Hidden treasures in Melbourne.



I thought I might share with you, a glimpse of Melbourne and a couple of the treasures that are hidden there. As you know, we live in rural Victoria, but we had the chance to come to Melbourne, as we were showing our friend from Texas around for the day.
The mansion you see pictured above is called Rippon Lea. It is absolutely stunning both inside and out and the gardens are equally as impressive. This property was left to the people of Victoria, and as such, only became available to them as recent as 1972! It had been privately owned up until then.
Many of the features of this house are amazing. This set of beautiful windows grace the landing between the ground floor and the second floor. Every panel, hand painted. The owners obviously had beautiful taste in decoration.

Often for me, things somehow always get back to fabric and quilting. Not to sure how that happens, but it does. The original owners of Rippon Lea, the Sargood family, owned a clothing and drapery business in Melbourne. I knew then, they must have been a cool family, they liked fabric! I would have loved to have seen their fabric stash!!! Enough digressing, the house has lots of tiled areas that would make beautiful quilt block patterns. This one is at the entrance way of the house.

Isn't this one a beauty?! This floor is in a males bathroom. Excuse the shoe that is half in the photo. This room was quite small and there were at least a dozen of us that squished in there. While everyone was looking around, I was looking down at this. Imagine laying all those tiles one by one to get the pattern. It was the 1880's when this house was built, so tiles didn't come pre-glued to a sheet then.

When we had finished with the house, we had a wander around the gardens. Magnificent to say the least. I came across this spot and straight away it reminded me of the painting done of Monet's garden.

After Rippon Lea, we headed to Brighton beach to show Kas, (our American friend) the bathing boxes. The row of them goes a lot further than the photo shows. They are all painted individually by the owners. Their purpose? Somewhere to change into your bathers/swimmers before you have a swim. These boxes aren't very big and to my knowledge don't have any amenities. They are just a box! They have been part of the Brighton beach scene for many many years and are very iconic of Victoria, often being photographed for the tourist industry. The earliest record of bathing boxes at Brighton is 1862! They rarely become available for sale, but when they do, they are very expensive. Around the $200,000 mark! Yep, you read it right.
That's it for now, but with plenty of inspiration this weekend, I will get back into the quilting, starting tomorrow. Until the next post, happy quilting.-Julie


6 comments:

  1. $200,000! Woe, that's incredible. Great photos.

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    1. I agree! What makes it even more ridiculous is, my parents had the opportunity to buy one several years ago for only $2000. Would have been a great investment if they did.

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  2. These pictures look very familiar to me, I have made it back to Texas and seeing these pictures brings back some great memories of Australia, thanks again for making my trip better

    Kas

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    1. Kas, we had an awesome time that day too! Glad to hear your home safe.

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