It's another beautiful day in Sydney,
so I pack away the jumper and trousers and decide on summer attire
for my last morning in New South Wales and for my journey to
Victoria.
There's a lovely walk around
Marrickville Golf Course beside the Cook River.
I don't think I have
ever heard so many birds twittering and calling. Ibis are
everywhere; the Aussies rather regard them as flying rats.
As I walk back up the hill to the
house, two plain-clothes police officers are in the process of
arresting a guy, his hands on his car as one of the policemen search
him.
Liz has kindly made me some sandwiches
– or 'sambos' as she calls them – for my journey. They are, of
course, not your normal butties. Duck and mushroom for one and bacon,
lettuce and tomato for the other.
At Sydney Domestic terminal, there is a
huge queue at Jetstar and I seem to be one of the few people who has
bothered to check in online and tag my bags at the automatic
machines. As a result, the bag drop is totally clogged up. So I
boldly walk past a large group of beefy Aussie Rules professional
footballers and straight to a desk.
Bruce weighs my luggage, including my
two carry on bags. 'You are 7 kilos over your allowance, we charge
that at the airport at $15 dollars a kilo.
$105! That's as much as I have paid for
my ticket, 40 kilos of luggage and my seat. Crikey! I explain about
my round the world exploits, hand over my Travel Writer business
cards and say a silent prayer. Bruce goes off to see a supervisor and
returns with the news that they are not budging. But suddenly, he
seems to take pity on me, hands me my boarding passes and wishes me a
pleasant journey.
But the message is very clear. If you
have more luggage than you have paid for, Jetstar will charge you.
The 'no frills' airlines make a lot of money out of excess baggage;
it's one of the ways they keep their lead-in fares lower than
scheduled carriers.
I am in my normal 1A seat on Jetstar's
very new Airbus A320. It has very comfortable leather seats and the
first row is set back from the door. So you don't get trampled by
boarding passengers and the legroom is not restricted by the door
slide.
The flight is packed, but it's actually
a very pleasant journey. One of the cabin crew is especially keen to
please; she's being checked out by an extra staff member for a more
senior position.
At Melbourne, the bags arrive quicker
than if they had been priority tagged. Within moments, I am met by
Diana Robertson, who was my school penpal and her partner Malcolm
Hackett.
We are just dropping my luggage at the
splendid Cantala B&B in the northern suburb of Eltham before
heading to their temporary accommodation. They lost their house and
much else in the dreadful bush fires of February 7 2009. Google
'Black Saturday bushfires' and you will get the full information.
We are headed to the local community
hall in Strathewen, where there's a pizza evening and children's
talent contest. The state of the art hall was donated after the bush
fires by property develop Australand and their suppliers. The evening
is great fun, with a couple of pretty impressive turns. What is not
on show is the trauma that many folk still feel more than two years
after the local school, village hall, fire station and 173 lives, 27
of them in Strathewen alone, were lost.
In the morning I take the train into
Melbourne. A day Metrocard for unlimited use on the trains, buses and
trams costs just $11, which is amazing value as the single ticket for
the hour-long journey to Melbourne would alone be $8.
There is so much to see and do.
Diana
meets me in the city centre and we take the free city circle tram,
which runs every twelve minutes. It's a great way of orientating
yourself, and with one going in the opposite direction, it's an easy
way of getting to most of the main sights. There is also a less
publicised tourist shuttle bus which runs every 30 minutes, which is
also free.
Waterfront City in the old docklands
area is supposedly the 'happening' place in town. But it's not my cup
of tea. Lots of shopping and places to eat, if you like that sort of
thing. But to my mind, it's pretty soulless. The controversial
Southern Star big wheel is also there. Opened amid big hype at the
end of 2008, it closed just a month later with structural problems.
After three years, a new version, along the lines of London's Big Eye
and the Singapore Flyer is being constructed.
On the tram, we have learned about the
William Angliss Institute, where 7,000 students learn about the
catering and hospitality industries. We enjoy an excellent lunch in
the Bistro, one of the two training restaurants, although the young
chef of the day is at a loss to explain why my twice-baked souffle
has developed a pie-like crust! But you can't fault the attention to
detail of the students, who come from all over to learn at one of
Australia's most prestigious catering hospitality colleges.
