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Le canal de Provence et la ville de Signes dans le Var
Photo aérienne du canal prise à Signes : Située au pied du massif de la Sainte Baume, SIGNES est la commune la plus boisée du Var. Ses 11.000 ha de forêts sont le paradis des chasseurs et des randonneurs.
A cinq minutes du prestigieux circuit du Castellet, SIGNES mérite le nom de station sportive: randonnées pédestres, équestres et VTT.
C’est aussi un site remarquable de parapente. Une histoire riche et tumultueuse est lisible à travers les rues et les monuments du village: Église du XIème siècle, Tour de l’Horloge, Maisons du XVème siècle, Chapelles, Oratoires, Fontaine aux sorcières…
La commune de Signes fait partie de la Communauté d’Agglomération de Sud Sainte Baume.
Le canal de Provence est un ouvrage hydraulique régional qui participe à la desserte, principalement en eau brute, captée dans le Verdon, de 116 communes des Bouches-du-Rhône et du Var dont Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Toulon, soit une population totale de 3 000 000 d'habitants. Il irrigue par aspersion 80 000 hectares de terres agricoles et alimente plus de 8 000 sites industriels de la région. D'une longueur de près de 270 km dont 140 en souterrain, le canal a été conçu et réalisé progressivement sur la base d'un schéma initial qui a très peu varié, à partir des années 1960, et a depuis trente ans évité les effets de la sécheresse dans les départements desservis, contribuant ainsi à leur développement économique.
Depuis toujours, les Provençaux se sont ingéniés à tirer le meilleur parti de la Durance et de son principal affluent, le Verdon pour produire de l'électricité et fournir de l'eau en suffisance pour les agglomérations, l'irrigation et l'industrie. Depuis 1854, la Durance alimente le Canal de Marseille qui fournit les deux-tiers des besoins en eau de la ville, et dès 1868, le Verdon approvisionne la plaine d'Aix.
Si grâce à ces canaux, Marseille et sa région ne connurent plus de pénurie d'eau potable, les parties rurales de la Provence continuaient de souffrir d'un manque chronique d'eau. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, sous l'impulsion du ministère de l'Agriculture, les départements des Bouches-du-Rhône et du Var, ainsi que la Ville de Marseille eurent la volonté d'affranchir la Provence de cette pénurie d'eau qui y limitait ses possibilités de développement.
En 1957, la Société du Canal de Provence (SCP) est créée avec la mission de transférer les eaux du Verdon à travers le relief difficile de la région en construisant le canal de Provence. La SCP gère encore aujourd'hui aussi le barrage de Bimont
Les investissements ont été financés pour moitié par emprunts et pour moitié par subventions de l'État, de la Région, des Départements, de l'Europe et de l'Agence de l'eau.
The Provence Canal and the city of Signes in the Var
Aerial photo of the canal taken in Signes: Located at the foot of the Sainte Baume massif, SIGNES is the most wooded commune of the Var. Its 11,000 ha of forests are a paradise for hunters and hikers.
Five minutes from the prestigious Castellet circuit, SIGNES deserves the name of sports resort: hiking, horse riding and mountain biking.
It is also a remarkable paragliding site. A rich and tumultuous history is legible through the streets and monuments of the village: Church of the XIth century, Tower of the Clock, Houses of the XVth century, Chapels, Oratories, Fountain witches ...
The town of Signes is part of the Community of Agglomeration of South Sainte Baume.
The Canal de Provence is a regional hydraulic structure that contributes to serving, mainly raw water, collected in the Verdon, 116 communes of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var including Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Toulon, a total population of 3,000,000. It irrigates 80,000 hectares of agricultural land and supplies more than 8,000 industrial sites in the region. With a length of nearly 270 km, including 140 underground, the canal was designed and built progressively on the basis of an initial schema that changed very little, from the 1960s, and has for thirty years avoided the effects drought in the departments served, thus contributing to their economic development.
Historically, the Provençaux have made every effort to make the most of the Durance and its main tributary, the Verdon, to produce electricity and supply sufficient water for agglomerations, irrigation and industry. Since 1854, the Durance feeds the Canal de Marseille which supplies two-thirds of the water needs of the city, and since 1868, the Verdon supplies the plain of Aix.
If thanks to these channels, Marseille and its region did not experience any shortage of drinking water, the rural parts of Provence continued to suffer from a chronic lack of water. After the Second World War, under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône and Var, as well as the City of Marseille were willing to free Provence from this water shortage that it limited its possibilities of development.
In 1957, the Canal Company of Provence (SCP) was created with the mission of transferring the waters of the Verdon through the difficult terrain of the region by building the Canal de Provence. The SCP still manages the Bimont Dam today
The investments were financed half by loans and half by grants from the State, the Region, the Departments, Europe and the Water Agency.
more picture in www.jmlpyt.eu
Last week, Pan Am’s business train made a third consecutive week run. With the rumors flying of the Railroad being up for sale and potential new buyers checking out the Railroad. The train left Mechanicville, NY at sun rise but with all the slowdowns, the train came at pretty good timing. As seen here passing The farm land near the “Cosby Red Barn”. Photo taken Buckland, MA October 14, 2020
EDX433. DSCF9439.HS
Estructural = MIXescene - Invest....
DSCF9439---
Selección. DGV-MOV. CINEMA.MIX TV Record.
Doble Exposición MIX-B/W. ITPTV-MOD.
Tonal-Transfer- color chrome. Blur Efect.
PHOTO -T.I.M.S. MIX-Color
Gracias por compartir.
Agradezco a todos su seguimiento atención, favoritas y amables comentarios….
Muchas gracias por vuestra visita .
Thank you very much for your visit and comments.
Molt agraït per la vostra visita, atencions i comentaris.
Très reconnaissant pour votre visite, l'attention et les commentaires.
- COPYRIGHT © PHOTO-D.G.V.
Someone created this superb rendition of a labyrinth at the beach. It has been there several days although the tide has now taken a portion of it. The time, effort and creativity to accomplish this needs to be admired. Seen at Pawley's Island, SC.
My Trip To Anthem
Hair & Ribbon NEW: S-Club - Wendy (Anthem)
Head: Genus - Baby Face W001 2.0
Skin: Genus - LIndsey 4K
Necklace: Yummy - Enchantress
Top and Skirt: Look at Me - River (Anthem)
Pose: DenDen Poses
- One of only 274 early “H-Series” homologation examples built during the inaugural year of 911 Turbo production, 1975
- Comprehensive service conducted by Sportwagen & Mobiler Rennsportservice in recent years, exceeding €23.000 invested from 2020-2025
- Matching-numbers 3.0-liter, air-cooled flat-six engine rated at 260 PS
- Desirable German-delivery example
- Finished as delivered in iconic Grand Prix White over Black leather with MacLachlan tartan seat inserts
- Equipped with a factory electric sunroof
Broad Arrow’s Zoute Concours Auction
Approach Golf - Het Zoute
Estimated : € 250.000 - 300.000
Not sold
Zoute Grand Prix Car Week 2025
Knokke - Zoute
België - Belgium
October 2025
Known for its lack of restrictions on engine power and aerodynamics, the Cam-Am racing series provided an ideal venue for Porsche to experiment with turbocharging. Partnered with Penske Racing, Porsche definitively conquered the Can-Am championship in 1972 with George Follmer behind the wheel, and again in 1973 with Mark Donohue driving turbocharged variants of the 917 racer. When Can-Am's organizers effectively banned the all-dominant 917/30 for 1974 by imposing a fuel limit on turbocharged cars, Porsche looked for a different application for its turbocharging technology.
The path forward lay with the FIA's Group 4 category, which required Porsche to homologate its 934 contender for the inaugural 1976 season. Introduced at the 1974 Paris Motor Show, the 911 Turbo (Type 930) would serve as the 934's homologated counterpart, featuring a 3.0-liter flat-six engine fitted with a single turbocharger, flared wheel arches to accommodate wider wheels and tires, upgraded suspension, and a “whale tail” rear spoiler. Zero to 100 km/h occurred in 5.7 seconds on the way to a 250-km/h top speed—figures few other cars of the period could match.
