Melbourne

Tues 5th Feb.

Cloudy/sunny periods 28- 30 degrees.

A nice slow start to the day. Not a good nights sleep - Carol has a cold so managed to keep Graham and herself awake coughing and nose blowing! However after a leisurely breakfast we headed off to catch the tram in to Melbourne centre.

As we sat down to start our journey the driver passed through the carriage to change driving ends - “How you doing - a day off ?” He cheerily asked. “ No, on holiday from England, from Yorkshire “ I’m a Paki, do you like a curry, can you get a good curry in Yorkshire” he beamed. “Yes - the curry’s good especially in Bradford”. “Oh that’s right, my ex fiancé came from Bradford - she showed me a photo - could have been in Pakistan, all clustering together. Anyway, I married an Aussie in the end, have a great day!”

Poilitical correctness has clearly not been invented in Melbourne... 

The tram was as slow as expected but better than driving, and definitely better than the car parking fee at the other end.

Coburg where our site is situated is 9kms from the centre, It is full of clapperboard and brick bungalows, granny bungalows on small plots for want of a better word. Very calm. Every now and again on the larger plots the bungalow had been demolished and a two story modernistic block building erected: dark glass and grey panels, a real mix.

One thing we noticed there is a large amount of graffiti, but there is in any large city - just take the train into London or Manchester and it seems to be a badge of honour to put some graffiti in the highest, remotest place possible. Here, they just spray any old fence or building that looks unused, even in granny-land.  If you live on the main street and you go away on holiday watch out, or there’ll be some street art on your garden wall when you get back.

We arrived an hour or so before our lunch engagement so walked along Flinders St - past the iconic station and on to the Immigration Museum housed in the old custom house. Free to concessions (that’s us now), it gave a fascinating insight in to the immigration history of Australia. We had to wizz round but here’s what we took away from it.

1). Initially any immigration is better than no immigration. It’s a big country to fill.

2). Reverse that. British people preferred, in fact there were campaigns to encourage British immigrants

3). Whites only. Chinese had to pay an entrance fee, later they were banned completely, then opened up again. All this depended on economic circumstance

4). After liberal opposition, immigration opened to everyone (although they did try to enforce an English language test)

5). Latest situation is a points system. The point scoring was not explained.

I didn’t realise that it was only in 1949 that Australians became Australians. Before that they were British subjects who just happened to live in Australia. I guess the losses from WW2 and the fact they were asked to defend the Allies from Germany, rather than their own country from Japan led to that decision.

The museum did not really deal with the Aboriginal subject, the shadow that will always haunt Australia. The subject came up briefly and I’m sure we will hear more of it when we venture north. Strange thing is, although the places have Aboriginal sounding names, we haven’t seen any Aboriginal people yet. Maybe we’re not in their area but in NZ North Island, we encountered them everywhere; shopkeepers, teenagers, office workers.

Melbourne is a juxtaposition between historical buildings (circa late 18th early 19th C) and modernistic design and high rise. At first we were not impressed but as we explored more of the city we warmed to it, although Federation Square is challenging. It has a very military, abrasive look and reminds me of the style of caravans that are parked next to us. Big and brutal, massive chassis, in black, or camouflage  colours, built to withstand the rigours of off-roading with small windows and machine gun turrets on the top (only joking about the last bit), with names like “Wild One” or “Predator”.

We had lunch in the newly build Federation Square at an Italian restaurant  - Il Pom - it was lovely to take a leisurely lunch and catch up with Mal, Margo and Sally who we had met on a tour of China last year. All around was building work as they are building an underground network. Not a small undertaking these days as the Londoners know from the two year Cross-rail delay.

They kindly showed us some highlights of the city.

We examined the famous graffiti of Hosier St  and surrounds - some good, some naff, - but on the Chinese tourist trail so must be worth a look.

RIP. Windsor Davies,

Mal thinks he borrowed  the stepladders from the theatre around the corner!

Also a look in a famous bar with original early 19th C fittings - very atmospheric and elegant.

Some of the decorative features of Chloe’s Bar.

 

Then a walk along the river admiring the cafés and wine bars moored along the river side. A break for ice cream at a place called Trampoline

Carol just before our ice- cream fix 

Then on to a stroll around the lovely Victorian looking arcades - very reminiscent of the Victorian Quarter in Leeds for those of us up north! 

After a civilised tea/coffee break we said our goodbyes and headed on back to the campsite.

Tomorrow we head off to Wilson’s Promontory (The Prom to the locals) - no doubt it will take a lot longer than we anticipate - it’s an enormous country!