The Mansion at Werribee Park. It is a large place built in 1874-77 like an English country estate. When touring it, we were able to hear the audio played to us when we enter each room in the mansion via headset. Pretty cool technology. The garden was huge, complete even with a lake. How I wished I had such luxury in the early days. Must be quite a privilege.

Rusted metal gate leading to worker's house in the mansion grounds. This mansion is so large, it had its own blacksmith, maid quarters, windmill, farm, servant quarters etc.

It was a late winter and early spring, and it was only 4 days ago on 14 August 2004 that Melbourne experienced the coldest August day in 26 years. Saw a budding tree with young leaves peeking out to greet the coming Spring.

Volunteer Rifle Band bollards in Geeloong (74km from Melbourne). Only an hour's drive from Melbourne, Geelong is Victoria's second largest city and the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. More than 100 brightly-painted bollards are dotted around the bay depicting some of Geelong's local historic characters.

Footprints on the sand in the morning sun. We had a night's rest at Anglesea, just 30km way from Geelong. Anglesea is on the Great Ocean Road, and has some nice beach for surfing and swimming.

Lightkeepers Stables Tearooms & Gallery in the foreground with the Split Point lighthouse in the background. This tearoom offers home-made scones, cakes, light fare, gifts, woodwork and home made jams. Just look at the clouds in the sky.. I just love how they seem to accentuate the dyanmics of this photo....

A heart-warming scene of the mother, playing sand with her son. I could almost hear the son's chuckling and see fine sand slipping from his little hands onto his mother's legs. Love can be simple - simply being there for him.

Along the streets of Lorne, where we stopped for lunch. This was shot from the restaurant out to the streets, which is actually the Great Ocean Road itself. Benches are available outside, and if you want fresh breeze and a view of the ocean while you eat, you are welcome to do so! :)

At Apollo Bay (186km from Melbourne), where the Great Ocean leaves the coast for a while, we visited the Marriners Lookout in the hills to get a bird's eye of the town. To our pleasant surprise, we saw a small basket of cute little gum nut babies in it. We put some funds into the metal tin (to support the owner who had graciously opened the Marriners Lookout to the public for the viewing from the hills). We got two of them to bring home!

This is the famous twelves apostles rock stacks! It was a pity that the light condition was not too good (I think it is better in the morning because the sun would be behind me and the rocks would be looking just great the sea blue!). Plus the slight overcast sky made it difficult to get good results.

In Australia, it is good to have a vehicle so that you can explore the grounds. You can be considered seriously disadvantaged without a vehicle. So I would strongly encourage a self-drive iternary. Saw this rugged looking vehicle parking near the various rock formation region, and took a photo. The sky looked okay from this shot though... :)

A Koala Bear in the Tower Hill State Game Reserve (15 kilometres west of Warrnambool). This reserve sits snugly inside an extinct volcano, a beautiful haven for wildlife with koalas, emus, kangaroos and many species of waterbirds roaming freely.

Lighthouse at the Griffith Island in Port Fairy. This lighthouse was built by the Government to improve Maritime Safety as there were much rocks and shallow water around the island (formerly called the Rabbit Island).

Leaving the Great Ocean Road's coast and making our way up north into the Grampians, we are now at the Grampians National Park's MacKenzie's Falls, more than 230km away from Melbourne.

A duck, oblivious to my presence, enjoying its swimming in a small pond, feeding and tidying up its features. What I liked about this shot is the nice little ripples that the ducky has created around itself. The effect is nice, and I personally like it.

Although I have absolutely no idea what this vegatation (or is it a flower or just special leaves of the plant?). It has a very nice hue to it under the nice (not so harsh) morning sun. A 300mm lens in good light and steady hand can produce quite acceptable macro like effect as demonstrated in this shot... :)

On our way back to our accomodation at Halls' Gap, we had the great opportunity to see many kangaroos roaming freely in fields. So we stopped the car and snapped this cool portrait for this curious kangi looking at our white vehicle, which is humming away with the engine running. Taken with 300mm zoom lens with the car window as my supporting structure.... :P

After Halls Gap, we made our way to Aarat. The Great Grape Road - Wine regions of Western Victoria can be found here, and as we waited for the winery to open early in the morning, I saw a web covered with dew and glittering in the morning sun along the fences leading to the winery.

In Australia, we not only enjoy the views, we also quite like the Chinese food cooked by the Noodle Canteen. It is quite satisfying. Although by Singapore's standard, they are not exactly there yet. However, I felt this is because of the need to adjust the seasoning and ingredients to the Australian community there. Not a bad attempt at that at all...

A Mining exhibit and fun station at the Sovereign Hills in Ballarat. Sovereign Hills is actually a recreated 1850s goldfields township where real gold flows in the creek and history comes alive. There are adventure rides, authetic exhibits of the historical gold rush in Australia, when gold can even be discovered at the ground surface, on the very ground we walk back then!

We are back to Melbourne after all that travelling to the west and south west of Melbourne. Flinders Street Railway Station at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets is the oldest city station in Australia, built in 1854.

Rowing in the Yarra River. One of the most spectacular features of Melbourne is the Yarra River. The Yarra River flows right by the city. We noticed that there are quite a number of rowing clubs located along the river, and it is likely be a very popular sports here.

In the city, the pace of life increase. Time is precious. A man rushing home from work to rest in preparation for the next hectic day tomorrow. Contrasting the relaxing shopping scene behind, it makes wonder if that's all to life - working, resting, shopping and more work?

I have no idea what's the name of this sculpture. Just thought it was very interesting and so I snapped it and here it is. I tried to search high and low for a name and description of this sculpture, but to no avail....