Anzac Hostel. Now, the Anzac Campus of Star of the Sea Girls School. Originally, the Kamesburgh Mansion, the house was converted to a hostel for injured returned servicemen in 1918. The building is now leased to the school and the Kamesburgh Gardens are open to the public.

Banksia Flowers. The coastal banksia is indigenous to our area.

Cormorant … a Little Pied Cormorant to be precise. We often see them drying off when we are walking towards Brighton beach. They like to perch on the railings and rocks.

Dogs. Just a selection of the many dogs running around at the park on one of our visits. Riley is in the background. Another group of dogs had caught his eye and his was heading off to check them out.

Elster Canal. A lot of Elwood was originally swampy. They drained it and built the canal, which is a continuation of Elster Creek.

Footpath Repairs. The footpaths down Martin Street had numerous tripping hazards because of the tree roots pushing the concrete up. They’ve been fixing them over the last few weeks.

Gum Tree Good Food. This is about 600 m from us and stocks all sorts of gourmet goodies. They always have a good range of fruit and vegetables, excellent bread, and stock pretty much anything you could need to make a meal, but without the brand choice. Needless to say, I am a frequent visitor.

Highbottom Hall was built in 1887 as the Brighton Free Library. The library moved to the town hall in 1978 and the building is currently being used as a dance studio and Red Cross office.

Itasca pre-dates Brighton’s first rate books, dated 1859. At that time, Itasca, known as Craigmillar, was a house and brewery. It is one of the few houses remaining that pre-date the rate books. In the 1910s, it was a private hospital and the birthplace of Dame Phyllis Frost (1917-2004). It is now a private residence.

John Knox Uniting Church. Built-in 1876 this decommissioned church is now a private residence.

Kiosk. This one is just near the area of Elwood, where dogs are allowed off-lead until 9:30 am in the summer. We tried their coffee last year. It was very bad, which was disappointing.

Little Library. This one is in Martin St.

Middle Brighton Baths. The only caged open water swimming area left in Australia. The original building that was built in 1881 was reconstructed in 1936 after the storm that caused lots of damage in the area in 1934.

North Point Cafe. This looks out over the water at the end of our street. I’m disappointed that their application for an extended liquor license was knocked back—I would have enjoyed having the odd late afternoon cocktail down there.

Ormond Point. Groups often congregate late in the afternoon to watch the sunset over the bay. I use this little hill for my hill repeats. The slope is just long enough for my 12-second repeats. It’s actually steeper than it looks here.

Park—Elsternwick Park to be exact. Our local off-lead dog park has two large ovals, a lake (pond?), a playground, skate ramps and a circuit path around the outside that makes a convenient running track.

Queue waiting for coffees.

Rainbow Lorikeet are a common sight most of the year.

St Stephen’s Gardenvale, our church.

Train station. The trains travel over Martin St to Gardenvale Station which is up the ramp. From here it’s 24 minutes to Flinders St station in the city.

Underpass. This one is under the railway line and has street art both sides.

Vintage clothes shop.

Waves

X Is this cheating?

Yalukit William Nature Reserve – the old Golf Course has been transformed into a natural oasis about 800m from our place with wetlands and wildflower meadows.

Zebra Crossings. Martin St, Bay St, and Church St all feature roundabouts with pedestrian crossings at each road. When we first moved here, we’ve found these are often quite chaotic. I’m still careful stepping out because I’ve had a few instances where cars don’t give way.