CRACK POT !

If you walk around the outside of the Shrine, you will notice 12 large, ornate urns mounted onto the walls which run either side of the steps. There are two each on the Eastern and Western sides and there are four on the North and South sides.

These fluted urns, whose main feature is four lion heads, were hand carved on site by junior stonemasons. They make the approaches to the Shrine just that little bit more interesting.

One of the urns, however, has a secret! The story goes that when the urns were being positioned onto the walls, one of them was either knocked against the wall or dropped onto the ground and broke into two pieces.

These items, being the finishing touches, had to be in position before the grand Shrine opening. There was no time to have another carved and so something had to be done.

The rumour is, that the stone urn had a hole drilled through it from top to bottom and a steel rod was inserted. The rod was cut shorter than the height of the urn so that the hole could be sealed with some mortar mix to prevent rust from forming. ( See photos )

All went well for several years, and no one was any the wiser that a near catastrophe had been averted by some cunning repair work. That is, of course, until the cracked urn started to leech a rust coloured deposit from the join. It is now quite obvious that one of the urns was broken as it shows a diagonal rust-red line running through it. The repair job was so good, however, that it is expected not to require any further attention for the foreseeable future, and it is expected to last for many years to come.

If an observer is able to look at the top of the urn, the 'plug' of mortar can still be seen in the centre of the upper surface.

More details of some of the exterior features can be found on the official Shrine website here:

http://www.shrine.org.au/content.asp?Document_ID=1081

The Long & the Short of it.

Everyday

hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of people visit the Shrine of Remembrance. Many of these visitors are from overseas and want to take back fond memories of their time spent in Melbourne.

Because of this, everyday, many, many, photographs are taken by these tourists of, the monument, the gardens and also the Shrine Guards that patrol the area 24 hours a day dressed as Australian soldiers. Very few of these people actually get a photograph taken of them, as they take a photo of the Shrine!

On this occassion, however, I could not resist the temptation.

Living near to the Shrine and often passing through it's grounds whilst taking a leisurely stroll, I occassionally carry my camera with me for that 'Kodak Moment'. On this day I happened upon this gentleman that was on holiday from Germany.

As soon as I 'clocked' his shorts I knew that I had to capture them on film for this blog.

A smile crept over my face as I said "Nice shorts!...Do you mind if I take your picture?"

"Not at all" he replied in an unmistakable German accent.

I quickly took a picture of him, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary, and bid him farewell.

When I got back to my apartment and veiwed the image I nearly split my sides from laughing. These were undoubtably the most ridiculous shorts that I had ever seen!

I have therefore uploaded the image to this site for your entertainment, and to show that we do indeed get quite an assortment of visitors here at the Shrine from all corners of the globe.

PS: If you have any photographs of your visits to the Shrine of Remembrance, please send them to me at: marvinbstokes@hotmail.com

BYE!!! :)