One of just a mere 274 built in the first year of production to meet the homologation requirements of FIA Group 4—which mandated 400 units within the first 24 months of manufacture—this “H-series” 930 epitomizes the raw, purpose-first character of the earliest Turbos. These pioneering cars are readily identified by 1975-only features like body-colored flag mirrors and cabins that—by Porsche's typically luxurious standards—are deliberately spartan, featuring provisions for roll-cage mounting points and, on RoW examples, omit both the double-stitched door panels and center console. The result is a lighter, more responsive driving experience, standing apart from later, more luxuriously trimmed 930 variants. Completed in April of 1975, this example was finished as it presents today in iconic Grand Prix White over Black leather upholstery, accented by bold MacLachlan tartan seat and door inserts. Factory equipment included staggered 7 by 15-inch front and 8 by 15-inch rear Fuchs alloy wheels with low-profile 50-series Pirelli P7 Cinturato tires and an electric sunroof, and it was distributed new via MAHAG in Munich, Germany.
The car is believed to have resided in Germany during its early life and later found its way to Italy. There, it was purchased by the current owner after it had undergone a comprehensive restoration which saw the odometer reset to zero. The current owner brought the car back to Germany in 2020 and has since traveled only some 7,000 kilometers as indicated by the odometer.
In recent years, the 122nd Turbo ever built has been expertly maintained by Sportwagen & Mobiler Rennsportservice in Langenfeld, where the car was comprehensively recommissioned in 2020 with an engine-out service including a new clutch and flywheel, rebuilt CIS fuel distributor and warm-up regulator, comprehensive electrical work, and new sunroof seals, followed by new front brake discs and pads. In 2021, the transaxle was overhauled with fresh synchros and shift components, 2022 brought routine service with oil/brake-fluid changes and renewed oil lines, and in 2023 both fuel pumps and the V-belt were replaced. In 2024, the Turbo received fresh Pirelli P6000 tires, while in 2025 the turbo hardware was replaced to original-type specification—including the factory rear silencer and turbo/wastegate carrier—as well as a new battery and radio antenna. The total investment between 2020-2025 has exceeded €23.000, documented in invoices on file.
Presented in lovely, largely original condition and wearing its era-evoking livery, this early 911 Turbo crucially retains its matching-numbers engine, with the number corresponding to a copy of the factory data card on file. Well-maintained, the car has benefitted from recent mechanical work and is fitted with the original exhaust system, a rare feature indeed. A compelling, first-series Turbo with the desirable early features, this H-series 930 offers a rare opportunity to acquire an extremely early homologation model (the 122nd built) of the iconic 911 Turbo, which had reached a staggering 87,520 examples by 2019.
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London | Architecture | Night Photography
EXPLORE # 281
We had another wet night and day in London, it just didnt stop! i just managed to take a couple of reflection shots in London at night in Covent Garden ;-)
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Covent Garden (pronounced /ˈkɒvənt/) is a district in London, England, located in the easternmost parts of the City of Westminster and the southwestern corner of the London Borough of Camden. The area is dominated by shopping, street performers, and entertainment facilities, and it contains an entrance to the Royal Opera House, which is also widely-known simply as "Covent Garden", and the bustling Seven Dials area.
The area is bounded by High Holborn to the north, Kingsway to the east, the Strand to the south and Charing Cross Road to the west. Covent Garden Piazza is located in the geographical centre of the area and was the site of a flower, fruit and vegetable market from the 1500s until 1974, when the wholesale market relocated to New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms. Nearby areas include Soho, St James's, Bloomsbury, and Holborn
In 1913, responding to political feeling against large holdings of real property, and wishing to diversify his investment portfolio into less politically sensitive fields, the Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley for £2 million. The following year Mallaby-Deeley sold his option to buy to the pill manufacturer Sir Joseph Beecham for £250,000. After delays caused by the First World War and the death of Sir Joseph, the sale was finalised in 1918, the purchasers being Sir Joseph's two sons, Sir Thomas and Henry. The transaction included the market, 231 other properties, and sundry other rights. The property was part of Beecham Estates and Pills Limited from 1924 to 1928 and from 1928 it was owned by a successor company called Covent Garden Properties Company Limited, owned by the Beechams and other private investors. This new company sold some properties at Covent Garden, while becoming active in property investment in other parts of London. In 1962 the bulk of the remaining properties in the Covent Garden area, including the market, were sold to the newly established government-owned Covent Garden Authority for £3,925,000.[3]
By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion in the surrounding area had reached such a level that the use of the square as a market, which required increasingly large lorries for deliveries and distribution, was becoming unsustainable. The whole area was threatened with complete redevelopment. Following a public outcry, in 1973 the Home Secretary, Robert Carr, gave dozens of buildings around the square listed building status, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market finally moved to a new site (called the New Covent Garden Market) about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The square languished until its central building re-opened as a shopping centre and tourist attraction in 1980. Today the shops largely sell novelty items, though street performers can be seen almost every day of the year, both on the pitches within the market, and on the West and East Piazza's/James Street outside. More serious shoppers gravitate to Long Acre, which has a range of clothes shops and boutiques, and Neal Street, noted for its large number of shoe shops. London's Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the Piazza.
In August 2007, Covent Garden launched the UK's first food Night Market. Fresh produce from over 35 different stalls included Neal's Yard's specialist cheeses, Spore Boys' mushroom sandwiches, Gourmet Candy Company, Ginger Pig sausages and Burnt Sugar fudge. The aim of the Night Market was to bring Covent Garden back to its roots as the "Larder of London". Organisers are hoping to make it a permanent event in 2008 as part of a wider initiative to regenerate interest in the Covent Garden area.
Covent Garden Market and Piazza was bought by Capital and Counties in August 2006 for £421 million.[4] In March 2007 Capco also acquired the shops located under the Royal Opera House.[5] The complete Covent Garden Estate owned by Capital and Counties consists of 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2). and has a market value of £650 million.[4]
Covent Garden Market reopened as a retail centre in 1980, after the produce market was moved to its current location in Nine Elms. Currently one of the most famous and popular parts of the covered Covent Garden market is Apple Market, a small subsection of the main market. [6] Street entertainment at Covent Garden was first mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary in 1662.[7] Today Covent Garden is the only part of London licensed for street entertainment with performers having to undertake auditions for the Market's management and representatives of the performers' union and signing up to timetabled slots.
Currently performers operate in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only. There are street performances at Covent Garden Market every day of the year, except Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are 30–40 minutes in length.
In March 2008, Capital and Counties proposed to reduce street performances by approximately 50%. In the Courtyard, shows currently run back to back from 10:30 am to 7:00 pm, with short breaks in between each show, allowing for two shows each hour. Under the new proposal, performances would be cut to one 30-minute show each hour. The musicians and performers staged a demonstration "busk" in the Piazza against these cuts on 27 March with the opera singer Lesley Garrett who is supporting their campaign.[8] They have organised a petition which so far has over 5,000 signatures including Ken Livingstone, Brian Paddick, Vasko Vassilev, Brian Eno and Victoria Wood.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covent_Garden
London Rain at Night ....in Covent Garden ~~~~
Exciting startup and investor highlights from SLUSH Week 2021 in Helsinki, Finland. Cooler than ice.
One of the world's coolest startup and investor events from Helsinki in Finland. www.slush.org/
Inspiring side event with Start North 5G MÖKKI concept on 5G AI and VR education - keynote by Rikard Steiber, founder of GoodTrust
CleanTech Region Impact group with Nordic Impact Week attended with leading companies.
Join the Nordic-Baltic Impact Week to Silicon Valley and SOCAP
Photo and Video Credit: Lars Ling
All rights reserved (c) Copyright.
Calder Casino is a casino located in Lake Lucerne, Miami Gardens, Florida. It includes slots, electronic table games, and bingo.
