Melbourne e G.O.R - MyAustraliainfo - Information about Australia

Melbourne - Grand Ocean Road


17/23 June 2001

A very long Journey  and quite tiring from Harvey Bay to Melbourne. Melbourne has a completely different climate to Harvey Bay, the days are warm and sunny and cool at night, this is the real cold of Melbourne, it is on the other hand Winter. Melbourne is the second-largest city in Australia with about 3.5 million people that live here.. Although it is a great city and populated city is not nearly as hectic as Sydney, it almost seems like a big provincial town. In fact more than one person here told me that you live well in Melbourne and they would not trade it in for any other city.  Melburnians say that there is  no chaos with a high standard of living, it may be true but very patriarchal. There's a lot of Italians in Melbourne, perhaps one of the largest settlement of Italians in the whole of Australia. In fact there is a road called Lygon street in Carlton that is considered to be and named "Little italy" with many restaurants and clubs run by Italians.

The city of Melbourne is large and clean and it has a very nice central business district with many highrise buidlings and businesses.  Special mention about the biggest open air market in Australia with a name dedicated to one of the Queens.  The Queen Victoria Market with a multi cultural food hall, specialty market stalls and cultural events. etc.

Just outside the centre is the Royal Botanic Gardens, considered to be the most beautiful garden of Australia, it is especially beautiful in spring. There are ponds that are what remains of the river, which once ran through there. On the opposite side, south of the Yarra River there is a Casino with a huge shopping center where there is everything from bars, restaurants, shops and of course all the gambling machines, etc.
Superb views from the Rialto Tower the tallest building in Melbourne. One of the tallest towers in Melbourne that only takes 38 seconds to get to the 55th floor and here there is a viewing tower which you can view Melbourne at 360 ° The ticket costs AUD 10.50 and you can also watch a beautiful 20-minute film presenting the beautiful features of Melbourne and the state of Victoria.

The Great Ocean Road considered to be one of the world's most scenic and beautiful drive.  It stretches for 300 km along the south western coast of Victoria between Torquay and Warrnambool with beautiful views ot the ocean, beautiful cliffs, valleys with mountains.Too bad it was a terrible day with rain and strong winds. However, despite the weather the cliffs are stunning especially the  famous 12 Apostles, huge pillars of rock that rise from the waters of the ocean in Port Campell. Of the twelve apostles I only saw 7 as it depends from what point you view them.. During the trip we visited various places including a forest with beautiful lush vegetation and then futher in we were able to see koalas free in their natural surroundings.  It wasn't easy to spot them among a large number of trees, you just see a small ball curled up on top of the tallest trees, obviously sleeping.  There were even the kangaroos in the wild in a golf course roaming around free amongst the golf balls and players!!