The Eureka Skydeck 88 features the
'fastest lift and the highest public vantage point in the Southern
Hemisphere'. The tallest building, which must irk them, is in fact
Auckland's Sky Tower, but the Kiwi observation deck is lower, hence
the claim. Skydeck costs $17.50 for adults.
At almost 300 metres above the ground,
it certainly does give you a wonderful view of the Melbourne city and
suburbs. A special (and $12 extra) feature is 'The Edge', a glass box
which actually takes you outside the building and above the street
far below. But I find the rather contrived creaking and thunder
effects spoil the overall experience. Cameras are, rather
frustratingly, not allowed inside. Why? Because they charge you
another $15 if you want to buy the one taken from their camera.
At the Young & Jackson Hotel
opposite Flinders Street Station, we meet Chloe Breakwell, who I
first met as a 12 year old on Lord Howe Island. Ten years later,
she's studying veterinary science at Trinity College. The venue for
our pre-event meal has been chosen because Chloe took her name from a
famous painting in the hotel, which she has never seen.
In the evening, off to see my first
ever Aussie-Rules football at the Etihad Stadium. The match, between
Melbourne rivals Bulldogs and Collingwood, is fast, furious and great
fun. Leg room is less than generous though. A man behind us, recently
retired as a foghorn, feels the referee is being less than supportive
to his team and 'you maggot' is only one of his many high-decibel
reposts.
Cantala B&B is in Eltham, an hour
or so from the city by the Metro suburban train. The delightful
1930's house is set in lovely gardens. It's only 10 minutes away from
the railway station, but it's a pretty hilly walk back.
The transport bargain of the century
has to be the $3.30 cost of Melbourne's weekend day ticket. You have
to pay an initial $6 for a myki pass, which is replacing the old
Metcard, to obtain the bargain, but it really is unbelievable value.
I while away most of Saturday morning
at the excellent Queen Victoria Market, open on Tuesday and
Thursday-Sunday. The produce market is very much geared to meet the
needs of Melbourne's multinational residents while bargains abound
in the vast covered area which houses around 1000 traders.
I am amazed that entry to the
Australian Centre of the Moving Image, housed in striking buildings
at Federation Square, is free. Especially as their permanent
exhibition, 'Screen Worlds', is a truly remarkable presentation of
film, television and digital culture. I spend a couple of hours
marvelling at the extraordinarily clever ways that were used 100
years ago to make images move. I could have spent a lot more time
seeing impressive presentations about iconic Australian films such as
Walkabout and TV programmes like 'Skippy'. I absolutely love it. The
futuristic building also houses prestigious visiting exhibitions
(William Kentridge during my visit) and two cinemas showing a wide
range of documentaries and films not on general release.
Back at Eltham, I enjoy some excellent
fish and chips, only discovering later that the tasty white 'Flake'
is actually shark meat.
The Bylands Tramway Heritage Centre is
an hour's drive north of Melbourne. It's only open on Sundays, but
well worth a visit if you are, like me, interested in public
transport. It houses a huge collection of old trams from Melbourne,
Ballarat and Geelong. Sadly, many of the vehicles, some of which date
back 100 years, are in need of rather more restoration than a
non-profit organisation can afford to give. It's also sad that they
are currently, owing to health and safety rules, not able to offer
trips on their little bit of working track.
On the way back to Malcolm and Diana's
temporary home, we stop at a $300,000 memorial being contructed in
Strathewen in memory of the locals who lost their lives in the 'Black
Saturday' bush-fires of 2009. I find the words, written by the
survivors, intensely moving and it will be a wonderful tribute to
those who perished in the flames.
Nearby, a clutch of ceramic letter
boxes, made by villagers as one of many projects undertaken to try
and help them cope with the tragedy of that awful day.
But we also pass the newly constructed
school, the village hall which will open later this year and the
splendid sports pavilion, cricket oval and tennis courts built from
funds donated by Australian companies.
Just like the undergrowth and the
wildlife, things in Strathewen are slowly but surely getting back to
something like normality.
