Parliament Hill & Fitzroy Gardens - June 2016

AC/DC Lane.

We had a long planned night in Melbourne this weekend, as I was going to see Steel Panther at Festy Hall we decided that the easiest option would be to spend the night in town, maybe do some shopping and a short walk before heading back to the burbs on Sunday. Yeah you know what they say, the best laid plans.... My night of spandex and hairspray with Steel Panther was the original reason for this outing, but you know what? Yeah I didn't actually make the show. After spending the day giving the credit card a workout in the outdoor shops in Little Bourke Street (A shout out to Bogong and Mountain Design, a big thumbs down to the big bloke working in Paddy Pallin, I'll spend my money in one of the other stores from now on), we retired to our room at the Adelphi Hotel. Now you know when you're getting on a bit when you have a couple of beers to prime yourself for a night of rock,n,roll and promptly fall asleep, yep I slept through my night of rock debauchery! 

Check out the cantilevered pool on the roof of our hotel.

After heading to the Pancake Parlour in Bourke Street Mall for a massive breakfast on Sunday morning we decided to do a walk with the catchy title of Parliament Hill & Fitzroy Gardens out of Melbourne's Best Bush, Bay & City Walks. The main reason we decided do do this stroll was it was about the shortest walk in the book, once again only reinforcing that I'm turning into a boring old fart. To get to the start of the walk we wandered up Collins Street, Sam oohing and aahing over the designer shops while I tried to distract her until we were safely out of credit card range. Arriving at Parliament House we picked up the described notes and headed up through Parliament Gardens, the gardens are home to a statue of Pastor Douglas and lady Gladys Nicholls, two early indigenous community leaders that fought for aboriginal rights.

Parliament House, Melbourne.

A typical Melbourne scene, this is looking down Bourke Street.

Princes Theatre.

Leaving the Parliament Gardens we passed the Fire Board Museum and its huge mural. Interestingly the Country Firefighters Association is currently in dispute with the government down here in Victoria, if you get your information from Murdoch's rags or the commercial current affair shows you've probably heard that the nasty union, backed up by Labor government, are out to destroy the battlers in the CFA. Of course there would be no hidden agenda there would there? Well knock me down with a feather but there appears to be a few details that aren't getting reported, the story going around the media is that the CFA wont be able to respond to call outs unless a certain number of paid members are on the crew. Now that is true....to a point, it only applies to the mainly outer suburban fire stations that are staffed by a mix of professional paid members as well as volunteers. The vast majority of CFA stations are country stations staffed by volunteers, these stations will be unaffected by the change, hardly a union takeover. The thing that is annoying is that it appears that it is these country volunteers that are all over the media, no doubt helped and informed by the Hands off our CFA group who, bugger me, was set up by the conservative side of politics! Now I've had a bit to do with unions, the MFB, and the CFA over the years and while the CFA do a great job and should be commended for the wonderful work they do, they are not bloody Bambi! I did my fire training up at Fiskville, yeah the place that the CFA ran that has all sort of OH+S concerns, cancer, hidden reports, pollution, just google Fiskville and see what you get. So who can blame the professionals if, in the few instances in the state where they co exist with the volunteers, that they want certain number of their professional brothers and sisters to back them up. To me the whole thing is a bit like the gay marriage issue in that a whole heap of people who have no skin in the game are trying to control the ones that do, who'd have guessed that the conservatives are up to their neck spreading misinformation in that debate as well. Anyway enough of my self indulgent crap, the misinformation is frustrating though........

The memorial to Pastor Douglas and Lady Gladys Nicholls.

The Fire Board Museum.

St Pats

Crossing over Gisborne Street we passed the rather grand St Patricks Cathedral and then the sightly less grand German Lutheran Church before heading down to St Andrews Square and all its old government buildings. I haven't mentioned it so far but this was another cold and grey Melbourne morning so I was quite happy when we crossed over Lansdowne Street into the heritage listed Fitzroy Gardens and the sun started to peak through the gloom. Fitzroy Gardens were looking quite nice on this early winters morning, the deciduous trees still dropping their golden leaves and the early morning dew glistening in the weak sunlight. We slowly meandered our way around the park, I've lived in Melbourne all my life but had never really explored this hidden gem. After checking out the somewhat surreal Dolphin Fountain we headed down to check out the Model Tudor Village, this tiny village is a bit of a tourist attraction and even at this early hour there was a couple of bus loads of Chinese Tourists taking in the action. The Model Tudor Village was a gift to the people of Melbourne from the City of Lambeth in South London, a show of their gratitude to us for sending over food parcels during WW 2.

The German Lutheran Church is a bit smaller than it neighbour, St Patricks Cathedral.

St Andrews Square, the centre of Victorian bureaucracy.

Fitzroy Gardens.

The unusual Dolphin Fountain.

