@@brianmalady1190 from memory, people come past 1800 and named the bay. Whalers were around the bay and port fairy but no township was established. When the crown finally came round to establish a town they came across a squatter farmer township. But history class was 20+ years ago. Portland was chosen for a township cause the bay was better for ships.
I think one of the reasons why tram patronage is low is due to there being few routes in the west and where they all are in the east most people choose to drive despite having excellent tram coverage especially around Malvern with the 5, 6, 16, 58 and 72
It's also very route dependant. Speed, accessibility, walkability (which takes patronage away) and proximity to higher order transportation (trains) all effect patronage. Coverage isn't everything
Trams in the East do not get priority. We have 4 lane roads, with trams taking 2 lanes, parked cars taking 2 lanes, and drivers using the tram lanes which slows traffic for everyone. We need to abolish parking on these streets and segregate cars from trams so that both modes become faster.
Trams are ridiculously slow outside of the really inner suburbs. take a tram from Glen Huntly to the city on a train, 20 minutes, take a tram 60 minutes. They are essentially bigger buses. Way to slow and too many stops
My personal experience is the 82 is nearly never on time and, as already said, the coverage isn't too good so when the one major route they do have is unreliable, it leaves a lot to be desired.
Thanks Philip, I met a guy at a wedding about 20yrs ago and he was an engineer, and he designed the floating rubbish traps along the river. Personally I wouldn't swim in the Yarra. I'm a big theater goer in Melbourne and we have some wonderful old theaters. It would be nice if you could do a story on our lovely old theaters, the Princess Theatre is a real work of art.
Other myths or legends about Melbourne: - that RMIT started building a nuclear power station under the city campus - that a sex worker died in a tunnel between parliament and a brothel - would be great if you could revive the old Walking Melbourne forum and its building register. It was an excellent archive of information
While RMIT never actually built it (or even begun building it), there were plans at one point to build a research reactor underneath the city campus. I'm not entirely sure how well-developed the plans were, but I get the sense that a lot of people were very serious about it. If I recall correctly, I think the anechoic (acoustic) chambers were ultimately built in the space that would have been occupied by the reactor, had it been constructed.
@@ScottTodd92 The chambers on the left of the driveway as you came under 14? Makes sense. There was a lab around there that had radiation testing from memory. The reactor never got passed the discussion phase as Victoria was still a ‘nuclear free state’ like the old rego plates
Great video! Note that the Werribee River to the west is the demarcation between Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples and Wadawurrung people... That area is still part of metro Melbourne... ☺️🙏🏼
here's another - Ava Gardner never uttered the notorious 'quote' to the effect that Melbourne was the ideal place for a film about the end of the world. It was fabricated by Sydney journalist Neil Jillett, later an Age film critic, who was asked to write a story for Sydney's Sun-Herald . He explained many years later that he incorporated it into a paragraph at the end of a story out of spite for the film giving Melbourne so much attention.
Theres a myth about the train station architectural design getting muddled with a design that was going on in India. India got Melbourne's and Melbourne got India's. Myth apparently.
As a Melburnian, I found this interesting. Have Liked, and realised this probably came across my feed because I'm already subscribed. (Just a pet peeve I have to express: when presenters say "without further ado...." and then proceed with further ado!)
It's illegal to swim in the Yarra from Dights Falls into the CDB, and there have been platypus in Merri creek, as close as Northcote, and the Yarra at Yarra bend. Also the Yarra is a single narrow Delta mouth, where as Sydney's rivers enter multiple deep bays, and isn't concentrated in the same manner
As a child I remember swimming the upper reaches of the Yarra. And as a retired commercial diver who spent years in the lower Yarra, I can attest to the general cleanliness of the river.
@@philmenzies2477 As a teenager in the sixties l would go swimming at Yarra bend under the paper mill (the concrete tank/pool on the bank was to small to be fun) I vividly remember the dead fish floating on the water. Way before any one had ever heard the word pollution. Years later and to this day I wonder what APM and then Visy were dumping into the Yarra
@@longdongjohn6588 I've swam at laughing waters several times, it's a great place to cool down in summer if you live in the inner north of Melbourne! Water is very cold though, even in the summer months
Not a myth per se, but Melbourne is knoen for being wet, but in terms of average amount its pretty dry: about 630mm vs 1200mm in Sydney. We just get a lot of drizzle.
