Alive and well and still in Melbourne!

They moved to Melbourne a couple of years ago, and here they are, living comfortably and seemingly enjoying it even! We spent a very pleasant time the other week staying with old friends Zak and Farida in their Templestowe home. We went for a very enjoyable stroll in the Dandenong Hills, and dined in a fine seafood restaurant in Williamstown.

It was only Melbourne though. When are you coming back home, Zak and Farida?

N

Noble beginnings

It's hard to imagine less noble beginnings than a modest, cream weatherboard house in Noble St, Noble Park, Melbourne. This is where 10 members of my family started our Australian lives.

Back then there were apple trees in the back yard and a Shetland pony next door. On Saturdays you'd hear nothing but the sound of lawnmowers, and on Sundays the local market gardeners would ply their trade, carting fruit and vegies in small open trucks. Our favourite was a middle aged Greek gentleman, whose name we could never pronounce.

When Nick and I visited recently, the old weatherboard house was gone. In its place was a brick villa of sorts, with another behind it, where the apple trees used to be. 

  The suburb - the main street, the station, and the shops - no longer looked or felt the same. In fact it felt like a forgotten part of the world. Interestingly though, we noticed many migrant families who, just like us, were starting their new lives in Australia there. I wonder what they will see when they return 44 years down the track?

F

This was my tram!

Actually, mine was the 79, from North Richmond to St Kilda Beach. I drove that route, as well as the 42 (City to Mont Albert) and the 47 (City to North Balwyn) for most of 1975, during one of my former lives, living in Melbourne shortly after arriving in Australia.

It was good fun. Except when I was battling the peak hour traffic, or when it was boring, like on the late night shifts. Or when I was having little accidents with the cars that stopped dead just in front of me.


We came upon this one in Luna Park in St Kilda. Luna Park's still going strong, and looks like lots of fun, in a run-down quaint old way.

N

A la recherche du temps perdu

 My visits to Melbourne generally seem to centre around riding the trams and checking out the old haunts near where I spent most of my formative first two years in Australia. This last visit was no exception, and I was pleased to see both 51 Elgin St and 20 May St still standing and still where I left them. The former must still be a rental property, judging by the unkempt garden and peeling paint. The latter is looking very smart and proper, though still a tiny weatherboard cottage.

I have fond memories of my time in Elgin St, where I brewed my first drinkable home brew and built my first Newtonian reflecting telescope. (I started another one a while later in Tasmania, but after 30 years of carrying the half ground mirror around I somehow lost track of it.) I also clearly remember painting an enormous '51' on the gatepost in yellow paint, to assist guests finding the place when we held a big rowdy party there once. It's still there! It's been painted over with a more subdued green colour though.

One not so fond memory is of chasing the Norwegian party guest down the street when I realised he'd made off with my passport and other valuables. He ran into the nearby park and managed to lose me. Two days later the Swedish couple who'd been looking after him (also party guests) turned up and took me home for the return of the lost property (hidden up the chimney) and a grovelling apology from their kleptomaniac lodger. 

I went back to the police station and told them I was 'dropping the charges', because that's what they usually said on TV. "There's no such thing as 'dropping the charges'" the annoyed policemen told me. But without their star witness, they had to anyway. I'd told them who he was, so I hope they gave him a hard time anyway.

N

Eureka!

 Being a Sydneysider these days, I was only dimly aware that little old Melbourne had gone and built one of the world's tallest buildings. We try to ignore such silliness (except when it's us doing it). We got used to commiserating with people who lived in Melbourne ("Melbourne! - Oh you poor thing!") We still try to tell ourselves not much could ever happen in any other Australian city.

 I even turned up at the old tallest Australian building first, the Rialto south tower. I could see it had a taller cousin, but thought the view from its observation deck would be better, as it would include this new Eureka Tower too. But alas, they'd closed it a few months ago. Couldn't compete. 

So it was over to the south bank and up the 300m new colossus.

It is quite impressive, and it was a very pleasant and comfortable way to spend a couple of hours away from the wind and wet and cold that Melbourne can still dish up. It's 38 seconds to the 88th floor in the fastest lift in the southern hemisphere (against 30 seconds to the third floor that I'm used to at work!) The pamphlet tells me the building weighs 200,000 tonnes, has 3680 stairs and 52,000 square metres of glass, and the glass on its top ten levels is 24 carat gold plated. The Skydeck is the highest public vantage point in the southern hemisphere. (I'm always underwhelmed by these 'southern hemisphere' claims - makes it sound unnecessarily second rate in my opinion).

I saw the toy trains of Flinders Street station, the Spirit of Tasmania docked in Port Melbourne, the sports stadiums - including the sacred MCG - just to the east, the Dandenong Ranges in the distance, and every few minutes the intrepid tourists in the glass box that trundled out into space for the 'Edge Experience'. Wasn't tempted by that one.

N

Melbourne revisited

The skyscrapers have well and truly overtaken Sydney's, there are new parks, walkways, sculpture gardens, sports stadiums and exhibition buildings galore, plus a rather wacky but pleasant little space called Federation Square. A lot has indeed happened in Melbourne since I last explored the place. Best of all, the public transport has got even better and more convenient to use (with inexpensive go-anywhere tickets and new smart cards of the type Sydney spent tens of millions trying and failing to introduce).

It was a bit cold and windy, and some of the trams were annoyingly driving along the wrong streets (I used to drive the things, so I should know!) but it was well worth the visit. I should try to get back more often.

N

Travelling south

Off for a few days on a long awaited trip southward to reaquaint myself with Melbourne. I'd lived there for a while shortly after arriving in Australia many many years ago, and during my years in Tasmania I made inumerable work visits, but it's now actually about 15 years since I last went there and explored the place. They say lots has happened there.

Following the Princes Highway down NSW's south coast and Victoria's east I was able to check out for the first time the picturesque town of Bermagui, and then revisit equally pretty Eden, Orbost, and Lakes Entrance. Bermagui was the setting for the Billy Connelly film 'The Man Who Sued God', and I think I recognised the very fishing boat that God sank with his lightning bolt in the harbour there. (The insurance company refused to pay, as it was an 'act of God', but were embarrassed into settling anyway when he sued God instead.)

N