'Huge' Melbourne (to quote Mark)

With Mark now heading north towards Brisbane via an inland route rather than the intended coastal route via Sydney, it is probably worth taking a look at the 'bigger picture' again and reminding ourselves of the physical geography of the continent.

The map below comes courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory and reveals the physical divisions very clearly........

Australia is the world’s smallest, flattest, and (after Antarctica) driest continent, but at 7.7 million square kilometers (3.0 million square miles), it is also the sixth largest country. Its low average elevation (300 meters, or less than 1000 feet) is caused by its position near the center of a tectonic plate, where there are no volcanic or other geologic forces of the type that raise the topography of other continents. In fact, Australia is the only continent without any current volcanic activity at all—the last eruption took place 1,400 years ago at Mt. Gambier (The maar eruption referred to in this posting) .
Prominent features of Australia include the Lake Eyre basin, the darker green region visible in the center-right. At 16 meters (52 feet) below sea level, this depression is one of the largest inland drainage systems in the world, covering more than 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles). The mountain range near the east coast is called the Great Dividing Range, forming a watershed between east- and west-flowing rivers. The crescent-shaped, uniformly green region in the south, just left of center, is the Nullarbor Plain with which we are now intimately acquainted!

The Australian continent is one of the oldest land masses, with some of its erosion-exposed bedrock dated at more than 3 billion years old. More than one-fifth of the land area is desert, with more than two-thirds being classified as arid or semi-arid and unsuitable for settlement. The coldest regions are in the highlands of Tasmania (large island at bottom right) and the Australian Alps at the southeastern corner of the continent, which is the location of Australia’s highest point, Mt. Kosciusko (2,228 meters, or 7,310 feet.)

As Mark headed around the eastern suburbs of Melbourne today, I 'dropped in' out of curiosity a few times. To my shame most of what I know about Melbourne has been gleaned from watching 'Neighbours' but despite my best efforts with Google Earth, Erinsborough has eluded me! There are, however, loads of suburbs with similar characteristics.....My pupils (I hope) would be able to give chapter and verse on a view like the one above taken along Mark's route this afternoon. They would spot the 'curvilinear' street pattern, the cul de sacs, the low density housing, the public and private open space....

Following Mark's route today, I was certainly struck by the extent of the suburban sprawl and not surprised to read in the web diary that Mark was grateful to have a guide through Melbourne.

His route took him well away from the CBD and harbour at Melbourne but here's just a glimpse of the busy container port - it certainly puts Grangemouth in the shade.

The third map on today's posting shows much woodland to the east of the city. Woodland is often indicative of higher relief and in this case it is growing on the south west limits of the Great Divide, the mountains which form a chain down the eastern side of Australia. The 'last' summit before Melbourne is Mt Dandenong which offers excellent views over the city..... The skyscrapers of the CBD are just visible through the haze in the distance and give some scale to the extent of the suburban sprawl which continues right to the foot of Mt Dandenong. It was probably with some sense of relief (no pun intended) that Mark escaped the city and headed north into the calm of the Yarra valley ...

But just in case you'd like to see more of the city.....