Where in Melbourne Puzzle - July 2015

  

Welcome, this is the Osca Monthly Where in Melbourne Puzzle page.

   Melbourne is a fascinating place. Full of history and interesting people. Each month, we find somewhere historically significant, curious, unusual or downright amazing and send our intrepid photographer to take a picture to use for the puzzle.

The picture is obscured at first, but every Monday of the month a piece of it is revealed.

In the beginning, the puzzle is hard but not impossible to solve.
To make it a little easier, there is also an additional handy clue with each picture.

For the astute observer, there are sufficient hints from the very 1st clue.

 THIS PUZZLE HAS BEEN REVEALED

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY

 Clue 1

Clue 1 - An interior of a building built at the time of the gold rush with a view to the world.
. . .

Clue 2

Clue 2 - One of the first of its kind to be built and the last of its kind to survive.

. . .

Clue 3

Clue 3 - Constructed to bring the world to us and to show the world who we are.
A grand old building that has stood the test of time and serves us in the same capacity to this day.
. . .

Clue 4

Clue 4 - When it was built, it was the largest building in Australia
and the highest building in Melbourne.
. . .

Clue 5

Clue 5

Clue 5 - There is a public event of of sorts held in this building just about every month of the year.

REVEAL

This month's puzzle solution :

Interior mural and decorations - Melbourne Exhibition Building on Nicholston Street, Carlton.

. . .

Fantastic Exhibition Building resource :

urban melbourne forum - royal-exhibition-building

Where in Melbourne puzzle - June 2015

  

Welcome, this is the Osca Monthly Where in Melbourne Puzzle page.

  

 THIS PUZZLE HAS BEEN SOLVED

see below for details

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY

 Clue 1

Clue 1 - On the way out of the City, you can't miss it.

. . .

Clue 2

Clue 2 - Looking east from a bridge featured in an earlier 'Where in Melbourne' puzzle.

. . .

Clue 3

Clue 3 - Notice the foreground of this month's puzzle.
The picture used for the foreground hiding the puzzle picture
is a close-up of a series of large concrete structures.

. . .

Clue 4

Clue 4 - Give me a Sign. It's the only thing missing.
. . .

23 June Update...

This month's puzzle has been solved!

by:

D.S.

23 June at 4:39PM

D.S. correctly identified that the picture has been taken from Anderson St Bridge looking toward Punt Road and the Nylex sign.

Congratulations D.S.

You are this month's winner!

. . .

The Nylex Clock is an iconic neon sign sitting atop malting storage silos in the suburb of Cremorne, Victoria, Australia. 

Built by Neon Electric Signs in 1961 for Nylex Plastics Limited the sign consists of several components. The main focus is a large sequence of metal-trough letters which use light emitting diodes (LEDs) to spell "NYLEX". 

Below this is another series of metal-trough letters, this time illuminated with neon tubing to spell "Plastics". Over this is a series of unprotected neon tubes which spell "EVERY TIME!". A panel on the top of the sign uses LED's to display the time and temperature. When fully operational, the Nylex Clock displays a number of overlays that eventually spell "Nylex Plastics - Every Time!".

The Nylex Clock has become an iconic symbol of Melbourne, where it has been depicted in art and film. The most notable example is Paul Kelly's 1987 song Leaps and Bounds where he sung "...and way up on high, the sign on the silo says eleven degrees...".

Paul Kelly "Leaps and Bounds"

In 2003, the silos beneath the Nylex Clock were slated for demolition, and a peculiar proposal was mooted whereby the clock would be reinstated over the new building. Eventually, the Heritage Council of Victoria added the Nylex Clock (and the Silos) to the Victorian Heritage Register, therefore protecting the clock and silos from destruction.

In 2004, Nylex Plastics paid for a full restoration which cost in excess of $300,000. The replacement of incandescent bulbs in the panel with 30-degree white LEDs initially made the sign more difficult to read in some locations, so these were subsequently replaced with orange 70-degree LED's in December 2004, after community complaints. 

The ongoing costs of replacing blown incandescent bulbs had been a constant burden for Nylex over the sign's long history, and so their replacement with LEDs was seen as a cost-saver as well as enhancing the sign's visibility. However, the differential pattern of light emission has altered the appearance of the clock when compared to earlier photographs of the sign.

In February 2009, the Nylex company went into voluntary administration, and as a result the sign was been switched off pending a sale of Nylex's assets or the company. It is uncertain when the sign will be re-illuminated again, although it remains in full working order.

