Mar 30, Buninyong, Geelong

Buninyong was a pretty little town, so we took a walk around the town and gardens. The guide book said that the town has a film festival every year, but it was hard to believe they had the population to do that.
On to Geelong, a city of about 250,000 southwest of Melbourne. They had a Wool Museum explaining everything about sheep; kinds, raising, shearing: wool; grading, washing, combing, spinning and weaving. They had an old jacquard loom with cards to make the pattern.
Geelong is on Corio Bay and has a lovely park by the water. It stretches along the bay. There was a carousel, made in Towanda, NY in 1892 and restored in the 1990's. (We had visited the Towanda museum on one of our trips). They even had the steam engine that drove it and a mechanical band organ. Further along was a Ferris wheel and a train ride. On the Eastern end was a boardwalk that made a semicircle out into the water. Inside that circle, people could swim and dive into bay. Near it was a smaller, concrete children's pool. There were several cafes along the water.
All along the waterfront were bollards - painted wooden sculptures that looked like people and were made by one artist. It was a very pleasant place to spend the day and there were lots of people there. It was a cool, grey day, but I can imagine the throngs of people there when its hot.
We plan to go to church tomorrow, Easter Sunday and have had a bit of trouble locating one close. Right now we're camped on the street and will drive to church in the morning.
Pictures - Koala road sign, Jacquard loom, Samson & bollards, boardwalk swimming areas in Geelong

Mar 29, Ballarat

Good Friday. At 9am, downtown Ballarat was a ghost town. Only the info center, tourist attractions and coffee shops were open. We walked around looking at the historic buildings. Ballarat is the largest inland city in Victoria and it was built on gold. There were many beautiful old buildings.
We went into the Royal Craig Hotel and met the owner. Many famous people stayed here, Mark Twain, Prince Alfred, Prince Edward and Capt. James Waddell. The last was the skipper of the CSS Shenandoah, a Confederate sailing ship that was bought by the Confederacy in England and used to attack US whaling ships. It was the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the earth. We had never heard of this part of the Civil War and were fascinated by what he had to tell us.
We continued our tour and went into Christ Church Anglican Cathedral. We met Constantine, a priest there and he invited us to join him for coffee later. After seeing more of Ballarat we met him and went to an outdoor cafe. He was a Catholic priest from Nigeria who had recently become an Anglican priest and was assigned to Ballarat. It was a fascinating conversation. He left the Catholic Church because of its ruling on women priests, married priests and the very conservative stances on contraception. He hopes to open a school for the poor in Nigeria.
Spent the afternoon resting in preparation for a busy night.
First, to the observatory. We took a tour of the buildings and telescopes they have. Then we watched three 3D movies - one on the big things in astronomy, another on the small things and the last about Mars exploration.
From there we went to Sovereign Hill, a recreation of Ballarat in the 1850's, during the gold rush and the Eureka uprising. At night they put on a light and sound show. It covers the uprising and the events that led up to it.
Gold miners flooded Ballarat and the government needed money for policemen to keep order. They raised it by requiring miners to buy licenses for dig. It was a monthly cost, even if they found no gold. To enforce the license, police made raids on the gold fields hunting for those without licenses. There were other clashes between the miners and the government and tensions were high. When the police made more frequent raids, 10,000 miners sent demands to the government for a repeal of the licenses and the right to vote and be represented. The miners built a stockade to protect their homes and raised the "Southern Cross" flag over, but the police and army reinforcements attacked. 28 miners and 2 policemen were killed and the flag taken down. Public outrage finally forced the government to back down. This was considered the beginning of Australian Democracy.
The show involved a movie in a theater, then we walked into the 'gold field' for another part of the story, rode a train to an outdoor stage for more of the story. The last scene was in the Main Street with an actor explaining what the uprising meant to Australia. It was quite a production and very well done. But it lasted from 9:45 to 11:00. We were really tired and just camped in the parking lot.
Pictures - Bandstand in Ballarat dedicated to the members of the band aboard the Titanic (outline of the Titanic on the weathervane), jeanne, Constantine & Samson, Eureka "Southern Cross" flag