The casino opened in 2010 and features a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) gaming floor with 1,100 slot machines, including video poker, as well as electronic roulette and blackjack. Live entertainment[1] can be found at Calder Casino on a weekly basis as well as a popular ladies night.
A player's club, VIP lounge, and dining options such as The Buffet, Lucky's Restaurant and Center Bar can all be found at the location. It is a non-smoking casino, however the Backyard Casino, South Florida's newest and largest smoking friendly open-air casino, opened at Calder Casino on May 19, 2018. The Backyard Casino at Calder hosts 75 games.
Calder's horse racing operations were leased to the Stronach Group, operators of Gulfstream Park, in 2014. Since then, Calder's meet has been named Gulfstream Park West. Calder Casino is a wholly owned property of Churchill Downs Incorporated and has kept its original name.
In the mid-1960s, real estate developer Stephen A. Calder envisioned summertime horse racing in Florida; in 1965, on the advice of Mr. Calder, the Florida Legislature approved a bill allowing for it. Prior to this time, a fall meet was held at Tropical Park Race Track in Miami and winter / spring meets at Hialeah Park and Gulfstream Park in Broward County. In 1970, Stephen Calder received a permit for summertime racing but the meet was run at Tropical Park because construction was not complete at Calder. On May 6, 1971 Calder Race Course held its first day of racing. When William L. McKnight became the new owner of Tropical Park, he stated his intentions of closing the track and switching the dates to the Calder track, of which he was one of the principal investors. Racing ceased at Tropical Park in 1972.
The 1980s brought about renovations and expansions and two purchases. The first purchase was by Bertram R. Firestone and the second was by Kawasaki Leasings, Inc. In 1992 the "Festival of the Sun" was introduced. By 1997, simulcasting was introduced (so bets could be placed on Calder races from other tracks and off-track locations). The handle increased significantly; the track increased purses. In January 1999, Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) purchased Calder Race Course for approximately $86 million. In the first years of the new century the track introduced the "Florida Million" and the "Summit of Speed".
Calder's Summit of Speed has produced several Breeders' Cup champions and Eclipse Award winners since its start in 2000. (The Eclipse award is the highest honor bestowed in American racing). In its short history, the Summit of Speed attracted some of the country's top sprinters, including Cajun Beat and Orientate who both went on to win Breeders' Cup Sprint championship races (Orientate 2002, Cajun Beat 2003). In 2005, Lost in the Fog won at Calder, although was later defeated in the Breeders' Cup. The Summit of Speed turned out to be the single biggest day in the history of Calder. In 2004, over $10.8 million was wagered on the event.
It was previously in the Lake Lucerne census-designated place. In 2003, the unincorporated area where Calder is located became the City of Miami Gardens, the third-largest city in Miami-Dade County.
On June 4, 2005, jockey Eddie Castro set the North American record for the most wins in a day at one track, winning 9 races at Calder.
The world record for the most spent on a Thoroughbred at sale took place at Calder in 2006 when a two-year-old horse sold for $16 million. The horse was later named The Green Monkey.
In late 2009, Calder changed its official name to Calder Casino & Race Course. The grand opening of the Calder Casino was celebrated in January 2010.
On August 24, 2013, jockey Antonio A. Gallardo set the record for the most stakes wins in a day and in a row, winning 4 consecutive stake races in the Juvenile Showcase.
After head-to-head racing between Calder and nearby Gulfstream Park in 2013 and 2014, CDI and the Stronach Group announced an agreement where the Stronach Group would manage Calder's racing operations, and CDI would operate the Calder Casino. After the agreement, Gulfstream announced it would operate a two-month meet at Calder in the fall under the name Gulfstream Park West. Under the changes, the track's code for official racing programs was changed from CRC to GPW.
In April 2015, CDI demolished approximately 1,400 stalls in an area marked for non-racing commercial re-development. In July 2015, Gulfstream Park was informed that the Calder grandstand - owned by CDI - will not be open to the public for the 2015 Gulfstream Park West meet except for racing officials, and that the seven-story structure will be demolished once the meet has concluded. Demolition was completed in October 2016 and The Stronach Group recommended everyone watch and wager at Gulfstream Park.
Photo montage copyright @ Mark Gunn #CreativeCommons #collaborate #iterate #enterprise
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Street candid taken in Glasgow, Scotland, where the investment here is not in the roads, but rather one of the many chip shops as this guy hauls bags of potatoes across Buchanan Street.
Can you reverse engineer the lighting before checking the setup? Drop a comment about your guess and then check the setup.
Strobist info and setup is here.
Sawubona! ( Agora você sabe como dizer "Oi" em Zulu!)
Haha, sempre me divirto com essas saudações do flickr!
Vou confessar que às vezes fico atualizando a página só para ver como é a tradução do "Oi" em outras linguas...coisa de gente doida, né?! Rsrs
Mais uma vez matei minha vontade de ter um DL...não sei se é exatamente um dupe do Boom Boom Pow ( pq eu não tenho ele para comparar), mas para mim foi um ótimo investimento, apesar do vidro ser tão pequenino!
Eu queria tanto um glitter dourado de vários tamanhos, pois não me contentei com o Plumas e Paetês...
Passei duas camadas por cima do Turned Up Turquoise , achei que mudou um pouco a cor dele...na verdade acho que carreguei muito no glitter!
Da proxima vez vou usar com um nude e apenas uma camada.
Boa semana!
Bjoo
A City Skyline.
When using this image please provide photo credit (link) to: www.tradingacademy.com per these terms: www.tradingacademy.com/resources/financial-education-cent...
Whitehall is a 75-room, 100,000 square foot Gilded Age mansion open to the public in Palm Beach, Florida in the United States. Completed in 1902, it is a major example of neoclassical Beaux Arts architecture designed by Carrère and Hastings for Henry Flagler, a leading captain of industry in the late 19th century, and a leading developer of Florida as a tourist destination. The building is listed as a National Historic Landmark. It now houses the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, named after its builder.
The site of the home was purchased for $50,000 in 1893 (as of 2010 that would be $1,197,562.39) by Flagler. The site was later surveyed for construction in July 1900 and the home was completed in time for Flagler and his wife to move in on February 6, 1902. The architects were John Carrère and Thomas Hastings, who had earlier designed the Ponce de Leon Hotel and several other buildings in St. Augustine for Flagler. Whitehall was to be a winter residence, and Henry gave it to Mary Lily as a wedding present. They would travel to Palm Beach each year in one of their own private railcars, one of which was No. 91.
In 1959, the site was saved from demolition by one of Henry Flagler's granddaughters Jean Flagler Matthews. She established the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum non-profit corporation, which purchased the building in 1959, opening it as a museum in 1960. The upper ten stories of the hotel addition were demolished in 1963 in preparing the museum for the public.
Today, Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, featuring guided tours, exhibits, and special programs. The museum offers several programs, many of which are seasonal, lasting only from October to January. In addition to an annual chamber music series, the Flagler hosts the Whitehall lecture series, which brings “experts and best-selling authors to discuss Gilded Age topics, events, and local history.” Past lecture series include historical talks about the dawn of the Progressive Era, World War I, Gilded Age presidents, engineering feats, and Metaphysical America: Spirituality and Health Movements During the Gilded Age. The Flagler also holds a special exhibition each year, often showcasing Gilded Age paintings, sculptures, glamour photography, or material culture, such as board games, jewelry, cartoons, Tiffany & Co. silver pieces (including ones displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition), and women's fashion. It also hosts a variety of local galas and balls throughout the year. The Museum is located at Cocoanut Row and Whitehall Way in Palm Beach.
Flagler died of injuries sustained in falling down a flight of marble stairs at Whitehall in 1913, at the age of 83. Mary Lily died four years later, and the home was devised to her niece Louise Clisby Wise Lewis, who sold the property to investors. They constructed a 300-room, ten-story addition to the west side of the building, obliterating Mr. Flagler's offices and the housekeeper's apartment, and altering the original kitchen and pantry area. Carrere and Hastings were the architects of the 1925 reconstruction. In 1939 it was described as a $4,000,000 building and Palm Beach's second-largest hotel.
