Time Walks - Melbourne, Carlton, St. Kilda

Good morning, Tony Robinson heads on down to Melbourne for this episode.  The run time for this first episode is 26:46. In episode two, Tony continues his exploration of Melbourne looking at a local neighborhood: Carlton.  The run time for this episode is 26:38.  Today I am going to sneak in a third episode for this review.  Tony then goes to explore St. Kilda, another neighborhood of Melbourne.  The run time for this episode is 26:47.

Melbourne
Tony is in a little alleyway and it is one of the photographed spots in all of Melbourne.  There is plenty of street art plastered on the walls in this alley.  He does not like the graffiti on the walls but a part of Tony likes the vibrancy of the art.  Tony continues to walk down this alley and shows the sight where Banksy had painted there.  The owners realized, they have something of value and wanted to protect it.  However, it managed to get destroyed. 

Tony continues along the art path and finds himself in front of a controversial painting.  Everyone had a fuss over a painting called Chloe.  So why was she controversial?  She was part of an art exhibition on a tour of Melbourne.  The art elite did not like working-class people looking at Chloe.  The art exhibition eventually closed down.  The painting emerged again when a new pub was opened.  People come into the pub to see the painting.

Tony then makes his way to the railway station: it was the oldest railway station and has the longest platform.  After a brief stop at the railway station, Tony stops in a hat shop to show off the hat pins.  Men were terrified of the hat pins because if you brushed up against them you got a serious gash on your face.  Melbourne announced a law that every hat pin had to have a cap on it.  After the law was passed the police would patrol the street and would cart them off to jail if they had an uncovered hat pin.  So what else does Tony discover about Melbourne, continue to watch this episode to find out!

Carlton
In the second episode, Tony explores Carlton, it is a neighborhood in Melbourne.  He begins in Carlton gardens.  It is one of the city’s most diverse neighborhoods.  Tony talks about dung and Carlton was having a waste problem as a result of the gold rush.  He stops at the exhibition building which was Melbourne’s sign for people to look at the city.  Tony sneaks into the building and it is the home of the paleontology collection. 

Tony eventually finds himself on Drummond Street.  There is plenty of green in the center of the street.  Patrick Costello persuaded the city council to widen and beautify the street.  The council agreed and that is why Drummond Street has green patches in the middle of the way.  Then Tony continues on his walk through a raining Carlton.  He notices a memorial to the eight-hour workday.  He points out the very first espresso machine imported to Australia, which launched the café culture.

Tony moves on and notices the old architecture around him.  He is in his element looking at the old architecture.  He takes a tour of the trade hall to get out of the rain.  Tony catches up with Nino Borsari Jr. who was the owner of a business in Australia.  His father was an Italian trapped behind enemy lines.  He was a cyclist who was not allowed to leave, so he was given money to start up a business.  What else does Tony learn about Carlton?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out!

St. Kilda
For the third episode, Tony explores St. Kilda.  He is looking for the oldest living tree and it is not nearly as chunky as he thought.  The tree is six hundred years old but would have been by a lagoon.  However, today is it standing alongside a highway.  In the early days, St. Kilda was a holiday resort.  People would go to St. Kilda on vacation.  Bush rangers peppered the road to St. Kilda and they would ambush the people going to St. Kilda on holiday.  The bush rangers would rob the people of their money.

Tony then continues on his time walk.  He meets up with an aspiring actor, who was taller and had more hair than him.  I wonder if the actor will eventually realize that he met Tony Robinson of Time Team and Blackadder fame.  They meet up at the Coffee Palace.  Tony then goes to a grand house and shows the owners’ grand toilet.  Back in the day, Melbourne was known as “Smell-bourne” so St. Kilda was the escape for people. 

However, the boom would not last for long.  Trains were built so people could move down to St. Kilda.  The toffs did not like the new people flooding in and so they abandoned St. Kilda.  So what else does Tony discover about St. Kilda?  Tune in to the rest of this episode to find out more!

Tony’s exploration of Melbourne has been interesting.  Both the Melbourn and Carlton episode was good however I would skip St. Kilda.