Tag:towns
Mooroopna, situated in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia, boasts a fascinating history. Before European settlement, the Yorta Yorta and Bangerang peoples had occupied the land for several millennia. James Cowper was the first European squatter to establish a residence in the area in 1841. In the 1870s, Mooroopna had already flourished into a thriving agricultural hub. Eventually, in 1865, it was officially surveyed and recognized as a town.
Early History
By 1888 Mooroopna had eight hotels, a flour mill, two banks, four insurance agencies, a State school, a hospital, four churches, and a mechanics institute.
War Years
During World War II, Mooroopna played a vital role in the war effort. The town was home to a training facility for the Australian Army, known as the Mooroopna Recruit Reception and Training Depot. The depot was established in 1940 and provided basic training for new recruits before they were sent to other army camps for further training.
Mooroopna War Memorial
The Mooroopna War Memorial stands at the intersection of McLennan Street and Vaughan Street, situated in the heart of Mooroopna. This monument is a tribute to the brave men and women from the Mooroopna district who selflessly served in the armed forces during World War I, World War II, and other conflicts. Additionally, it bears the names of the 145 enlisted men and 21 serving nurses who received their training at Mooroopna Hospital.
Amidst a landscaped park, pathways lead to a war memorial featuring a stone obelisk within a rotunda. The names of the brave soldiers who lost their lives are inscribed on the sides of the obelisk. Surrounding the rotunda is a circular garden bed with a tall flagpole at the centre. Notably, the memorial was unveiled on ANZAC Day, April 25th, 1928, by Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, and a large crowd of locals, many of whom had lost family members in the war, were in attendance to pay their respects. Trees and benches can also be found in the area, offering a peaceful retreat for those who wish to reflect and remember.
In 2020 the Greater Shepparton City Council allocated $320,000 to upgrade the war memorial. Funding also came from the Mooroopna Rotary Club, the Victorian and Federal governments, and private donors. Significantly the upgrade included new flagpoles and memorial panels. New concrete paths, lighting, a rose garden and irrigation were also added.
Mooroopna Hospital
The Mooroopna Hospital was built in 1876. At first, it began as a small timber hut on the Goulburn River. The hospital treated injuries and accidents as the nearest doctor was forty-two kms away in Rushworth. From 1910 to the 1930s, the hospital underwent a significant rebuild and was the main hospital in the region until the Shepparton Base Hospital opened. This eventually saw the closure of the Mooroopna Hospital in 1974.
Unfortunately, on January 9th 2011, the abandoned hospital was gutted by fire. It had been slated to be converted into a nursing home then. After the fire, the developer applied to demolish the laundry and main entrance. He submitted an engineering assessment that repairing the damage was “probably not feasible”.
The Heritage advisor opposed demolishing the hospital due to its “historical, social, aesthetic and architectural significance”. Independent engineers also determined that 70% of the building was undamaged and heritage elements could be included in any development. Since then, it has sat empty and at the mercy of vandals and graffiti taggers.
Mooroopna Museum
The museum and gallery are located at the back of the old Mooroopna Hospital in a former nursing home. It boasts the biggest historical medical collection in regional Victoria, comprising fifteen rooms and hallways filled with remarkable artefacts. The archaic operating theatre and patient rooms are the museum’s prime attractions. Visitors will also find nurses’ uniforms, medical apparatus, and a dentist’s chair serving as a reminder of how much medicine has progressed since its early days.
Cows and Statues
The main street has a spacious median strip dotted with part of the unique ‘Moooving Art’ herd. Additionally, there is a statue of Jack Findlay, a well-respected local figure. Born in Mooroopna in 1935, Jack Findlay was a skilled Australian Grand Prix motorcycle racer. Findlay is one of only four riders who have achieved a twenty-year Grand Prix racing career. He is recognized for his exceptionally long racing career in Grand Prix history, and his achievements are celebrated through the monument dedicated to him.
