My flight down from Brisbane was on Tiger Airways a cheap airline with no frills unless you want to pay for them. One ‘nice to have’ thing to pay for in advance is your luggage. I took heed of a warning on this from the Flight Centre agent back in Perth, so was adequately covered. As we lined up to check in, a ‘student’ type traveller had only opted for a small weight on the online ticket and had a bag of similar weight to mine. He had to pay 190 dollars more for his luggage and on an airfare ticket that probably cost him 50 dollars. However, if you expect these foibles then you live with them.
A pleasant flight with an upgraded seat to the emergency row for free (I should have paid 29 dollars for this privilege if I had requested it) but as they needed volunteers to assist in an emergency row they moved me for there for free. All the techniques that Innkeeper Monsieur Thenardier in Les Miserables would do, or Ryannair, take your pick.
We were soon down in Melbourne and as we walked from the plane it felt like the UK back in February. It was wet, cold and dark, even though it was just after 5.30pm. We were directed by cattle sheds at Terminal 4 into a caged open air area where there was one belt. It was more like a detention centre for prisoners, than a baggage welcome area. They finally came through and I called to the hotel again to see how the buses worked and with one more call I was heading across the bus lanes in search of a vehicle of a certain name. It came pretty quickly and left pretty slowly even though there were only 10 guests on board. The Chinese driver checked and re-checked all the locations for Hotels. One lady had tested his logic by saying a Hotel was on Queen Street not Queen Road. I guess he dropped her off somewhere.
All done, to Melbourne and I am in a Radisson. Quite trusted for services even though I had no idea where I was located in relationship to things, but the hotel welcome was a nice one.
I have quite a bit of travel planning to do while I am here for the Raratonga and USA legs of the trips, so all I wanted to do in Melbourne was to explore a few of the things which make it Australian and for what they are famed for. So think Aussie for a second and a quick top 10 in my head would include:
Cold Beer, Penal Colony, Cricket, Australian Rules Football, Prisons, Rivers/Marina and Coast Line, Local Indigenous Stuff, History Museum, Kangeroos, Crocodiles. Add to this my timely chore of finding a Laundry facility and topping up on some hygiene shopping, then this should give me a few things to aim at in Melbourne.
As for weather. Sunny on my first day but cold and gradually getting worse, with an odd early dusk time. I guess everyone starts early and finishes early, but a waitress the other day commented that the dark evenings are pain.
So I headed out on the first couple of days to see where I was and to see what I could do to top up my ‘think Australian, think Melbourne’ and to see what I could find.
Melbourne is a pretty big city that has spread around the coastline and with all the facilities that you would find in a modern western metro area. Yes, they have the River and Marina, although I have been up there twice and it was blowing a gail, freezing and all they restaurants had battened up their hatches. I jumped on the City Circle Tram which does a complete loop of the city with audio commentary to help tourists and it was free. Melbourne has lots of old trams, but fit in really well with the new and old buildings. Down by the river there are lots of late 1800’s early 1900 buildings with the metal artistry on the first and second floor landings. They also have some very state of the art office and apartment buildings.
Melbourne is a very wealthy area from its gold mining heritage. From ‘Docklands’ where the Marina is, a wide bridge spans the river. The bridge reminded me of one in Newport, South Wales, which I regarded as unfinished and an eyesore (two concrete pillars, that do not support anything). I would later see a more spectacular bridge heading out of town.
I head up to the Melbourne Museum to see if there was any local history that I can see. A bright modern building, but I only had an hour before it was closing so had to speed around. You do get the sense of link between Australia and Britain from all the pictures. Lots of migrant workers making the the sail ship journeys to make something new for themselves. I didn’t realise that Melbourne made its name from Gold Mining and a rush of migrants wanted to come to have their share in it (plus a few penal reformed inmates). A sort of latter day social security tourism but with more zero’s on the cheque if you struck gold. The museum had a replica of the first big single nugget of gold that was found, a massive 2200 ounces, it looked the size of two footballs and by todays value would be about £2 Million. I guess one Premier League footballer would put that into the shade quite quickly and the miners would have to work harder for their bounty.
One absence I have noticed down here compared to the other places I have visited is the Aboriginal People. Not sure why that is ?
So back to my Aussie bucket list. Penal reform! you can’t go to Australia and not visit a Gaol, it is a tradition. I made my way up to the Old Melbourne Gaol to see what it was like for some of our former countrymen, as they continued their trades in this land of plenty. The tour started with being ‘booked in’ as a criminal by an assertive officer and led to the overnight lock up. The men were separated from the women, the door was slammed shut and locked, before ‘click’ the light was turned out. The prisons were in use to as recently as 1994. It is good to see that their bed and breakfast was as grim as the crimes that they committed. Although looking at the facilities, I think a couple of my Hotel’s could be likened to the Gaol.