Mar 31, Geelong, Queenscliff

What a nice Easter we've had. We attended services at St Paul's Anglican Church in Geelong. After the mass there was an 'egg scramble' (egg hunt) for the kids. We were invited to the church hall 'for a cuppa'. When we met the priest he said that one of the parishioners was from Chicago. We found Mark and he actually knew LaPorte! He's planning a trip to Michigan with a mate to visit a friend and pick up a Corvair that his friend has. Then he & his mate are taking Route 66 back to LA. We invited him to LaPorte when he comes to the area.
Queenscliff was next on our route. When we parked near the fort there, a policeman did a U turn and stepped over to the rv. He just wanted to know if we needed help. Then he gave us a map of the town and some hints for things to see. We walked around the little town, long a vacation place for wealthy people from Melbourne. Then we went for a tour of Fort Queenscliff. Margaret, the guide, was very smart and enlisted the help of the children on the tour to keep people from climbing on the guns. There was a boy of about 8 and 2 girls, maybe 8 and 10. They were really into it and helped people watch their steps and stay off the steep hills. There was a 3 year old who reminded us of Shanton. His name was Jasper and he joined the older kids. We had talked to his mother before the tour and she didn't think he would last the whole 90 minutes of the tour. But he was the hit of the tour and kept us all entertained.
The fort was good, too. It was built during the Crimean War to protect Australia from the Russians. It was used during WWI and WWII and is soon to house the army archives.
South of there was Point Lonsdale. There was an Easter surfing competition going on. The reason we stopped was to see The Rip, a whirlpool of waves on the western entrance of the bay. It's considered one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. Ships on their way to and from Melbourne have to have a pilot guide them through. We watched a big cruise ship jockey his way out to the sea.
Now we're camped in the overlook and enjoying the sound of the waves.
Pictures-Black lighthouse at Fort Queenscliff, Surfers at Point Lonsdale

Mar 28, The Grampians, Bunjil's Cave, Stawell

Up early this morning to hike to The Balconies, an overlook in the Grampians. The clouds were hanging low over the mountains and there was a good view of the rock outcroppings. We drove to Boroka Lookout where we saw a couple of kangaroos who were not afraid of us, just stared.
We went to the Branbuk Cultural Centre to go to visit rock art with a guide, but there was a miscommunication and the group was already leaving. Fortunately the art was accessible by car. So we watched 2 films at the Centre. One was a dreamtime story about the creator Bunjil and the Bram-buck brothers who helped him. It explained the earth, the waters, the valleys in the mountains, why emus are the size they are and why their feathers are split and how the possum came to be. The other was a more conventional story of the geology and history of the Grampian Mountains, interesting though.
Then we drove to Bunjil's Cave, the only site where Bunjil is depicted and the only site in the area where 2 colors were used. He's there with 2 dingoes, that represent the brothers.
From there we went to Stawell (pronounced Stall). It is the home of the Stawell Gift a world famous foot race that is run on Easter. Runners from around the world compete. The info center was at the race track/hall of fame, so we were able to see the grass track and the historic grandstands.
Stawell also had a working gold mine with an observation point. Now gold mining is all about crushing the rocks finer and finer and treating that with water and
arsenic. We just saw machinery. Doesn't have the allure of the old fashioned gold mining.
We returned to The Grampians and went to Silverband Falls. It was another hike, but this time on a recently reconstructed trail. In 2007 they had bush fires that destroyed the trees that held back the soil and in 2010 they had 8 inches of rain and massive landslides. The trail followed the creek and along the creek trees and debris that had been carried downstream still piled up 10 to 12 feet. It was an incredible display of the power of the water.
We're on our way to Ballarat and have stopped at Smythesdale in a park/impromptu campground. It's a large area and campers just pull wherever and set up. Nice place for the night.
Pictures - kangaroo at Boroka Lookout, Bunjil's Cave, Stawell's Gift Racetrack, rare picture of us together at Silverband Falls, The Grampians

