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Published: January 15th 2023
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Old Melbourne Stock Exchange
Melbourne is noted for it’s architecture and this beautiful building from around 1890 is a good example. A busy week exploring and orientating ourselves to the area. The local golf course at Sanctuary Lakes is okay but the conditioning is below expectations therefore, we will probably play more at the numerous other courses in this area. Green fees with cart(buggy) is around $70.00/person, similar to Canada. The Australian $ exchange rate is favourable so there is an approximate10% discount built into prices.
Have yet to get fully engaged into Australian news. There appears to be on going concern with extreme weather conditions particularly in the West and Northeast. Our area has yet to be affected, although there are wide swings in temperature ranging from 35 C down to 20 C in a 24 hour period. There was a news story on health care in Australia which is under strain and the need for more spending. Sound familiar? Some in Australia opined that money won’t solve the problem and health care needs a “re-think”! Also, sound familiar? Covid situation is quite similar to Canada with only a few people wearing masks, however, when we have been in large crowds, it’s been outdoors.
Also of interest on the economic front, the minimum wage is now over $21.00/hour, substantially
Figure of Gayip
This is an Aboriginal Woiwurrung word for ceremonial meeting place of different groups higher than the last time we were here in 2018. In addition, casual workers receive a 20% premium to make up for loss of benefits. The higher labour rate may account for some, not all, of the higher costs in Australia, although our family expert on price monitoring has indicated, grocery prices are similar to Canada.
As with our last visit to Australia, we were able to meet and have lunch with some friends and neighbours who were on a cruise and stopping for the day in Melbourne. Diane and Alan Walker have been on a month long cruise around Australia and it was a short but enjoyable get together. We were able to take the train into Melbourne which is quite convenient and similar to GO Train service in Toronto. We’re looking forward to exploring Melbourne in more depth and being able to commute there by train is a bonus.
About 1/2 drive from Point Cook is a nice hiking area which offers a few different trails. The Flinders Peak trail is somewhat of gradual upward slope that takes about 1 1/2 hours return with the reward of an excellent view at the top. There are a
number of hiking/walking facilities in this area and the varying degrees of difficulty will provide a good test on the aging affects on our stamina.
Portarlington, about 1 1/2 hour drive, hosts an annual 1 day Mussel Festival. The town has a number of large mussel farms located in a protected bay area so the festival is a very good promotional vehicle. We purchased a small bowl and enjoyed them so much we purchased a take home pack of 5kg packed in ice. In addition to mussel kiosks, there were dozens of craft, beer, food, wine, spirits vendors as well as 3 stages for live entertainment. A cooking show on various mussel recipes etc gave us some yummy ideas on preparing and cooking mussels. How do you distinguish between a male and female mussel? The female is orange colour and the male white, nevertheless, they taste equally good in keeping with current political correctness of “gender neutrality“. The festival is a major event with attendance of over 20,000 people, many from Melbourne.
The day of the festival, the temperature was 35 C so we didn’t stay long. On the way home, we stopped at Jack Rabbit winery for
Bounty from Mussel Festival
Debra did eventually agree to share some with me a tasting and cheese board. Unfortunately none of the wine sampled was to our liking. Maybe we’re getting too fussy! The last stop was at the CruLewis Golf Course. It’s #21 in the top 100 rated courses in Australia and after some discussions with the Chief Financial Officer, who provided a reminder of our retirement income status, a tee time was booked for the following week in spite of the advice on restraint.
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