Despatch from the front # 3

Tuesday March 8th (Happy International Women’s Day to you all!!)

Driving through the Western District to Apollo Bay in a British racing green Jaguar sports car we did up to 180 k/hr on the straight-aways. We called out “Poop, poop” too just like Toad of Toad Hall in The Wind in the Willows. My brother loves sports cars, always has. He drove Triumphs before the Jags.

The Western district is home to some of the wealthy seats of many old Victorian families. On the roads were land rovers and the odd other Jag. Paddocks of sheep and Black Angus cattle stretched for miles around. It took us three hours to drive to Apollo Bay and the Great Ocean Road. After the sheep and cattle stations we entered the State Otway Ranges (low mountains-hills really because Australia is so old) Park. The forest here is a temperate rain forest. There was tall, tall timber with huge tree ferns underneath. There was practically no traffic as today is a Tuesday and we took the corners and cornices at a sports car pace. It was so much fun, only once did I say please can we slow down a bit and then it was when the ocean came into view and I wanted to look.

Here's me next to a tree fern. They can be huge and pre-historic looking. The other pic is of Tedward beside his car.

Victorian iron lace work in East Melbourne

I went on a walking tour of East Melbourne through the Treasury Gardens. Needless to say it is one of the tonier inner suburbs. This architecture is typical of Melbourne and the inner suburbs of Sydney too. The houses are stunning.

Australian Centre for the Moving Image

Flinders Street Station

Picture of Collins Street

Despatch # 2 March 5th - The Paris End of Collins Street

Yesterday we went into town. While my brother was in a meeting at the Melbourne Hyatt Hotel I went for a stroll down Collins Street across Elizabeth Street up Flinders and back.

My Mum loved the Paris End of Collins Street. “It is so elegant” she said and “Just like a street in Paris”. She was right, after having spent some time in the Paris flat I can attest to it. There are lovingly restored Victorian mansions and office buildings, immense Plane trees – very big and very old, cafes, shops and galleries. The buildings have little European balconies, sprinkled tastefully amongst and betwixt the old are the tasteful new. Across the top is Spring Street with the State Parliament House. Again in his inimitable way it is described by Tedward as the Spring Street Asylum. (Hopefully pictures to come-of the building, not the inmates.)

Many of the colonial buildings (Australia became a country instead of six separate British colonies in 1901) are built of Victorian bluestone. Much of the bluestone in London and Liverpool came from Victoria because it was sent back as ballast. Heavy manufactured items were shipped here and we sent back mostly wool and wheat. These filled up the holds but weight was needed so that’s how Victorian bluestone went to London. It was on one of those ships in the port of Melbourne in the 1880s that a Ted Green fell from the rigging, straddled a beam and hurt himself badly enough that doctors said he would never make the voyage back home. Welcome to Australia, Ted Green. The rest is history. My nephew is Ted Green V. My brother again interjected “Thus proving that a moderate degree of intelligence does not guarantee creativity when naming one’s sons”.

Not only does Melbourne have stunning examples of Victorian architecture i.e. The Melbourne Club, The ANZ banking museum (resplendent with gothic vaulted ceilings) arcades with little shops and Flinders Street Train Station but modern buildings as well. I noted the Australian Museum of the Moving Image. “What the hell is that?” I said to no-one in particular when it came into view. “I think it’s something cultural” a voice beside me answered. I do have pictures of up close views. It has galleries and performing art spaces and a museum for the moving image – film.

I was running out of time so will visit this building again later.

Yesterday I booked my flight to the Sunshine Coast Airport for March 15th to spend four days in Queensland with Annie. It’s hot up in Queensland and we will go for a swim in the ocean. Annie’s house is on stilts with her studio underneath. The studio suffered some damage in the floods.

Xoxo Ellen

Despatch from the Front # 1

There are almost 4.5 million people in Melbourne now. 1,500 arrive every week. Some time ago a bloke from England conducted a survey of British expats to rate their favourite cities. Melbourne topped the list with Vancouver coming in second. Ulaan Baator came in last place at # 100. Tedward says that if he catches that English bastard he will throttle him, because until then Melbourne slipped nicely under the radar and all the foreigners stayed in Sydney where they belong, because bloody NSW is foreign anyway.
There are housing developments marching across the countryside at an alarming pace. The houses are not the 1950s style triple fronted brick veneers anymore. There is a very different architecture now - photos to come. We are having trouble loading my pics onto Tedward’s hard drive. On Saturday morning we will have to visit the geeks at the plaza to see if they can help us.
State of Victoria building regulations require all new houses to be constructed on a cement slab to prevent heat loss in the winter and heat getting into the house in the summer. In days gone by houses were built on stumps. This is to reduce the use of electrical or gas heating. Electricity is generated at coal burning plants. Victoria has enough brown coal to supply Australia with electricity for the next 500 hundred years. There are moves afoot to generate electricity at natural gas fired plants. This is more expensive but Australians are an environmentally concerned lot. Houses are now centrally heated. The vents are in the ceiling if the house is on a slab.
VicUrban, the land authority, releases parcels for development. (For the record, VicUrban is no relation to Keith Urban and therefore also not related to “Our Nic” as Australians call her). All waste water (not including sewerage) is collected and piped to a local recycling plant where it is treated and then is piped back to houses and used for flushing toilets, laundry and gardens. 40% of water consumed is recycled water in Tedward’s area. There are two outside taps both back and front of houses. The tap for the recycled water is mauve.
BTW My trip was long. Chicago was busy like a subway. 29 hours in all. Slept like a board leaning up against a wall. 29 hours later and I am still fuzzy headed.
Saturday cousins, Aunty Raie, nieces, a nephew and two great nephews are coming over for a BBQ.
It’s great having a large family.