When it was completed in 1902, Whitehall was hailed by the New York Herald as "more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world." It was designed in the Beaux Arts style, meant to rival the extravagant mansions in Newport, Rhode Island.
Distinct from these northern homes, Whitehall had no outbuildings or subsidiary structures. Nor had it elaborately planned or cultivated gardens. Plants, flowers, trees and shrubs were allowed to grow unaided.
The mansion is built around a large open-air central courtyard and is modeled after palaces in Spain and Italy. Three stories tall with several wings, the mansion has fifty-five fully restored rooms furnished with period pieces. These rooms are large with marble floors, walls and columns, murals on the ceilings, and heavy gilding.
Officially opened February 4, 2005, the $4.5-million Flagler Kenan Pavilion is the first addition to the property since 1925. The 8,100-square-foot (750 m2) pavilion is named after the mogul and William R. Kenan Jr., Flagler's engineer, friend and brother-in-law. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts manner by Jeffery W. Smith of Palm Beach-based Smith Architectural Group, Inc. and took almost four years to build. The featured display in this pavilion is Railcar No. 91, Flagler's private railcar built in Delaware in 1886. According to the museum, the car was restored using “documentation from the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian, the Delaware State Archives, and the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware.” It also houses the seasonal Pavilion Café and tea service.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall_(Henry_M._Flagler_House)
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Rania A. Al Mashat, Advisor, International Monetary Fund (IMF), USA speaking during the session "Investing in Peace" at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 18, 2017
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Jakob Polacsek
A piggy bank and a calculator
I am the designer for 401kcalculator.org. I have put all these images in the public domain and welcome anyone to use them however please credit our site as the source if you do: 401kcalculator.org
Thank you beautiful morning people for making our 26th CreativeMornings Cluj another awesome experience! Thank you so much Hedi Hoka for accepting our challenge and sharing with us a wonderful and inspiring talk. Thank you to our community partner ClujHub for hosting us. Thank you our dear local partners ClujLife, EBS radio, Food Waste Combat and AIESEC Cluj-Napoca. Thank you Natuu for the delicious breakfast. Thank you Alma Nicole and Jacob for sharing your musical talent and passion with us. This month’s theme is #CMinvest. @creativemorningshk chose this month’s exploration and Bao Ho (simplebao.com) illustrated it. Photo credits: Andreea Boros
Thank you beautiful morning people for making our 26th CreativeMornings Cluj another awesome experience! Thank you so much Hedi Hoka for accepting our challenge and sharing with us a wonderful and inspiring talk. Thank you to our community partner ClujHub for hosting us. Thank you our dear local partners ClujLife, EBS radio, Food Waste Combat and AIESEC Cluj-Napoca. Thank you Natuu for the delicious breakfast. Thank you Alma Nicole and Jacob for sharing your musical talent and passion with us. This month’s theme is #CMinvest. @creativemorningshk chose this month’s exploration and Bao Ho (simplebao.com) illustrated it. Photo credits: Andreea Boros
Bendigo.
Bendigo is figuratively and literally the city built on gold. Beneath the modern city is a maze of tunnels and shafts from one of the world’s richest gold finds. Bendigo meant gold. Thirty seven separate quartz reefs lie beneath the city and gold was found in them all. After the first alluvial gold was found in late 1851 diggers started to flock to the goldfields. The wives of two workers on the 200,000 acre Ravenswood sheep run are credited with finding the first alluvial gold on the sheep station but many others have also claimed this distinction. Within weeks there were signs of this gold rush becoming another California type gold rush with hopeful diggers pouring into the gold region from China, Italy, Germany, other parts of the British Empire and the other Australian colonies. The Victorian gold rushes transformed all of the Australian colonies. By mid 1852 there were 20,000 people on the Bendigo mine fields and this later swelled to 40,000 people in the Bendigo region. This figures included around 5,000 to 8,000 Chinese diggers and gold camp followers and businessmen. The names of some of the mines were taken from the gullies and regions of Bendigo and they are now suburbs of Bendigo - Kangaroo Flat, Eaglehawk, Golden Square, Long Gully, California Gully, Ironbark, etc. Gold mining might have begun on Bendigo Creek where the Gold Commissioners, who checked the miners’ licenses and where the police and courts were set up, but mining soon spread through the Bendigo district. Camp Hill overlooking Bendigo Creek and Rosalind Park became the government centre from where police and control was exercised. The old Bendigo Gaol (1859) is still up on the hill there next to the Camp Hill state school (1877). The old government Survey Office was also built here in 1858 at the top of View Street on Camp Hill and the Police Barracks were constructed at the bottom of the hill in 1859.
Bendigo was the world’s richest and biggest gold field until the discovery of the Kalgoorlie goldfields in Western Australian in the early 1890s. It was the largest and most successful goldfield in eastern Australia. Between 1851 and 1954 when the Central Deborah Gold Mine closed in Bendigo some 700,000 kilograms of gold was extracted from the Bendigo region. The value of its gold in current terms would be about $30 billion. The goldfield covered an area roughly 30 kilometres long and 12 kilometres wide. There were thousands of diggers who sought alluvial gold- and found it- in the 1850s before they were replaced by small and large companies who sank deep shafts and dug tunnels to extract the gold from the quartz reefs in the 1860s and later. There were more than 5,000 registered gold mines in Bendigo. This led to Bendigo having its own Stock Exchange so that gold shares could be sold to investors in London and around the world through the marvel of the telegraph. Bendigo had one of the few regional stock exchanges in Australia until it was closed in 2012. At least 140 mine shafts were sunk in Bendigo and some of them reached depths of 1,000 metres or more! Some of the poppet heads for these shafts still remain in Bendigo. One of the last mines to be formed was the Central Deborah Mining Company in 1939 and it was the last to operate. It only closed in 1954. Some of the most famous and successful of the Bendigo mining companies were: Shamrock, New Chum Hill, Lansell’s 222, Victoria Hill, etc. Since the closure of the Central Deborah Mine in 1954 new mining techniques have been used in the 1980s and 1990s to try and extract yet more gold from the old mine shafts and workings. Clearly all the heritage and history of Bendigo is clearly rooted in its gold mining past. Probably no other Town Hall in Australia has 22 carat gold leaf embellishments across the ceiling. The original Town Hall was a simple two storey structure designed by the Town Clerk in 1859. A structure more befitting a wealthy gold mining city was later required and local architect William Vahland was commissioned to transform the Town Hall into a grand structure which he did. His new Town Hall was built between 1878 and 1886 with ornate plaster mouldings on both the interior and exterior and although Vahland’s plan included a clock tower the clock was never installed in the Town Hall tower. It is still one of the grand buildings of Bendigo.
The town of Bendigo did not exist in formal terms until 1890 when a local committee was given the task of trying to decide who actually found the first gold and to decide upon a name for the city. Although the government town was known as Sandhurst, locally the town was always referred to as Bendigo. The committee asked local ratepayers and decided upon Bendigo for the city name in 1891 but they never decided unequivocally who found the first gold there. But they did acknowledged that the claim of Mrs Margaret Kennedy of the Ravenswood Run was probably the best claim. The origins for Bendigo City go back to 1853 when land was surveyed and the city plan drawn up. Pall Mall near Bendigo Creek became the centre for commercial activity and it remains a main thoroughfare. It became a municipality in 1863 and its prosperity ushered in a period of grand building which continued into the 1870s and 1880s. The arrival for the railway from Melbourne in 1862 aided the town greatly in terms of industry and communications for it could now send it products to the markets in Melbourne. By the early 1860s Bendigo had a flourishing industry base with flour mills, woollen mills, tanneries, quarries, foundries, a eucalyptus oil distillery and food production. The open eucalyptus woodland of this area just north of the Great Dividing Range was also felled and timber-cutting and saw milling was another important industry for the town.
