Fitzroy’s Gardens

Continuing my walk into Fitzroy’s Gardens, I think I had quite enough of Victorian homes. According to the brochure, the path network of this garden is largely the same as that laid out 150 years ago. From a “bird’s eye view”, the main paths suggest the lines of the Union Jack flag.

Turning east, I arrived at the picturesque Model Tudor Village. This village was placed in the Gardens in 1948, given to Melbourne by the citizens of Lambeth (England) as a token of appreciation for food parcels sent during World War II.


Next to the Model Tudor Village, was the Fairies’ Tree. A favourite attraction with the children and me, the Tree links the elves, fairies and globins of traditional folklore with Australian animals. I spotted a koala somewhere. Sculptor Ola Cohn gave each of these cravings an identity. There is also the Fairy-With-Similing-Lips and the Energetic Emu.

At this point of time, I was too hungry to carry on with the walk. It’s already 2.30pm and I haven’t had anything since breakfast at 7am. Walking out of the Fitzroy’s Gardens, I wanted to get a vegetarian roll from Mc as lunch. But there was a pink van from afar that attracted my attention.

Curious, I forgot about my hunger pangs and walked towards the van. Turned out to be a van selling gelati. It took me quite a while to decide to abandon the urge to cool myself down with ice-cream or to walked to the city to get food. In the end, the heat won. I forked out A$5 to have a mixture of all the flavours available in the van. This is what I ended up with. But it was delicious, and simply out of the world. And this ended up being my lunch. Certainly brought back memories of my uni days in Toowoomba.