What is Urban Landscape Photography?
Urban landscape photography captures images of cities and towns where the focus is on the man-made aspect of the urban environment. While landscape photography captures the essence of nature from forests, woodlands, waterfalls and deserts, urban landscapes capture our man-made impact on the landscape, from parks and gardens to residential, public and industrial buildings. It’s a fast-growing photographic genre capturing towns and cities’ dynamic and ever-changing environments.
History of Urban Landscapes
French inventor Nicéphore Niépce took what is widely regarded as the first urban landscape photograph in 1826 or 1827. His image showed parts of buildings and the surrounding countryside of his La Gras estate as seen from a high window. It is the oldest surviving camera photograph in existence. Just over a decade later, in 1839, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre took an image of an empty Paris street. The absence of people in the scene is caused by the daguerreotype’s 10 to 15 minute exposure time. Anyone moving through the scene is eliminated, and only those standing remain.
Distinct genre
Urban landscape (also called cityscape photography) is often confused with Street photography. However, the genres are quite distinct. Street photography captures candid moments of people interacting in and around the city. Urban portraits are also a different genre, one where the photographer captures posed or staged images of people against a city backdrop. Urban landscapes photograph the man-made structures. Rather than the people moving through it, the environment is the scene’s focus.
1. Black and White or colour?
Colour is everywhere in the city, from the cars, traffic lights and street signs to shades of brick and glass or the attire of pedestrians. If the colour aids your story, then go with it – if, however, it distracts and draws the eye to an errant pedestrian in a red jacket when you want the viewer to focus on the structure behind, try going black and white. The absence of colour prioritises shapes and patterns.
2. Perspectives and Point of view
Look for different perspectives from down at footpath level to up a couple of floors in an observation deck or multi-level carpark. A different point of view will tell a completely different story. Also, consider portrait mode to isolate or emphasise viewpoints
3. Lighting
The time of day and the weather has enormous impacts on your image. Sometimes, the golden hour works on a building or scene. At other times it’s at its best on a sunny (or cloudy) day. Consider what you are photographing and factor in the light to suit your vision. I chose a dismal, wet day to photograph the Avenue of Honour in the image above. Considering all the heartache and lives lost during WWI, I didn’t want a bright, cheerful, sunny day. The gloomy wet roads and scenes aligned more with what I wanted to portray.
4. Leading Lines
While leading lines are used in all genres, they come into their own for urban landscapes – roads and fences; all draw the viewer’s eye up or into the image. The spurts of water in the fountain lead the viewer to the building behind in the photo above. The ring of stones also leads the eye around and to the back
5. Depth of Field
Both urban and nature landscapes benefit from an F stop 11 and above. F16 will give capture more of the scene in sharper focus. On a sunny day, it’s the F16 rule. However, a dull or cloudy day at F16 would require an ISO of between 400 to 800.
6. Images with Impact
What you leave out of an image is as important as what’s in it. While elements of the image may be appealing to you as you stand in front of them – they don’t always work in the finished image. Too many points of interest make a confusing image, and the viewer is unsure of just what the image is about. What made you stop and want to take the shot? That’s the predominant feature – compose your image so that this feature is prominent. This is your focal point – it’s the part of your image that you want the viewer to see first. In the photos above, while I like the lightning bolts, they distracted from the bikes which was the reason I stopped to take the shot. So I recomposed and took another shot.
7. Framing your scene
Framing the image will draw attention to one part of your scene while blocking out distractions. Archways are great for this, as are open doors and windows. You will need to bracket your shots and blend to avoid the window being blown out by shooting into the light with windows.
Symmetry
When two halves of your image – horizontally or vertically – mirror the other half, you have a beautifully symmetrical image. It gives a clean, evenly proportioned and balanced look to the image. To take a symmetrical photo, you must be standing in the centre. When composing your shot, align everything up and exclude what isn’t symmetrical.