Leaving the model village we checked out the nearby Fairy Tree, this tree was carved by Ole Cohn as a gift to Melbourne's children and fairies in the 1930's, having learnt something that I didn't know at the Fairy Tree we then visited the somewhat more well known Captain Cook's Cottage. Cook's Cottage is definitely on the tourist radar but again I'd never actually visited it. Cook's Cottage is allegedly the oldest building in Australia having been built in 1755, now about now I reckon there are a fews people doing the sums in their heads and saying hang on a minute.....Yeah it was built in 1755 but not in Autsralia, it was originally built in Yorkshire, England by Captain Cook's Parents before being disassembled brick, by numbered brick and bought out to Australia by Sir Russell Grimwade in 1934 to be reassembled here. The Union Jack was flying in the front garden of Cooks Cottage this morning which was probably fair enough as the English had done a job on the Wallabies last night over at AAMI Park, oh well...

They look a bit like Gingerbread houses don't they, the Model Tudor Village in Fitzroy Garden.

The Fairy Tree dates back to the 1930's.

Cooks Cottage.

Even early on this cold morning there was plenty of people out enjoying the park.

After checking out the memorial for President John F Kennedy we made our way out of the Fitzroy Gardens and headed back to grab our bags and check out of The Adelphi. The walk wasn't over though, on our way back to the hotel we checked out the famous Melbourne Street, AC/DC Lane. This little lane is the beating heart of Melbourne's Rock n Roll scene, it's home to a small club called The Cherry Bar, with the gentrification of the Melbourne CBD this bolthole was threatened with closure due to the new neighbours complaining about the noise, luckily for rock in Melbourne and The Cherry Bar the punters all dug in and funded some sound proofing for the bar. So The Cherry Bar lives on and is still a staple for touring rock stars to head to after their shows, and AC/DC Lane, with its rock graffiti and posters in the perfect home for the little bar...and long may that be:) After a quick look at the nearby Hosier Lane, another famous little lane that is home to some great street art we grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed home after what had been a nice mini break in the city.

The J.F.Kennedy Memorial.

Is that really the mysterious Mr Fiasco? 

The nearby Hosier Lane is maybe even more well known for its street art than AC/DC Lane.

There were a few more people checking out Hosier Lane

The Dirt.

We walked a massive 4.5 kilometres on this stroll and that is including the walk to and from the hotel to the start of the walk. The Parliament Hill, Fitzroy Gardens section of the stroll is written up in the Woodslane book Melbourne's Best Bush, Bay, & City Walks by Julie Monday. Like I mentioned above we stayed the night at The Adelphi Hotel, this small boutique hotel is a great spot to relax and chill out in the busy CBD, although our comfy king room set us back $410, so it's not a cheap and cheerful option, oh yeah breakfast and parking are extra as well. On the positive side the king bed was very comfortable, Sam enjoyed the free access to the latest movies and I enjoyed their free wifi, the room also came complete with a show bag of snacks and a bar fridge full of drinks that were all included in the price. With the hotel located on Flinders Lane a stones throw from the city square it provides for a reasonably central spot if you want to explore Melbourne on foot.

The Adelphi Hotel made for a nice retreat from the hustle and bustle of the CBD.

The foyer of the Adelphi had plenty of visual stimulus.

The post started with a shot of Angus looking suitably demonic, so how about we finish with a shot of one of St Patricks Cathedrals Spires for a bit of balance.

Tullawallal Circuit, Lamington National Park - June 2016

Sunset from Binna Burra.

This blogging game is hard work, its got me buggered how some bloggers manage to churn out such quality posts. I look at the crap that I churn out and am thankful that most of my readers are either workmates, friends or family, in other words readers that humour me by telling me that they actually look at this waffle, probably just to keep me happy. Now while I reckon that most blogs are just self indulgent crap there are some blogs that I actually enjoy reading and look forward to each new offering, the original and still the best is the slightly twisted ramblings of Mr Fiasco, his frequent misfortune (not to mention great photos) always brings a smile to my face. My other indulgence is another blog that I've mentioned before, Mildly Extreme. Jane started her blog around the same time as me and constantly puts me to shame with the quality of her work, over time we've been in contact off and on, eventually all the planets aligned and Sam and I decided to head up the Queensland and catch up with Jane and do a walk or two.

I'm struggling for photos on this walk, so how about a photo at the boot cleaning station at the start of  the Border Track....well at least its more or less in focus.

Now the title of this post is Tullawallal Circuit but in reality this will be a bit of a rambling post full of fluff because to be quite honest my photos on the walk are absolutely shit, in fact if you do see a photo in the rainforest that looks half descent then its most likely one of Jane's. Before I got to the walk though there was a little matter of a 1800 kilometre drive, yeah its lucky I love a road trip. After finishing work early on the Wednesday I jumped in the ute, cranked up the Johnny Cash and Parkway Drive (luckily Sam had decided to fly up so she didn't have to put up with my peculiar mix of country and metal core). Wednesday had me cruising through the back blocks of New South Wales before I pulled over near Moree for a few hours sleep, lulled to sleep by the sounds of B Doubles rumbling past. The sun (and the B Doubles) woke me early on Thursday and after uncurling myself from the ute, stretching and scratching my balls, I headed off on the rest of my journey to Binna Burra, arriving at around 2pm primed and ready for a bit of a walk.

Heading away from Binna Burra on the Border Track.

