A trip to Tiger Territory

 This trip arose from the imminent Soccer World Cup Match between Norway 🎆🎆 and England 😢and follows my quiet celebration of Belgium dismantling Team Mango.  From the internet I found that a store trading on Bridge St, Richmond as Purvis Beer offers Norwegian beer.  I had never been to that area so an exploration seemed to be in order.  Here is the route as it emerged.  I am intrigued that Google Maps suggestions all began with the bus on Punt Rd/Hoddle St while I would have thought the sequence of trams 72 and 78 would have been far more efficient and pleasant, although #78 is a less frequent service than many routes.

Getting off the bus on Hoddle St at the start of Bridge St I found an odd little plaza with several sculptures.  No idea why this site is so blessed.

This gives a view into a car park and is simply labelled 'Opus 15' 1995 Adrian Mauriks.  The late sculptor has a pretty good CV and has done some interesting works.

An historic places plaque gives a view of the road in earlier times.  The text comments on them also being quieter times ".. with only two buggies occupying the road."

Someone - I suspect the State rather than the City - has put a few shiny plaques on historic matters.

A few older buildings about 500m East along Bridge Rd.

At 333 Bridge St, close to the junction with Church St (as the continuation of Chapel St is named on the Northern side of the Yarra) is the former Richmond Town/City Hall, now the Yarra City Hall.  

The wall on Bridge St is well endowed with historic plaques.  Being the first woman elected to any level of Government in Victoria is surely worth a plaque. 

These two recall civic events.  

The lower plaque is relatively traditional, celebrating the centenary of the City of Richmond in 1934-35. The 'remodelling' referred to would be the art deco makeover of the building.  

The upper plaque refers to (I am unsure that 'celebrates' is quite the word) the eventual installation of Yarra City Council following the Jeff Kennett - yet another politician more popular since he left Office - restructure (massacre?) of Local Government in 1994.  The plaque refers to "the return to democratically elected government on 16th March 1996".  An AI (boo, hiss shime, shime) summary of administrative history includes 

• Amalgamations: The state government merged the former independent Cities of Collingwood, Richmond, and Fitzroy, while also absorbing parts of the former City of Northcote.
• State Administration: Prior to the formation of the elected council, the Victorian State Government temporarily suspended local democracy, appointing government commissioners to manage the administrative transition and the amalgamation of the resources and staff of the previous councils. 

As shown in the wiki the early Council was somewhere between a Labour (I refuse to use Mango spelling) Party  monopoly (Power without Glory begins just across Hoddle St after all) and a Labour/Greens duopoly .  It seems that the City of Yarra is still a centre of activist community factions - the low representation of the Labour Party from 2024 is probably the shape of things to come.

"Yarra for All" claims a number of admirable objectives:

• Community-Led Representation: Prioritizing grassroots residents' voices and independent candidates over major political party agendas.
• Local Infrastructure and Services: Advocating for the specific needs of Yarra's neighborhoods, including affordable housing.
• Charitable Action: Donating all excess raised campaign funds to Australian charities like the Brotherhood of St Laurence following elections.

As the Age has not - as far as I am aware - published an expose of the Party being taken oven by elements allied to the Big End of Town, I assume it is keeping the punters happy.

There was relatively little (compared to Brunswick, Coburg, Prahran and Windsor) street art around that I came across.  

When I got to Purvis it turned out that although they have in the past offered many Norwegian brands they were all out of stock.  Although I didn't check, I am pretty confident they wouldn't have had any Watney's Red Barrel (the linked post is very interesting) as it ceased production in the 1970s.  However the shop next door at 292 Bridge St was offering a special of 4 x500ml cans of a range of imported beers for $20.  So some were acquired and a sample of Budvar (the original Budweiser, from České Budějovice) is in the fridge.

I then hopped on a 78 tram so that I could call in to the Prahran Market to get some bread on the way home.  Church St also seemed interesting and will become a future exploration.  This is St. Ignatius' Catholic Church in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, a prominent Gothic Revival landmark built between 1867 and 1897.  The spire is 65m high.

The bridge across the Yarra.  

It has some very decorative light posts - at least at the Toorak end.