The Prison was the final lock up for the infamous Ned Kelly, the ranger outlaw who plundered travellers making their way across the country. When you see the Gaol itself and their tiny rooms, and a regime of lock-up in solitary for 23 hours a day with 1 hour in the yard in solitary walk you have to wonder why they would commit again. Some of them like Ned Kelly meeting the hang man at the end of their stay whose choice was made for them. As I looked along the stone walkway of the dark dank levels of the Gaol you did get a historic feeling, however righteous their stay was. I have not mentioned anything about open air prisons so far, so let me next turn to a great afternoon and baptism on the Saturday to ‘Australian Rules’ football.
I looked up on the Internet who was playing, so at least I could blend in with the local side. I know from our own football, that being in the wrong place and saying the wrong thing is at your peril. Today I would be supporting Essendon, a local Melbourne side, playing a team from Sydney, GWS Giants. As I approach the ground the local colours were obvious as there was a sea of Red and Black. I queued for a ticket with the locals and was then guided to a pretty good seat in the 3rd tier over the halfway line. The game had already kicked off while I was waiting in the queue, but it must happen a lot as there were huge screens on the outside of the ground to keep everyone informed. Luckily, I was on the end of a row, so didn’t have to ask 15 burly Aussies swigging beer to move to let a late Englishmen into his seat.
And the rules of the game? I hadn’t a clue. It really looked like a prison yard riot, with pushing, shoving and the occasional elbow. But I learned quick. I could sense that even some of the locals had to have the rules explained as the referee made the usual wrong decision against the local side. So let me paint a picture. The stadium was huge and had a roof, the pitch was Oval and about 180 metres long by about 150 Metres. The roof was about 100 metres off the ground so no chance of anyone hitting it. Each team has 18 players and there are 9 Umpires. At each end there are 4 Goal posts. If you kick through the middle two posts you get 6 points and if you kick through the outer posts you get 1 point. If you catch the ball cleanly in two hands which has been kicked to you, you can have a free kick to continue the game or have a shot at goal. The ball could be hit with the fist to pass or kicked and it didn’t matter if you dropped it. Then add the fact that everyone is trying to get to the ball or muscle you off it. 4 quarters of somewhere between 25 and 40 minutes. I didn’t understand this as I was sure the first quarter was 39 minutes on the clock ??
As for catching and kicking, I was surprise at how poor they were at this. I wondered what the Aussies were thinking ? I soon found out. The abuse that the Home side got in the first 2 quarters by the fans confirmed my observation. They couldn’t catch or kick and had very few tactics. Half time they were trailing by 18 points. These are high scoring games, so 36 to 54 at half time was not unusual. One by one the fans started shouting ever increasingly witty insults at the players to the amusement of the other fans.
By the second half I was starting to get into the rules and know when to clap and when to sigh. But a total change around in the second half saw Essendon take a 20 point lead before GWS scored again. The locals ending up winners comfortably by 40 points. Yes, there was the expected bruising and bust ups, but surprisingly enjoyable.
My next thing of things Australian was a visit and tour of the home of Aussie cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the home of Melbourne Cricket Club and the Boxing Day venue for test matches between Australia and England when played down under. Aussies are very proud of their Cricket and its heritage. The MCG is a mecca for Australians and the tours are run by members of the MCC who, donned in their Club Striped Jackets and Ties, pay their dues by volunteering to take tourists around the ground. We had a nice old boy ‘Peter’ who must have been 85 years old but shuffled extremely quickly around the ground, stopping every now and then to give facts and figures.
Kangaroo’s have been sorely missing on my trip to Australia, so I decided to see if an arranged trip could give me a better chance. Although the trip to Phillip Island was principally about seeing Penguin’s there was a write up about seeing Roo’s and Kaola’s. Turns out that the handful of Roo’s were Wallabies that are a slightly different and smaller species. The Kaola’s were in a park but I did get a photo or two.
Th Penguin march was a daily home coming at dusk of Little Penguins, the worlds smallest at just 12 inches high, who on an agreed confidence, leave the water in their thousands to go home to their holes in the sand dunes. Sadly no photo’s of this one, but to see them making their waddle over the rocks and up an embankment and knowing exactly where to go was fun to watch. They were really pint sized. A worthwhile trip.
Note added when I got to back to the UK. A letter had arrived at home from the Melbourne Police to say that I had not paid a Toll Road Charge. It sort of turns the tables on a convict leaving Melbourne and returning to the UK!
Dave's Sabbatical 