Melbourne Places

Acland Street is  a street alive with people and activity.  When you’re in Acland Street the vibes are positive and you know that the world is still revolving.  Acland Street is a street that brings you alive.  That’s how I feel about Acland Street.

My first visit to Acland Street was about 10 years ago.  I [...]

When a cafe has been operating for a few years it may seem a waste of time reviewing it – others have done so before – but I believe Melbourne Places needs to visit and talk about the old favourites.  Not everyone knows these places.  Not every well known cafe lives up to its original [...]

W-class trams date back to the 1930’s.

W-class Tram at the corner of Chapel and Carlisle Street
A W-class tram was the first tram I rode in Melbourne.  It was before I lived here and in the days when there was a conductor on board.
I clambered up the high wooden step and sat on a hard seat [...]

A pair of magpie-larks or mud-larks, as they are sometimes called, have honoured the Rainman statue in the St Kilda Botanical Gardens by making a nest on his arm.

They look very much at home and secure as they fly to the statue and settle on their nest to keep their eggs warm.

I haven’t seen many [...]

The St Kilda Botanical Gardens are in winter mode.  It is a lovely time to visit and see the gardens preparing for spring and summer.  Occasionally you see a sign of things to come with clumps of bulbs sending up their first spring shoots.

The ambiance in the Alistair Clarke Rose Garden is different at this [...]

The say good things come in small packages and the St Kilda, Salvation Army Opportunity Shop is proof of this.  They have downsized.  In doing so they have created a much better outlet in Carlisle Street than the previous one on the corner of Inkerman Street and St Kilda Road.

That huge rambling and messy warehouse [...]

You don’t have to be a railway buff to enjoy a stop at the Victorian Railway Arts and Antiques – the place that is like a museum.
Ride the 96 tram that’s the light rail, to St Kilda and get off at the Albert Park Station.
From the platform you walk into the old, red, brick station [...]

For the next few Sundays life in St Kilda and particularly on Acland Street is going to get more vibrant.  St Kilda is in the middle of holding the Busking Festival.   The actual location for the buskers is being shared by various street venues.
Fitzroy Street have had their turn and last Sunday, April 18,  it [...]

One of my favourite places to breakfast in Melbourne is the Mart Cafe at Middle Park – Middle Park tram stop for tram 96 to St Kilda.
This cafe is right on the tram stop – platform 2.  Notice the name – tram backwards.

In the summer I wander in early and make my way out onto [...]

Summertime in  Melbourne is market time and markets spring up all over the place – Pre-Christmas I had great success with some Christmas presents at a market set up in the Elwood School grounds.
This flurry of summer markets led me to forget the markets that just keep-on-keeping-on.

The Esplanade Market in St Kilda has been keeping [...]