Melbourne – the Botanic Gardens, NGV, Victoria Market and Mornington Peninsula

On the next couple of days I visited some of Melbourne’s more traditional sights. To the southeast of the city centre is a large expanse of green parkland along the banks of the Yarra River, which houses the Rod Laver Stadium , Melbourne’s iconic Cricket Ground and its Botanic Gardens…….

Melbourne also is home to the NGV or National Gallery of Victoria, which has two centres, one devoted to international art and one to Australian works. I visited the latter, of which the highlight was the aboriginal art collection.

As well as art and cultural life, Melbourne is famous for its food scene. Eateries range from top end places, ranked amongst the best restaurants in the world, to the incredibly cheap Asian options cramming Chinatown’s streets. It would be silly not to indulge, so I visited Melbourne’s foodies paradise, Victoria market, to buy some food for the evening and had some cheap Ethiopian street food for lunch.

Having explored Melbourne’s centre for a couple of days, I next ventured further afield– first on a long tram trip to the beach neighbourhood of St Kilda. The route went through a residential area, amazingly composed almost entirely of quaint one- and two- storey houses – as surprisingly small as the centre’s skyscrapers seem excessively tall.

After the crowds of the city centre, St Kilda’s beach was a pleasant place to chill, with a view over the sea – flat like a mirror – all the way back to the city centre.

I also made a longer trip by hire car to the Mornington Peninsula. The city’s suburbs stretch for miles, but after an hour of driving I found myself in pleasant countryside – an area with farms, craft breweries, gin distilleries……..and lots of wineries. It would be a crime to come to Australia and not do a wine tasting, so I visited the well-known Red Hill Estate and tasted a range of excellent wines made from cold climate grape varieties like chardonnay or pinot noir.

The peninsula also houses two pretty national parks, where I went for a brief walk before rain started to fall (the first rain of my Australian trip).

On my last night in the city, I had time for one last typically Melbourne experience – a private members club. The Savage Club sits in this impressive building which dates from the city’s 19th century boom years.

Inside (no photos allowed sadly) there were lots of the rooms typical of clubs back in London, with huge leather armchairs so deep, soft and comfortable that once seated with a glass of port in my paw it was hard to move. Fortunately, the seat I had chosen allowed an excellent view some extraordinary Polynesian and Melanesian tribal art, tastefully displaced around all four walls of the bar room. The foundation of this collection came from a past member who had been a governor of Papua New Guinea and had received many gifts from the local people there, which he later donated to the club. The Melbourne Savage Club is modelled on its London namesake and attracts writers, musicians and painters. Some of the regular members came up to welcome an unfamiliar face (something that would not happen in a London club!) and chatted about my impressions of their city. The club was a wonderful way to end my exploration of Melbourne – a place which rewards those that spend a few days to dig under its surface.

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