Williamstown, Australia.

On Saturday, we decided to explore a bit more of the state of Victoria.  Jeff made an executive decision and decided that we were going to venture to Williamstown.

Williamstown is located about 15 - 20 minutes from our house on the western side of the Port Phillip Bay.  It's a quaint little town that was originally inhabited by Aboriginal people, specifically, the Yalukit-william clan.  Then, in 1835, Captain Robson Coltish brought 500 sheep and 50 Hereford cattle and began to colonize the area.  Shortly after he set foot on land, many others followed - there were more than 100 buildings by 1840.  Today, it boasts a population of under 6,000 people and focuses around its maritime history and bay-front location.  The view of Melbourne was so pretty - on a sunny day, it must be awesome!

City of Melbourne from Williamstown

Lots of little sailboats and a funny looking penguin-like bird.

Melbourne in the midst of many masts.

Ferguson Street Pier.

Gem Pier.

We saw quite a few historic sites, including the Point Gellibrand Timeball Tower.  The Timeball Tower was used to signal to ships in the bay the hour of 1pm, ever day - they would then check their maritime chronometer, which enables the sailors to determine their longitude at sea.

Timeball Tower.

Point Gellibrand Timeball Tower.

Mooring anchor found in the bay.

Williamstown is a cute little town with lots of little cafes, restaurants and shops.  As is standard in Australia (that we've seen), the shoreline is beautiful.

Beautiful shoreline, no people.

More beautiful shoreline, again, no people.

Entrance to the Botanical Gardens. 

Nelson Street.

Local cricket match.  We fell asleep.

Williamstown on a nice summer day.

Oh, and it was cold.  If you're thinking to yourself, "Self, it looks like Laura is wearing a turtleneck sweater, but that's weird, because I know it's summer in Melbourne...", you'd be right on both counts.  It IS summer in Melbourne, and I AM wearing a cashmere turtleneck sweater.  With a long sleeve shirt underneath.  This week was a crazy weather week - it was in the 80's earlier this week, then on Thursday, I woke up to this:

52 degrees fahrenheit on January 12th.

Today it was probably in the high 50's, but the wind was so cold and blowed all day.