Mar 27, Ouyen, Hopetoun, Warracknabeal, The Grampians

We stopped in downtown Ouyen to see the Roxy Theatre and we noticed th bakery across the street. A sign said, "The Home of the Vanilla Slice". So we went in to find out about it. Turns out it is vanilla custard between cracker thin crusts, dusted with confectioners sugar. And we tried some. It was a little tricky to eat, the crust was good - with seeds in it, but it wasn't easy to cut. The custard reminded of custards my grandmother made, really rich and sweet. All in all a good treat, but a bit rich for 8:30 in the morning. There was a couple in the bakery from England on their third trip around Australia. They were really going off the regular tourist roads.
In Hopetoun we saw a mural covering the history of the Mallee Region. And the information ladies directed us to Lake Lascelles. There was a campground there with rooms to rent. The rooms were made out of metal silos on stilts.
On the edge of town there was a woman with a little shopping cart hitchhiking. We picked her up to take her to Rosebery, a crossroads 14 km down the road. She said she didn't have much money and she wanted to use it for groceries instead of gas.
In Warracknabeal we stopped in the info center and spent some time talking with the volunteer and her husband. He was a retired wheat farmer and she told me about visiting her son in Darwin and how much she liked it there.
We took a walk along the Yarriambiack Creek. It was a large creek that ran right through town and had huge old gum trees along the banks. There were lots of ducks on the creek and cockatoos in the trees.
From there into The Grampians. We went off the main road to see some Aboriginal art at Ngamadjidj Shelter. It was unusual because the figures were white. At MacKenzie Falls we hiked down to the base. It was very steep and it started to rain, but it was worth it - beautiful cascades over black rocks, very dramatic.
We're still in the Grampians. We stopped at an overlook and the clouds started to come in, so we're here for the night.
Pictures-vanilla slices, silo rooms, Aboriginal art at Ngamadjidj Shelter, Jeanne at MacKenzie Falls

Mar 26, Lake Boga, Swan Hill

We stayed in a spot just off the highway last night and drove north to the Reedy Lakes. One of the lakes was an ibis rookery and good bird watching spot. We didn't see any ibis (we had seen lots in Sydney) but we did see eastern swamp hens, cormorants, a couple of black swans, two swamp harriers and ducks.
From there we went to Lake Boga and the Flying Boat Museum. In WWII, the lake was a secret repair depot for American, Dutch and Australian flying boats. It was a huge complex in a very small community. Hundreds of planes came in for repairs from 1942 till it closed in 1947. There was a film that described the depot, how it came to be so far inland in Australia and the work that went on there. Besides a museum that held a Catalina Flying Boat and other memorabilia, there was an underground communications bunker. It was really, really interesting. And it was built by the Lake Boga Lions Club and local and government funds.
On to Swan Hill. It was another town on the Murray River. We went to the Pioneer Settlement, a collection of 50 old buildings, old farm equipment, trucks and cars. We wandered through the buildings, like the first prefabricated building in Australia. Made of metal, it was shipped here to provide housing in the gold mine towns. The wooden shipping crates provided wood for the floors and walls.
In another building was a stereopticon theatre. It was a round wooden structure with 25 spots where people could sit and look through a stereopticon. There
might be a picture of Versailles, then in a a minute, the picture would move to the left and there would be a picture of the Bridge of Sighs. There were a total of 50 pictures from Paris, London, Germany, Spain, Italy and the US. The man who owned it took it from town to town and rented a room in which he set it up and charged admission. When the admissions dropped off, he packed up and moved to the next town.
There were different people demonstrating in the print shop, the music shop and so on. We got a ride in a 1925 Dodge and passed on the horse carriage ride.
We decided to try another paddle wheeler trip up the Murray River. The trip on the Pyap was more enjoyable than the one in Echuca. The river was quieter, no houseboats, and the captain provided more information. And he was funny, or as the lady next to me said, "He's a cheeky bugger." We met some nice people from Queensland and Tasmania, which they called Tazzy.
From there it was a long drive through wheat country. There were miles and miles of wheat fields that went as far as the horizon and that seemed miles away too. Then there would be areas of dry looking scrub and dry water holes. And more wheat fields. And it was 95 degrees. Now we're in Ouyen next to a sad looking, dry park.
Pictures - Samson and the Catalina, Samson and the stereopticon theater, the Murray River, wheat fields

