The State We're In

It was interesting to read the car number plates as we travelled. Like in the US they are registered by state and add a little line underneath which someone feels sums up the joys of living there.

Victoria is “The Place to Be”. This replaced “On the Move” which perhaps was seen as encouraging emigration so they now suggest there is no where better. It does offer an update to this of “Stay Alert, Stay Live” but no one seeks to want to take that up, perhaps its too morbid to read every day.

As long as you stay alert

New South Wales was “The First State” but now doesn’t seem to want to be anything, perhaps a sort of superiority in itself, as in ‘we know who we are and don’t need to say it’.

Confidence of the understatement

We didn’t see many from Western Australia for geographic reasons but apparently there was an optional choice of “State of Excitement”. It seems to have been dropped quite quickly and many now stay quiet.

ACT (Canberra) at one time had “Heart of the Nation” which was quite sweet but in 2013 they moved on to celebrate 100 years of Federation. Since then they have kept fairly quiet.

So what to conclude from all this? Well for that I turn to Queensland which used be “The Sunshine State” but now it is diversifying. They claim it is “The Smart State”.  I am not sure what this means but if true probably negates itself just by being stated. That said, I kind of like it. It has a Texas ring to it, as in “Don’t Mess with…”. The same sort of top-dog mentality, which everyone else just notes and then gets on with life.

Though I am not sure about its green credentials

In England, Yorkshire had it but seems to have gone quiet over the years, perhaps due to the London/South East “Load of money” mentality. If so then that’s England’s loss for we need to have regional differences along with some bravado. It adds to the vitality of the country as a whole.

So I’ve decided that that will be my next project. To learn more about England – it’s history, regional differences and where it’s heart lies. The country is undergoing an identity crisis, partly due to the Scottish Referendum challenging our notion of Britishness, and partly because the South East is so politically dominant.

Yes, I want to rediscover what it means to be English and I will start by reading a big book - 'The English and their History' - and then maybe undertake a long bike ride or two. To learn more about the state I'm in.

Meet in the Sandwich

Travelling along the two wonderful coast roads – the Great Ocean drive from Melbourne to Warrnambool and the Sapphire Coast and other sections from Melbourne to Sydney  - I noticed that there was a sandwich effect. In the former the middle is filled with farmland, in the latter by pensioners. The bread on the outside is made of resorts catering for city people heading out for the weekend.

It’s the bits in the middle that are interesting for they reflect an earlier time. For instance, In Lorne or Jervis Bay, located in the bread zone, you get waiter service in restaurants.

Waitress service for the discerning traveller

Whereas in meaty Apollo Bay or Mallacoota you go to the counter and order. It kind of reflects days gone past, for these restaurants are big. They seem to cover acres and are able to take 100’s at a sitting. One waitress in Narooma said that they even have to turn customers away in the summer months, Maybe not so often once we all discovered cheap flights to South East Asia, as in Spain from the UK.

Or catering for the multitude

Who can be demanding

And know what they like

But I am only surmising. What I do know is that it makes these places quaint and interesting, the sort of place I may like to retire to. And don’t assume that relative isolation means they do not have all the facilities essential to us oldies. There may not be a local hospital but if you have a heart attack then they Medivac you out by air to the nearest major city. And the dentist comes once every few weeks to do a mass check up. 

You see, I researched this just in case. In between hand it is just peace and quiet, and beautiful scenery. Plus you get to meet really interesting people in the restaurant while waiting to place your order.

Retire to splendid isolation

Climate Change

Remember this ditty from childhood?

Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot
We’ll weather the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it or not.

Well, I was reminded of it by somebody at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne. He was talking about the difference in activity between Melbournians and those from Sydney. He was originally from Scotland and so knew a thing or two about the issue.

He said that in Sydney the weather is fine year round, so for recreation people just head to the beach, whereas in Melbourne it is a lot more mixed so people have to stay inside in the colder months and think of things to do.  He reckoned that it made Melbourne a more interesting place to live but then he would say that wouldn’t he, or else move.

In Melbourne you have to overcome adversity

and find things to do

Then again, he probably couldn’t, as he likes the weather he knows. It is the same with me. I like rain, cloudy skies and cool temperatures most of the time. Sure, a little sunshine now again does not go amiss but too hot and I wilt, too sunny and I head for the shade.

Whereas in Sydney the sun always shines

So you head for the beach

So Sally and I lived on the borderline while we were in Australia. In cafes or on the beach, she sat on the sunny side, me in the shade. But we could still talk to each other across the void.

Around and Around - 2

It’s time to go home. Not that we want to especially, for I feel that we could keep on going, travelling endlessly around Australia for as long as the money lasts. It’s not even as though we’ve got to that stage when you start itching to get home and get on with some projects; to do something productive rather than just observing and eating. Which I can't say is too bad.

No, the critical point was reached yesterday when I committed that gravest of social faux pas when you are staying with friends: I had repeated the same story. Of course, our hosts Kay and Harriot were too polite to mention the fact, They just responded to my thought as though it was new and fresh, not the matter they had cleared up weeks before when we first passed through.

But Sally caught it and then looked at me. Then I knew. It is time to go home

Great fun, but time to go home.

Around and Around - 1

When he travelled through the Southern Hemisphere, Charles Darwin dedicated himself to collecting data and specimens for the furtherance of science. The same went for that other guy who accompanied Capt. Cook to Botany Bay. So while it is rather late, I have decided to make my contribution.

After observing the two plug holes in our current accommodation in Wadonga, I can say that the water goes down clockwise. Now this would not meet Darwin’s standard of proof but I offer it out there to compare with what happens in the Northern Hemisphere, So now it’s over to you.

Stop Press - hold your horses for I have repeated my observations in Melbourne and found a sink that empties anti-clockwise. So there you have it, the direction does not depend on which hemisphere you are in. It probably does for hurricanes and cyclones but that is another story.

So this trip has been fully justified from a scientific perspective. Charlie would be proud.

Full Metal Jacket

We finally made it to Ned Kelly country. I say that because we were in Beechworth today, one of those well-preserved frontier towns that tourists flock too. This one has a famed bakery plus the claim of being where Ned Kelly - he of iron armour fame - was first held for his committal proceedings, before being taken on to Melbourne to be tried and hanged.

Now there are various accounts of Ned Kelly’s life. He is made out to be a either hero or villain depending on the writer's prejudices, or perhaps one that went bad despite his efforts to go straight. The odds were certainly stacked against him. Being Irish in Australia, or indeed England or Ireland, at that time wasn’t easy.

It’s likely that the true history was much more complicated than any simple narrative. For you can be sure that it involved different agendas, including those of the the forces of law and order who seem to have made a pigs ear of catching him, alienated much of the local populace in the process of bringing him to justice.

Having said all that, he did steal horses and kill a police sergeant. And he did have the Irish gift of the gab, suggesting at his trial that he wouldn't have been found guilty if he had just thought to cross examine the witnesses but he didn't want to appear 'full of bravado'. He likely had his own agenda with a view to posterity.

And it almost worked for it resulted in a petition, containing around 35,000 signatures, for clemency just before he was hanged. But of course it failed, the Authorities feeling the need to make an example of him. Execution does not seem to be a democratic process.

So when reading history or even newspaper accounts of current day events I have decided to adopt a position of 'healthy skepticism' and assume that the truth is probably not what I am being told. Then I will make my own decision, to fit my own agenda.