In December 2014 The Richmond Malt, home to Melbourne’s historic Nylex clock, is set for a renewal after being purchased by a local developer Caydon for $38 million. The Deague family’s Asian Pacific Group also considered the purchase of the site which could possible hold up to 600 apartments. It is a project that would have significant heritage and environmental issues. It is likely Richmond’s famous silos will be demolished with the heritage protected 1960s Nylex sign then re-attached to the top of a tall apartment building.

On 29 January 2015, the clock was briefly re-illuminated when vandals broke into the silos, found the switch and turned it back on. The clock was switched back off again hours later.

research links:

abc news

Adonline

Onmydoorstep

google image search

wikipedia

July Where in Melbourne puzzle will be posted Monday the 29th of June.

* Please Note:

The prize is limited to Australian residents and will be delivered by Australia Post or directly if you are an Osca customer.  You may, if you choose, nominate to donate the prize to your favourite charity and we will do so on your behalf.

Where in Melbourne puzzle - May 2015

  

Welcome, this is the Osca Monthly Where in Melbourne Puzzle page.

  

 THIS PUZZLE IS HAS BEEN REVEALED
- SEE BELOW -

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY

. . .

 Clue 1

Clue 1 - Unveiled in 1966, it was not the first of its kind in Melbourne.

. . .

Clue 2

 Clue 2 - I have hands but no feet, I can count but can not speak.
. . .

Clue 3

Clue 3 - What goes around, comes around.
. . .

Clue 4

Clue 4 - The earliest known example of one of these
was created by a French horticulturist named Debert
in the Trocadéro gardens in Paris (1892).


PUZZLE SOLUTION

Melbourne Floral Clock
Located opposite the Victorian Arts Centre and National Gallery of Victoria,
St Kilda Road Melbourne

. . .

While mostly associated with twentieth-century landscape design practice, floral clocks have a history that dates back to the eighteenth century.

The celebrated eighteenth-century Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné (Carl Linnaeus) was, for example, obsessed with the possibilities of creating a botanical clock, known as a Horologe or Watch of Flora, made up of 46 different flowering plants which opened and closed as the day progressed, thus informing the viewer of the time of day.

Carl von Linné was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, 

who laid the foundations for the modern biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. 

He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, 

and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.

Linnaeus’s plan seems solely an intellectual fancy restricted to observations of the habits of individual plants, and to the best of our knowledge his clock was never constructed. 

Despite this, his research found a reflective audience over the following decades and ‘dial plants’ were sometimes grown in botanical collections. The early nineteenth-century British gardening authority J.C. Loudon, for instance, listed a number of dial plants suitable for the purpose in his influential Encyclopaedia of Gardening (1822).

During the nineteenth century, floral or carpet bedding became increasingly popular and gardeners experimented in constructing intricate designs combining brightly coloured plants sourced from around the world. Reflecting the tastes of the time, gardeners tried to make plants look like something else. While many such bedding designs were laid out in private gardens the increasing establishment of public parks saw these skills transferred into a civic setting.

While carpet bedding began to loose popularity in the late nineteenth century there was clearly an interest to use the skills learnt in ‘bedding-out’ in a new modern way. Reflecting the advances in technology it is not surprising that someone would eventually build an outdoor clock decorated with living plants, with the time being articulated by machine (clock hands) rather than by the plants themselves.

The earliest known example of a floral clock was the l’horloge fleurie created by a French horticulturist named Debert in the Trocadéro gardens in Paris (1892). 

Not long after, another was constructed across the Atlantic at Water Works Park, Detroit (1893) and a decade later the still-extant clock at West Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh (1903). 

After the first wave of interest in floral clocks some of these were abandoned due to the upheavals of the Great War, but during the 1920s and 1930s interest in the concept returned. With the increasing popularity of the motor car many towns constructed floral clocks as tourist attractions.

Floral clocks came on the scene at the same time as the fashion for postcard collecting so it comes as no surprise that these gardens would become a popular subject. Thanks to the popularity of postcard collecting we have a record of nearly all of them, and as plantings changed each year these postcard views offer a revealing record of changing design approaches.

The best-known example of this chronological record is of the Edinburgh floral clock, photographed by postcard sellers most years since 1903.

The first floral clock in Australia was built in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in 1928.

Sydney’s floral clock 1928 

In 1930 a clock was built at the Royal Agricultural Showground in Melbourne.

Melbourne's floral clock 1930

Constructed at the height of the Great Depression, the mechanism was made out of scrap parts, a small electric motor, an old steel grader, a number of bicycle sprockets and chains, a leather clutch and a worked-out cream separator.” a thrifty showpiece which was a popular destination at the showground for many years.

The current floral clock - with a diameter of over 9 m - was presented to the city by the Swiss consul Curt Malning as a goodwill gesture on behalf of the watchmakers of Switzerland in 1966. 

