From Past to Present via Ramsay Street

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Altogether now... Neighbours, Everybody likes good neighbours....

Well folks my final full day in Melbourne and after a unplanned lie in I woke to.... rain. Well at least it gets me back into the autumnal British weather I thought. However, after breakfasting, the sun had broken through and I was once again greeted with 21c.

Today I was taking in some self guided walking tours around the historic and cultural areas of Melbourne as well as hitting some of the great museums that Melbourne has to offer.

The walk tour started me in Flagstaff Gardens and was called Radical Melbourne - designed to give me a flavour of the two sides of Melbourne - the stuffy and respectable as one, and the unruly as another. It was an interesting route to take - Flagstaff Gardens now just a lush park had played a dual role very early on in Melbourne's creation as both a communication point to ships at the top, and the earliest cemetery. I moved on to Queen Victoria Market which is now the city's largest open air market - very similar to that of the Arndale Centre Market in Manchester (i.e. A mixture of tut, dodgy cut price merchandise and fantastic food, fruit and vegetable stands) but in early climbs had been the largest cemetery including those first executed at Melbourne Gaol. Some 9000 bodies still remain under the market (here's hoping in the past they weren't used as fresh meat...)

As I headed to La Trobe Street so the mixture of skyscrapers and Victorian regality once again strike you, with impressive Victorian houses with elaborate ironwork and lofty verandas strike you. Next stop was the HQ of the Aussie Federal Police which established one of the world's first computer crime teams. In the 80's Melbourne was the crime capital of computer hacking so this proved to be a useful team. In the late 80's Melbourne was home to the worm that hacked into the NASA computers and disrupted the plutonium powered launch of the spacecraft.

Further down the street was the Duke of Kent Hotel - now a very nice drinking establishment but in the 30's was home to the very popular and growing Communist party. During WW2 the Australian Government banned the anti-fascist plays that the party put on in case it offended their friendly government party in another country - what we now refer to as Nazi Germany....

Onwards to the state library of Victoria an elegant and lovingly renovated building - created for the people by the people in the 19th century there was one problem. The only day the people could use it was when it was closed. Strict rules due to the Presbyterian majority ruled that everything should be closed on the Sabbath - the only day that the workers had off!!! After various rallies, anarchy, uprisings and revolts (along with a number of imprisonments) this was finally relented in 1904.

Continuing the stroll took me past the RMIT university - a mixture of post-modern architecture with just a hint of regality in it with austere columns of the Storey Hall. It used to be known as Guild Hall and provided the base for Australia's Women's Political Association (akin to the Suffragettes). It was here that the first women in the British Empire stood for and won a seat in Parliament.

Walking on I came to the “hill” this was the place used for executions in the 1840's before the condemned were then buried in Flagstaff gardens, Nice. The executions used to be quite a spectacle drawing crowds of up to 6000 people.

Heading upwards I came to the Eight Hour Day Monument - a clever thing this was to. On the top of the statue are three “8's” representing the slogan of the working class agitation of the 1850's - eight hours work, eight hours rest and eight hours recreation - which is still held true but most Australian's today (so I have been told...)
Finally to Trades Hall which is one of the oldest purpose built union buildings and still in use as that today. It was designed as a “working class parliament” and they deliberately employed the same person who constructed Melbourne Town Hall (the clever buggers!). Inside the building there is lots of history around the unions work from the eight hour day, to the Union's work in defeating conscription in both world wars. There's a rather nice bar too!!

And so now refreshed and recharged I hopped on the tram and headed to Melbourne Museum. A fantastically modern day building which houses a mixture of our Natural History, Science, V&A and Museum of London buildings but on a smaller scale (due to the limited history of the city).

And hence dear readers why I started with the neighbours tune... As part of the city's rich history you also get to see the Neighbours set from when we grew up with Harold and Madge, Scott and Charlene - here you get to see the original wobbly sets first used, the robinsons kitchen in which the wedding cake still sits in the fridge and the graffiti from the actors on the back of the set when they were waiting for their part. Yes Neighbours is filmed right here in Melbourne and down the road from where I am staying you can go an enjoy a schooner in the Elephant and Wheelbarrow Pub and take part in the Neighbours Trivia Night every Monday, rub shoulders with the current stars and listen to Dr Karl Kennedy's (aka Alan Fletcher) band Rhythmia. (and before you ask no I didn't go)

However, to just focus on this as the major attraction of the museum is great injustice. It is a fascinating place, you can walk through a living forest, learn about the Aboriginal life, history and injustices (the Victorian whites did their damnedest to push them to extinction) and be amazed by the legend that was the racehorse Phar Lap. It is also home to Melbourne's Imax theatre. It truly was world class.

Next door is the imposing Royal Exhibition Building built for the International Exhibition in 1880 but also the site for the first Australian Parliament in 1901 and used as such for 27 years. It has been beautifully restored and was Australia's first to win the UNESCO World Heritage Status in 2004.

And so to Gaol. Literally. Down the road from the Museum is Old Melbourne Gaol which housed the rowdy and the poor, who tended to be the criminal and sinister population in the 1800 and 1900's. The prison was built in 1824 and was used until 1929 and reused during WW2 to house those in the armed forces that “rebelled” or went AWOL. This was the home of Ned Kelly (once captured) who to most Aussie's is seen as a hero rather than a criminal. So much so that kids can dress up in the Ned Kelly costume for a “piccy” (delightful). Over 130 people also came to their end here being hanged right in the prison from a metal bar on the first floor. The gallows still work and the trap door still operated. It was here that Phrenology was invented (a study of the shape of the head to try and understand the criminal mind), In each cell is the story of one of the 130 people that met their death as well as insight into the hardships endured in the Gaol, life in general as well as the creation of the now known Salvation Army.

Heading back to Flinders Street I mooched through the alleyways of restaurants and boutique shops looking for some different gifts, but alas nothing really to find. The hunt will continue in Sydney.

And so once more, back to pack for my final leg to Sydney and the farewell dinner with pommie mates tomorrow evening.

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