Australia 2005 (1)

Pig Yard @ Melbourne & Tasmania - November 2005

We flew into Melbourne on the first leg of our holiday and were collected from the airport by Jane's sister Ruth with her son Perry. We stayed in the city for a weekend in a hotel which was about 20 minutes walk from the city centre. Perry gave us a guided tour of the city through a wonderful market full of various foods - meat, fruit, vegetables as well as materials clothes in fact anything you can think of. Ruth took us around the parks, along the river which runs through the centre, then off to the William Ricketts sanctuary and the National Rhododendron Gardens. We then flew on to Launceston, Tasmania with Ruth to stay at her house in Beauty Point which is set on the edge of the Tamar river estuary.

Melbourne city (pronounced Melbun) is not as bright or vibrant as Sydney but when we visited Sydney 5 years ago it was their summer with bright skies whereas this was spring and Melbourne was overcast. There were a lot of road works in most streets and this added to the clutter and feeling of drabness.

We arrived at the beginning of Melbourne Cup week so there were a lot of young people dressed for the races - the men wearing suits; the ladies wearing skimpy dresses and exotic hats.

The architecture of Melbourne is varied and although not as old as British history it has elements of colonial building alongside industrial revolution and modern high rise monoliths.

The iron work on these colonial houses is made from the iron that was used as ballast in the sailing ships of the early 1800's. There are many instances where the decorative iron railings have been removed or modernised and this detracts from the original design.

Beach huts have a special fascination and these are in Brighton on the outskirts of Melbourne.

The decoration and colours are varied and in some cases quite dramatic.

We really had to search for this feature.

We took time out on the Sunday to visit the rhododendron gardens on the outskirts of Melbourne. The myriad of colours was amazing, it was the right time of year to visit. An ideal opportunity to get a rare family photo of Jane, her sister Ruth and Ruth's son Perry.

This square rigger at Beauty Point at the Tamar river estuary, Tasmania, was being prepared for the summer season. Once ready visiting tourists will be able to experience the pleasure of sailing in historic style.

We're standing on Brady's Lookout overlooking the Tamar river. Brady had been transported to Tasmania for theft, he had escaped from prison and along with his gang made several attempts to hijack ships to make good his getaway. He was eventually captured and hanged.

Tasmanian weather was like a British late spring. The night before this we had a superb thunderstorm with heavy rain which is deafening on a corrugated iron roof, standard roofing in Australia. So we posed on a picnic table in our fleeces to prevent getting wet feet, with a river behind us that had broken its banks and was in a raging flood.

Alpaca are not marsupials and it was interesting to see these strange, South American, animals in a Tasmanian field on the way to the Deloraine Working Craft Fayre. They are fascinating creatures and were very curious when we stopped the car to get out to take this picture.

The Pig Yard