New Year's Eve 1999/2000, I was walking right past where you are standing in the video. I'd had a bit to drink of course, welcoming in the Year 2000 and walking past a Canadian tourist (I know because he told me during the conversation), I heard him loudly say to his mate 'Why is this river so dirty! Look how brown it is!'. I couldn't help myself, also being a Melbourne history nerd. 'No no, I chimed in. It's not dirty, it's just full of suspended silt and clay from the upper Yarra." He was pleasantly relieved and seemed quite interested. I then proceeded to point to enterprise park, pointing out where the waterfall used to be, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner and on and on before my girlfriend at the time dragged me away, lol. We are out there Phillip! The irony is, I moved to Pascoe Vale about 6 years ago and live in what was then the edge of his dairy farm.
according to burkes backyard tv show, the clay around melbourne is very pure and makes good quality bricks. that quality may be why melbourne's river appears to run more upside down than other rivers.
@@SaishsJahshsb-ou9nl That's not federation square. That's down by the pedestrian bridge near Crown, where you come out from underneath the Flinders st station underpass.
A Melbourne Myths video that DIDN'T mention the weather... what the actual :D FUN FACT: Melbourne has around half the total annual rainfall and number of rain days compared to Sydney & Brisbane. But somehow, it's Melbourne with the mythological reputation for "bad weather".
Melbourne has an average of 135 precipitation days compared to Sydney's 95. However, Sydney has more than twice the rainfall. Melbourne's reputation for bad weather is due to the unpredictable changes that happen. When Sydney rains, it rains consistently. Melbourne's rain can come even when the sky looks blue. It might be 5 minutes of rain. It might be 5 hours of rain.
The difference is that most of the other cities tend to get their rain in shorter, more intense bursts whereas ours is usually relatively light but more sustained. As an example, in 56 years of data Melbourne averaged 48.6 clear days and 179.4 cloudy days annually compared to Sydney averaging 103.9 clear days and 133.2 cloudy days annually over the same 56 year period. I wouldn't say we have the worst weather but the grey, overcast, showery skies and the cold antarctic winds through our winters certainly leave a fair bit to be desired
@@Ryzi03 I loathe humidity and heat. I enjoy how Melbourne's weather changes. Sydney has torrential downpours. To me Queensland is (with my take on the advertisement quote), "Beautiful one day, BORING the next!" I love that after a few really hot days in Melbourne a cool change comes in.
On point 4, I'm barely 5km from the CBD and the only tram route nearby is the 82 which is fairly useless for my needs apart from maybe going to Highpoint once in a blue moon. I'm studying at Melbourne Uni at the moment and even then, 9 times out of 10 I much prefer to take a nicer stroll up Swanston St from Melbourne Central rather than trying to squeeze onto a packed tram just to travel a few stops. Quite often I'll beat the tram up to the uni on leg anyway, especially if the next tram is still a few minutes away once I get off the train at Melbourne Central
‘Popular’ and ‘Common’ are not synonyms. While Tram journeys may not be the most common, the fact that you can make a short trip with no commitment does make them more popular.
If the data is from how many passengers touch on with Myki, then it will be skewed in favour of trains. At many stations you have to touch on to open the gates to access platforms. Yet on trams many people don't touch on and aren't included in statistics. If inspectors board the tram they will quickly touch on before the inspectors see them.
@@slowmanatwork also very few people touch on trams, trains you pretty much have to touch on especially if you want to get out of the city loop stations
It isn't just myki touch on and off rates. DTP have used several different formulas over the years that take into account a number of data sources. These do include touch on rates, but also in-person surveys and in-vehicle passenger counters. There's more detail in the metadata on the DataVic website: discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/train-service-passenger-counts
Great to see factual information being shared instead of the same urban myths! Off to have a look at some of your other videos. Hopefully you've got one debunking that Flinders St Station was designed for Mumbai. It really concerns me that so many people think that!
Williamstown was to be the first European ‘settlement’ until some bright spark piped up ‘What do we do for water?’ so they went up the Yarra a bit until it wasn’t salty.
That's the order of the streets. But Queen St is named for Queen Adelaide (thankfully we don't have an Adelaide St), and Elizabeth St is named for Governor Bourke's wife, Elizabeth. Governor Bourke of course has a street named fpr him that intersects Elizabeth Street, but clean thoughts only.
Queen is named after Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. Elizabeth Street is presumed to have been named in honour of governor Richard Bourke's wife. There was no 'Queen Elizabeth' in 1837 when the streets were laid out. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth
I'd argue the water is suitable for swimming as far downstream as Fairfield (Deep Rock Swimming Hole). Anywhere downstream of around Abbotsford is illegal due to it being a boat channel, not because it's unsafe.
If the tram data is based on Myki touch ons, i can confidently report that the amount of people touching on ( especially the 86) is virtually zero during peak times. Ticket inspectors ignore trams that are packec and the commuters know it.
