Author: Philip Mallis
Crossing the Rubicon
Last week I crossed the Rubicon River on a hike in north-central Victoria. Unlike Julies Caesar, doing so didn’t start a war. The main reason for this trip was to have a good poke around one of the oldest hydroelectric power stations in the state. You have probably heard of Hazelwood, Loy Yang and Bald…
What happened to the closed schools of the 1990s? Part 2
Read Part 1 here. Keysborough Primary School The original school in this area was opened in 1869 and moved to this cosy country school building in 1874. Not to be confused with the present-day Keysborough Primary School which opened separately in 2010 when Coomoora Primary and Keysborough Park Primary Schools merged. What the site is…
The shopping strips of Reservoir
Just before the prominence of private cars engrained itself into Melbourne’s urban planning after the Second World War, Reservoir went through a major housing expansion. Although there was some European settlement in the area before the post-war boom, much of the suburb remained undeveloped or underdeveloped in 1945. But just one year later, hundreds of…
Victoria’s rocket playgrounds
Googie architecture (1950s, 60s and 70s) has not been preserved as well as other periods in Melbourne and Victoria. Many of the examples of this brief but fascinating time in design have been lost to the winds of time. One of the lingering and somewhat surprising artefacts from this period is the famous rocket-shaped tower…
Day trip to Lake Iseo
Note: this post was written in August 2017 during my trip to Europe. My three days spent in the north of Italy were nowhere near enough. But I did spend my second day staying in the city of Bergamo to pay a visit to one of the many nearby lakes. View Larger Map I decided…
What happened to the closed schools of the 1990s? Part 1
While doing some research for BoroondaraWiki on the closed Greythorn High School, I stumbled across a whole host of other resources related to schools that are no longer around. Greythorn was one of many schools that were shut in the 1990s. It was eventually subdivided and sold for private housing. This got me thinking about…
Bicycle parking at Melbourne’s railway stations
I have previously done some work on car parking at railway stations in Melbourne, including this map. Others have also written extensively on this important topic. However, parking at stations covers more than just cars, as accessing public transport by bicycle becomes increasingly popular in parts of Melbourne. Bicycles are discouraged on trains during peak…
What is the shortest bus route in Melbourne?
Working on my public transport map for Melbourne has made me discover a whole lot of bus routes that I never previously knew about. It did make me wonder which one of the roughly 350 bus routes in metropolitan Melbourne have the shortest distance. At 115 kilometres, the 901 is already well known for being…
Portmanteau place names of Melbourne
Melbourne has approximately 320 suburbs (depending on how you count them), each with their own unique name. Some names are more original than others. They may have a historical context, be connected to an indigenous name or have been simply dreamt up by an overly-excited developer. There is a theoretical point at which you run…
Where to find the cheapest croissant at Melbourne Airport
After an unnecessarily niche transport post? Read on! The context Terminal 4 at Melbourne Airport was rebuilt in 2015. It includes expanded passenger capacity, self-service kiosks and a large new shopping and dining area just inside the security checkpoint. The 30 outlets here vary from cafes to clothes shops. The need Croissants are a staple…