First date with Mel: The Flinders Street

The railway lanes beside Flinders Street

This post is the continuation from the previous post: First date with Mel: The Tram

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As myself and Yudhi hopped-off in front of The Federation Square, we then continued the date with Mel by walking along the Flinders Street. Then the weather became hotter than before so we decided to enter The Federation Square.

The Federation Square is one of the public places in Melbourne. It’s interesting to know that, despite of getting the title from Virtual Tourist in 2009 as the ‘World’s Fifth Ugliest Building‘; the design of the building, was actually the winning design of the architectural design competition for Melbourne public square held by Jeff Kennett in 1997.

The Federation Square in Flinders Street, Melbourne – Australia

You hate or love the building, you will always notice it when you pass the Flinders Street.

The complex is so big that it has 2 open-square areas, St. Paul’s court and The Square, and one covered area, The Atrium. (Download the Federation Square Map)

Actually there are quite a few of galleries inside the Atrium, but we didn’t remember to check them out 😮

The gallery that we did want to visit was The Australian Centre for The Moving Image. We did plan it, really!! But we didn’t get a chance to go there as we had a sudden plan to buy the Australian Open ticket at the Melbourne Park. From the name itself, ACMI is already enticing! 😮

Anyway, so I wandered around a bit to the back side of The Atrium, while Yudhi was seating nicely on a seat and enjoying his drink and watching the Australian Open match (lol!).

The back side of the Atrium is called The BMW Edge. It looks like an open theatre with seats and screen in front of them. Not sure what they usually show here.

The Atrium of Federation Square in Flinders Street – Melbourne, Australia

The theatre in The BMW Edge of Federation Square in Flinders Street, Melbourne – Australia

I did find something interesting when I looked through the mirror of the Atrium, and looked at a big architecture pointing to the sky across the Yarra river, which is turned to be an arts centre, called The Arts Centre Melbourne.

A view of Arts Centre Melbourne from the Atrium of Federation Square

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I continued my wandering-around to outside of the Federation Square.

So when I walked out of the building, and I felt like whoaaa … It’s so hot!

I remembered that we should apply sunscreen SPF 50+, so did I.

Amazingly, there were some people that just walked without any umbrellas or hats! How could they do that? Lol. I was like hopped here and there and ran to the shade or hide at the shadow of a building! Lol!

And then while I hopping around, I found this …

The stickwork by Patrick Dougherty in Federation Square – Flinders Street, Melbourne – Australia

‘The Ballroom’ was made from willow tree saplngs and stick

What do you think when you first saw this?

‘Is that a bird nest?’ – that was the first thought that crossed my mind.

Well it looks like a birds nest, as it was built using willow tree saplings and stick. They built this stickwork for around 3 weeks, and it’s a part of 10th birthday celebration of Fed Square!

The artist behind this stickwork is Patrick Dougherty. He got the inspiration of the shape of this artwork from Flinders Street Station and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

While I saw it as a bird nest at first, Patrick actually named it ‘The Ballroom’. 😉

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In my previous post, I mentioned that I love the outer look of Southern Cross Station, well apparently Mel has another station to be amazed  … It’s none other than The Flinders Street Station. I guess you have seen my photos of the station in my first post of this Australian series 😉

I believe the inside architecture is also as interesting as the outside, but I didn’t enter it as I didn’t plan to buy a ticket …

The grand Flinders Street station in Flinders Street, Melbourne – Australia

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I ended my wandering trip in Flinders Street by going to the side of Yarra River.

From afar I already could see that there are many skyscrapers alongside the Yarra River.

The name of the river was originally called Birrarung by the Aboriginal people, where the meaning of the meaning is ‘ever flowing’. It was mistakenly named ‘Yarra Yarra’ by John Helder Wedge, when he arrived at the river with two natives and the natives pointing to the river and said ‘Yarra Yarra’. John thought it was the name of the river, but then later on the two natives also called a small fall with ‘Yarra Yarra’. It is believed that the name Yarra means ‘waterfall’ or ‘flow’.

The skycrapers alongside the Yarra river near the Flinders Street, Melbourne – Australia

And this date will continue on the next post … 😀

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The St. Paul’s Cathedral in Flinders Street

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Melbourne trip series:

– First date with Mel: The Tram

My previous post about my Sydney >> Sydney trip

Accommodation: Sydney Harbour YHA