History and Heritage

Our itinerary listed Melbourne (Geelong), but we did not take the 2 hour bus trip to Melbourne.  We have been there twice before.  Geelong is pronounced: g (as in the letter g)-i (as in it) long with the emphasis on long.  At least that is as close as I can get.

We are in the heart of sheep country, so the first place we went was the wool museum.  It is amazing how the shearer drags the sheep out onto the shearing floor, maneuvers the sheep around to get the best angles to cut and the sheep just sits there however it is positioned with no struggle and not a sound.



The rest of the museum tour showed the process of sorting, baling, cleaning, combing, making thread (yarn) and weaving the yarn into a finished product, both on a simple hand loom and on a machine loom that combined several hundred spools of yarn into a rug with an intricate pattern, all done by pressing a switch.

The local bluestone was widely used.

Our tour of the town showed us the variety of building materials and types. Old homes lined several blocks, while some older buildings were surrounded by newer buildings up to 5 stories.  There has been a height limit in effect for many years, but now tall office buildings and apartment houses are rising on the edges of town.

Many of the old churches have been
 "repurposed".

This combination of brick with sandstone decoration
 was another popular building material.

The City of Geelong Municipal Chambers
was built in 1917 in a classical style.

We ended our tour by going to goal (jail for you Yankees.)  The jail was built by convicts from England who were housed on hulks, ships no longer seaworthy, which sat in the harbor.  It was built in the English style in the shape of a three story cross using the local stone.  There was no running water, not even when the jail was finally closed in 1991.  Entering convicts were given jail clothes and a pail when they entered.  The pail got daily use as a toilet.  One of the only times convicts were allowed out of their cells was to empty the bucket daily and wash it out. Do I have to explain what they had to empty out of the bucket?  Some of the convicts tried to tunnel out by putting the dirt into the slop bucket and carrying it out that way.  All of them were caught before they succeeded.
Cells were small, about 6 feet by 8 feet with a narrow window at ceiling level (9 feet) and designed for a single inmate.  The prison was designed for 150 prisoners, but sometimes held up to 300.  Conditions were cold and damp and punishments were harsh including confinement to an underground cell with no bed and no light for days on end.  There was an insane asylum next door and many prisoners ended up there.  Hangings were held in the central area with everyone watching.  You could be sent to prison for seemingly petty crimes like stealing a loaf of bread.

Since it was taken out of use as a prison, the Rotary Club has restored some areas and conducts tours.  Our guide has been giving tours for over 25 years.  Sadly, the city sold the prison to a developer.  The building is listed as a historic sight, so the exterior cannot be changed, but the interior can be gutted and developed as the new owner sees fit.  I met 2 local ladies who had never taken a tour so I encouraged them to go while it was still possible.  A large part of the city's history will soon be lost forever, all in the name of progress.






Present punishment may not be as harsh as in the old days, but the officials let you know what will happen if you step out of line.

In the afternoon I wandered around the downtown on my own, seeing the ultra-modern Library, the grand old buildings and the mural in the city office building.  I even went into the Westfield Mall to see what a Target store looked like in Australia.  It could have been anywhere in the US except with different brands.

The Library

One of the unique attractions of Geelong is the series of statues around town.  They are made of old wharf pilings painted to commemorate the lives of people over the years.  If you find a rabbit somewhere on the statue, it means that the era represented was after the time when someone brought rabbits to Australia for sport hunting.  Now rabbits are an enormous problem, destroying crops and grazing land.

Notice the rabbit.

Devils, but No Tigers

The most famous symbol of Tasmania is the Tasmanian Devil.  However, there were once also Tasmanian Tigers.  They are now extinct and they were no more tigers than Tasmanian Devils are devils.  They were a marsupial with stripes on their hindquarters and resembled a medium size dog.

This tour took me to Bonorong Sanctuary where injured animals are rehabilitated.  There must be a lot of injuries to kangaroos because we saw and fed a lot of them!

I had him eating out of my hand!

What are you guys doing sleeping.  These people have FOOD!

