Mini-adventures to St KIlda West and Southbank

 St Kilda West

Not having been to St Kilda West for a while I took myself off there on the morning of 18 August.  Getting off the tram on the Esplanade I took the bridge across marvelling at how the contractors are still managing to find things to at the end of the pier.  

When in Peru we marvelled at the work the Incas did cutting out huge blocks of sandstone using leather straps and water as the cutting implements.  We imagined a conversation between a child and their grandfather:

"What did you do in your life grandpa?"

"I finished cutting out the building block my grandfather started."

The St Kilda equivalent response, if the ratepayers are lucky, would be replacing  'building block' by 'work on the approaches to St Kilda Pier'.

Whatever.  I wandered along the shore seeing few birds (2 Australasian Grebes were the highlight) and out to the water's edge.


A couple of other birders were there ...

... causing me severe lens envy.  
After a pleasant conversation with the woman - mainly about Hooded Plovers (of which I have never seen any here) the woman toddled of to find her husband and pooch and I set up my telescope to peer are a Great Crested Grebe and a bunch of Pied Cormorants on the walkway at the end of the Marina.  Here is my birdlist.   

Looking across to Station Pier, Spirit of Tasmania 4 is still parked, presumably still awaiting completion of work on the wharf at Devonport (vide reference to Peru above).  I presume SoT 5 is still in a similar situation at Williamstown.  It is apparently.  Hmm: wait and see, although answering another FAQ they say, presumably with tongue in cheek " This is four months earlier than the previously announced anticipated completion of February 2027."  Wikipedia gives a somewhat different view "<The previously used> ships were expected to be replaced by MS Spirit of Tasmania IV and MS Spirit of Tasmania V in 2024 and 2025 respectively."

Southbank

While at the dentist I had been reading a book about the History of Melbourne by Maree Coote.  
I found it very interesting but was never (OK, not for a long while) going to read it all on dental appointments.  I found that there was a copy at the Southbank Branch of the Melbourne Library and thought it would be interesting to walk there and pick it up

The route was fairly familiar for the first 2 km as it was St Kilda Rd and then Kingsway, but we hadn't waled the Kingsway bit.  This led us past an Officeworks which, from the car looked difficult to get at: on foot it was easy and looks not too bad driving.  Then, following Google Maps hung a left into Sturt street which we crossed just past the Habitat Filter.  At this point the app looked interesting.
Why did it take us down to Southbank Boulevard?  Is there not a footpath along Power St?  I decided that we would follow the app but when we got to the library asked the staff and they advised that there was a walkway which the app had ignored.  Grrr: I thought it had added about 1 km to our walk.  In fact, measuring in Google Earth, it only added about 350m.

There was some fun in finding the book.  I sought help from a librarian and she took me straight to the spot where it should be in the local history section.  Nope, not there although I had seen it so positioned for several days.  I happened to glance at the next book case and there it was.  Had a staffer mis-shelved it or had someone else (eg a non-member visiting the library) done so to prevent the book being lent?  If the latter, must try harder.

 




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