Melbourne- January 12

Melbourne is the 2nd largest city in Australia with a population of 3.74 million people. The area features 280 Kilometers of beach on Port Philip Bay. It was founded in 1835. John Bateman and John Pascoe Fortner who came from Tasmania. Fortner came with men to build houses, plant crops and establish "grog" houses. The city is very well organized because it was a planned city with the size and direction of streets and roads predetermined- 99 feet wide.

 Gold was discovered in this area near the Dandenong Mountains in 1851-leading to the Victoria gold rush. At first the officials wanted it to be kept as a secret so the area wouldn't be over-run like in California...but then a much larger discovery made that impossible and people flocked to the area. More gold was discovered in 20 years than in the entire time of the California Gold Rush. At one time there were 200 ships in the harbor with no crew. Men had sailed in, jumped ship, and gone off to find gold and their fortunes. 

The Dandenong Mountains are part of the dividing range that stretches through Papua New Guinea to the Torres Straits neat Thursday Island to the Blue Mountains in Sydney and down to Melbourne. The whole range has a blue haze because of the eucalyptus trees and the "mist" they give off as they warm up. This haze hangs over the mountains. The trees have a high content of oil and contribute to the fast rise of forest fires in this area.

Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria. As a size comparison, to travel from one side of Australia to the other would be like traveling from New York City to San Francisco.

We stopped to ride a narrow gage railway, Puffing Billy. It was built to haul wood to the port. The trees on the mountain were so amazingly straight that ship's captains would often come to harvest a tall, straight tree to replace a ship's mast. The train had open-air cars and features a wonderful ride through the mountains and over old timber bridges. I remembered the song we sang years ago ..."Down by the station, early in the morning, see the little Puffing Billys all in a row." So there we were down by the station  it was early in the morning, the station master blew the little whistle and off we went. We had great fun.

We went out into the countryside to a wine tasting and lunch and then visited the Healsville Sanctuary where we saw Koala, kangaroo, wallabees, platypus, and a Tasmanian Devil. Both the platypus and the Tasmanian Devil were smaller than we thought they would be. We also visited their animal hospital where surgery was going on on a Koala. We were gently reminded that you don't say "Koala bear" because they are NOT bears but are marsupials...so you just say "Koala."

On our way back to the ship we drove through the city and saw the many beautiful buildings. 

Melbourne is a very nice city.