DTP have used several different formulas over the years that use a number of data sources to measure patronage. These do include touch on rates, but also in-person surveys and in-vehicle passenger counters. There's more detail in the metadata on the DataVic website: discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/train-service-passenger-counts
Used to know my way around Melbourne but that was over 40 years ago. Was lost more less within a couple of minutes when buses replaced trains the day I had to see the neuro-surgeon 3 years ago. Living and mostly loving a 2 traffic-light town suits me far more.
Thanks for this, do you have any information or sources where I can look into this? I haven't been able to find any, other than references to the first European in the area in 1834.
Annual rainfall for AUS cities = Darwin 1723.1 mm Sydney 1213.4 mm Brisbane 1148.8 mm Perth 730.9 mm Melbourne 648.3 mm Canberra 615.4 mm Hobart 612.2 mm Adelaide 526.7 mm
The Yarra looks cleaner the further up you go but it's often high in leaks from old septic tanks up around Yarra Glen, the EPA has it marked and don't swim today
Do you have any updates about the Swanston Street tram route reallocations? You said early 2024 in your video, but we're now halfway through the year and the tram routes still haven't changed yet.
Great question! Unfortunately I don't know anything more. My guess is any announcement has been delayed due to the tunnel's opening being postponed: www.premier.vic.gov.au/metro-tunnel-testing-enters-new-phase-get-ready-2025
@@philipmallisOh, I didn't realise the opening of the tunnel had been pushed back. That might make sense as to why we haven't seen any changes to trams yet. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing always enjoy your info about my home town and our State...wondering at some point could you do a video on the Altona Underground Coal Mine l can remember working at Westona Station years ago and behind the shops there near the gas line was a plaque talking about the Coal Mine l never even knew existed and still don't know much about ...again thanks regards Doc..allways enjoy your channel.
Sure! It isn't just myki touch on and off rates. DTP have used several different formulas over the years that take into account a number of data sources. These do include touch on rates, but also in-person surveys and in-vehicle passenger counters. There's more detail in the metadata on the DataVic website: discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/train-service-passenger-counts
Thanks for the Number 1 one! Truely a TIL. The others still count as not many would know! There was a neat article about drawing the wurundjeri boundary when Melbourne has built all over it. First Nations progress in time
Interesting piece about the Yarra - but you left out the age-old Sydney joke.. The Yarra is the only river where the bottom floats on the top. And to be fair I don't think Sydney jokes about the Yarra have ever been about it being polluted - just muddy.
@jack2453 The problem you have there is that it was a stolen joke. This joke was actually about the Mississippi river and, upon hearing it, Sydneysiders decided to apply it to the Yarra.
True! I probably should have at least mentioned that. It was on the periphery of contiguous urban Melbourne so I missed it - next time I'll be sure to include it.
I Lived in East Kew [Burke Road] in the 60's and 70's and used to swim in the the Yarra where old Burke Road went over the river, never got crook. Must of been the medicine I took, Melbourne Bitter. Back then the saying was to thick to swim in, too thin to plough.
does the melbourne metro (ptv) hold the title as being the noisiest metropolitan train network in the world in terms of the amount of routine horn usage?
I remember when they became louder maybe 15 years ago. Protests were met with "international guidelines were followed" subtext 'shut up plebs'. It's ear splitting if you are walking next to the train line. I guess it keeps the livestock (us) away from the train line. 🤷
@@philipmallis so not a myth, we are the world's noisiest - ptv and the vicgov are pathetic and treat residence as second class citizens, no myth about that
so which former colonial governor was queen street named after? i dont dispute how dirty the yarra was but i would like it known that there were water rats living on the yarra bank across the road from flinders street station in the late 60's. our nana took us across the river to see them when our next train wasnt due for a while.
“The World’s most liveable city” moniker is another myth if you’ve ever spent Winter in Melbourne. It generally has the worst weather of any capital city on the Mainland. Oh, and like most of Australia, it’s a horrifically expensive place to live.
Ironically, Darwin, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth all get more rainfall than Melbourne. It's that polar wind that cuts through you like a knife that makes it feel worse.
Cold by Australian standards but nowhere near as cold as many world cities. If winter cold is a criteria for world's most liveable, that excludes most European and many North American and Asian cities.
@pavementpounder7502 I was telling my boss in Montreal that it was a chilly 3 degrees Celsius in Melbourne and he laughed at me. He told me that winter there gets south of -20 degrees Celsius. I can't even comprehend that.
If the department of transport get their figures, from touched on travellers, is guess the tram figures might be correct. How do they count patronage anyway?
