Author: Philip Mallis
Transport tip of the month – change at West Richmond instead of Jolimont
tl;dr version – if you are on a citybound 48 or 75 tram and want to change to an outbound Mernda/Hurstbridge train, get off at Punt Road and walk to West Richmond Station instead of Jolimont. I recently had cause to catch a 75 tram and interchange with an outbound train at Jolimont Station. Normally…
Bicycle trip: Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail
The Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail follows an old passenger and freight railway that operated as a whole from 1890 to 1977. It closed in stages and eventually became truncated for passenger trains at Warrnambool, while some infrequent specialised freight services continued to operate along other sections of the track until 2002. The Rail…
How far can you travel in Melbourne for just $4.30?
If you travel long distances, Melbourne’s flat rate fare system works very much in your favour. Regardless of whether you travel 800 metres or 40 kilometres, myki will charge you the same amount for a 2 hour zone 1 and 2 fare ($4.30 as of 2018). I have taken advantage of this before to travel…
Day trip to Korumburra: railways old and new
Today was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting trip down to Korumburra in the the south-eastern part of Gippsland. Korumburra is a relatively small town on the disused South Gippsland Railway, which once ran from Melbourne all the way to Wonthaggi, Port Albert and other locations throughout the region through various branch lines. It ceased operating…
Parma: an overlooked Italian city
Note: this post was written in August 2017 during my trip to Europe. Whenever I mentioned to people that I was visiting Parma, I was most often met with puzzlement and questions asking why I would go there. My answer was always the same: for the food. But on my arrival in Parma, I was…
Walk through Healesville to Maroondah Reservoir
Healesville and its surroundings are some of the most pleasant places to visit in the entire state. It has an abundance of walking tracks through beautiful landscapes ranging from open scrubland to temperate rainforest. It is not hard to see why it is one of the favourite spots for tourists to visit when travelling to…
Bicycle trip: Gippsland Plains Rail Trail
One of the more recent additions to the extensive off-road trail network in Victoria is the Gippsland Plains Rail Trail. It follows the old Gippsland Plains Railway Line from Stratford in central Gippsland through to the regional city of Traralgon. All up, a distance of about 70 kilometres along relatively flat countryside. This recorded length…
Two days in the Lake District
Note: this post was written in August 2017 during my trip to Europe. That a European can fly for 55 minutes and be at the end of a totally different country is still something that amazes me. The same amount of time in Australia would barely get you between two major cities. Today I bid…
Why Rotterdam is my favourite Dutch city
Note: this post was originally written in July during my trip to Europe. I have found that sharing my high opinion of Rotterdam with others elicits a variety of responses ranging from furious agreement to simply fury. On the upside, it does stimulate discussion on the relative drawbacks and merits of Dutch cities which I…