Talk:Victoria (state)

Archived discussions Archived discussions can be found at Talk:Victoria (state)/Archive 2004-2054

V/Line paper tickets (Australia)

Swept in from the pub

Hi all, I'm more than a bit confused after trying to read into V/Line's paper ticketing system. V/Line operates regional trains in Victoria, some of which operate on a paper ticketing system, where you either have to physically purchase a ticket at an outlet or station, or book it online and take that booking to a station or outlet to get your physical ticket. On the Stratford (Victoria) page, I left an explanation that, if you wanted to travel by train, that there were no ticket outlets in the town, and so no way to book a return ticket while there, given the train station has no staff. AlasdairW pointed out to me that the PTV (Public Transport Victoria) website tells that "If you get on at an unstaffed V/Line station or roadside coach stop, you can buy a ticket from the train conductor or coach driver."

At the time, I did ring up PTV to check, and they confirmed this, but forgot to ask about what forms of payment were accepted, so I rung back up today (much delayed), but I was told — at least for the example of Stratford that I gave — that you could present your online booking and they'd accept it, and he seemed to imply that you couldn't just go onto the train and book a ticket with the conductor. I'm not sure what to do now — I was going to clarify the article, but I don't want to give out potentially wrong information. --LivelyRatification (talk) 21:06, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

@Vaticidalprophet: - do you know anything else? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | en.wikipedia) 21:29, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for trying, I hadn't expected this to be quite so difficult to answer. I am not familiar with trains in Victoria, but it is common in the UK to buy your ticket on the train if you board a local train at a station without a ticket office or machine. In the UK you can pay by cash or card, as the conductor has a hand-held ticket machine. I have also bought a ticket from the conductor in New Zealand (Wellington). It is helpful to know that online bookings can be shown on the train. AlasdairW (talk) 21:48, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Next time I'm on said train, which should be fairly soon, I will try and ask, but I can't provide any input based on previous experience, given that I'd already bought my paper ticket by the time I took the train back from Stratford. --LivelyRatification (talk) 22:36, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

Alternate banner for this article

I am proposing to change the banner to this one. If there were just the current banner of rolling plains and hay, I'd not want to visit Victoria. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 06:59, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

Proposed alternate banner

That banner looks like it'll be pretty unsharp at full size (150%). I would think we could do better. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:01, 16 July 2021 (UTC)

The new banner doesn't meet the minimum pixel size requirements, so it isn't suitable. However I do like the idea of changing to a view like that. AlasdairW (talk) 20:05, 22 July 2021 (UTC)

@Ikan Kekek, AlasdairW: how about a view like this: File:Victoria (state) banner new.jpg? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 01:33, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

Hazy and not very sharp. -- Ikan Kekek (talk) 05:01, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

In my opinion, it's quite hard to take a photo of the 12 Apostles, as all of my personal photos have this issue as well. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 07:40, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

OK, but that doesn't bear on which banner is better. Ikan Kekek (talk) 08:15, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

This is better, but doesn't meet the requirements in Wikivoyage:Banners - "Banners should be as wide as possible and need to be at least 1800 pixels wide in order to accommodate wide screens. The recommended minimum dimensions are 2100 x 300 pixels." AlasdairW (talk) 13:16, 23 July 2021 (UTC)

@Ikan Kekek, AlasdairW: How about this one? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 02:18, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Old existing banner

New new banner

It's not as picturesque a view as the 12 Apostles, but it's good and better quality, so I'd be happy with it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 02:51, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

The 12 apostles are quite hard to take since to get a perfect shot, often they're drone shots, and not taken down from the beach. I've tried and failed, but I don't take drone photography much anymore. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 03:35, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Done, but if I find a better photo of the 12 apostles, then we may as well consider. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 11:08, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

@Ikan Kekek, AlasdairW: finally managed to find a new banner with the 12 Apostles. How about this one? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 01:36, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

I like it best, then what's marked the "New new banner" above and then the existing banner. Ikan Kekek (talk) 01:39, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Done SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 01:51, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, it looks good. AlasdairW (talk) 09:36, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Budj Bim National Park

I know it's not a particularly well known place within the state, but given it is Victoria's only UNESCO World Heritage Site, should it be replaced with the Bellarine Peninsula which is currently a redirect? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 07:24, 22 February 2022 (UTC)

Given the lack of objections, done. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 00:49, 27 February 2022 (UTC)

Adding onto map

Hello everyone,

I am someone who lives in Geelong and has noticed over recent years that this beautiful city is growing into its own travel destination.

I would like to request if the Greater Geelong area could be it’s own seperate region in the regions tab and on the Victorian map to emphasise its importance as a second city to Melbourne.

I have already made a new copy of the map but am unsure how to upload it. If anyone could share their thoughts that would be great!

