Melbourne and the Penguin Parade

We are back in Melbourne, voted the "most liveable city in the world" many times. Melbourne has a population of around 5 million. It was established in 1830 by an Englishman named John Batman.  Believe it or not, originally it was suggested that the settlement be called Batmania.  Thank goodness it was named Melbourne. The gold rush in the 1850's led to an influx of immigrants from North America and Europe. The riches of the next 40 years is still reflected in the beautiful buildings, opulent churches and lush green parks.  More Europeans immigrated after the second world war and recently the largest groups of immigrant are from China and India.  Thus, we explored a very multicultural city and one which has an ongoing rivalry with Sydney, we learned.                              

Our morning tour of the city included a stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral, with a huge, opulent interior, beautiful stained glass, and a peaceful exterior garden with waterfalls and benches for contemplation and prayer. We then strolled through Fitzroy Park, a free area of green right in the centre of the city. Melbourne is known as a city of sport.  In this photo, taken from the Eureka Sky Deck, 88 stories in the air, shows four major sports venues within walking or a tram ride from the city.  These are the Cricket Ground which holds over 100,000 people, The Rod Laver Centre, home of the Australian Open, Docklands Stadium where Aussie Rules Football is played before more than 50,000 fans, and AAMI (soccer).

After lunch we headed to Phillip Island on our way to see the Penguin Parade.  On the way we made a stop at the Brighton Bathing Boxes and at a Heritage Farm on Churchill Island.


Our guide, Fred, made a visit to his friend Dolly, who reminded us of Miracle at Riverside.

After dinner in Cowes, we proceeded to the Phillip Island Nature Park where every evening at sunset thousands of Little Penguins come ashore to return to their nests in the Nature Preserve.  This area was set up to help restore the Little (Blue) Penguin population which was close to extinction due to habitat disruption, predation by foxes and eagles, and human traffic.  The penguins form rafts offshore until twilight then come ashore under cover of darkness where they feel less threatened by predators. Their eyes are very sensitive to light so the audience of 3500 people is asked to refrain from photographing them as they walk up to three kilometers to their nests on shore.  Unfortunately, a certain percentage of the viewers ignore this instruction in spite of the requests of many park rangers.  We did not photograph them ,just enjoyed watching their comical waddling over the sand and shrub land in the dark.

We left home at 8:30 a.m.and returned to our beautiful hotel lobby at midnight.  What a day!