Many of the architectural grand buildings of early Bendigo were created from the architectural studio of William Charles (Carl Wilhelm) Vahland and his associates. Vahland was born in Hanover in Germany in 1828. In 1849 he entered the most prestigious building school in Germany to learn the art of architecture. His theory and practical studies began at 6 am and finished at 9:30 pm except for the earlier finish at 7 pm on Saturdays. He studied architecture there for three years and learnt in great depth about Greek classical styles of architecture. His interests in this area influenced his architecture for the rest of his life. In 1852 after completing his studies he practised architect in Bremen and Hamburg before he sailed for the Victorian goldfields in 1854. He travelled immediately to Bendigo but had little success on the goldfields. By 1855 he was employed as carpenter before he became a naturalised British subject in 1857 which was also the year in which he established his own carpentry workshop making puddling cradles for miners. He ran his workshop and later architectural practice with his business partner Robert Getzschmann, with whom he worked until Getzschmann's death in 1875. Within a year or so of 1857 they were both working as architects but Vahland also was founding member of the Bendigo Building Society which later became the Bendigo Bank and he was a Justice of the Peace and he was active in local affairs. He married an English woman in 1859 and built his own residence in Barkley Terrace. Vahland went on to become the preeminent architect of Bendigo. He designed around 80 public structures for the city including a number of its best known buildings. He is known to have designed around 200 public and commercial buildings in the goldfields area of Central Victoria. He probably also designed dozens of large and small residences that have not been ascribed to his studio. He worked for over 50 years creating much of the visual landscape and the city. He died in 1915 after World War One broke out when sadly a few members of his beloved Masonic Lodge (he had been a member since 1857 and had been the Grand Master) tried to have him expelled because of his Germanic background!
Some of the notable Bendigo buildings designed by William Vahland are: the Alexandria Fountain in Pall Mall 1881; the City Family Hotel 1872; the Commercial Bank of Australia 1875; the original Post Office 1870; the Bendigo Art Gallery 1873 which was originally the Masonic Hall and Temple; the original Art Gallery 1867; the Temperance Hall 1860; the Sandhurst Club Building 1893; the Colonial Bank 1887; the original Shamrock Hotel 1860; the Town Hall 1878; the School of Mines 1864, 1878, 1887 and 1889; St Kilian’s Catholic Church 1888; St Paul’s Anglican Rectory 1885; All Saints Catholic Cathedral 1869; the Wesleyan Methodist church additions 1877; the Congregational Church 1890; the Lutheran Church 1857; the Convent of Mercy 1865; the Goldfields Hospital 1858, 1864 and 1866; the Bendigo Benevolent Asylum 1862, 1864 and 1872 etc. In addition to these significant structures in central Bendigo he designed churches and other public buildings in the outlying areas of Eaglehawk, Long Gully, Ironbark, California Gully, Kangaroo Flat etc.
Brief History of Mt Gambier – the second city of SA after Adelaide (region population nearly 35,000, urban 28,000).
Lieutenant James Grant aboard the Lady Nelson sighted and named Mt Gambier in 1800 after a Lord of the Admiralty. The first white man to traverse the area was Stephen Henty of Portland in 1839 when he sighted the Blue Lake. He returned with cattle and stockmen in 1841. He later claimed that had he known the lake and volcano he had discovered in 1839 was in SA he would have immediately applied for an 1839 Special Survey. But Henty thought he was squatting on land in NSW and he was not an official SA settler so the government ordered him off the land in 1844. Thus the first official white settler of the South East and the Mt Gambier district became Evelyn Sturt, brother to Captain Charles Sturt, who took up an occupational license in March 1844 and a property he named Compton just north of the present city. In April 1844 Governor Grey and a party of assistants including the Assistant Surveyor General Thomas Burr and artist George French Angas explored the South East naming Robe and doing the first surveys. Evelyn Sturt became the first to have an occupational license to squat and the first purchase freehold land near Mt Gambier which he did in 1847- a section of 77 acres when 80 acres was the norm. He left the district in 1854 selling his freehold land to Hastings Cunningham who in 1855 subdivided some of this land thus creating the town of Gambierton. The town lands were adjacent to the site of the first police station selected near what is now Cave Gardens by the government in 1845. A small bush inn also operated at this spot. The first streets were named after early locals such as Evelyn Sturt, Compton, Ferrers and Crouch (built the first general store before the town was created) etc. The town grew quickly because of the mild climate, fertile soils, plentiful water and the influx of settlers from across the border in what was to become the colony of Victoria. Cunningham himself was a great benefactor and donated land for the first school in 1856. In 1861 the town name was changed by act of parliament to Mt Gambier. The Hundred of Mt Gambier (along with three other hundreds) was declared in 1858 and began the closer settlement of the South East.
Unlike other areas of SA the South East was seen as paradise for pastoralists and the optimistic pastoralists flocked to the area with their flocks in 1845. The large runs locked up the land and prevented farmers from settling in the region except for the fertile lands around Mount Gambier. Here small scale farmers had small properties and grew potatoes, hops, and later had dairy cows as well as growing wheat and oats. Land acts in the early 1870s designed to break up the big runs only partially succeeded in the South East where most station owners bought up their lands freehold. It was after 1905 before the big pastoral estates were really broken up for farmers and closer settlement, except for near Mt Gambier. Apart from Evelyn Sturt the other early white settlers of the South East in 1845 were Alexander Cameron at Penola, John Robertson at Struan, William Macintosh and George Ormerod at Naracoorte, the Austin brothers at Yallum Park (later John Riddoch), the Arthur brothers (nephews of Governor Arthur of Van Diemen’s Land) at Mt Schanck( now Mt Schank) and the Leake brothers at Glencoe. In fact in 1845 nineteen leasehold runs were taken up in the South East with a further thirty runs in 1846 and most had several 80 acres sections of freehold land near the main homestead. Most had got to the South East from Casterton and Portland in Victoria as the swamps near the coast were too difficult to traverse except for the country near Robe. Many of the estates were huge. Evelyn Sturt on the Compton/Mt Gambier run had 85 square miles as well as his freehold land; Robertson had 135 square miles at Struan; George Glen (and William Vansittart) of Mayurra had 110 square miles; the SA Company had 159 square miles on the Benara run; the Leake brothers had 194 square miles on Glencoe; Hunter had 56 square miles on Kalangadoo; Neil Black of Noorat Victoria had 45 square miles on Kongorong run and 101 square miles at Port MacDonnell and the Arthur brothers had a huge run at Mt Schanck. By 1851 almost 5,000 square miles of the South East was occupied by Occupational License and most licenses were converted to 14 year leases in that year. A third of all leasehold land in SA was taken up in the South East because of its higher rainfall and suitability for pastoralism and a third of all sheep in the colony were in the South East. When Hundreds were declared in the South East in the late 1850s and early 1860s pastoralists bought up the land. In one case John Riddoch of Yallum Park owned the entire Hundred of Monbulla. Another pastoralist W. Clarke who had purchased Mt Schancke station from the Arthur brothers in 1861 owned SA land valued at £1.25 million when he died in 1874 and he had 120,000 acres freehold in Victoria, 75,000 acres freehold in SA( Mt Schank) and 50,000 acres freehold in each of NSW and Tasmania! Mt Schanck was changed in Schank in 1917 when German place names in SA were changed as Schank without the second “c” is an old English name!