Mar 25, Echuca, Barmah Forest

Before we left the area, we went to the Bendigo Pottery Works, the oldest in Australia. There was an interpretive center with the history of the company and several of the old kilns they used. They were massive, made to fire big acid jars for the gold miners and roofing tiles and later, pipes for water and sewer systems. Now they make pieces for homes; plates, bowls,etc. I bought a little spoon rest.
We drove from there to Rochester. We were interested in seeing irrigation pipes under the Campaspe River, but couldn't find any information center. So we asked a woman in a park. Her name was Pat Glass and she and her husband have 250 dairy cows. She was in the park with her granddaughter, Annalea. She drew us an map and told us about her son in Witchita, Kansas. Very nice lady. Unfortunately, we decided to skip the pipes.
On the Echuca, on the Murray River. We took a paddle boat ride on the river. The most interesting part was the number of paddle wheelers on the river. The oldest, the Adelaide, was built in 1860. There were some from the early 1900's and the 1920's. Originally they took wool down river to the markets and brought supplies back. Some of them were fishing boats.
There were also scores of new houseboats on the river, some privately owned, many for rent. The Echuca-Moama area is a big tourist area because of the rivers. And they're expecting big crowds for Easter.
We drove up into New South Wales to the Barmah Forest. On the way we saw a farmer setting fire to his fields. We took a picture on the way back. There were dirt hills between strips of field that prevented the fire from getting out of hand. Barmah Forest is a red gum forest, the oldest of the gum trees. It was very dry there. One empty water hole had a sign warning about deep water. The flies were quite persistent, but we took a little bush walk anyway. We disturbed 6 or 7 kangaroos, who just looked at us and hopped away. We also saw a Canoe Tree. Like the Scar Tree we had seen earlier, the Aborigines has cut wood from the tree. This gum tree was huge and we could see the large canoe shape cut from it.
Pictures-Missionary paddle wheeler, Barmah Forest, Canoe Tree, Burned field

Mar 24, Bendigo

Warning, here is probably more than you ever wanted to know about gold mines!

