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A 140-year-old telescope last used in Melbourne almost a century ago will begin its journey back to Victoria today.

About 2,000 TAFE teachers have gathered in Melbourne to demand the Victorian Government reduce staff casualisation and improve salaries.

Web mapping services provider Mapufacture looks like it has a promising future as location based content grows in popularity. Mapufacture"s GeoRSS standard is endorsed by Outside.In, which aggregates and syndicates geotagged content. It will become more important for bloggers to geotag their content to maximise its distribution and readership, and GeoRSS is a fantastic addition to location based blogs.

Having tested various WordPress mapping plugins, I think Mapufacture"s WordPress mapping plugin GeoPress is the most sophisticated in terms of functionality and also the most useful and straightforward to implement. GeoPress allows bloggers to geotag posts, publish maps of posts and distribute geotagged content via GeoRSS enabled RSS and Atom feeds....Read Full Article»

In January 2007 I signed up with Australian electronic program guide (EPG) provider icetv.com.au based on a recommendation from a friend and bought an Elgato EyeTV HD DTT USB stick tuner from them so I could watch HD TV via my MacBook Pro.

It worked perfectly until August 2008, when it suddenly failed, and I received the error message "Device could not be initiailized." Thinking it was a random error, I waited a couple of days for it to fix itself. It didn"t....Read Full Article»

Which Melbourne-based bloggers do you guys follow? I'm always looking for new reading material, and I especially like it when I can relate to what the blogger is writing about. I'd like especially:

1. Something not based in LiveJournal. An actual site, blogspot, Wordpress blog, etc. would be great, as I rarely follow my friends page feed here on LJ.
2. Someone who writes about: Melbourne events, art festivals, exhibitions, even just daily experiences with weird people on the Pakenham train line, etc.
3. Someone readable. You know what I mean - someone who writes without a stick up their arse, who doesn't feel the need to use supercilious words (haha irony) to make themselves sound more impressive....Read Full Article»

On Sunday I had a lamb gyros for lunch at the Sossa deli / cafe on Brunswick St, otherwise known as "The Real Greek Souvlaki". Their boreks, spanakopita and everything else are also absolutely delicious. Above is the counter inside, and below is the front window that is so difficult to walk past....Read Full Article»

Port Melbourne, a residential and industrial suburb, is 4 km. south-west of Melbourne. It is bounded on its north and west by the Yarra River, on the south by Hobsons Bay and on the east Bay South Melbourne. The residential part adjoins South Melbourne.

In 1839, four years after the first permanent settlement of Melbourne, Wilbraham Liardet settled at Port Melbourne, building a hotel and jetty on Hobsons Bay and operating a mail service to Melbourne. The area became known as Liardet's Beach, although the official district name was Sandridge. Land sales were delayed until 1850. The gold rush immigration brought passengers and freight which made use of a government pier on Hobsons Bay, served by Australia's first railway line from Melbourne to Hobsons Bay....Read Full Article»

Jolimont is a residential precinctin East Melbourne, 1.5 km. from the G.P.O., Melbourne.

In 1839 Charles Joseph La Trobe arrived in Melbourne as the Superintendent of Port Phillip. He brought a transportable dwelling and was obliged to buy land on which to erect it. He was the successful (and only) bidder for five hectares, off the south side of Wellington Parade,set in the corner of the Government Paddock (later Yarra Park). The name Jolimont was reputedly given by La Trobe's French-Swiss wife: joli mont - a pretty hill....Read Full Article»

South Yarra is a residential suburb extending from St. Kilda Road to Williams Road, Toorak, bordered on the north by the Domain, the Botanic Gardens and the Yarra River, and on the south by Commercial Road, Prahran. Its prestige as a residential address approaches that of Toorak. Its railway station, 3 km. from Melbourne, is about in the middle of South Yarra. The western part of South Yarra is in Melbourne city and the other in Stonnington (previously Prahran) city. That has been a cause for the western part wanting to secede from Melbourne at various times.

South Yarra was the location of the first of three Crown land sales for Prahran, the subdivisions beginning south of the Yarra river in 1840s and ending at Dandenong Road ten years later. A purchaser in 1840 was Lieut.-Colonel Charles Forrest. He built two residences on Forrest Hill, the most northerly becoming the site of the Melbourne Boys' High School. Local clay supplied the bricks, and later became the site of the South Yarra brickworks. West of Punt Road in 1846 the former Norfolk Island Commandant Lieut.-Colonel Joseph Anderson acquired the choice site of the South Yarra Hill which overlooked the St. Kilda Road track which straggled through lower-lying sandy and swampy terrain. Anderson Street is named after him. Access to South Yarra was by boat or punt - hence Punt Road - until Princes Bridge was opened in 1850....Read Full Article»

May 25, The year of our Lord 2006

Death by sneezing dog? I imagine you are thinking that this is some pimply private school boys adolescent joke, a twist on an Enid Blyton story. In actual fact, this is a true story. Cause of death; sneezing dog....Read Full Article»