DESTINATION MELBOURNE

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It feels a lifetime ago since we sat at Waiheke planning our ‘Grand Tour’ and decided that to cross Australia we would complete the famous Ghan trip from Darwin to Adelaide. Despite our best efforts it did not work out so we took the shorter option – the Overland train trip from Adelaide to Melbourne. This is an 11 hour, 828km journey through the most spectacular of scenery and, after completing the journey, we could not recommend it enough. Our train was made up of six passenger carriages, a large locomotive, a luggage car, and a car transporter; it was approximately 190 metres in length and travelled at an average speed of 85km/hour with its Emu emblem front and centre. You check-in as you would at an airport but then the romantic notion of train travel envelops you. There is no rushing for seats, no seat belts to be sorted, no hogging of the overhead lockers, no queues for cramped loos. You just sit back and relax while the scenery passes your window. From the early morning light of our Adelaide departure to the twilight arrival into Melbourne you are treated to an ever changing vista of agricultural lands, rivers, lakes, mines, and mountains. It is special and once again I realised why so many people like to travel by train – memories of our wonderful Amtrak travels in New England came flooding back.



More recent memories of our road trip to Mt. Gambier were on show too as after passing through the Adelaide Hills we travelled a similar path. An hour after leaving the station we were back in Murray Bridge and Tailem Bend, headed off through Coonalpyn, Tintinara, and could see the turnoff to the right we had made at Keith. From the comfort of our seats we were seemingly retracing our footsteps without the added stress of driving and I liked the fact that I could share in the countryside. There was a sailing regatta near Murray Bridge in full swing and, as we passed back over the Murray, we could see others partaking in their own houseboat experience. As we made our way to Melbourne the commentary from the staff was just the right mix of information and advice. They had to do the safety messages but then as we travelled local highlights and features were pointed out and a mystery from when we had driven this way the previous week was answered. The large piles of mined rock we had seen in the distance and wondered what they were was actually the remnants of the Kanmantoo Copper Mine, which has a long history but has only recently been put back into production. New investments have indicated that there is much more copper and gold to come from this area and the local communities will reap the benefits; much of the infrastructure was already there including the important rail tracks to the front door; which we travelled on.



One cannot disguise the fact that you are near the Victorian border when you pass through a place called Bordertown. It is near here that an announcement was made to change clocks and the train went onto AEST – the time difference between Melbourne and Adelaide is an all too small half hour. You also begin to see a change in the countryside. The last few years of drought in SA have made the land appear drier with grass already dying off in the early months of summer. There are still the magnificent gum trees that line each side of the tracks and stretch off into the distance but as you enter Victoria the green becomes far more apparent. Between Adelaide and Melbourne is an agricultural rich belt with crops and herds. There are cattle and dairy farms, lambs grazing and the drought resistant varietals of wheat and barley. From the numbers of sheep I saw I feel the whole joke about there being only “75 million sheep in NZ” and the “sheep-sh&#@er” implications could now be put to bed. It had not been a good week for the Australian sheep industry as footage had been screened of what was supposed to be the humane cull of an export shipment to Pakistan. Humane would be stretching the point as nearly 21,000 sheep were clubbed or knifed before being buried alive. The TV media had been hot about it, the social media was in uproar, the farmers had been quite rightly disgusted and dismayed and as I read The Age on the train there was still ample commentary on the whole barbaric episode. In the days that followed all live exports were suspended. To get back on topic the other important factor of the local agricultural communities is water and the size of the irrigators is staggering. These are the lifeline for farmers and much of the water comes from the Murray – in fact the Gillard government cash injection will see these irrigators and water systems become more efficient so that the waterway and communities can work and survive into the future. In one crop field they had travelling irrigators, which must have been well over 100 metres long.



As we chugged our way to Melbourne we got the overwhelming sense of how big this country is. Like our cruise on the Murray we were seeing but a small part of the country – we have not even scratched the surface. It is a magic country and by viewing it from the train I feel we have experienced a snap shot – even a notion of a day in the life of. There was only one point that you could leave the train to walk on a platform and that was at Dimboola. It was here we changed drivers for the last leg into Melbourne – well if six hours covers the last leg! And as leaving the train carriage you were reminded that the train would depart on time and without checks, basically be on the train or enjoy Dimboola for the next few days. The train ran perfectly to time too. I liked watching the routines taking place outside the window like cricket practises getting underway at the town oval, students walking home from school, the traffic lines that appeared at railway crossings as they waited for us to go through, people out jogging or heading to work. We also got to see the famous Stawell Grandstand, in front of which ‘the Gift’ is held. This is a 120m footrace that has been staged for the past 130 years over the Easter weekend – it pits local and international athletes against each other. Then it is onwards through the Chinese settled Ararat, then such wonderfully named places as Fiery Creek, Vite Vite, and Tooli all with their own slice of life and history. And for this trip we were always proceeding on time. Once you hit the outskirts of Geelong the sense of city life floods back and industry takes over from agriculture. The port city is Victoria’s second largest and a gateway for much of the imports and exports of the state. It was also our marker that our journey was coming to an end and very soon the CBD was in sight with the Eureka building towering over everything – it was a funny feeling that after travelling for 238 days and over thousands of miles through the US, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia our new apartment was just a stone throw away. Another new adventure was about to begin and the train felt an inspired way to enter the city that is to become our next home.



Our first few days living in Flinders Lane were the most enjoyable of blurs. Our boxes from NZ turned up on our first morning and then I followed much of the Melbourne population to Flemington to enjoy an afternoon at Oaks Day. I shared in a syndicate that from a betting point of view was down on the day but from an entertainment value had a whale of a time. You really do see some sights on the lawn at Flemington during Spring Carnival. And then there were our first visitors. Our very best friends Chris and Louise came to stay with us. My sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Pete, visited and Mark and Kathryn were across too. Sandy Mackinnon and Cameron Moir have already been for dinner. We had Andrew’s 40^th in North Fitzroy, which meant my old mate Ken was over from Auckland and I so enjoyed our catch up and chats – although with the background music I am not sure what Ken heard but he seemed to nod in the right places. SJ and Gareth added to the merriment of the weekend. It was a great (and late) night with the 5am Sunday wakeup call for Chris and Lou to head to the airport an interesting moment. It was a good way to start afresh, with close friends and family around us and we hope that it is the start of a long line of visitors to the apartment. However, with their departure came the realisation that we had things to do. We have shopped like demons in the last few days. A sofa bed is now in place for future guests, a dining room table is on order along with new chairs, a new TV is in use, double glazing has been installed, and my DIY skills have nearly managed to put bookcase units together, and hang pictures. The boxes have been unpacked, which is a job Narelle loves. To highlight my DIY achievements we have booked a handy man for December to finish everything off. If I did not miss Bruce enough during our travels I have missed him while trying to affix shelves and tighten hinges – I was not bred for DIY and function on the belief that it is best to cut out the middle man (me) and just get someone in to do the job properly first.



Anyway, the good news is that the TV is still standing and if we step back and consider what we have already achieved we are ahead of the game. Let’s hope that continues.

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