In the 1850s Mt Gambier was a shanty village as the South East was a region of large pastoral estates and little agricultural farming and very low population numbers. It was far from Adelaide and remote and it was only after the Princeland episode in 1862 with the threat of possible secession to a new state that the Adelaide government began to invest in the South East and really encourage settlement there. The Border Watch newspaper was established in 1861, the Mt Gambier Hotel opened in 1862 and the Mt Gambier Council was formed in 1863.By the early 1860s Mt Gambier had almost 1,000 residents making it one of the largest towns in SA after the copper mining centres of Burra, Kadina and Moonta. By the 1881 SA census Mt Gambier had 2,500 residents making it the biggest town outside of Adelaide. In 1865 four iconic historic buildings were erected-the Courthouse, the Gaol, Christ Church Anglican and the Post Office and Telegraph Station. The flourmill which later became the Oat Mill opened in 1867 as wheat farmers had now taken up lands around the Mount. Mt Gambier was growing into a fine prosperous looking town with churches, stores, banks, hotels and fine residences. In the 1870s the rural population increased dramatically with tenant potato farmers on Browne’s Moorak estate and intensive hop growing in several localities such as Yahl and OB Flat and Glenburnie etc. Also in 1876 the first commercial forestry was started at the behest of George Goyder. A tree nursery was established on the edge of Leg of Mutton Lake in 1876 on a site selected by George Goyder himself. A stone cottage for the first nurseryman Charles Beale was constructed and it survived until demolished in 1969 but the nursery closed in 1929. The nursery propagated eucalypts, Oak, Elm, Ash, Sycamore, and North American pines. Pinus radiata was first grown at Leg of Mutton Lake and was being dispersed to other areas by 1878. Pinus canariensis was also grown in the 1880s. Pinus radiata is now the most commonly grown commercial forest tree in SA and Australia. Also in the 1870s the first hospital was erected and Dr Wehl, the town’s doctor for many years was in residence.
In the mid 1880s the first rail line was laid as the railway lines pushed out from Mt Gambier to Naracoorte. The service to Naracoorte began in 1887 and connected on with the line to Bordertown and Adelaide. By 1897 a railway connected Mt Gambier to Millicent and the port at Beachport. The railway line across the border to Heywood and Melbourne was not completed until 1917 as the SA government resisted a line that would take goods and passengers from Mt Gambier to Port Melbourne rather than to Port Adelaide. Mt Gambier railway station used to be a hive of activity with daily trains to Adelaide and an overnight sleeper services several times a week. Passenger trains to Mt Gambier from Adelaide stopped in 1990 after Australian National took over the SA railway network. Freight services stopped in 1995 and the railway line and station was formally closed. The railyards and other buildings were cleared in 2013.
The Buandik Aboriginal People.
The Buandik people are commemorated in a city street but by little else. Yet they were resilient and determined fighters opposed to the white settlement of the South East. Their occupation of the Mt Gambier district stretches back to around 20,000+ years but their dated occupation from archaeological sites goes back to about 11,000 years with their myths and legends including stories about volcanic activity at Mt Gambier. The last volcanic explosions were about 4,000 years ago. Both Mt Schank and Mt Gambier were important places to the Buandik for ceremonies, hunting, access to water and stone implement making. A government report in 1867 noted that the Buandik people in government care were few in number mainly sickly and elderly. The younger people had presumably moved out into the white community. But back in the 1840s the Buandik were a force to be reckoned with. There are no common stories of Aboriginal massacres but white pastoralists certainly retaliated when sheep were stolen. On Mt Schank station the Buandik were so troublesome that shepherds would not venture out to care for sheep alone and the Arthur brothers gave this trouble as their reason for them selling the run in 1845. In 1845 the government established a police station at Mt Gambier, which the Protector of Aboriginals visited, to ensure that pastoralists did not massacre the Buandik.
William Vansittart and Vansittart Park.
Vansittart Park has been a focal point of Mt Gambier since 1884 for activities such as family picnics, political rallies and speeches, bike racing, band rotunda concerts, bowling greens, sport oval, grandstand (1927) and Anzac memorial services. But who was William Vansittart? He was an Anglican reverend from England (Vansittart is a noble and political Anglo-Irish family in the UK) who arrived in SA in 1847 as a young bachelor. He was never licensed as a minister in SA but he developed his passions for making money and horse racing here. He mixed with the elite of Adelaide like Sir Samuel Davenport, the Governor and was a friend of Hurtle Fisher and he was Master of the Hounds. In 1850 he purchased 35 acres at Beaumont where he built Tower House and 80 acres at Mt Gambier. He imported a thoroughbred horse from Hobart called Lucifer. Ironic that a minister of religion would have a horse called Lucifer! His horses raced in Adelaide, Salisbury, Gawler, Brighton and Clare as well as in Mt Gambier and Penola. In 1851 he also took over the 110 square mile 14 year lease of Mayurra run with George Glen of Millicent. In 1852 he returned to England for a short time and on his return he purchased more freehold land bringing his estate to around 800 acres. Not long after in 1854 his horse shied, he was thrown against a tree and died of head injuries but he died intestate with an estate worth over £10,000. Glen bought out his share of Mayurra; the Beaumont house and property was sold in 1867 as were his race horses and his brother Captain Spencer Vansittart eventually inherited the Mt Gambier property. In accordance with William’s wishes 115 acres were set aside to provide income for a scholarship for boarders at St Peters Boys College which happened from 1859. Later in 1883 Spencer Vansittart offered 20 acres to the Mt Gambier Council for a memorial park at the “nominal” sum of £400 which hardly seems “nominal”. The Council raised a loan and purchased the land and the park is still enjoyed by the city’s residents and visitors. Captain Spencer’s widow sold the last package of 300 acres of land in 1912 thus ending the Vansittart links with Mt Gambier. The Vansittart scholarship is still available for boarders from the South East and is operated by a group of College trustees.
Some Historic Buildings in Mt Gambier and a town walk.
Your town walk is basically straight ahead along Penola Road towards the Mount itself which becomes Bay Road( the bay is at Port MacDonnell) once you cross Commercial Street which is the Main Street. There are just a few diversions to the left as you face the Mount. The coach will collect you at the Mount end of the walk near the Old Courthouse.
If you a good walker check out the fine houses in Jardine Street at numbers 1, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17 and 22. They range from cottages to Gothic and turreted mansions including the home of Jens the hotelier. This detour will add another 10 minutes to the walk if you elect to do it.
1.Catholic Covent. Sisters of Mercy setup a convent school in 1880. This wonderful convent was not built until 1908 in local dolomite stone & limestone quoins. Note the fine stone gables with small niches for statuary, the well proportioned arched colonnades and upstairs oriel windows – the projecting bay windows with stone supports. This is one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier. The convent closed in 1986. Now Auspine.
2.Wesleyan Methodist Church Hall/Sunday School. Across the street is pink dolomite neo-classical style Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School Hall. Hundreds of children attended Sunday School in those days. It opened in 1904. It is now commercial offices. (If you want to walk up Wyatt Street beside the Sunday School and turn right at second street which is at Gray you will see the old two storey Methodist Manse at 101 Gray St. It was built in 1868 and sold 1941. As you turn into Gray Street the Salvation Army Hall is on your left. Allow 10 minutes for this detour before returning to Penola Road).
3.Methodist Church now Liberty Church. A Gothic large church built in 1862 by the Wesleyans. Opened by minister from Portland. Additions made 1877 with new entrance. The old lecture hall and Sunday School was beneath the church. Note the buttress on corners and sides. Became Uniting Church 1977 and closed 1994 when services moved to St Andrews Presbyterian Church. Behind the church (walk through the car park) in Colhurst Place is LLandovery two storey mansion now a B&B. Built 1878 for a flour and oat miller who had his mill in Percy Street.
4.St Paul’s Catholic Church. This impressive Gothic church with huge tower with crenulations was opened in 1884 and will be open today. There are 1966 extensions to the rear of it. The Presbytery is behind the church facing Alexander St. it was built in 1901 when the church was free of building debt. The first thatched bush church was built in another location in 1855. From 1857 the priest was Father Julian Tenison Woods, explorer, academic, horseman etc. A second church opened in 1861 in Sturt St and is now demolished. It closed in 1885 as this church opened. The bells came from Dublin. The church fence and gates built 1936.
