A Riverside Day

My plan yesterday was to do a boat Cruise on the Yarra river, a bit of a walk, drop off our jackets to be pressed for Thursday dinner and then head up and do the Melbourne Museum.
Well, the boat cruise happened as planned. I headed out and dropped off our jackets at the cleaners on Collins. The gentleman had no idea what to do about me not having a phone number to reference the work to. Upset, he told me the price and told me to come back in the afternoon. I happily head out on my way.
I walked down to the Yarra and then crossed over around Williams Street, on a pedestrian bridge that was the dream of Mr. Something. The bridge has glass panels that display the research results from the 2001 Census, where they asked about people's ancestry. The statistics are displayed and complimented by huge metal art statues depicting different settler cycles.
The boat cruise is a complete waste of good time, and I would not recommend it to anyone. The most interesting part of the trip was discovering that the harbour, which is 14 meters deep, was supposed to have been dug by hand. Now there's a make-work project if ever there was one!
Exiting the boat cruise on the north shore, I head up to poke around Flinder's Station, the rail station that evidently seeing 250,000 passengers per day. It is a lovely building on the outside, a bit dull on the inside. Evidently the plans for it as well as the Bombay Train Station were drawn at the same time, there was some confusion and Melbourne got the one planned for Bombay. When I see Bombay's, I'll let you know if I believe this little bit of lore.

Across the street from Flinder's Station was St. Paul's cathedral, where I discovered that if I never hear organ music again, I will die a happy girl. There was an organ recital and the organist was the previous head of the Canadian Society for Organists, and he was playing a piece of music composed by the previous head of the Canadian Society for Organists. I thought, 'Cool!' and sat down. Wow. It was terrible. I left thankful I was at the back and did not have any Canadian Flag pasted to my backpack!

I wondered down Flinder's considering lunch. A glass of wine, maybe a salad? Across the street is a street corner with two street side open store windows - Lord of the Fries and Walker's Donuts. I just had to try, so a deep fried lunch I had! Both fries with Belgian Mayo and the raspberry filled donut were deep fried goodness. Definitely having salad for dinner!

I decide to head into the Immigration Museum, it is on the way back to the bus I would catch to the Melbourne Museum, and I was not expecting it to be that extensive. I was quickly lost in a history lesson never to be forgotten. I spent hours walking through and reading the displays. Until 1968, there existed a White Australia policy. I read and learned about how the British took over a land previously inhabited by Indigenous (so very familiar to my own history). It made me sad and angry to read about my forefather's stupidity. There was a fascinating display about the Muslim men who came to be camel handlers, most on three year closed visas, which meant that most returned home after their three years were done, but some stayed, married and had families here.

I walked home very appreciative of the life we live today. I would highly recommend the Immigration Museum. Even as a white girl.