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Published: December 31st 2008
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Entry by Jules
27/12/08 - Neighbours Day! As our Christmas present my parents bought us tickets to go on the Neighbours tour today. We both love the programme and are avid watchers of it even now (we have it on daily record!). Therefore the tour was a must and probably one of the main reasons for stopping in Melbourne (although Rich’s desire to go to the Boxing Day test might just pip it) and we were certainly extremely excited at the prospect of visiting the street we had watched for the last 20 years or so.
For those of you who know nothing about Neighbours I apologise but look what are you missing!!
We were picked up at 8am and, after a few other stops where more people were collected, we headed off to the fictitious suburb of Erinsborough. Our first cruise past was via Erinsborough High where the youngsters of the street go to school and some of the main characters teach. The outside of the school is only used for the filming with the inside created via a set in the studios but it did all look rather familiar.
As we travelled through
the suburb where the programme is based so many streets and spaces looked familiar. We turned down one street and there in front of us we could see the entrance to Ramsey Street, the street where the whole programme is set. In ‘reality’ it isn’t called Ramsey Street, named after one of the main families living there over 20 years ago when the show was first aired. Turning into Ramsey Street there was an intake of breath from others in the bus and we were amazed to see how small the cul-de-sac looked. In fact it consists of only 6 houses (whilst in the show there are numbers 26 and 30 Ramsey Street).
Walking around the street we saw Paul Robinson’s house (which you can actually rent), Harold’s old place, the Parkers (the original Robinson’s house), where Karl and Susan live, the ‘singles’ house (where Toady and Fitzy live) and finally where Libby and Steph now live (formerly Mrs Mangle’s house). All the houses are ‘real’ with ‘real’ people living in them. Due to the popularity of the show they have a security guard on the street 24 hours at day. In terms of filming this only covers the
external spaces of the properties, including the back gardens - everything else is done in the studio. People living here have to get approval to change the external appearance of their houses - so that it can be written into the script - but do get paid for the disturbance (and perhaps privilege of living on the one of the most famous streets in Australia).
From Ramsey Street we headed to the studios to take a look at the Lassiters complex, the fictitious area home to Charlie’s Bar, the General Store (now Harold’s Store), Rebecchi’s office, the vets and of course the Lassiters Hotel itself. Again everything looked so small. In this area we were able to walk around the lake (more like a pond), Harold’s allotment, see Grease Monkey’s, Carpenter’s Mechanics, the bus stop that takes everyone who leaves the show to Queensland and the warehouse used in the season finale where some of the younger cast members were trapped during a rave.
Our final port of call on the tour was back in St Kilda where we were to meet a cast member of the show. We didn’t know who this was going to be and
were very excited - perhaps it might be the legendary Harold, or perhaps Karl, or maybe Fitzy or Libby? We were a little disappointed when the lady who got on the bus was actually an ex-member of the show - Janelle Timmins - and unfortunately quite an annoying character. However, we reminded ourselves that she has given up her time, for free, to come and meet the tour. She even signed postcards for everyone and loved the opportunity of meeting Bob!
That evening we ate fish and chips whilst the sun set on our final night in St Kilda. We went to Luna Park to take a ride on the roller coaster; unfortunately it was shut so went on the ferris wheel instead (which was a little wobbly). The last few days have been fun filled and really enjoyable but it felt like we were ready to move on and start our journey to Sydney, via Canberra.
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Stefan Dennis
non-member comment
I can make you feel good...
Janelle?! She's back! I amy have to start watching again. Oh yes - happy New Year! Have seen the Sydney fireworks on TV, looked pretty good, hopefully you're still out partying at the moment.