5.The Mount Gambier Club. Across the street is the Club. It was built in 1904 for a local distiller as chambers for lease. The wealthy pastoralists of the South East formed an exclusive men only club in 1913 and it has used the upper floor of Engelbrecht’s chambers ever since. They purchased the whole building in 1920. The Club is a beautifully proportioned classical style building with pediments, balustrades, window entablature, and perfect symmetry. Look down the sides and you can see it is made of Mt Gambier limestone blocks.
6.Mt Gambier Caledonian Hall. Next door is the Scots Club. Its prominence signifies the Scottish links of many Gambier residents. The hall was opened in 1914 and opened by the former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, another Scot. It has classical features but is rather ugly and neglected these days. It is now a night club.
7.The Trustees Building. Next to the Caledonian is the Trustee Building erected in 1958. Its blue and bone tiled façade is typical of 1950s architecture yet the rectangular appearance has a slight classical look about it. It is on the SA Heritage Register. Accountants now occupy it.
8.Turn left into Percy Street and go along here beyond KFC for one town block to the next corner for the Oatmills (now a coffee shop and cinemas). Milling and brewing were two of Mt Gambier’s prime 19th century industries. The 4 storey complex here was started in 1867 for Welsh Thomas Williams who eventually had five flour mills. His mill was called Commercial Flourmills. A new owner converted the mill from wheat milling to oat milling. A new oatmill was built in 1901 and operated until 1975 producing Scottish porridge oats. The mill has now been restored with café, shops and cinemas. Return to Penola Rd.
9. Mt Gambier Hotel. No hotel could have a more remarkable origin than the Mt Gambier. An African American John Byng built a weatherboard hotel near here in 1847. The third licensee Alexander Mitchell, another Scot, took it over and moved the hotel to this corner site in 1862 as an impressive two storey hotel which was unusual at that time. The western wing was added in 1883 and balconies affixed in 1902.
10.Cross towards the Mount with the traffic lights then turn left into Commercial Street East.
11.Mt Gambier Town Hall. Marked as the Riddoch Gallery this fine Venetian Gothic style building is impressive with its coloured stone work contrasting well with cement rendered horizontal lines and vertical panels around windows and doors. The upper windows are mullioned with stone divisions between the glass. It was built in 1882 with the clock tower added in 1883 after a donation. The first Council meeting was in 1863 with Dr Wehl as chairman held in a hotel. Later the Council hired a room at the Foresters Hall and then they purchased this site in 1868 with a weatherboard room. This was used until 1882.
12.Mt Gambier old Institute. The Literary Institute was formed in 1862 and a foundation stone laid for a reading room/hall in 1868 by John Riddoch. The single storey institute opened in 1869. The upper floor was added in 1887, so that it would match the new Town Hall. It is built in a similar style- Venetian Romanesque as the windows and rounded and not arched as with a gothic structure.
13.Captain Gardiner Memorial Fountain 1884. The fountain was presented by Captain Robert Gardiner the grandfather of Sir Robert Helpman (his name was originally Helpmann). The fountain was made in Melbourne .Gardiner was also a benefactor of St Andrew’s Presbyterian -he donated the pipe organ in 1885.
14.Jens Hotel. After demolishing an earlier hotel (the 1847 hotel of John Byng) Johannes Jens had the first section of his Jens Hotel built on this corner in 1884. An almost identical eastern wing was erected in 1904 and the Spanish Art Deco section in 1927. Turn right here and go behind the Town hall to the Cave Gardens.
15.Cave Gardens. This spot was an early water supply. A garden was created in 1893 and then improved and reconstructed in 1925. This sink hole has recently been upgraded again and it is lit at night.
16.Post Office. This important communications centre was erected in 1865 as a telegraph office/post office. This is till one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier and a rare example of the Georgian style for the city. . The single storey side wings were added in 1906 in a sympathetic style. It is still the main city Post Office.
17.Norris Agency Building. This superb Italianate building was completed in 1900 as chambers for businessmen. Owner was Alexander Norris who died in 1917. The façade is pink dolomite with cement quoins and unusual lined decoration work above the windows and door each contained within a triangular classical pediment.
18.Farmers Union Building. Another classical style building built when this style was out of fashion in 1914.Erected for Farmers Union as a large two storey building. It has none of the grace of the Norris building next door. FU was formed in 1888 in Jamestown by Thomas Mitchell, a Scot and others to provide cheap rates for grains, seeds and superphosphate but in the early 1900s they branched into products for dairy farmers and the marketing of milk products. The Mt Gambier district had plenty of dairy farmers. It is now owned by a Japanese company Kirin but it still markets its chocolate milk drinks as Farmers Union. Upper floor has double pilasters (flattened pillars) with top volutes but little other decoration.
19.Savings Bank Building on the corner. The former Savings Bank in Gothic style is unusual for commercial premises in Mt Gambier. It is constructed of weathered local limestone and was built in 1906. Note the different cut stone for the foundations, simulated turrets on the corners and by the door to break the façade appearance and the stone line above the lower window which then divides the façade into equal thirds.
20.Macs Hotel. This hotel was built in 1864 and is largely unchanged except that the upper floor was added in 1881. The first licensee was a Scot named John MacDonald. The double veranda supports are very elegant.
21.Roller flourmill now a painted hardware store. Built 1885 as a steam flourmill in pink dolomite. Note the small 12 paned windows set in much larger indented niches in the walls on the northern wall. (Sturt St.)
22.Christ Church Anglican Church and hall. Dr Browne of Moorak donated half the money for the construction of Christ Church in pink dolomite and with an unusual gabled tower. Church and tower completed in 1866. Adjacent is the Jubilee Hall built in 1915, destroyed by fire in 1951, and rebuilt exactly the same in weathered local limestone blocks with the original foundation stone still in place. It has the single Gothic window in the street facing gable and a crenulated square tower. Adjoining it is the 1869 Sunday School with the narrow double pointed Gothic windows. It was extended in 1892. The lychgate is more recent as a memorial to a regular church goer, Margaret French who died in 1927.
23.The old railway station just visible along the rail lines to your right. The first rail line was to Beachport in 1879 and the second to Naracoorte (and so to Adelaide) in 1887. Portland and Melbourne line opened 1917. A spur line to Glencoe was completed in 1904. First station was erected in 1879. It was demolished for the erection of the current station in 1918 which is similar in design to those in Tailem Bend, Bordertown, Moonta etc. Bluebird rail cars started on the Mt Gambier run in 1953 when the old 3’6” gauge line to Wolseley was converted to 5’3”. The last passenger service to Adelaide finished in 1990 and the station closed for freight in 1995. The railyards were cleared in 2013 and the future of the station is bleak. The rail lines to Beachport and Glencoe closed in 1956/57.
24.The Old Courthouse, 42 Bay Rd. It has a great low wall suitable for sitting on. This well designed Georgian style Courthouse opened in 1865 and the similarly styled side wings were added in 1877. The front veranda, which is not Georgian in style, was added in 1880. In 1975 the Courthouse was granted to the National Trust for a museum. The adjoining new Courthouse opened in 1975 at the same time. Note the “blind” windows to the façade but the same rounded Georgian shaped, 16 paned windows on the sides.
The Blue Lake, Mt Schank and Volcanoes.
