Not too far from my hood, and literally down the road road from where I live, on Beaconsfield Parade is Kerford Road Pier; one of a series of piers that are on the edge of Port Philip Bay and are part of my favourite parts of Melbourne. I’m pretty lucky to be able to get here in under 10 minutes on any day of the week, pretty much whenever I want to!

Following up to yesterday’s post on Prince’s Pier, with the containerisation boom, the pier became unused, being closed to public access in the early 1990s due to the poor timber condition, and squatters caused a fire in the late 1990s that destroyed the store structures.

In the three years to 2004, 14 fires occurred.

The Victorian state government spent $60 million fully restoring the first 196 metres of the Pier, beyond which the decking was removed and the original pylons preserved.

The pier reopened to the public in December 2011. Yesterday morning’s sunrise was one of the best that I have experienced in Melbourne in a while now.

I have lived in Melbourne for a little over 4 years now. When I first moved here, Prince’s Pier nothing more than a construction site. It has now taken on a new image.

This 580 metre long historic pier was known as the New Railway Pier until renamed Prince’s Pier after the Prince of Wales. The pier was constructed between 1912 and 1915 by the Melbourne Harbour Trust to supplement the adjacent Station Pier (originally the “Railway Pier”). Until 1969, it was a major arrival point for new migrants, particularly during the post-war period.

After a bit of cabin feer this weekend, I wandered down to the beach – my usual sanctuary on days when I feel I need to leave life behind. As my timing would have it, I arrived just as the Spirit of Tasmania was leaving the Port on an evening when the wind had picked up, and the surf was rough and battering the pier that juts out into Port Philip Bay.

Sometimes, the simplest of compositions work the best. This is one of the many piers along Beaconsfield Parade. This one is set apart from the many others – it has been condemned and is no longer in use. (I am told that it used to be a boat ramp, but in more recent times, vehicle access to this section of the beach has been discontinued).

An annual occurrence every summer in Melbourne, the Spiegeltent is back for one more year, outside the Arts Centre. I’ve never attended any of the performances, but I am told that it is something that is very, very symbolic of the spirit of Melbourne.

I stopped by the post office today on my way back from an appointment. Truth be told, I was trying to keep cool on a very warm day and was routing my way through the city’s air-conditioned arcades. This is what greeted me at the GPO… I think its safe to call it “Mail Drop”!

A medieval cosmic dish; this is not going to receive any TV channels, but back in its heydey, astronomers used it to help them calculate eclipses, and predict major cosmic events. (Note the marker at the intersection of the wires at the center).

The last in this series of the four gates from Ridhi Sidhi Pol at Pitam Niwas Chowk in Jaipur’s City Palace – this is the Peacock Gate situated in the Northeastern corner of the courtyard. It is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and associated with autumn.

Each of these gates has a spiritual connection that is part of the faith on the people of India from this region, and the very essence of life in medieval India. They are among the finest examples of the attention to intricate detail that the Rajputs had in every aspect of their lives, and still lives on today as part of the culture of this amazing region.

Comic: Canon, Nikon, and iPhone.