Asia and Australia 2025
Day 11: Wednesday 16 July 2025
Queenscliff – Geelong – Albert Park
Cindy at breakfast in a wildly decorated café in Queenscliff.
Geelong Art Gallery and Johnstone Park. The gallery was founded in 1900, and the current building was opened in 1915.
Geelong Cunningham Pier view of harbour, with the Carousel in the background. The waterfront has many large wooden figures, suggesting the maritime importance of the town on Port Phillip Bay.
Cunningham Pier
Andrew and two of the one hundred Baywalk Bollards, created by local artist Jan Mitchell in the 1990s.
Cunningham Pier
Baywalk Bollards by Jan Mitchell (1940-2008). These wooden sculptures represent life guards playing out a rope to the swimmer who is braving the surf to rescue a swimmer in difficulty. They are made from recovered wharf pylons, and depict notable characters relating to Geelong’s history and culture.
Figurine in the Poppy Kettle Fountain, at the Cunningham Pier Playground.
Figurine in the Poppy Kettle Fountain, at the Cunningham Pier Playground.
Geelong Railway Station. Many infrastructure buildings in and around Melbourne are late 19th century or turn of that century. Brick, corrugated iron and cast iron elements and ornaments are characteristic.
Manor Quarry, a bluestone quarry, opened in the 1920s by Victorian Railways to provide ballast for the railway tracks. In Australia and New Zealand, bluestone is a common name for basalt, which is an extrusive igneous rock. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt.
Protests painted on a silo on the way to Melbourne.
West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya Barat – West Irian) is a province of Papua, with a population of 580k, in an area one and half times that of Switzerland. After the Japanese occupation during WW2, the ex-Dutch colony was transferred to Indonesian control. The territory was further divided in 2022.
More than half the population profess Protestant Christianity, and 37% Islam.
The Free Papua Movement (Indonesian: Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM) is attempting to secede West Papua from Indonesia, and is considered a terrorist and separatist organisation. In 1963 the OPM was founded with the declaration:
“We do not want modern life! We refuse any kinds of development: religious groups, aid agencies, and governmental organizations just Leave Us Alone!”
Approaching Melbourne from the west.
Melbourne has 74 skyscrapers (defined as buildings taller than 150m) in the city centre, the most of any city in the southern hemisphere.
The Victoria Gold Rush of the 1850s and 60s brought riches, and a real-estate bubble. Many ornate, High Victorian Boom style buildings sprang up in the city centre. Melbourne was the first early skyscraper city outside the US. Melbourne in this period was the second largest and wealthiest city in the British Empire, outside London.
Travel Diary
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