First up though I checked into my room and gave Jane a call to let her know that I was there, now it doesn't really come across in the blog but I'm painfully shy so actually meeting someone who I admire online was pretty terrifying. Jane must of wondered what she had got into when we finally met up and I was too shy to even look her in the eye! The good news is that Jane was up for an afternoon stroll so we decided to do the easy Tullawallal Circuit and get to know each other a bit. The Tulluwallal Circuit starts up near the Tea Rooms at Binna Burra so the first hurdle on the walk was to bypass the chance for  a caffeine hit, it was a slightly twitchy Feral Walker that headed off along the Border Track with his new friend, Ms Extreme.

Yep, this is one of Ms Extreme's.

Coming from Victoria, the rainforest of the Lamington National Park is stunningly beautiful and different to any walking that we have down here.

The Border Track runs between Binna Burra and O'Reilly's and is a superb rainforest walk, The Tullawallal Circuit heads along it for a couple of kilometres before branching off towards the summit of Tullawallal. Two things quickly became apparent to me on this stroll, the first one was that I was an amateur when it came to taking photos in the rainforest compared to Ms Extreme, and the second thing was that I was going to struggle to keep up the pace. After reaching the side trip to the summit of Tullawallal we were soon relaxing on the rocky summit, there's no far reaching views from Tullawallal though, the summit is vegetated with thick temperate rainforest, the most notable tree being the Antarctic Beech Trees, which are the most northern most in Australia. This place would be a magic spot to take photos with the mist rolling through but in the late afternoon dappled sunlight I couldn't do anything with it.

This is all I could do with the majestic Antarctic Beech on Tullawallal.

Leaving the summit we headed back down and took the loop track back to Binna Burra along the west side of the ridge, the western aspect giving us a bit more light for photos in the dense rainforest. The good news was that I'd managed to keep up with Ms Extreme, and Jane was giving me plenty of helpful hints when it came to taking photos is the forest, particularly of her specialty, fungi. After an hour and a half, that had passed in the blink of an eye, we popped back out of the rainforest at Binna Burra, just in time to catch the sun setting in the west as we wandered down the road to Binna Burra Lodge, a sunset and nice conversation, life was good.

Heading back along the western side of the ridge back to Binna Burra in the late afternoon.

The view from the Sky Lodge.

Now with the post featuring such a short walk and my fairly average photos I figured that I'd better talk a bit about the accommodation to pad the post out a bit, otherwise it could be the shortest post I've ever put out. So anyway, as I've mentioned we stayed at Binna Burra Lodge, Sam and I stayed in a 1 Bedroom Sky Lodge while Jane stayed in the old Heritage Listed Mountain Lodge. The Sky Lodge was very nice, with a large balcony over looking the Numinbah Valley and the high rises of Surfers Paradise in the distance. The fully equipped kitchen, spa and king sized bed were also greatly appreciated.....but, you know what, I reckon it was a little bit over priced. We paid around $340 per night for the Sky Lodge and that didn't include breakfast or wifi, the lodge wasn't even serviced (although I'm not sure if that was an oversight by house keeping as I never followed this up with reception....hey I was too busy out having fun in the rainforest!) Ms Extreme stayed in the rustic Mountain Lodge and paid closer to $100 (it was an internet special) and to be honest I think that she got the better deal, her tariff also included two cooked breakfasts of which she was kind enough to share with me. The rustic Mountain Lodge also looks better to my eyes, the lichen and moss covered roof of the Mountain Lodge giving it a particular authenticity, the modern angles of the Sky Lodges would look just as at home on the coast or in the city. I suppose the negative thing about the Mountain Lodge room was that it was fairly basic in that it didn't have to many luxuries, with shared facilities the order of the day, but with a price difference of nearly $300 (if you add on the two breakfasts to the cost of a Sky Lodge) I reckon next time I might save my cash and stay in the Mountain Lodge.

Some of the more rustic accommodation at Binna Burra Lodge.

Binna Burra Lodge, think Cradle Mountain Lodge in the rainforest and you'll get the idea. 

The modern but exy Sky Lodge.

The native gardens at Binna Burra are also quite impressive.

The tea rooms at Binna Burra do a good Devinshire Tea, Pizza on Saturday night wasn't bad either.

The Dirt.

The Tullawallal Circuit is around 5 kilometres long, at least that's what my notes tell me, my GPS really struggled with what I can only assume was the dense rainforest canopy. Due to my GPS frequently dropping a cog on the walk I haven't got a metres climbed figure, but I would hazard a guess that the total amount of climbing would be around 100 metres. This is an easy walk and its been written up by John & Lyn Daly in their Take A Walk in South East Queensland book, I think Tyrone Thomas has also written up this walk in some of his old books if you can get hold of them. In hindsight the Tullawallal Circuit proved to be the perfect walk for me to get over my nervousness and get to know Ms Extreme, there's no navigation challengers and the track is very well engineered so I could just concentrate on crapping on!

On our way home from Queensland Sam and I stayed at the International Hotel in Wagga Wagga, at $140 the price was OK and it had free wifi so that's a positive, but check out all the black velour, we were living life in the fast lane of the 1980's for a night.

Perched on my velour throne I'm looking surprisingly fresh after my 14 hour drive.