A Walk Around the Docklands
This entry was posted on 5/23/2007 4:40 AM and is filed under Australia.
We had a lovely afternoon exploring part of the town new
to us around the old docklands. We noticed a GIGANTIC statue of an eagle in the distance.
We could see it from many streets as we walked by, but it just so
happened that the bridge we had chosen to walk along had a sign about
it...
Here's some of what the sign says:
"When I made Eagle, I was not trying to make a
particular bird, but rather a kind of archetype of a bird; I
wanted to create a feeling of brooding watchfulness. I was
completely delighted to discover later that the wedge-tailed eagle is
an extremely important totem for all of the Aboriginal people of
Victoria; including the Wurundjeri people. Eagle watches over the
Docklands from Wurundjeri Way, linking the past with the
present. I decided that the sculpture should be white/grey
because when one stands under it and looks up at it, the feeling is not
unlike looking at clouds, the kind of clouds which the spirit of an
Eagle might inhabit." - Bruce Armstrong
The Bunjil Dreaming - written by Joy Murphy, Wurundjeri Elder:
"Universally throughout Aboriginal Australia the Eagle is patriarchal
and the Black Swan is matriarchal. On this land the Eagle is
known as Bunjil the ancestral creator spirit. The Wurundjeri
people say the Bunjil created all living things from the land.
Bunjil's home is in the sky with wives two black swans and his son the
rainbow. Bunjil looks over the land and its people with his
watchful eye."
Check out that next-to-last line - "Bunjil's home
is in the sky with wives two black swans and his son the
rainbow." So there we are, and we look up, and what do we see?
This is only the second rainbow we have seen in Australia - how cosmic is that?!! Love this life!
Another great find on our walk was the Web Bridge...
We were lucky to catch it with a glorious sunset...
And as night came on, so did the lights of the bridge...
And then later, walking through another part of the city, we passed one of
Melbourne's largest architectural firms, and outside their office was a
picture of the bridge from above that we loved...
Our third great find on the Docklands walk happened as we passed the
Australian Bureau of Meteorology Building. We were on the
opposite side of the street, but something inside caught our eye - and
we dashed across...
And inside we found this magnificent mural...
Imagine a public mural in the states with these lovely sensual nude beings...
The story about the mural is well worth reading. If you have trouble seeing it here, click here for an enlarged zoom-in (zoom-in)
