Hi Everyone!!

Does anyone know what today is? Can you believe it is actually Eureka Skydeck’s 5^th Birthday!!! I have had so much fun so far celebrating with all the Skydeck Crew members, we even had a cake in the Edge!!

Since we first opened back on May 15^th, 2007 we have had over two and a half million visitors walk through our doors and we have held some fantastic events!! This year alone we celebrated Chinese New Year with a dragon in the Edge, had some famous celebrities come through, and opened early for guests to see the sunrise! We have had such an action packed couple of years and I must say I really do have so much fun working here!

Enough of the celebrations though, this week I thought I would tell you about a fantastic event that is happening later on this week. This Friday the 18^th May is Walk Safely to School Day and I hope that a lot of you are participating!

National Walk Safely to School Day is an event that occurs every year and involves Primary School students walking safely to school with a parent or an adult. While normally some of you may get driven to school by your parents, Walk Safely to School Day encourages us all to put on some comfortable foot wear and enjoy the fresh air or if school is too far to walk, you can ride your bike or purchase a metro ticket and ride a bus or a train!

By taking the train, riding the bus or walking to school, even for just one day we are bettering our environment and supporting Melbourne’s great public transport system. With one or two fewer cars on the road, air pollution is significantly reduced and so too are the levels of traffic! If you are lucky to live close enough to your school that you can actually walk, then you will also be bettering your health and fitness at the same time!

Recently the City of Melbourne has also introduced a new form of public transport, designed for short trips across the city. Melbourne’s new Bike Share allows Melbournians to hire bikes for as long as they like and travel around the city. With 50 bike stations located around the CBD and city fringe, the adventures and places you can explore by bike are endless. I thought I should check out this new form of public transport myself and headed to our closest bike station down at Southbank and went for a short ride beside the Yarra River!

Skydeck celebrates Chinese New Year earlier this year!

Joel and Benji Madden brave the Edge!

Deckstar hiring a Melbourne Blue Bike!

Deckstar goes for a ride around Melbourne using the newest form of public transport!

DID YOU KNOW?

• Melbourne Bike Share has just released some great new tours that you can do at your leisure.  Whether your passion is food, art, sport or shopping, there is sure to be something that interests you. 

• Our cars and the way we use them are responsible for nearly a fifth of all household greenhouse gas emissions. Walking just half a kilometre to school each day instead of driving saves about 500kg of greenhouse pollution each year.

Class Activity Idea – This week support Walk Safely to School Day by hosting a healthy breakfast for your class! See our Teacher’s Resources Page for more details.

www.puffingbilly.com.au

Last Sunday 6^th May I headed out to visit one of Melbourne’s oldest steam trains, Puffing Billy. It was so lovely to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine in the Dandenong Ranges. The reason for my visit was actually to help start the famous Puffing Billy’s “Great Train Race!” With the help of my good friend Puff ‘n’ Bill we held up the start line tape for the race!

Held every year, the Great Train Race is one of the longest running ‘Fun Run’s’ on the Australian running calendar and it isn’t hard to see why. You see, the race isn’t simply a race amongst competitors. The best part about it is that people are actually competing against the train itself! Competitors run over 13.2 kilometres through the hills and fern gullies of the picturesque Dandenong Ranges as they try and keep up with the old but magnificent train. While I wasn’t able to participate in the race on the day I certainly did enjoy watching competitors try and keep up with us as we traveled along!

Puffing Billy is a century-old steam train that despite its age continues to run its original mountain track from the suburb of Belgrave to Gembrook surrounded by lush greenery, forests and farmlands. As the train rattled along the track I was able to take in all the interesting sights that passed me by, including the historic Monbulk Creek Trestle Bridge, the site of the 1953 Landslide and the Nobelius Packing Shed which one of the railway attendants told me is often used for weekend dinners, where passengers can have 3-course meals inside the shed before returning on the train to Belgrave. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay for dinner on Sunday but I brought along a packed healthy lunch instead which I’m sure tasted just as good!

The Puffing Billy railway was first built back in the early 1900’s and was one of four railway lines that were built in isolated areas of Melbourne to help develop those areas. However following the landslide that happened in 1953 the train actually stopped running for a time. Luckily for us they decided to reopen the line many years later and today it is one of the most popular steam heritage railways in the world, attracting tourists from all over Australia and overseas.

Deckstar finds a friendly face down at the Belgrave Station.

Deckstar catches up with his good mate Puff 'n' Bill at the start line.

Deckstar encourages runners to warm up before their big run!

Deckstar completing his offical duties at the race, holding the starting tape with Puff 'n' Bill.

Deckstar jumps on board the Puffing Billy Train!

DID YOU KNOW?

• After the 1953 landslide the railway was closed and was rebuilt and reopened by voluntary effort.

• There are 5 timber trestle bridges on the railways line to Gembrook which have been restored to original condition.

• The railway length from Belgrave to Gembrook is 15 miles or 24 kilometres.

Class Activity Idea – This week get outside and organize a race of your own!! See our Teacher’s Resources Page for some relay race ideas!

www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au

This week I boarded a tram to visit The Old Treasury Building located on Spring Street to discover a little more about Melbourne’s rich history. This unique building was built in the 1800’s around the time of the Victorian Gold Rush which brought great wealth to Melbourne. The building served as the home to the Treasury Department of the Government of Victoria and shows the rapid development of the city at that time.

These days the building has transformed in a magnificent museum of Melbourne history, with the new Treasury Building now located at the top of Collins Street. The building now holds a number of fascinating exhibitions, including Gold & Governors: 150 years of the Old Treasury Building, Forgotten Faces: Chinese & The Law, Victorian Archival Treasures and my two favourites Growing Up In Old Treasury and Built on Gold.

The “Built on Gold” exhibition really caught my eye as the Old Treasury Building contains the original gold vaults where gold bullion was stored during the gold rush era, as well as rare and historic documents from Public Record Office Victoria highlighting key moments from Victoria’s history. I was lucky enough to get my photo taken with a replica of one of the largest gold nugget found in Melbourne know as the “Welcome Nugget”! Also as part of this exhibition you are actually able to walk into these vaults! The exhibition showed me the journey of Victorian gold from the digging, through to when it passed the hands of gold buyers, escort troopers and occasional bushrangers.

I also really enjoyed “Growing up in Old Treasury” exhibition as I learn about the fascinating story of The Old Treasury’s caretaker, who lived in the building with his wife and their eight children from 1916 – 1928. It was so interesting to be able to walk through the re-created living rooms of their home and I was able to get a feel for what life may have been like in The Old Treasury Building back in the 1850’s.

Finally I had a chance to go into the Executive Council Chamber, where every Tuesday the Governor presides for a weekly meeting to sign off on any Bill passed through Parliament. From 1862 until the present day, the Old Treasury Building has been the location for these weekly meetings of the Executive Council, in which the Governor of Victoria meets with a group of ministers. I felt very special to have a chance to visit this special room!

Deckstar out the front of The Old Treasury Building!

Deckstar with the Welcome Nugget!

Deckstar exploring the old vaults and points out where Eureka is now located!

Deckstar visits the caretakers kitchen!

Deckstar sitting at the head of the table in the Executive Council Chamber!

DID YOU KNOW?

- The Old Treasury building was designed by a nineteen-year-old architect by the name of JJ Clark.

- The “Welcome Nugget” was found on 15^th June 1858 and weighed 68.98kg. It was sold for 10,500 pounds sterling and was exhibited in Melbourne until March 1859.

Class Activity Idea

This week research the properties of gold and find out why it is such a precious metal! See our Teacher’s Resources Page for a list of helpful links your students can use.