Urban landscapes preserve the ever-changing faces of our cities. Cities are constantly evolving, with new buildings going up and others coming down. So if you revisit the scene a few years on, it will always be a different scene from what you took years before.
My Travel Buddy had heard about a just completed water tower painted by Cam Scale and Andrew Davis. A big bonus it was only about a short trip from home. So enjoying the first dry day after a week of endless rain, we headed up to Tatura and Murchison.
Tatura
The pretty little town of Tatura is an easy 20 mins from Shepparton via the Midland Highway. Tatura has a strong wartime history and a German war cemetery. The graves of 351 German civilians who died during internment in WWI and WWII are located in the cemetery. The seven camps housed German civilians (deemed ‘enemy aliens’) and prisoners of war during WWII, with the camps spread through Tatura, Murchison and Rushworth. We planned to photograph the new water tower – and visit the wartime museum. Unfortunately, we were there around 11 am, and the museum didn’t open until later.
Situated in the main street and easily seen from the Bendigo and Shepparton approaches is the water tower featuring General Sir John Monash. An engineer and soldier, Sir John is credited as one of the architects of the Allied victory in WW1. He designed many structures around the region – including the water tower he now graces, built in 1912. It is the earliest surviving example of a reinforced concrete tower of this design in Victoria.
Tatura Memorial Garden
While in Tatura, we visited the Robert Mactier VC Memorial Garden, home to a statue commemorating Tatura born Private Robert Mactier for his “conspicuous bravery at Mont St Quenton, France” on September 1st 1918. Robert charged a machine gun nest and killed its six crew. He then charged two other machine guns, killing more squads and causing 40 enemies to surrender. He was then killed by fire from a fourth machine gun and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery.
Murchison
Thirty-five kilometres south of Shepparton and 145 km north of Melbourne is Murchison. It is smaller than Tatura but full of charm with lovely old homes and buildings, and it sits on the Goulburn River. In 1853 gold was discovered. So a town sprung up in 1854, named after Captain John Murchison, who surveyed it in 1854.
Due to the healthy river trade from paddle steamers, Murchison at one time boasted six hotels, several general stores, two flour mills, a post office, a sawmill, a cordial factory, two blacksmiths. In 1878 the Kelly gang briefly took over the Murchison Police Station as their base.
War Camps
Between 1940 and 1947, the seven camps housed 10,000 to 13,000 people. Four camps were for civilians, and three were prisoners of war.
In the late 1930s, thousands of refugees – either Jewish or those politically opposed to the Nazi regime fled to Britain for sanctuary. At the outbreak of WWII in one of Britains most deplorable acts. The British Government rounded the german and Italian refugees up as possible enemy spies. They then put them on a ship bound for Australian internment camps at Tatura and Murchison. The ship, the HMT Dunera, had a capacity of 1600 souls – however, the British Government crammed 2000 on it.
After a 57-day journey in appalling conditions, during which the ship was hit by a torpedo, the internees’ eventual arrival is regarded as one of the greatest influxes of academic and artistic talent to have entered Australia on a single vessel. Among those on the Dunera were Franz Stampfl, who helped coach the athlete Roger Bannister to the world’s first sub-four minute mile and Anton Walter Freud, grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
BBC
Moooving Art
In 1999 the Shepparton’s Marketing Committee introduced Merry Moos for a Christmas campaign. This proved to be so successful it was decided to expand the concept into Moooving Art (rather like how the silo art trail took off). The Shepparton council provided the 3D cows and invited emerging artists to paint them. A ‘herd’ of 90 cows dotted in parks, playgrounds and gardens around the district. We are now on a mission to find them all 🙂 We subsequently found two at Tatura and four at Murchison. There are many more in Shepparton – which is where we plan to head next.
The Moooving art exhibition pays homage to the strength of the dairy industry in the Shepparton region. In 2018, Trip Advisor awarded a Certificate of Excellence in Greater Shepparton’s Moooving Art attraction.