The Funnel

Stormwater drain under Vergurgghen St, Melba (on the corner of Copland Drive). The buildings in the background are the college (Year 11-12) campus of Melba-Copland Secondary School.

Water water everywhere ...

The same creek from Friday, but this time from the bottom end of Copland Drive, Melba (the suburb of Evatt is on the other side of the road behind me). We've had even more rain, and it's bigger and moving faster. These trees are normally all on dry ground.

And they're off!

Despite the rain, BMX racing was on this morning at the track at the bottom of Melba. My daughter was impressed by the number of girls racing :)

High school basketball courts

Late afternoon light on the treetops around the Melba-Copland high school basketball courts.

I'll meet you at the bike racks after school

The empty bike shed at Melba-Copland high school, waiting to be occupied again on Monday. Abandoned, apart from the dead leaves and a damaged dictionary left behind on the cold concrete floor ...

Dreaming art

This mural is located on the grounds of Melba-Copland Secondary School High School Campus (high school in Canberra is Year 7-10, about 12-16 years of age, and is followed by college - Years 11 and 12, about 17-18 years of age).

The mural was painted by Dale Huddleston and dated 2001. Dale is an Aboriginal artist, and is well represented in Canberra schools. He was a student at Woden Valley High School and worked as artist-in-residence with the ACT Department of Education for 10 years.

Melba shops on a Tuesday night

Each of Canberra's local shopping centres has its own character. Often they are built on two or three sides of a central carpark, but Melba's has a small piazza-type space, with deciduous trees for summer shade.

This image was taken last night, a little after 8pm. There weren't many people around, although the Indian restaurant (on the left), the takeaway (brightly lit in the centre), the small supermarket (further round to the right) and the Chinese restaurant (Fortune Cookie, where we had dinner) were all still open.

The sculpture on the far left is inspired by Dame Nellie Melba, after whom the suburb is named. Born Helen Porter Mitchell in 1861, she took the stage name Melba. 'Melba' is a contraction of Melbourne, the city where she was born. She became famous as an opera singer in Europe, England, Australia and North America, and returned to tour Australia (including quite remote country towns - she thought all Australians should have the chance to hear 'the Voice') several times to great acclaim. She led a very unorthodox life for a girl from the Melbourne suburbs, and her life story makes interesting reading.

Harmonies [Jennifer Jones & Philip Nizette, 2008]