If Sydney is about Spectacular
Harbour views, Melbourne ’s
Port Phillip Bay is about lifestyle, and 264km
[164 miles] of sheltered beaches.
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| too good to be one of my photos... mornington beach boxes |
For
overseas visitors, Victoria is where Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay are:
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| FruitCake lives at Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula |
There are
only 3 kms separating each side of the heads at the entrance to the Bay –
[Point Nepean on the east side and Point Lonsdale on the west.]
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As I
mentioned in my last post, courtesy of Red Nomad Oz and Hardie Grant
Publishing I am now the proud owner of this lovely book:
The
closest park to home, I discovered, is at Point Nepean. I’ve been down that way
many times but didn’t realise there is “stuff” there to look at.
And so it came to pass; TO, Aunty, JJ and I went trooping down to Point Nepean recently. [Green map above].
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Along the
way, we stopped at the Rosebud camping sites, and saw these
Not a spectacular photo, but possibly interesting. I never knew black swans
[native to Western Australia
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There are
three things of note at Point Nepean
- rugged coastline;
- an old fort; and
- an old quarantine station
Coastline
JJ loved
the ocean. Personally it just seemed “rough” to me. It was a rather cold and
windy day, and great big foaming waves were crashing on rocks but, coming from
an island surrounded by calm waters [and being a water sign astrologically
speaking], JJ thought the coastline impressive.
Fort
The old
fortifications on the Point are a 2.5 km walk from the quarantine station. On
the day, we decided against the hike. [No, the fact that I pfaffed about all
morning before we headed off late was not the only reason.]
Next time.
Honest.
Quarantine
Station
We picked
up a brochure from the information centre and took a self-guided tour of the
Quarantine Station. Established in 1852, the site was last used as a quarantine station in 1980.
The site
was also used by the army from 1952 til 1998 and, in 1999, it was even used to
accommodate Kosovo refugees.
The
buildings from the 1850s, 1890s, and 1911-19 are interesting. The army
installed a hall in 1963 which is just plain ugly, totally out of place, and
ought to be removed. No photo here, it's waaaay too ugly.
With the
usual shared sense of shameful black humour, TO and I both tried to say "where is my stone?" first, when we
saw some big buildings labelled “Disinfecting and Bathing Complex.”
The tram
lines leading down to where the jetty once was didn’t help us fight our initial
thoughts.
The
Quarantine Station had been fairly busy after World War I when servicemen were
returning with the seeds of what became a Spanish Flu epidemic, but the most
dramatic and historic story it has to tell is the story of the Ticonderoga.
Who
better to tell the story than Tony Robinson?
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We haven’t seen the fort yet, but I have to be honest and say even though Point Nepean is hardly as impressive or atmospheric as Port Arthur in Tasmania, the Quarantine station does not deserve the development plans some knobs have come up with.
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Politicians and their mates: You can’t live with them, and you can’t live with them.
