Almanac Running: Running Along the Yarra
It’s breakfast time in Melbourne.
Traversing Flinders Street, I jog by the Sea Life Aquarium and make my way through Enterprize Park. I later learn it’s where the first European settlers arrived in 1835. My boys, Alex and Max, are asleep upstairs in our apartment. We’re here for a weekend of footy and exploration.
It’s still and crisp. A cloudless winter morning in this elegant city.
I cut across an empty Queens Bridge Street and step cautiously over the bumpy cobblestones of Banana Alley. I imagine the Yarra was once vital to the economic life of Melbourne. I guess its value today is mostly ornamental. Some rowers are stretching out on the coffee-coloured surface.
There’s buried, industrial rumblings from Flinders Street Station. I press on.
Under the Princes Bridge an Asian man is fishing. Two lines are dancing on the drink. I wonder what he might be after. If the concrete boots aren’t too heavy, he could land a Ganglands War victim.
Progressing along Flinders Walk I pass a gin bar, Junipalooza, which confirms that ‘looza’ is an overused suffix. Has our planet reached peak gin yet? Will Bundy ever be world dominant? No, I don’t think so.
Melbourne’s cityscape is a marvel. Yesterday, as we headed to the MCG for our midday tour Alex remarked to Max that he found the metropolis, ‘architecturally interesting.’ This became a discussion and I’m pleased they express curiosity about these things.
Entering the space of Birrarung Marr I’m struck by birdsong and the accompanying aural surprise in what’s otherwise a vast built environment. It’s refreshing. And now there’s a bicycle repair station between me and the river! What a simple yet generous gesture and I hope the vandals respect it. It’s symbolic of the petit accommodations ubiquitously afforded by Melbourne.
Rod Laver and John Cain Arenas swim into view. In 1988 some Kapunda boys and I left the MCG after a day-nighter. I wanted to watch Allan Border bat but was at the loo in the stadium’s bowels when he came and went for a first-ball duck. Like a scene from a Russian documentary, we later saw hundreds of workers toiling away under floodlights to finish the Tennis Centre in time for the Australian Open.
My half-way point is the Swan Street Bridge, so I nudge along it and head home on the other bank.
Boathouse Drive is quietly industrious with relaxed, flush-looking folk carrying out their oars and boats. They seem to be enjoying the leisurely rhythms of their exercise routine. A barbecue sizzles away on a rowing club balcony.
Wearing a New York marathon t-shirt, a jogger is alongside me. I smile and vow to also buy a similar souvenir from eBay. He then propels past me as if I’m a statue. Disappearing like the roadrunner, I note that he has an athletes’ calves. I reconsider. Perhaps the shirt is authentic.
Southbank is tranquil apart from scattered patrons hunched over lattes and the (now dismembered) Age. Late yesterday when I ran along the river the restaurants were all busy with enthusiastic punters. The emerging trend for Friday nuptials continuing, a large wedding party promenaded past me, with knots of impossibly prosperous-looking couples off to the reception. There were also some boisterous lunches ambling into what sounded distinctly like hour number four. I doubt that I’ve seen any of the participants at this bright, embryonic stage of morning.
Near home I by-pass two mature women waiting for a taxi. Even at my distance I catch a gust of their perfume. It’s from the Chemist Warehouse and surely named Ski Field (for Seniors).
The apartment elevator takes me upstairs.
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Now whip it into shape/
Shape it up, get straight/
Go forward, move ahead/
Try to detect it, it’s not too late/
To whip it, whip it good
Lovely tour Mickey. Thanks for sharing.
By the way we don’t dump our deceased gangland victims into the Yarra (anymore). They’re now transported to an old gold mine around Castlemaine or Bendigo and dumped down the mine shaft head first. They they’re usually discovered by a busy fox terrier about 8 years later.
You’ve articulated Melbourne’s rhythm well. Its just starting to rediscover itself.
Great stuff, Mickey.
Particularly loved this line: “I smile and vow to also buy a similar souvenir from eBay”.
Thanks Smokie and Dips. Exploring Melbourne by foot is to be constantly captivated. We even managed to sneak into a new pub, the Cricketers Arms in Richmond, and enjoyed the murals of Dermie and Bungy McLeod in the beer garden.
Nicely done once again Mickey. I recognise some of the landmarks you so well describe. Hoping to get to Melbourne for the golf in December. A retracing of your route might be in order.
Thanks Mickey. You’ve taken me back to when I was pretending to work in Melbourne CBD, but really just providing an excuse for a visit to the City from the outer burbs, so that I could run the River, the Tan or Albert Park around the middle hours of the day..
We are blessed with the great vision of David Yuncken and Evan Walker who transformed Southbank, and provided the inspiration for the developments like Birrarung Marr, which make the City to the sports precinct such a magical walk.
Thanks Daryl. Any season, any time, Melbourne’s great. Enjoy your trip to the golf.
Cheers Peter. I ran the Tan a few years’ ago and appreciate its status but reckon I preferred running through the CBD by the river. I’d like to run around Albert Park one day too. Melbourne’s excellent for pedestrians and I’ve been thinking of cities that aren’t. LA and Singapore make that list as both are if not hostile then certainly car-centric.
Hey Mickey, like Peter I used to run around the Tan, Southbank and other parts of the CBD as a younger fella while ostensibly working in the city.
My worst experiences though were usually those with cyclists on Southbank. I later chose different routes before dialling things down to a walk in the Flagstaff gardens.
One standout building I would regularly run or walk past though was “Bishopscourt” opposite the eastern boundary of the Fitzroy Gardens. Dr Google can provide follow up here.
Once the home of Governors of Victoria it subsequently became the home of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne. Well, what do you expect? These two bastions of entrenched anti Catholic privilege have always been hand in glove since the 16th Century haven’t they?!
RDL
Thanks for this RDL.
One moment I’m wobbling along the Yarra and then you’re getting all sociopolitical and 16th century on me! Of course, I’m grateful and long may this continue. Seriously, I have had a quick look online regarding the Tan, but need to know more about its history and importance. Challenge presented!