The jewel in the crown of Mt Gambier is undoubtedly the volcanic cone, the crater lakes especially the Blue Lake and the surrounding Botanic Gardens and parklands. The Botanic Garden on the north side was approved in 1872 but nothing happened about plantings and care until 1882. The first pleasure road through the saddle between the Blue Lake and the Valley Lake was created in the 1861 as a more direct road to the then newly created international port named Port MacDonnell. That is why the road is called the Bay road. Surveyor General George Goyder explored the lake surrounds himself in 1876 when he selected the site for the government tree nursery. Later the government established the first sawmill on the edge of the crater reserve near Moorak homestead in the early 1920s. The Centenary Tower was initiated in 1900 to celebrate the centenary of Captain Grant sighting Mt Gambier. It took several years to complete and was opened by the Chief Justice of SA Sir Samuel Way in 1907 but it was completed in 1904. The whole complex is a maar geomorphological formation which originated during a volcanic era about 28,000 years ago but in a second phase of volcanic activity 4,000 to 6,000 years ago the cones and lakes of Mt Gambier were created along with the cones of Mt Schank and Mt Burr near Millicent. Mt Gambier was the most recent volcanic explosion in Australia. The crater lakes are: Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake and Browne’s Lake (dry). The Blue Lake is linked to the aquifers beneath the deep layers of limestone which underlay the entire South East. Blue Lake is about 72 metres deep and some of the water in it is estimated to be about 500 years old but it is mixed with rain runoff each year as well. The Lake provides the water supply for Mt Gambier. Deep in the lake are examples of the oldest living organisms on earth- stromatalites. The lake changes colour from grey to vivid blue each November and reverts in the following April. The change in colour is related to the position of the sun and reflected light from suspended particles in the lake which reflect blue green light rather than brown grey light. Secondly the suspended matter only occurs because the water near the surface rises in temperature in the spring and it is this which causes the particles to precipitate out of the water. The precipitated matter settles on the bottom of the lake ready for a new cycle the following spring. Like the Blue Lake various sink holes in the district have linkages to the underlying aquifer through the layers of limestone too and they include Cave Gardens, Umpherstone, Piccaninni Ponds, etc.
Moorak Station and Tenison Woods College.
Moorak station as originally known as Mount Gambier Station established by George Glen in the 1840s. The leasehold was later taken over by David Power who in turn sold it to Fisher and Rochford who in turn sold the estate as freehold to the Scottish Dr William Browne who had established Booborowie run with his brother in 1843 north of Burra. The Browne brothers dissolved their partnership around 1865 and John went to live at Buckland Park and William took up residence at Moorak. William had purchased Moorak Station in 1862 and built the grand Moorak homestead in impressive Georgian style onto a smaller house there. William died in 1894 and the Moorak Estate passed to his son Colonel Percival Browne who was to disappear on the ill-fated voyage of the new steamer the Waratah in 1909 which disappeared during a storm off Durban, South Africa. Also on that voyage was Mrs. Agnes Hay (nee Gosse) of Mt Breckan Victor Harbor and Linden Park Estate Adelaide and some 200 other poor souls. Around 1909 the Moorak Station was subdivided for closer settlement and in the 1920s the Marist Brothers purchased the homestead with a little land for their and monastery and opened the Marist Brothers Agricultural College for boys in 1931. That college in turn merged with the Mater Christi College in 1972 to become Tenison College. (Mater Christi College had been formed in 1952 by the merger of the St Josephs Convent School (1880) and St Peters Parish School but the primary section of St Peters broke away in 1969 from Mater Christi College and formed a separate St Peters Primary School. This primary school in turn merged with Tenison College in 2001 to form Tenison Woods College!) The College name commemorates the work of Father Julian Tenison Woods who arrived in Mt Gambier in 1857 to work in Penola and Mt Gambier. It was he who encouraged Mary MacKillop to take her vows and establish her Sisters of St Joseph.
Dr Browne’s manager of Moorak Estate in 1868 introduced hops as a viable crop in the South East and large quantities were grown for about 20 years. Other early experimental crops grown included tobacco, cotton and flax. Dr Browne and Moorak were also important in the potato industry. Dr Browne leased around 830 acres to 20 tenants for the express purpose of growing potatoes. He was keen to emulate the British aristocracy although he was a good Scot with being a manorial style landlord with tenant farmers. Potatoes were also grown from the early years at Yahl, OB Flat and Compton near Mt Gambier. The potatoes were carted down to Port MacDonnell and shipped to Adelaide for consumers. As one of the major wool producers of Australia William Browne contributed roughly half of the funds for the erection of Christ Church Anglican in Mt Gambier. The Moorak estate consisted of around 11,000 acres of the most fertile volcanic soil in SA with another 2,000 acres in a nearby property, German Creek near Carpenter’s Rocks. Dr Browne ran Silky Lincolns on Moorak for their wool as Merinos did not fare well on the damp South East pastures. About 2,000 acres was in wheat, about 2,500 acres was tenanted to other farmers and around 4,000 acres were in lucerne, clover, rye and other pasture grasses. William Browne returned to live in England in 1866 so his sons could attend Eton and military training colleges there. He made regular trips to SA about every second year to oversee his many pastoral properties here. When he died in 1894 he left 100,000 acres of freehold land in SA to his children who all resided here as well as leasehold land. He was an extremely wealthy man. Son Percival took control of Moorak. Before Percival’s death Moorak Estate was partly purchased by the SA government in 1904 for closer settlement when they acquired around 1,000 acres. After Percival’s death a further 6,300 acres was acquired for closer settlement and the remainder of the estate was sold to other farmers. The government paid between £10 and £31 per acre for the land. Percival Browne was highly respected in Mt Gambier and a reserve around the Blue Lake is named after him. The fourth of the crater lakes of Mt Gambier is also named Browne’s Lake after the family but it has been dry for decades. In 1900 Colonel Browne planted the ring of English Oaks around what was to become the oval of the Marist Brothers College.
Moorak.
There is a memorial by the station to William Browne as founder of the Coriadale Sheep Stud. The great Moorak woolshed was demolished in 1939. The Union church which opened in 1920 was used by the Methodists and the Anglicans. It is now a private residence. Moorak hall was opened in 1926. New classrooms were added to the Moorak School in 1928 and the first rooms opened in 1913. The cheese factory in Moorak opened in 1913 as a cooperative and was sold to Farmers Union in 1949. They closed the factory in 1979. Most of the cheese produced at Moorak went to the Melbourne market. The first cheese maker at Moorak was trained at Lauterbach’s cheese factory at Woodside. Moorak was one of a circle of settlements around Mt Gambier that had butter/cheese factories. These towns were: Kongorong; Glencoe East; Glencoe West; Suttontown; Glenburnie; Mil Lel; Yahl; OB Flat; Moorak; Mt Schank; and Eight Mile Creek.
Yahl.
In the 1860s this tiny settlement was a tobacco, hop and potato growing district and it persisted with potatoes up until recent times. Today Yahl is little more than a suburban village of Mt Gambier with a Primary school with approx 120 students. The old government school was erected in 1879. It had a Methodist church built in 1880 which operated as a church until 1977 and it had a large butter factory which had opened in 1888. The butter and cheese factory was taken over by the OB Flat cheese factory in 1939 and the two operated in conjunction with each other. The OB Flat cheese factory closed in 1950 and all production moved to Yahl. The factory finally closed in 1971. The township of Yahl also had a General Store and a Salvation Army Hall which was built in 1919.
Sink Holes: Umpherston Gardens and Cave Gardens.
James Umpherston purchased land near Mt Gambier in 1864 which included a large sink hole or collapsed cavern with a lake in the bottom. He was born in Scotland in 1812 and came to SA in the 1850s with his brother William. William purchased his first land at Yahl in 1859. James Umpherston was a civic minded chap being a local councilor, a parliamentarian in Adelaide for two years and President of the Mt Gambier Agricultural and Horticultural Society for 13 years. When he retired from civic life and farming in 1884 he decided to create a garden in his sinkhole. He beautified it and encouraged visitors and even provided a boat in the lake for boat rides. Access was gained by steps and a path carved into the sinkhole walls. However after he died in 1900 the garden was ignored, became overgrown and was largely forgotten in 1949 when the Woods and Forests Department obtained the land for a new sawmill at Mt Gambier. By then the lake had dried up as the water table had fallen over the decades. In 1976 staff, rather than the government, decided to restore the Umpherstone gardens. The cleared out the rubbish that had been dumped in the sinkhole, restored the path access, trimmed the ivy and replanted the hydrangeas and tree ferns. In 1994 the Woos and Forests Department handed over the land around the sinkhole to the City of Mt Gambier. It was added to the SA Heritage Register in 1995.
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