It was a good day in Bendigo.
First was our Underground Adventure tour of the Central Deborah Mine. It was a real working mine at closed in 1954. We got there early and looked at the old mine buildings and structures and learned a little about the history. Then Laurie, our guide, took us in hand. First we had to have coveralls, then steel-toed rubber boots and finally a helmet with a working light.
He gave us the history of the mine and Bendigo's gold rush. In Dec. 1851, 2 women found gold in the river while they were washing clothes. Within a year, Bendigo had a population of 20,000 and 5,600 gold mines. It was the biggest gold strike ever. (Two and a half times bigger than the California gold rush and three times bigger than the Klondike). The alluvial gold lasted until the 1870's then they discovered gold rich quartz reefs underneath the rock. They're places where the rock has been under pressure and the quartz veins arch up, sometimes thick veins, sometimes thin lines. These covered an area of 12km x 22m. Gold here is only found in quartz.
The Central Deborah miners dug out the veins and sent the quartz to the surface to be processed. It yielded about 1 ton of gold. Altogether the mines of Bendigo produced 700,000 kg of gold.
So back to the tour. We walked into the mine and down to an elevator which took us to the first level, 30m (about 97 feet), then we climbed down 6 sets of ladders to the third level, 85m (280 feet). It was dark and damp, water seeps through the mine all the time. (There is a tour that goes down to level 9 of the 17 levels and they guarantee you will get wet and dirty there.)
We learned about the miners work. When he came to work he had to change into old clothes, "no jocks, socks or singlets" - no underwear. The bosses were afraid of the miners stealing the gold. It was an 8 hour day, most of the miners shoveled quartz and debris into ore cars, one car every 15 minutes, with a 10 minute lunch break.
The mine owners hired miners from Cornwall in England because they knew how to dig out the hard rock in Bendigo's mines. They brought Cornish pasties for lunch. They were huge pieces of dough, thick on the bottom, filled with meat and vegetables on one side and something sweet on the other - fruit or jam. Because mine work was dirty and there were no washing facilities, they held onto the pasties at the bottom and didn't eat that part.
They had lifts to take them up and down in the mine, but if the cable broke and the lift couldn't work, they had to climb up ladders to get out. It could take as long as 4 hours, depending on which level he was on. And he didn't get paid for that extra time, only for the 8 hours.
In the early days they mined by candlelight. Each miner got 2 candles at the beginning of the day. When payday came, the cost of those candles was deducted. And they only earned $6 a day.
Carbide lamps provided 15 times more light than the candles, but the bosses hated the lamps because then the miners could see the gold better. At the end of his shift a miner took off his old clothes and gave them to the "rag man" who searched through them for any gold that the miner might have brought up. He also searched the miners - in their ears, mouths, belly buttons, etc. Anyone caught with gold got an immediate 2 year jail sentence and was banned for life from working in mines.
Miners only had a life expectancy of 30 years, often dying from silicosis from the quartz dust.
After we came up from level 3 to 2 we had lunch. The others had pasties, we had comparable vegetarian pasties. It was like a calzone filled with chopped vegetables; carrots, pumpkin, potatoes, I think.
Laurie was a terrific guide, he really got into the story and made it come alive. The tour took two and a half hours.
Afterward we hopped onto the tram and went to the Joss House. It was a temple built by Chinese miners in 1860 and is one of the few remaining in Australia. There was a caretakers residence; now the reception area, the main temple and an ancestral hall. Pat was a lovely woman gave us a tour and really explained the Joss House and its uses to us. It is still used as a place of worship, mostly by Vietnamese and Malaysians and there were several offerings in both the temple and ancestral hall.

The tram took us back into town and we did a quick tour of the Golden Dragon Museum. There were several dragons inside. Loong is the world's oldest Imperial Dragon - a five clawed dragon. Only the emperor could wear robes decorated with dragons with with five claws. He was bought in China in 1892 and was paraded in Bendigo's Easter Fair Festival until 1970.
His replacement, Sun Loong, is the world's longest Imperial Dragon and is now in the Easter parade. On the day before Easter, Sun Loong is stored in a basket and needs to be awaken. There are drums, dancers, fireworks, lots of noise to wake him up for the parade.
A word about Easter here. It is a really big deal. It seems as if every town and village has an Easter celebration. A horse race, or a foot race, or a tractor pull, rodeo, Easter market, fashion show, yacht race, car show, surfing championships, motocross races. And we've been warned that everyone will be on holiday from Thursday through Monday and a lot of them will be camping.
We went into St Kilian's Catholic Church, one of the largest wooden churches in the world. And then to Sacred Heart Cathedral, huge gothic structure started in 1897, but not finished until 1970.
Pictures-Central Deborah mine, Jeanne in mine outfit (looking like she's in a funhouse mirror), Samson with helmet and lamp, Pat in Joss house, St Kilian's, Sacred Heart