It isn't just myki touch on and off rates. DTP have used several different formulas over the years that take into account a number of data sources. These do include touch on rates, but also in-person surveys and in-vehicle passenger counters. There's more detail in the metadata on the DataVic website: discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/train-service-passenger-counts
Geelong was going to be the capital of the Victoria colony but the Melbourne real estate clowns altered the maps to make it appear that Melbourne was closer to the gold fields. We could have had a capital better than Sydney.
Is quite a few of these that could be disproved with even a cursory glance at Trove or something like that. Need to find who the crackpot who sent all those "The Sin of the Great Cities" letters to all the newspapers bemoaning ladies "frequently without bonnets"
No mention of the Corinella military settlement of 1826? British were worried that the French might want that southern Australian coast they had already explored, set up a military outpost with convicts for extra labour. It lasted a couple of years then when the French threat ended Sydney in its wisdom decided to vacate, despite advice that they might as well set up some administrative presence because settlement would happen regardless There were sealers with Aboriginal women on Churchill island who assisted the fledgling settlement with food and boats. There was some contact with the local Boonwurrung people, nothing bad happened on that front it seems at least There are some plaques and markers around, the settlement spread from the headquarters at modern day Corinella through Coronet Bay and past Cobb's Buff near the mouth of the Bass River where there was a camp for collecting lime The 5 VDL Aboriginal people charged with murdering the whalers at Cape Paterson were captured after a long and dramatic pursuit near the ruins of the old settlement. Escaped convicts used the old settlement as a hideout apparently as well. When the settlement was abandoned they left cattle behind, a white bull was known to have survived for some time Anyway, if Napoleon had sailed into Westernport Bay and tried to invade they had the cannons ready. If you are wondering where they got the fresh water from it was Guy's Creek which from description had a reasonable flow of water, now it is a trickling drain through some paddocks. The settlement gave the opportunity for some proper exploration, a lot of potential agricultural land and fresh water was identified as well as barriers like the Koo Wee Rup Swamp etc. All this hastened the pressure to open up this part of the country for settlement, but Sydney did not want the administrative bother There are a couple of books about it and local historians around the Westernport area know a bit about it. Good subject for a video perhaps
Here's a question that I've always wondered. Do you think that the Doncaster and Rowville train lines would have been built if money hadn't been diverted into maintaining and expanding the tram network?
I don't think any of those major tram lines were getting built in the post-war period due to the government's obsession with forcing everyone into cars.
@@JohnFromAccounting Wellington road should be a tram route at very least...with Burwood hwy tram extending to Ferntree Gully... Doncaster Tram should be extension of Balwyn North tram. All very simple
The money was spent on roads and freeways. And every time a road or feeway was built it attracted more cars, so more roads and freeways were built. That is why today we don't have enough tram and train lines but we have loads of traffic congestion.
In short, both projects were forestalled by money being diverted into freeway projects from the 1969 Plan (and, later, the City Loop). Some 'future proofing' construction was even started for the Doncaster Line at Victoria Park when the first section of the Eastern Freeway was built but was filled in later and not continued. There was hardly any expansion of the tram network in the same period.
I'm surprised the weather stayed consistent in the 5 min of the video, considering, supposedly, Melbourne weather changes every 5min :) I've never spent any real time in Melbourne, and the myth that surprised me the most was the tram usage, and coverage. I thought it was more well used, and extensive.
I'm surprised that one of the myths debunked wasn't about Melbourne's rainfall compared to Sydney. Melbourne gets less than half the annual rainfall of Sydney and has about the same number of days of rainfall greater than 1mm (approx 100)
Hi Phillip... love your videos but the web address won't connect ...Desperratly want to talk to you about Fitzroy Town Hall....Can you please conntact me....Jenn. And yes the Yarra is upsidedown....
Great video and not wanting to be deterimental, but fyi the plural of platypus is pronounced platy pie (correct spelling platypii) and is not platypusses.
As far as I'm aware there's no 100% agreement on how 'platypus' entered the English language. But the general consensus is that it came directly from Greek, not via Latin, which makes the plural 'platypuses' (as this is how words from Greek are generally pluralised). Hope that clarifies :) www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/what-is-the-plural-of-platypus
First sighted in the same year, but people didn't even send cattle into the area until the next year. It's Portland (1834), Melbourne (1835), then Bass (1835).
I like every road that leads out of Melbourne now, just nothing left in the city anymore it’s way over build, and the city is so chilly now, seems colder than central VIC. There was frost still on the ground at Flinders street station 3 day in a row last week all day, yet the rest of Victoria is so beautiful…
