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Wetlands in the City
World Wetlands Day is marked each year on 2 February Four massive pumps hum into life when the rain starts falling in the catchment of the Port Melbourne Pumping Station. They protect this area of Port...
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Two Bays
S.V. Pelican is about to sail the Two Bays: Port Phillip and Westernport Bay. It’s the tenth year this purpose built sixty-one foot catamaran has taken people on these voyages of bay conversation,...
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The Banksia Theme
I love banksias in all their shapes, variety and manifestations and am lucky enough to live in a street lined with the coast banksia, Banksia integrifolia, which is an every day joy. Now this flower...
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‘The Heart and Soul of our Community’
Nott St, near the beach, is one of the oldest streets in Port Melbourne. It is also a street where the few remaining houses are giving way to apartment development. Last week, this change took a...
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The Montague Rail Bridge
The ‘elevated’ Montague rail bridge was hit not once, but twice, this week. It has been hit at least 95 times in the past six years, according to VicRoads. VicRoads will take further measures to alert...
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Turning Point in Port Places
1 March 2016 Another truck crashed into the Montague Bridge. A crash on the Westgate Bridge at 12.45pm caused traffic chaos until evening. Facebook’s early morning announcement that it was the first...
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Observations under the Westgate Bridge
‘Tune your eye in to nature’ urged Museum Victoria’s Mark Norman at the recent Nature in our Liveable City* forum hosted by the City of Melbourne. Mark Norman emerges from the Yarra River – the scene...
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Port Melbourne Home
How often have I walked past Wintringham Hostel but how rarely paused to think about what makes it such a comfortable presence in Port Melbourne. That gently curving brick wall – no harsh materials, no...
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Protecting the Yarra
Sometimes I stray. This week I journeyed up the Darebin Creek, a tributary of the Yarra. I was drawn into the Darebin Parklands by this magnetic nest-egg. Nest by David Bell and Gary Tippett The...
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Talking About Boats
It’s the 5th Piers Festival on Sunday. This wholehearted celebration of multiculturalism is held on Princes Pier, strongly associated with Australia’s post-war migration. Each of the twelve benches on...
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Displaced Forests
Princes Pier is settling back into its everyday multiculturalism after the Piers Festival celebrations. The Pier makes room for everyone but it gets a bit competitive at the Pier’s edge. Some of the...
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Walks Collage – Piers Festival
Ship puppet photographed at Scenes on the Yarra We come from Wodonga – it’s near Bonegilla We came by boat – from Vietnam When my parents came – it was snowing I came on the Castel Bianco My parents...
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Light and Shade
As the days gets shorter – and at last get cooler – sunlight becomes more precious. Inner Melbourne grows ever denser with most new development in apartments. Melbourne CBD is set to overtake Sydney...
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April Autumn
It’s autumn in Port Places. The quest for the best red leads down Port lanes. There’s nothing like the red of old corrugated iron Dr Tim Entwistle, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, challenges the...
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Join a Jane’s Walk in Montague, Fishermans Bend
Meet Me in Montague on Sunday 8 May, 2.30 to 4pm for a Jane’s Walk It’s Jane’s Walk weekend from 6-8 May – free citizen led walks in cities around the world, celebrating the life and work of writer and...
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Walking the Webb Trail
More people are walking the Webb Dock trail since it was refreshed as part of the Port’s expansion project at Webb Dock. The easy 1.5km walk from Life Saving Headquarters at Sandridge opens up a...
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Absorbing Rain
It’s been raining in Port Places – with novelty of rain on roof, umbrellas and raindrops on casaurinas. Such rain as cannot be absorbed into the ground makes its way down the (Emerald) Hill to low...
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Second Round
There was a glimmer of hope that when Fishermans Bend permit applicants sought to amend their planning permits in some way, significant improvements would be made to them. That hope was dashed by a...
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News in Port: week ending 22.05.2016
Extensive media coverage of the proposal to demolish the London Hotel and replace it with an 8 level apartment development. Historic Port Melbourne waterfront pub could be bulldozed for apartments,...
View ArticleThe world is upside down!
Apologies Port Places readers. The image of Centenary Bridge pylon and the London Hotel is horizontal, I know. The website is correct, but for some reason the subscription email has come out...
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