Mar 23, Malmsbury, Castlemain, Maldon, Bendigo

We're in the goldfields country now and the next few towns will be old gold mining towns. Our first stop was Malmsbury and we drove through this village to see a bluestone viaduct over the Coliban River. It was built in 1859, was149m long and had 5 arches, very large and impressive.
On up the road we came to Castlemain. They were in the last weekend of a 2 weeks arts festival with displays of art around town and cooking in the park. We stopped in at the Anglican Church and they were showing embroideries from a local artist. There were 3 works that were comprised of several pieces. All of the pieces were round, about 8" in diameter. The priest was there and he introduced himself and told us about the works. One was the Stations of the Cross, another Lent and the third, an exploration of the feminine. He called the last one 'challenging' and it was a bit puzzling.
We did a little walk around town to the Palladian style Visitors center and then went to the Buda House. It had been owned by a silversmith who immigrated from Hungary. It was a spread out one story house, very comfortable. Some of his works were on display, such as a silver emu egg with silver decoration. There were also works by his daughters. And there were sculptures on display in the garden.
When we walked back into town, we stopped for fish and chips. I've put a picture of it here, because the piece of fish was so big. And that's about and eighth of the fat chips (fries) that came with it.
Maldon was the next town, one of the best preserved of the gold towns. There were so many buildings, we just wandered around imagining the gold prospectors walking there. There were big, ornate hotels, store fronts, banks, bakeries, and so on. One of the ruins was a chimney from the Beehive Mine. In all there were 40 mines in the region. There is still one operational mine and they believe there are potential gold deposits that could produce more gold than was previously taken out of the area.
Now we're in Bendigo. It's a beautiful city, many of the buildings were designed by German architects, so there is a European feel to it. We found the last campsite in a caravan park very near downtown. Then we walked to the Central Deborah Mine and booked a tour for tomorrow. Downtown wasn't far, so we walked there to see the fountain, the Town Hall, The Shamrock Hotel. Samson stopped a woman on the street and asked her where the best pizza in town was. She said Bendigo wasn't known for pizza, but there was a restaurant nearby that had wood fired pizza. So off we went. There's a picture of the pizza, too. It's beets (called beet root here), pumpkin, goat cheese and hazelnuts. Light, not as heavy as cheese laden pizza, very good.
Pictures - hotel in Castlemain, fish & chips, Maldon street, Samson in Bendigo, pizza

Mar 22, Macedon Mountains, Kyneton

We left Melbourne going northwest to the Macedon Mountains. We stopped in Sunbury for information and on through the town of Macedon. First, a little hike to a small waterfall in Stanley Park.
Up in the mountains, in 1934, a businessman built a cross to honor Australians who died in WWI. tHe cross could be seen in Melbourne, 40 miles away. It was rebuilt in the 1990's and we drove up to see it. It was cloudy and from the top we could just make out Melbourne as faint vertical figures in the distance. In the same area we hiked up Camel's Hump, the highest point in the mountains. The first European to scale it did so as part of the survey of Victoria. He was measuring the distance to Phillip Bay and thought of Phillip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, so he named the mountains Macedon after him.
A short drive away we came to Hanging Rock. It is an extinct volcano where the lava that blew from it has been eroded into unusual rock formations. It is famous in Australia because of the disappearance of a group of schoolgirls there in 1901. There is a book about it called, Picnic at Hanging Rock. There was a path that took us to the top of the rocks, but along the way were myriad paths up and down and around the rocks. It would be fun for Mika and Tashi, they love rock climbing.
Now, Hanging Rock has a racetrack, cafe, caravan park and is a big tourist destination. On Easter Bruce Springsteen is playing there!
We drove to the small town of Kyneton, took a little walk around town to see the old buildings built of bluestone. They were heavy, dark buildings; churches, courthouse, homes. There were also some houses with the lace ironwork. We took a walk along the Campaspe River, then found a place to set up camp outside of town, near a mineral spring.
Pictures - Macedon Cross, Samson at Hanging Rock, Jeanne at Hanging Rock, bluestone building in Kyneton and house with lace iron work in Kyneton.

