A tour of Merri Creek for people looking for inner city peace from People’s Tour on Vimeo.

Merri Creek is a 70 km waterway that starts in the small town of Heathcote Junction on Melbourne’s northern outskirts, and flows down through Fairfield, East Brunswick and Northcote to join the Yarra River in Collingwood.

Tour guide Lucy Foley made this tour for people looking for quiet in Melbourne’s inner north.

Lucy shows us the stretch of the Creek she knows intimately from eight years of regularly walking her dog alongside it. If only dogs could be tour guides too…

Starting at the Arthurton Road entrance to the Merri Creek Trail and heading north, Lucy points out places of quiet and beauty, as well as places of beautiful noise and quiet ugliness.

Listen now or download for later

This tour goes for 6 minutes and 30 seconds, and has five tour stops.
Download audio file (merri-creek.mp3)

Lucy Foley’s tour of Merri Creek (6 megabytes).

Tour guide

When not walking her hound by the Merri Creek, Lucy Foley works part-time in community development for Darebin Council in Melbourne’s inner north.

She has a background in electronic arts and undertakes occasional freelance work in design. Currently, Lucy is spending a lot of her time hanging out with her lovely electric guitar writing and playing music, with the aim of recording a solo EP by the end of 2008.

Tour map

View larger map

Music

Cloudboy from their debut album Down at the End of the Garden:

• Walk along (Promenade mix)
• Tebo
• Red Rubicon

Music is used under Australian Fair Use law and/or with permission of the copyright owners.

Tour stops and links

Merri Creek Trail map
An excellent PDF map of the walking and cycling trail along Merri Creek, with nearby public transport and amenities included.

Friends of Merri Creek
A community group that has worked to restore and protect Merri Creek since 1988. It holds volunteer Planting Days and other activities around the Creek.

Coburg is a suburb in Melbourne’s north, about 8 km from the city.

Tour guide Felicity Grey made this tour for people who live in the suburb of Coburg and its neighbour Brunswick who are yet to venture north of Bell Street.

People know Coburg for two things – the Sydney Road shopping strip and Pentridge Prison. Because this is a People’s Tour (i.e. a tour that guide us through less or not-at-all famous places), Felicity’s tour features neither! Instead, she shares some favourite spots that she has discovered and come to love since “accidentally” moving to Coburg four years ago.

Listen now or download for later

This tour goes for 9 minutes and 10 seconds, with four tour stops.
Download audio file (felicity-tour-complete-FINAL.mp3)

Felicity’s tour of Coburg (8.4 megabytes)

Tour guide

Felicity moved to Coburg by accident. With a bunch of friends, she was in the process of setting up a huge sharehouse in Eltham/Warrandyte but somehow ended up in Coburg instead  – the huge, permaculture back yard satisfied her naturelust.

Coburg has since wiggled its way deep into her heart, with its big backyards and cheap rents, cheap good coffee, great public transport and bike paths, the Merri Creek and a host of delightful surprises.

Now she calls Coburg home, along with her partner, dog and chook. They like it here.

Tour map

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Music

Music by Harmanick, “Velvet Bannister (Ana Remix)” under a Creative Commons license.

Tour stops and links

Coburg Leisure Centre
Felicity’s local gym off Russell Street, Coburg.

Sydney Road
Wikipedia entry on the longest shopping strip in the Southern Hemiphere, and half of which runs up the middle of Coburg.

Pentridge Prison
Wikipedia entry on Pentridge Prison, the most unique housing redevelopment in Melbourne.

Moreland Sculpture Show
An annual outdoor sculpture exhibition of permanent and temporary works.

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