The Palais Theatre - St Kilda

By rocky | May 27, 2008

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St Kilda is a seaside suburb of Melbourne Australia and is home to two of the city’s most iconic buildings Luna Park amusement park and the Palais Theatre. When built in 1927the theatre was one of the largest in the southern hemisphere and was used primarily for a picture theatre but today it is used for live performances hosting some of the world’s biggest names, they have included the likes of the Rolling Stones, Kiss, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and INXS who used the theatre in their Listen Like Thieves video clip. The building is one of Australia’s finest examples of Art Deco and has been placed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The building is planned to be restored to it’s former glory as part of a controversial redevelopment of the area surrounding the theatre. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: Australia | 1 Comment »

Melbourne’s best toilet view

By rocky | May 15, 2008

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The Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne offers one of the best views of the city while you are doing your business. Huge panoramic windows offer spectacular views of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs and a magnificent view of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and sporting precinct from the 35th floor. The 5 star 363 room hotel makes up the upper floors of the Collins Place twin towers which design was inspired by the World Trade Centre in New York. The Towers are also home to major tenants ANZ Bank and has a host of theatres, boutiques, bars and cafes at the basement underneath a huge glass and steel canopy. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: Australia, Hotels | No Comments »

Melbourne’s W class trams

By wattsy | April 16, 2008


YouTube direct

Melbourne’s W class trams are a well known icon of Melbourne that date back to the early 1920s. A main part of Melbourne’s transport system until the 1990s Today the trams are a tourist drawcard operating free on the city circle line as well as at night converted to restaurant trams. Interestingly Melbourne is not the only place in the world where you will see the iconic trams operating as a tourist trolly, a few of the 748 Melbourne built trams were exported to the US  in the 70s and 80s and today can be seen operating in San Francisco, Seattle, San Jose, New Orleans, Dallas and Portland. The youtube video above is of a Melbourne tram turning onto San Franscisco’s Embarcadero. There are also some W class trams operating in Auckland and Christchurch New Zealand. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: Australia, Trains, Youtube of the week | No Comments »

The Melbourne Museum

By rocky | April 6, 2008

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The Melbourne Museum is the one of the newest and largest museums in the Southern Hemisphere housing a permanent collection in eight galleries, including one just for children and areas for huge traveling exhibitions. The most love treasure of the museum is Pharlap which is renowned as Australia’s greatest racehorse, thousands visit the museum just to view this magnificent animal. The museum features an IMAX theatre and the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Centre which is one of Australia’s finest collection of Australian indigenous culture. The museum isn’t all glass cabinet displays it is a multi media learning centre for young and old and even features an amazing living rain forest complete with animals and plant life in it’s heart. Children love the dinosaur galleries with huge skeleton of a diprotodon, Tarbosaurus, Tsintaosaurus and other huge prehistoric beasts. Read the rest of this entry »

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