Photographing Melbourne
Melboure Airport- I had some waiting around to do until my sister’s plane got in. I grabbed a fresh Australian sim card with a load of data so I could upload photos to my heart’s content and settled in, this neat little cafe (Hudson’s) had coffee + food + charging ports everywhere too.
October last year- I went to Melbourne. It was actually for my Dad’s graduation (he casually got his PHD- go Dad!) The graduation was pretty standard except for Dad’s sweet official graduating outfit- more on that later. I was expecting a big city feel and maybe some trams, which it’s known for- But what I wasn’t expecting was how every corner you turned there was something fascinating to look at, and more importantly… take photos of!
Here’s a few places that were total heaven for my little photographer soul:
Flinders Street Station- ok maybe doesn’t sound that exciting but the original architecture outside is too charming! It was opened in 1909 so you can just feel the old timey vibes, even though the inside is very modern and bustling with people.
Flinders street station taken by me! Trust me… I wasn’t the only person gawking at this beauty.
Melbourne has this really fun thing where all the lanes and alleys are like gold mines. You’d never know what you were about to find. Sometimes it was an amazing food place just tucked away, and sometimes it was a full-on graffiti art spanning then entire lane! My favourite was Hosier Lane. Every single inch of the place was covered with tagging and spraypainted artwork. I couldn’t pick a favourite so please enjoy a few of Hosier Lane.
Hosier Lane Melboure. This guy was just working away doing his thing in broad daylight- one way to beat unwanted tagging I guess?
Hosier Lane- Melbourne. Not just tagging art.
Hosier Lane- Melboure.
Saint Pauls Cathedral
We couldn’t go in because they were having some big shin-dig that was a big deal apparently- But I was happy to snap away outside! There’s not too many Neo-gothic Cathedrals in my everyday life so I’ll take what I can get.
Saint Pauls Cathedral Melbourne, consecrated in 1891.
Had to walk a ways to get the pointy bits in frame- feat. a tram cable probably lol
Collins Shopping Centre/Lane
Sits under the novotel, and was made to be a luxury shopping area, I honestly found it pretty quiet and lacking- or maybe our timing was bad and nothing was open. But the overhead installation of green hanging glass cyclinders while going up the escalator was STUNNING.
Collins Lane- Slightly classier than beer bottles? It’s hard to capture what it’s really like to stand underneath all of those.
Melbourne Central
This place is HUGE, slightly bigger than what I’m used to in little old NZ. I’ve never seen a whole building housed inside another building before. In the photo below you wouldn’t even know that just to each side of the that tower base there’s shops along both sides.
The Melbourne Central Tower
This thing was HUGE. It quite shocking to see a casual enormous brick tower just hanging out inside a mall….
I must admit I was pretty lost by the time we got to see this, and the malls are interconnected- so if you keep walking you end up in a different mall all together. so if I get some of these places completely wrong it’s an honest mistake, LOL.
The plants are real in this part- it has a view overlooking the road as you went across to another part of the mall complex.
Degraves place and Degraves street- (possibly neighbouring lanes also!)
Another artwork at every turn gem. I couldn’t pick a favourite photo here either so this will be a photo heavy section.
I was so busy snapping away that I might be totally confused on the exact locations but these were all taken within a few minutes of each other so I can’t have wandered that far…. right? We had a delicious lunch from somewhere on the lane and then did the tourist thing to check out the sights while we walked.
Such a good boy- cute lane plus bonus dog sighting.
Someone had been adding cute plants all up and down the lane.
Considering I was child free for the first time in quite a long time, I made the most of having my hands free for a change and just snapped away. I don’t even know the location of a few of these last ones coming up.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed a few snaps of my Melbourne experience. From what little I actually saw of Melbs (pretty much just the city centre and convention centre tbh) it was great to spend time there for a while, but I’m very happy with my little city in New Zealand, because when I do go somewhere everything is much more like an adventure.
I dont know what this has to do with Gordon Ramsay but…. it was pretty breath-taking in person.
If you made it this far- you deserve to see the traditional university get up that Dad had to wear for his graduation.
I’m telling you, his wasn’t even the most out there either, I’m talking pompom hats in all colours.
