Tribrute to Melbourne's West; a little jewel on the landscape

Today is the 1st of June which only means one thing for me and that is; I have exactly 1 month left of living in Melbourne - and only 4 weeks to pack up yet another household...Yikes!!

How quickly did the last 10 months go? And now, in a blink of an eye, we only have 4 weeks left with so much still left to do. I am usually a well oiled organised person but lately I have put down the sails, gone with the flow, and basically slowed right down which in many ways is good that I have finally learnt that things will still get done, just at a more leisurely pace and if I don't waste time worrying then it usually all works out anyway. This has been marvelous practice for where I am heading and I can tribute my calmness & new found peace to a place called 'Altona'.

So....as we are nearing our departure date I feel I owe a special blog post to commemorate this wonderful jewel in Melbourne's landscape which we happened to come across so unexpectedly.

Altona, a beach side suburb of Melbourne, was not our first choice of residence when we decided to persue this dream of ours. We knew that to get to our final destination we would need a 'pit stop' along the way as it was not possible for Bill to get to Queenscliff without stategically placing himself at Point Cook first to learn the ins and outs of Army records and archives which would eventually help him secure the job & location of his dreams. 

 Initially we thought we would just rent a house in Point Cook, where the houses are all newly built and the rent cheaper than areas surrounding it.  As 'luck' would have it, whilst hosting a 21st party at our place in Watsonia for our daughter's best friend, I spent the evening conversing with a couple whom I had not known before this night and who just happended to be from Point Cook.  I found this amazing as we did not know a single soul from that side of Melbourne and were just about to commit to a few we had liked the look of.  The timing of this couple being in my home with information that I really needed to know right in that moment  has always made me smile when I recall what happened and again confirms my belief in how the universe works for you if you just get out of the way and let it bring you what you need.  The message delivered to me that night was - Dont live in Point Cook if you need to get to the other side of the city (which I did need to for work).

The Melbourne urban sprawl is creating road blocks and traffic jams everywhere in newly developed communities all over. As suburbia is sprawling, it then takes another 10 years for infastructure to catch up with new roads and rail links to help move the masses. Had we been moving into the area now it wouldnt have been as bad as a new rail station has just opened at Williams Landing, a state of the art new rail station.  Hopefully this new station will ease the bottleneck along Point Cook Road, however it now has made my train commute a bit squashier.

 I thank the universe every day that I was given that message, and because of what we learned we took Point Cook off our radar and concentrated on Williamstown and Altona. We needed to find a home near a railway line so that Matt and I had access to get into the city for work and the many specialist appointments Matt would endure while finding help with his Kerataconus condition and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As it turned out our house was indeed near a railway line in fact directly opposite the railway line, you couldnt have gotten closer if you had tried!  Another 'thumbs up' to the universe!

To say we have been delighted to explore this new area is an understatement.  What we found over this side was totally the opposite to what I had imagined. The West Gate bridge had for many years haunted me as one of my best friends tragically took her life on it when I was pregnant with my first child. This had such an impact on me that I spent many years avoiding crossing it if I could.  The bridge also held an old but vivid memory from 1970 when in the school ground, as a young 6 year old Prep we heard about the historic collapse of the bridge during construction where 35 workers were killed on that fateful day, sadly one was the father of a girl in my class. However, over the past 10 months that same bridge has shown me another side of Melbourne, one I would never have known had we not walked this path.

The West Gate Bridge

 

I find it amazing that you can live in a city for 49 years, travel to the other side of the world and still not get to see parts of your own backyard. There is so much history to Melbourne, particularly on this side, around Footscray along the banks of the Maribyrnong river where many Heritage listed buildings have now become part of the community such as the Footscray Community Arts Centre  and the old Cotton Mills, Footscray.

Altona taught us to live life better, get ourselves out and about on the weekend and explore. Here we found so many paths to walk, made time to sit along the beach, be amongst families enjoying the sunshine in the park, admired the windsurfers along the Altona beach, & watched the locals fishing along the pier.  What we noticed the most was that people were out & about, living and loving life and it was very refreshing and in turn gave us a new lease of life. Altona has also taught me to love the sea. There is something about the sea which draws you outside, you can do your best thinking while sitting watching waves crash onto the shore or over rocks.  Its one of life's precious gifts and is immensly calming  by teaching you how to 'be in the moment'




 I will look back fondly on my strolls down Pier Street, stopping at one of the many cafe's along the way, catching up with girlfriends in Yarraville, a beautiful and eclectic shopping precinct which quickly became my favourite and of course the pretty pier in Williamstown where we spent many a sunny Sunday afternoon eating ice cream. Had we not had the rest of this dream to continue on with, we could have been very tempted to park ourselves here for a while...so thank you Altona and the West side of Melbourne, its been a real pleasure to have lived it...

In 4 weeks time, we will leave this place but it will not leave our hearts for what we found here will stay with us forever...

I will leave you with some of my husband's beautiful photography on this west side of Melbourne which we called ''home''for a little part of this journey...

Beautiful Williamstown & its marina 

was a place we frequented

To go for a walk, we went strolling 

 around Cherry Lake

Here are some common sights to see along

 the Esplanade, Altona Beach

Any day was good enough

along the beautiful Altona Pier

 

and we spent many a balmy summer night 

waiting for the sun to set...

We would explore the Railway yards at Footscray 

& around the old Cotton Mills

and  on the way home,

stop for coffee in Yarraville

or just relish in the peace that surrounded us...

But whenever we ventured out, it was always a pleasure, 

so 

Thankyou Altona for making our stay most welcome...

Photography by Bill Vallence