City Wine Shop - Spring Street, Melbourne

One of my favorite spots in Melbourne for a casual bite to eat. Open early to late with a bar menu and a few main dishes. I had roast tomato and fennel soup for Sunday lunch. Good by-the-glass wine selection and bottles for drink in or take away. Staff is knowledgeable and quick to offer good advice. I have received many good wine suggestions and education on Australian vineyards.

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AVRO 504K - Australian War Memorial

This is the oldest surviving plane from the Royal Australian Air Force. It was built in the UK and arrived in Australia in 1919. 8,000 of this plane were built, and used mostly as trainers.

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Hawker Sea Fury - Australian War Memorial

This fighter bomber was one of the last propeller driven naval aircraft. This one flew in the Korean War.

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Australian War Memorial - Canberra

I had several hours yesterday afternoon after my workshop ended in Canberra, and the War Memorial was highly recommended as a place to visit in Canberra.  That was good advice and I was not disappointed.  The War Memorial is a large and comprehensive shrine and museum commemorating Australian soldiers across all the wars in which they have fought.  I spent most of my time in the Gallipoli and broader WWI exhibits.  It would have been easy to spend most of a day going through the museum thoroughly. 

Gallipoli, a battle and siege in Turkey during WWI is fundamental to Australian history.  One of the Australian Prime Ministers said that Australia established itself as a nation through its role and valor at Gallipoli.  ANZAC Day (25 April) was originally established in 1916 to commemorate the battle at Gallipoli.  ANZAC Day is now officially a commemoration of soldiers from all wars (much like the US Memorial Day), and is one of Australia's most important holidays.

I liked the number of exhibits that were actual art, not just documentary material.  Australia had a number of artists who are designated as official war artists (they continue this tradition today - see paintings from Iraq and Afghanistan here).  Many of the photos I took were of bronzes made of scenes in the war. 

I am having some technical problems with blog formatting and will do an update later with more info on some of the specific photos.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Australian Pelicans

This is my favorite photo from my visit to the Healesville Sanctuary. The Australian pelicans look exactly like North American peleicans, except they are about three times larger. I love the reflections of the pelicans in the pond.

All the wildlife photos below (all of native Australian wildlife) were taken at Healesville.

I also saw Tasmanian Devils (asleep and not interesting to photograph) and Platypuses (swimming in a dark pool and impossible to photograph). The platypuses lived in a platapusuary (I am not kidding) and they are really weird. They have the feet and bill of a duck, and lay little tiny eggs - and they are a mammal.

Kookaburra

The Kookaburra, or Laughing Kookaburra as it is sometimes known is an iconic Australian bird due to its distinctive song.

Spoon Billed ?

I can't remember the name of this bird, but it is not a spoon billed sandpiper which is the only spoon billed bird I could find on wiki-pedia. Whatever it is, it has one hell of a beak.

Brolga

It may not be obvious from the photo, but the Brolga are BIG birds. I think they must be four feet tall. They are also extremely loud. I think Brolga is an ugly name, but they are very beautiful birds.

Superb Lyrebird

This is a bad photo of a Superb Lyrebird (its full name). I was shooting the photo into the sun and it was hard to get a good exposure on the bird (which was sitting on top of a post singing and displaying like crazy. As demonstrated in the video that Cath posted below, these birds have an amazing talent for mimicry.

Wallaby

Wallabies (with a Kookabura in the backround) are basically any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name. Pretty clear and specific. They range in size from slightly smaller than a kangaroo to slighty larger than a woodchuck.

Kangaroos

Kangaroos are big marsupials. There are four species all regarded as kangaroos, but basically there are Reds and Greys as seen in this photo. Believe it or not, they are good to eat. They are overpopulated in Australia like White Tail Dear in the US. And as you can see, they have REALLY BIG TAILS.

Koala

Koala's are truly living teddy bears. They only eat gum tree (eucalyptus) leaves, which are really hard to digest. Hence, they spend a lot of time sleeping (like a stuffed teddy bear) so they have time to digest their food. They spend so much time sitting in trees, they have special pads in their rear ends. Like most Australian mammals they are marsupials, and they are related to wombats, except the wombats stay on (or under) the ground.

Echidna

Like pretty much every living creature native to Australia, Echidna's are odd. They are one of only two surviving egg laying mammals (monotremes), the other being the Platypus. They look like a hedgehog, but are much bigger. They are sort of an egg laying, ant eating porcupine...

Dingo

I had no idea how gorgeous dingos are. These are wild dogs that came to Australia from Indonesia about 4,000 years ago. Like every foreign species imported to Australia they caused some extinction (in this case the Australian version of the Tasmanian Devil). I asked if they were ever re-domesticated and was told they would not make a good pet. They don't bark, but howl very plaintively.

Rufous Night Heron

This is a young heron, the adults are larger but this one already seemed to know how to fish.

The Lyrebird

I thought Bill might have posted this already but it looks like I beat him to it. Australian wildlife is different from all other wildlife. Check out the video of this lyrebird. Its claim to fame is that it attracts a mate by mimicking other birds and sounds it hears. The sounds don't necessarily have to be produced by nature either. The bird in the video does a camera shutter and a car alarm too! It supposedly does a chainsaw but I am not sure I buy that given the camera angle on that one. What do you think? The lyrebird is named for its tail, not its ability to sing or to "lie" and pretend to be some other creature.

Flat White

No one in Melbourne seems quite clear on the difference between a "Flat White" (pictured here) and a Latte, other than that they are served in different types of container (with the Latte generally served in a glass instead of a cup and saucer). Regardless, a well made Flat White is excellent and frequently has this flourish in the crema on top.

Is that blue sky?

Yes, Bill actually had one (partial) day of blue sky while in Melbourne. This is taken from the Melbourne Museum looking toward downtown.

Bunjilaka

This is an exhibit representing stories of the aboriginal people who originally inhabited (e.g. owned) the area that is now Melbourne. The state of the aboriginal members of Australian society is so appalling it defies words.

Mutitjulu is one aborininal setllement that has been in the news this week.

Aussie Critters

Pretty much all Australian flora and fauna is unusual in some way. The dark animal on the left is a Tasmanian Devil. It is the world's largest carnivorous marsupial.