on it!! Turned out that the TSA at the airport had decided to open my suitcase and put the wrong lock back on!!! Luckily, Summer was able to reach the cleaning staff who found us a hammer and Brian was able to pry it open using the hammer and clippers he brought to cut his guitar strings. I was worried I would have to cut open my brand new suitcase!!

The biggest adjustment on arrival was getting used to a very

different coffee culture here. There is no filtered coffee!!!

No Tim Horton's, no Bridgehead, and not even a filtered coffee maker at the store! We learned quickly that the Flat White (similar to a latte with steamed milk and no froth) was about the closest we were going to get to a double double. We tried so many kinds and coffee shops. Our favorite barrista close to the hotel was at the MYO (make your own) on the corner. Alvin was super, makes a fantastic cup of coffee and understood our coffee woes! Luckily once we moved in to the apartment we bought a french press/ bodum and can now brew our own ground coffee. We brought three tins of Tim Horton's with us and have been rationing our usage. It does start to get expensive to get take out coffee all the time, at 3.00 min. avg. price for a cup.

I started work only 2 days after arriving in Melbourne attending orientation and induction programs. (More on that in another post). This meant that our only time look for an apartment and to explore was in the evenings. We walked around the CBD at night taking in the Bourke street shopping district christmas displays and street performers.