January 1, 2026 New Year’s Day in Melbourne

We arrived at Port Melbourne, Victoria, on 2026 New Year’s Day. The ship was moored and passengers were disembarking shortly after 8 a.m. The temperature was 15°C, very little wind to start but it strengthened to about 20 kph by noon. The sky was mostly cloudy, but most of the cloud had disappeared by 10 a.m. Outside the harbour the waves had whitecaps.

After breakfast in the dining room, we were off the ship about 9:30 a.m. In the Port Melbourne cruise terminal, we purchased Myki transit cards at $18 Australian for all day travel. It could be used on all trams and buses. The stop for the cruise passengers special express bus to the city central was just outside the cruise terminal. Claire forgot her GPS device so we have no map of our wanderings today.

Melbourne is located on Port Phillip Bay. It is the Australian state of Victoria’s capital and the second largest city in Australia. The Melbourne metropolitan area has a population of over five million people. Its history was shaped by Indigenous heritage, colonial settlement, gold rush wealth, and modern multicultural growth. The land on which Melbourne stands is the ancestral home of the Kulin Nation, a group of five Aboriginal nations including the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, and Wathaurong peoples.

Melbourne was not established as a convict colony. In 1835, two groups of settlers from Tasmania led by John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner arrived independently.

In 1837, Melbourne was officially named after British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.

In 1851, the Victorian gold rush began growing Melbourne quickly into one of the richest cities in the world at the time. By 1861, Melbourne had overtaken Sydney in size. It had grown from 77,000 five years before to 540,000 in 1863 as a result of the Victoria Gold Rush.

When Australia became a federation on January 1, 1901, Melbourne served as the nation’s capital until Canberra was established in 1927. Melbourne’s Parliament House served as headquarters for the federal government until 1927.

Melbourne hosted the 1956 Olympics. The first Olympics in the Southern Hemisphere.

Breaking News today - A fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland at a resort bar, Constellation Bar, that reported so far 40 people had died and 115 injured had severe burns. It may have been caused by patrons’ sparklers and candles.

Israeli has banned 37 international aid agencies from Gaza, because they had not supplied the names of all employees in Gaza.

Northern Queensland, Australia, is dealing with heavy rainfall since Boxing Day and there are major flooding and some flood warnings. This could affect our visit to Townsville and Cairns on January 9, 10 and 11. There was also strong wind warnings along the eastern coast of New South Wales and possible heat warnings in the next week.

We arrived at Queensbridge Square, the express bus terminus. We walked along the Southbank Promenade a short distance to near Princes Bridge. We turned to the path along the Yarra River through the Alexandra Gardens, part of the Kings Domain parklands. The parklands include many memorials and statuary reflecting historical Melbourne. These included the Alexandra Gardens, The Queen Victoria Gardens, the Shrine of Remembrance and the Royal Botanical Gardens.

We walked, at several times during our three hour wander of the Domain parkland, on parts of 3.8 km running circuit called Tan Track. The Tan was originally constructed in the early 1900's as a tanbark horse-riding track. A possible reason for the name is because of the tan coloured fine stone aggregate of the nine meters wide path.

The Alexandra Gardens were created and completed in time for a Royal visit by the Duke of York in May 1901. The gardens are named after Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of King Edward VII. The star-shaped garden bed in the centre of the gardens was designed to represent the Federation of Australia.

We reached the City Gate (northern) entrance to the Royal Botanical Gardens about 20 minutes after arriving in Melbourne. The Royal Botanical Gardens were established in 1843, just a five acre swampy marshland.

The first section ran parallel to the Yarra River. Across the river we could the Rod Laver arena, which hosts the Australian Open tennis tournament annually. The stadium can be seen in the background of the photo of the Temple of Winds. The hydrangea are not bushes here they are more like trees.

There was the original gardener’s house along the way. By the Visitors Centre was the original Observatory. In the early days of Melbourne there was no public clock, so there was no common time for working hours. In 1863 the Melbourne Observatory opened. Astronomers observed the night skies and established the local time for the Bourke street public clock and for mariners to set their chronometers. The Observatory was decommissioned in 1945. Nearby is the Government Astronomers House where between 1853 and 1944, the three successive chief astronomers lived with their families.

