A bit of an interlude, with minimal sailing!

A work acquaintance of Paul’s had started his own consultancy, JVAT, a year or so ago. Paul had seen he was recruiting engineers and so on the off chance sent an email saying he could be available over the cyclone season. The result was Paul became a sub contract consultant with the company with his own Australian Business Number (yes, lonely two things in life are certain, death and taxes!). So Tai Mo Shan was safely tucked up in East Coast Marina with our friend Phil checking her and starting the engine weekly, and lots of other friends also keeping an eye on her. The job was based in Melbourne, so off we jetted.

The company was very progressive and a great place to work (and we’re not just saying this as Paul should be returning there next year!), with a very good work attitude. The job was very interesting covering risk and safety assurance. Paul worked on several projects including Quality Assurance for a fairground ride, Workplace Health and Safety systems for government departments, and safety engineering of armoured cars and a metro system. OK, interesting for an engineer, and it helped refill the coffers.

Suffice to say we really like Melbourne. It certainly lives up to it’s catchphrase of ‘Marvelous Melbourne’. We had a small one bedroom apartment in the up market suburb of South Yarra. The ‘small’ apartment was huge compared to the boat; Paul even had enough room to rock out on the guitar in the bedroom! The location was spot on with the office within walking distance, and South Yarra a major shopping area. The railway station was just across the road and Melbourne centre as 2 stops away, or a 45 minute walk. The transport links were really good with regular rail and tram services (and bus network that we did not need to use). The city is well set up with good commercial and cultural districts, and plenty of parks as well as the Yarra River. With some 5 million people, there is plenty going on; Paul even found a guitar group to strum along with!

We did not need to buy a car; the public transport was good enough to cover nearly all our needs. Paul also had use of a ‘company’ car. This was a Renault Megane so being French was a little strange. However, it did have ‘RS’ on the back, meaning ‘Rocket Ship’; Helen often claimed the acceleration broke her neck – Paul just found it great fun!

As usual we fully filled in our time. A sample of what we did (in no particular order), with tourist style descriptions, is below:

• Melbourne Beaches – nice sandy beaches, a bit shallow but still very pleasant on Melbourne’s hot sunny days.
• Fort Nepean (entry to Port Phillip) – an interesting turn of century (19th/20th) military fortification with great views of the entrance to Port Phillip. Nice bush walk.
• Melbourne Zoo – good zoo with lots of interesting exhibits. Shame we went when it was 38°C, and most of the animals were hiding from the sun!
• Victoria State Library – impressive building in the centre of Melbourne with interesting historical exhibitions. Well worth a visit.
• Melbourne Sea World Aquarium – good aquarium with excellent very large main fish tank with acrylic tunnels and large windows. Busy on the day we went.
• National Gallery of Victoria – good displays of a wide range of art. To be honest the modern art still leaves philistines like us confused.
• Melbourne Museum – a modern museum, with some modern, PC themes. Not so good as we prefer real interesting exhibits.
• Hamer Hall (Paul performed) – the chance to play with up to 150 other guitarists on a ‘real’ stage (well, Hamer Hall is the home of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne’s premier music venue!); seriously good.
• Melbourne Arts Centre (Paul practice) – and practice in the small, but still pretty good arts centre stage. Interesting to experience behind the scenes organised chaos!
• Organ Pipes National Park – nice bush walks by a small river with interesting rock formations. Well set up park.
• Mount Macedon (twice for weather) – a huge lump of granite rising our of the Victorian plains. First time was in cloud (visibility of 100m) so not too good. Second time was clear and showed really impressive views. Touching war memorial on the top. A well setup park with nice tea rooms at the summit.
• Hanging Rock – another interesting rock formation worth the climb to the top. Scene of a great Australian mystery. Shame the place was full of (mostly Asian) tourists with the ubiquitous selfie sticks!
• Geelong (shopping, big wheel and sailing (Ivan and Mike)) – nice town with recently developed waterfront; very pleasant. Includes a trip on the big wheel (not as big as Melbourne Star) but still nice views. Good fun sailing with Ivan and Mike in Ivan’s Yamaha 30 ‘Stormboy’ in the Geelong basin. Hope they enjoyed the instruction and repeated sailing into wind and down wind!
• Bendigo (work and look see, Central Deborah Gold Mine) – another small town some 160km inland. Renowned for producing gold, lots of it (some 770 tonnes!). Interesting trip down the Deborah Gold Mine tourist attraction; not much gold left in the mine though!
• Prahan Market – inner city market. Lots of fresh food stalls, with the food carrying a price premium.
• South Melbourne Market – another inner city market, with fresh food and other stalls; most things at a price premium.
• Queen Victoria Market – a huge market with literally hundreds of stalls under cover. The only problem was that there were about 12 different stalls, the rest just repeated. But at least mostly reasonable prices.
• Melbourne Star (Big Wheel) – tourist attraction. We got cheaper (half price) tickets on line. A good experience with superb views of Melbourne. We got our own air conditioned pod which made the 30 minute ride even better.
• Yarra Valley and Reservoirs (Sugarloaf, Saddle Dam and Upper Yarra) - a nice drive in to the country. The dams make for good destinations, and are quite a sight.
• Masons Falls – another nice bush walk. The dry spell meant the falls were a little underwhelming.
• Williamstown – a pleasant borough next to the sea. Lots of eateries with reasonable food and drink. A good day out with friends Lyle and Jan.
• Boat trip to Williamstown – centre of Melbourne to Williamstown by ferry boat. A great way to see the city, docks and surrounds. Very nice.
• Beer festival Abbotsford Convent – ah, thanks goodness for craft beer. Lots of decent beer available; IPAs, XPAs and double IPAs (particularly tasty/dangerous!) with good food and live music. An excellent afternoon/evening; fortunately with good public transport!
• South Morang Guitar Service – giving the guitar a good service so it sounds good. And remembering to put new strings on regularly (monthly instead of when they break!) to keep that sharp sound. Shame about the guitar player!
• Como House and Garden – a large heritage house. Only a couple of hundred year old but very interesting guided tour exposing the full history of the house.
• Melbourne Botanical Gardens – very pleasant large gardens completely open to the public.
• Marvel Stadium (Paul’s work Xmas Do) – a private box with food and drink whilst watching the ‘Big Bash’. A good experience.
• Seeing relatives – Really good to catch up with Niece and nephew, Kim and Dwayne, Aunty Merle, and Cousins Leander, Carl, Fern and Luke.
• Kinglake West – Fern’s Farm, a 40 acre farm in the bush. We had not seen many Kangeroos in the wild, here there were several mobs of up to 40 wild ‘roos, happily eating the dry grass; a great sight. There was also a Wombat hole, Echidnas, and several types of birds.
• Rooftop BBQ – a real bonus for us. The apartments had a rooftop BBQ area. There is something special aabout being able to look down on the city whilst eating.
• New Years Fireworks from rooftop; the best view in town of the firework spectacular.

We had real mixed feelings to leave and fly back to Brisbane. We had a great time, but then Tai Mo Shan and more adventures await!

Photo: Melbourne’s CBD lit up with New Year’s fireworks seen from the roof our Apartment Block, the Oaks.