 Roman from Australia (talk) 09:11, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

@Roman from Australia: Hi there; welcome to Wikivoyage! Geelong is currently categorised as part of the South West Coast, and while Geelong is certainly an ever-growing destination (it was larger than I thought it would be when I was there on a quick stopover a few months ago), a Greater Geelong or Bellarine Peninsula article would only have four destination articles underneath it (Lara, Portarlington, Queenscliff, and Geelong itself), and would probably be better off as a subregion of South West Coast. Wikivoyage also discourages region articles with few city/park articles underneath a region, but there are some examples of good regions with few city/park articles categorised beneath them (e.g. Derwent Valley in TAS or Lower Darling in NSW). All that said, I'm not a local (I live 1000 km away), have only visited Geelong once, and would defer to anyone else who knows the region better than I do (@Vaticidalprophet, LivelyRatification:, if you're still active?).

As for the map itself, images, including maps, are usually hosted on Wikimedia Commons. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 12:11, 27 April 2023 (UTC)

Hello @SHB2000

Thank you for your reply! It’s nice to see a discussion on this page after a year!

I very much understand the points you made of Geelong having very few destinations for it to be a seperate region on the map. I was just wondering how many places do there have to be for it to be useable? I see that there is a seperate region for the Mornington Peninsula even though it is of small size (but I guess it might have more things to do 😆).

Some places I can think of are: Geelong, Lara, Portarlington, Queenscliff, Barwon Heads, You Yangs, Lake Connewarre, Ocean Grove, and possibly adding Torquay into this proposed region since it’s proximity to Geelong is close.

I have also uploaded a proposed new map to Wikimedia Commons if you would like to check it out! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_(State)_Map_(Wikivoyage)_Proposed*.jpg#%7B%7Bint%3Afiledesc%7D%7D Roman from Australia (talk) 06:30, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

@Roman from Australia: Not a problem! As for what's needed for a region to be usable, the relevant criteria can be found on Wikivoyage:Region article status. There isn't a hard and fast rule on how many destinations are needed for an article to be usable, or even feasible (Derwent Valley only has two articles directly categorised underneath it excluding Southwest National Park, plus one itinerary article), but there just needs to be enough information in the relevant section headers in prose form. For a Greater Geelong article, I suppose all those destinations could have individual articles, as long as there's something to see or do in them and passes WV:WIAA.

As for the map itself, nice effort – my first effort at making one was an embarrassment of riches. Have you made sure to include the source file, though? SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 09:24, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Hey @SHB2000,

I’m gonna try and make a start on creating a new Greater Geelong (and Bellarine) region page this week coming. I will also edit the link, map, and description under the map on Victoria’s page. I’ve tried some testers of trying to do that since it’s my first time and I think I’ve got it covered.

I would love if you or anyone seeing this could come and join in making a Greater Geelong page to show this city’s shining significance to Vic!! :)

I will also make a static map of Greater Geelong and follow the guide on what that map needs to have (I’ve downloaded the guide).

Hope this all goes well! I will try my best to make this new page as useable as possible. Roman from Australia (talk) 14:04, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

I have made a static map of Greater Geelong to put in the new page, what are your thoughts on it? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Geelong_static_map.png I will try and work on creating this new page and see how it goes. Roman from Australia (talk) 05:56, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

@Roman from Australia: Great start to the new Greater Geelong article! Love the static map, too (the only thing I wished was for a slightly greater emphasis on the Princes Freeway (see SEQ or CBI, for examples), but it's a great second static map. I did a bit of MoSifying, but otherwise, I'm looking forward to your content additions. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 08:32, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

One other thing – a few changes will need to be made to the categorisation, but I'll handle that. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 08:33, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Oh no! I completely forgot to add the highway markers for the Geelong Ring Road/Princes Fwy haha. I’ll see if I can change it later in the week!

Thanks for your contributing and help @SHB2000 Roman from Australia (talk) 08:35, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Not a problem, Roman! It happens, and I've almost forgotten several times before, too. Also, if you want a bit of inspiration for how a region article should look, I wrote southeastern New South Wales last year, which is now a guide article (as it fulfills all the requirements listed on Wikivoyage:Region article status). Category:Guide regions, plus Bali, are also other good places to look for inspiration. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 08:39, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips @SHB2000! I was just thinking that I would be more than happy to create some nice static maps for the other regions of Victoria if you would like.

Such as static maps for the Mornington Peninsula, Goldfields, Yarra Valley regions throughout this week? Roman from Australia (talk) 08:59, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

If you're willing to create static maps, by all means go for it! SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 09:00, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Lead paragraph

The first paragraph should explain why the reader would want to visit a place, rather than reporting geographic facts like can encyclopedia article would. Could someone familiar with the state something better than describing its boundaries? Ground Zero (talk) 00:53, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

I've had a look at the region template and rewritten the introduction to fit the guidelines. Wikibility (talk) 23:13, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

Nice work. Now it looks like travel guide, and isn't boring. Thank you. Ground Zero (talk) 23:16, 6 November 2024 (UTC)