From the Observatory, we could see the Shrine of Remembrance completed in 1927 to the memory of the men and women who gave their lives during the Great War. We could see the southern facade, and viewed all four sides. There is entrance at the south east corner to enter the visitor centre. There is a wall of 400 medals, each represents 100 military members who have fought in wars. Close by is a column behind a perpetual flame which was lit in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth II. Three of the sides list the wars fought by the three branches of the Australian Armed forces R.A.N., A.M.F and R.A.A.F. since 1939.

Continuing through the gardens, several people were gathered by a tree trying to get a glimpse of a song bird which was brownish but had a reddish breast that blended with the leaves of the Cockscomb Coral tree.

Charles Joseph La Trobe became the first Lieutenant-Governor of the newly formed colony of Victoria in July 1851 and laid the foundations for modern-day Melbourne. The La Trobe cottage was relocated several times from its original 1839 location. It was shipped from England as a prefabricated two-room dwelling made by Manning of London. It was assembled upon arrival with the addition of a locally-built dining room, the first of many additional rooms needed for a growing family. The cottage and garden now reside in the Domain parklands near Government House and the Shrine of Remembrance, in a precinct that was granted a permanent place on the National Heritage List in 2018.

Strolling along the Australian Forest Walk we viewed a Lily pond with pink waterlilies. Next was Guilfoyle’s Volcano which was designed in 1876 by the Royal Botanic Gardens' most influential Director, William Guilfoyle, as a back up water source for the gardens. It was redesigned by landscape gardener Andrew Laidlaw in 2010. The original bluestone reservoir was modelled after a Vanuatu volcano. The reservoir captures stormwater to filter and resupply stormwater to the Gardens. It is surrounded by a succulent garden including plump bulbous Golden Barrel cacti from Mexico.

We followed a path to the Field Collection Arid Gardens then on to the Terrace area and its restaurants overlooking the small lake. The lake by the Terrace contained tall waterlilies and a large purple flowering jacaranda tree. From the Gelato cart, we ordered cups of gelato - Dark Chocolate and Caramel Fudge - to enjoy under a tree by the lake. Our step count was 10,618 having walked 6.2 km so far.

We continued walking around the lake on our way out of the gardens. There was an island with orange flowers at one end of the lake. We exited at the City Gate where we had entered the gardens. We walked along Linlithgow Ave. to St. Kilda Rd. We were at the Queen Victoria Garden by the statue of King Edward VII who reigned over the British Empire from 1901 to 1910. Before crossing Princes Bridge we saw the garden’s floral clock.

Crossing the bridge we could see St. Paul’s Cathedral and Flinders Street Station and arrived at Federation Square. On Flinders Street we found the stop for the free #35 City Circle vintage tram route that circles the Central Business District in time for its 2 p.m. arrival at the stop. Our step count was 15,182. We passed Victoria Harbour. On Latrobe Street we passed Melbourne Central Station and the State Library Victoria, then turned onto Nicholson Street. After three quarters of the circuit the driver announced there would be a ten minute wait. We were at the Parliament House and had rested for 40 minutes. We walked down Bourke St passing the Chinatown Gate then over to Collins Street and seeing Melbourne Town Hall. We found the tram stop for #109 to go back to Port Melbourne. The ride was about 22 minutes. It was about an eight minute walk back to the cruise terminal. The temperature at 4 p.m. was a pleasant 20°C with a wind about 16 kph. We had accumulated 20,066 steps.

Our first place to go on the ship was the Library Café, then dinner without Elizabeth and Colin who were enjoying dinner at the Italian restaurant, Canaletto. When we returned to the stateroom after dinner, the laundry which we had sent our yesterday morning was returned on hangars again. We just had to remember to peel off the laundry tags before we put our clothes away.

The Show tonight, Solid Gold, was presented by the World Stage singers and dancers plus the Dam Band. It was well presented.

Total steps 23,219