A train trip to Jawbone

March 19, 2026

Not wishing to use up our diesel when there appears to be an alternative we used the train to go to to Jawbone Nature Reserve this morning. I realised that the last time I caught a train from Flinders Street was in the mid 1970s when in Melbourne for something to do with an Agricultural Census workshop. A kind soul from Melbourne Office arranged for a few of us to play squash somewhere Southish of the CBD.

Before the train pulled out of the station we could see the Yarra and someone was coming down the river paddling a rescue board. There was a bit chop on the River so the board was not always visible, making it look as though the rider was crawling on the River, reminding me of Mark Twain's comment about the North Platte River "Too thin to plough, too thick to drink,"

For this trip the River view was not available.

As we moved out towards the Weest much graffiti was visible, including specimens of the work of Pam The Bird. This was a very bland example.

Less bland: I don't know if the other symbols are the same artist diversifying.

We stopped at South Kensington Station, which had a rather different look and feel than the original location of that name in a posh(at least it was when we I visited in in the 1960s. (Hmmm ... my nostalgia seems in good flight this morning.) This is a view of the cranes in the Port.

We alighted at Williamstown Beach Station where I found my sense of direction had gone haywire. It was good that Google Maps pointed us towards Jawbone. The housing here was modest but well maintained.

Some with rampant front yards.

We decided to leave the suggested route and go down to the beach,

Our route out is shown by the red arrows and the return by green arrows.

The beach was wide and rather empty apart from kids at the Western end playing soccer and a large bunch of punters taking coffee at the kiosk

We found this little harbour/marina at the end of the beach area (point 1 in the map).

That led to the start of Jawbone where a sign had been erected honouring the work of John Perceval who painted in the area in 1956-57 (and again later). Text on the sign comments that the little harbour has not changed much since 1957. (No Gannets were around today.)

A view across mudflats to the Jawbone Reserve.

A very informative sign in surprisingly good condition.

The view across some exposed Basalt towards Altona, a little further around the Bay.

That photo was taken on a boardwalk out into the Marine Reserve (point 2 in the map image). It is a pity that many of the information boards were so badly faded that they were illegible. Parks seems able to get funds to acquire stuff (capital account) but not to maintain things (current account).

A view of the Altona refinery, which is currently inactive.

The ground West of the boardwalk was showing signs of drought.

Bird of the Day. A Singing Honeyeater in a Casuarina.

The start of our walk back. The area has an interesting history being the Merrett Rifle Range until about 1990. This was the site for the shooting competition in the 1956 Olympics. After the range closed the inland portion was developed for McMansions.

This was IMO the most Mansionesque house we saw.

Once we entered Bayview St (point 3 in the map) we were back into more pleasant and modest housing, with established street trees.

Several of the houses had small white dogs which barked furiously at us from behind the glass doors. A different level of canine security was offered by this on (I think) Laverton St.