The floral clock in operation on the ground at an international trade fair

in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

The clock's hands are driven by a synchronous motor housed in a concrete casing in the centre of the dial, and it was officially unveiled by the lord mayor, Councillor I.F. Beaurepaire, on 4 November 1966.

The floral clock has been relocated to its current location in Queen Victoria Gardens in 2002 and is made up of some 7,000 flowers that are changed annualy.

research links:

Australian Garden History (PDF)

Mathematical Association of Victoria (PDF)

Visit Melbourne

Museum Victoria

Creative Stone Masonry

Edinburgh Guide

Garden Drum

Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria

Where in Melbourne puzzle - April 2015

Welcome, this is the Osca Monthly Where in Melbourne Puzzle page.
  

 THIS PUZZLE HAS BEEN REVEALED

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY

. . .

 Clue 1

Clue 1
The building of this structure in 1897 at a cost of £3.5 million provided a much needed boost to local industry and employment at a time when Victoria was gripped by a major economic recession.

. . .

Clue 2

Clue 2
This building formed a part of vital infrastructure
without which Melbourne could not have grown into a metropolis.
. . .

Clue 3

 Clue 3
One of the locations for the filming of Mad Max.
. . .

Clue 4

Clue 4
For all the grandeur that was ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ in the 1880s, the city was nicknamed ‘Smellbourne’.

An appalling stench wafted from the many cesspits and open drains.

‘Nightsoil’ (as human waste was politely referred to) polluted the streets and ran into the Yarra.

Hundreds died in a savage outbreak of typhoid.

Something had to be done!


. . .

 THE SOLUTION

The picture is of the old MMBW pumping station buildings at Spotswood,
adjacent to Scienceworks.

. . .

Spotswood was named after J.S. Spottiswoode,
one of the first farmers who owned much of the area in the 1840s.

  

 Spotswood Pumping station soon after completion.

The Spotswood Pumping Station was built in the 1890s as a key component of the Melbourne Sewerage Scheme. Functioning as the heart of the system, the pumping station played a vital role in helping to overcome the city's early public health and sanitation problems. 

For almost 70 years from 1898, all the sewage collected in Melbourne's underground sewers passed through the pumps at Spotswood, on its way to the treatment works at Werribee.

Construction of the pumping station began in March 1894, with the local Footscray firm Messrs Garnsworthy & Smith being awarded the contract to prepare the site and foundations. 

 

Their first task was to excavate a massive hole measuring 20 metres by 100 metres and almost 25 metres in depth - much of it was blasted out of solid basalt.

With the aid of steam cranes and a small steam locomotive, almost 25,500 cubic meters of broken rock and spoil were removed weighing around 70,000 tonnes.

Work progressed around the clock in continuous shifts with arc lamps providing illumination at night.

Brick and concrete lined tunnels for the inlet sewers, access tunnels, steel pipes and twelve large elliptical pump wells formed the heart of the pumping station.

Built by Thompson's Foundry, the steel pipes had to be huge.

Thompson's Foundry still exists today as Thompsons Kelly & Lewis Engineering Works.

 The building of  Spotswood Pumping Station was completed in 1897.
 

Steam engines (later replaced by electrical ones) worked to pump the sewage up a rising main to join the major sewer outfall at the head of the pumping mains near Millers Road at Brooklyn.

Former Shift Engineer Geoffrey Archer revisits his former workplace

and shares some stories of his working life at the Pumping Station.

The outfall sewer then carried the sewage to the Werribee Treatment Farm where it was purified and discharged into the sea.

Managed today by Western Treatment Plant, the original Werribee Treatment Farm has grown to encompass some 10,500 hectares and treats more than half of Melbourne's sewage.

 Satellite view of Western Treatment Plant.

The wetlands offer excellent bird-watching opportunities and are accessible to public.

An integrated ecosystem, the Western Treatment Plant generates renewable energy and produces approximately 40 billion litres of recycled water a year whilst being supporting a wetland haven for more than 280 species of birds.

. . .

Satellite Location of Spotswood Pumping Station

 Research links:

Culture Victoria

Melbourne Water

Public Records Office of Victoria

 Museum Victoria

Time recalled

Atlas Obscura

Victorian Heritage Database


Thompsons Kelly & Lewis Engineering Works

You Tube

Wikipedia - Spotswood

____________________________________________________________________

NEW MAY WHERE IN MELBOURNE PUZZLE
will be posted May 4th 2015

____________________________________________________________________

This post was last updated on the 27th of April 2015.
The next update will be posted on Monday the 4th of May.