Mar 21, Melbourne

For our last day in Melbourne, we left the camper early for Queen Victoria Market. It's an extensive building, seemed to go on forever. About a fourth of it was filled with people selling fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, we couldn't buy much and carry it around all day, so we only got 4 limes. It all looked really good though.
The rest of the market was everything else; pets and pet supplies, 'Ugg' boots, tshirts, brushes, telescopes, toys, just about anything you could imagine.
From there we took a tram to Rippon Lea, a National Trust property. An impressive home with extensive gardens, it was built in the 1868, added onto in the 1890's and redecorated in the 1930's. It was a dark, crowded Victorian house before the redecoration. Now the dark wood has been painted in warm yellows and the interior is light filled. The tour took us through the drawing room, sitting room, dining room, a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms.
In the dining room was a custom made Turkish carpet, maybe 50'x24', bought in 1880. In 1990, the National Trust decided to have it cleaned. It was rolled up and it took 10 men to move it. After it was cleaned, 4 men could carry it!
There were orchards, vegetable gardens, a pond and a fernery. The fernery was an extensive collection of ferns under a wooden structure that looked like a huge quonset hut made of fencing. It is the largest fernery in the world.
A word about public transportation in Melbourne. It is great. We walk 15 min in the morning to the tram which takes us into the city. We have a prepaid card that allows us to ride all day on trams, buses and trains for $7.00 each. We've taken full advantage of it. There is also a free city circle tram that does a loop around the central business district, that everyone uses.
So we took the train back from Rippon Lea to the city, then a tram to The Shrine of Remembrance. It is memorial near the Botanic Gardens. It was built in the 1930's as a memorial for Victorian men and women who died in World War I. The design is based on descriptions of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor. It was extremely windy today and we had to be careful on the balcony not to be knocked over.
We hopped on the free tourist shuttle bus because I wanted to take some pictures of the iron balconies on some of the older homes.
Our campground is in a suburb north west of the city in a residential area. The houses here are neat, mostly brick single story homes and most have fences in front.
It started to rain as we headed back to the campground and the tram was stuffed with people. Luckily for us by the time we got to our stop, the rain was letting up, and we didn't get too wet.
Pictures-Queen Victoria Market, Rippon Lea, Shrine of Remembrance, Iron Lace Balconies, Samson with AstroTurf car.

Mar 20, Melbourne

Today was a museum day. The first was the Fox Classic Car Collection. Lindsay Fox was the founder of Linfox Trucking and he collected cars. They are on display now and the proceeds from the museum go to charity. They were housed in an old customs warehouse. The main floor held Mercedes Benz, including one owned by Bing Crosby and a stretch owned by Ringo Starr. There were a few Ferraris too. Upstairs were MGs, Rolls, Bentleys and Porsches. There was a Porsche Spyder, no. 56. James Dean's Spyder was no. 55.
Next was the Ian Potter Art Gallery. They did have a good indigenous collection, many traditional pieces from the 1960s to the present. There were also pieces that commented on the lives of Aborigines and the terrible treatment they received in the past and still now. We took a tour that gave an overview of the Australian collection and showed us a few iconic paintings, such as a famous one of sheep shearers.
At the National Gallery of Victoria, we took another tour. This was a comprehensive art museum with European and Asian collections. The tour took us through the European Galleries, from 13th century Italian to Picasso.
We walked back to the Supreme Court Building. The library there was supposed to have a beautiful dome. We had to go through metal detectors, but there didn't seem to be any restrictions on our movements. We saw the library and on the way saw several barristers in black robes and grey wigs.
Pictures of Samson with MGs, a Mercedes with both a front and rear engine (one of four made), Aboriginal painting done by a women's cooperative, painting of sheep shearers, Jeanne with statues of workers