4i8 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



The shore at St. Kilda is so much above the level of the sea, from which it 

 continues to rise as it recedes, as to give a wide and commanding view of the Bay 

 from the esplanade, which is thronged on summer evenings by visitors from Melbourne 

 in private carriages and public conveyances, on foot and on horseback ; for there is 

 some freshness in the breeze borne inland from the water after the hottest day ; and 

 when the moon is at her full, and she traces a broad path of radiance across the 

 almost purple sea, and a thousand points of light glitter along the distant shore from 

 Sandridge and from Williamstown, as well as from the vessels at anchor in the harbour 

 or moored to the piers, and the bulky form of Mount Macedon lifts itself above the 

 horizon in one direction, and the jagged outline of the You Yangs is visible in another, 

 the ensemble of the scene thus presented is eminently picturesque, and would justify a 

 certain amount of enthusiasm on the part of the spectator who has been " long in 

 populous city pent." The nomenclature of the streets in St. Kilda serves in some cases 

 to fix the dates at which they were first laid out and built upon. Thus the Alma 

 Road, Inkerman Street and Balaclava Road are chronologically related to the famous 

 engagements whose names they perpetuate. Another portion of the borough might not 

 inaptly be called the Poet's Corner, for its streets have borrowed their appellations from 

 Milton, Byron, Scott, Burns, George Herbert, Tennyson, Southey, Dickens, Lady 

 Blessington and Mary Russell Mitford. The sea-frontage of St. Kilda is upwards of 

 three miles in length, and between the esplanade and the fore-shore a grassy slope has 

 been formed and planted. At the north end a broad pier runs far out into the sea, 

 and constitutes a breezy promenade. Five bathing establishments have each an adequately 

 spacious area of the water securely fenced in, so as to afford protection against the sharks 

 on one hand, and sufficient scope for swimmers on the other. Half a dozen large hotels 

 facing the sea find numerous occupants from town and country during the summer months, 

 and as the place is within a quarter of an hour's ride of the metropolis by railway, it is 

 the favourite residence all the year round of many thousands of prosperous citizens. 



The Railway Pier at Port Melbourne runs out into the Bay for fully half a mile, 

 and vessels from all parts of the world are berthed alongside. In the day-time it is a 

 scene of incessant animation and activity. The produce of three continents is being 

 discharged into railway-trucks through the agency of those docile slaves, the monkey- 

 engines with their muscles of iron and nerves of steel ; and the various languages which 

 may be heard on every side carry the mind of the traveller back to the docks at 

 Bombay, the levees of New Orleans, the Quai de Bacalan at Bordeaux, the Calata della 

 Chiapella at Genoa, the Nieder Hafen at Hamburg and the Boomjes at Rotterdam. 



Port Melbourne, a designation which has only recently superseded the more expres- 

 sive name of Sandridge originally Liardet's Beach is a thriving suburb of Melbourne, 

 with a distinctly nautical air about it ; for most of its retail trade is connected with the 

 shipping arriving at its two piers and departing therefrom ; while the extensive biscuit 

 factories of Messrs. Swallow and Ariell furnish employment to some hundreds of hands, 

 and contribute to the general prosperity of the borough. A railway line two miles in length 

 the first constructed in Victoria connects the Port with the city, and from its terminus 

 another line branches to St. Kilda, skirting the city of South Melbourne on its way. 

 Facing Port Melbourne, and on the opposite side of Hobson's Bay, is Williams- 