Ah! a neck scratch feel so good.

How about some table service here.

Not all the animals were so friendly.  The Tasmanian Devil has nasty teeth and does not hesitate to use them.  He may only be the size of a large cat, but don't try to pet him!



















Wombats are another animal to avoid.  The one we saw was small, but larger ones will bite or even charge and try to knock you down.












The koalas were doing what they do over 20 hours a day -- sleeping.








The echidna looks like a porcupine, but it has a long snout to get at insects and grubs in the ground.

What's on the other side of this fence?

Bonorong also has birds, including emus and kukaburras also called the Laughing Kukaburra.  Does anyone remember the old Girl Scout song about them?

Kukaburra, but no gum tree.

We also went to the very English town of Richmond.  It boasts the oldest bridge in Australia and cottages surrounded by English gardens.  The settlers tried to make their homes look just like the ones they left behind.  This is a tourist town with all kinds of art galleries, ice cream parlors and even a Lolly Pop shop with lots of varieties of candy.




 Darrell took a tour around the Hobart area and visited the botanical gardens.  Tasmania has no native deciduous trees, but the gardens have trees and plants from all over the world, including some Giant Sequoia from California.  Some of the trees look familiar, but others are quite strange appearing.

Food and More Food

Sculpture at the Fish Market

Sydney has lots of great restaurants, and we did not go to any of them.  However, I did take a culinary tour of Sydney which took me to some places I would never have found on my own, like a neighborhood Italian Deli run by ethnic Italians and featuring cheese imported from Italy.  Our host and founder of the deli came from Sicily, and missing the food of his homeland, imported cheese and olive oil to deliver to the large Italian population.  From there it was a natural step to opening a deli.  Now, although he was there, the store is directly managed by his son.  We tasted at least 6 kinds of cheese, each with an explanation of its qualities and where it comes from.  Meat cannot be imported into Australia, but he has found immigrants who process the meat exactly as they did in Italy, so we tasted at least 6 kinds of thinly sliced meat along with olives and bread sprinkled with olive oil from 3 specific farms in Sicily and chunks of bread.  Oh yes, we also tried 2 kinds of dried tomatoes. All this was only the first stop and this was first thing in the morning.!

Octopus, anyone?

From there it was off to the fish market.  I had seen the market in Auckland, but this one was several times as large.  The action starts in the evening when the catch arrives, then at 2:00 AM the inspectors take over and make sure that no illegal fish are presented and that all the fish meets the high Australian standards.  By 4:00 AM the buyers arrive, study the fish and decide what they want to bid on.  The bidding process is the same as in Auckland, a Dutch auction.  By 6:00 the room is empty and by 8:00 the retail side is in full swing.

King Crab legs are only about $21.00 a pound.

The cheapest thing was fish heads.

This fish market has many more places to buy prepared meals, sort of a fast food, but centering on all preparations of fish.  You could also buy fresh seafood and prepared seafood to take home. Since we had not eaten for at least half an hour, we had another meal.

These "bugs" are a delicacy.

Those are calamari rings, not onions.

The shrimp are cooked but the oysters are not.

The remains of a "Tiger"

The next stop was at Harry's de Wheels, a food cart which is famous for "Tigers."  A Tiger is a pot pie, either chicken, beef or vegetable.  A ring of mashed potatoes tops the upper crust and a ring of mushy peas tops that.  If you skip the peas, it is an Unstriped Tiger and if you also skip the potatoes, it is a Naked Tiger.  Harry started his business downtown Sydney in a trailer.  He would move it a foot or so each day, so he did not have to pay property tax.



By now it was close to noon and none of the stops included anything to drink.  The solution?  Go to a local pub.  Pub is short for public house, a local meeting place for a community.  Houses in the poorer parts of town did not have a room to sit around and talk, so everyone met at the pub, sort of like "Cheers."  Alcohol laws in Australia are very strict.  The limit is .05% for driving, unless you are driving for hire, like a taxi or even Uber.  Then it is 0.0%.  The police can stop anyone who is driving, any time and for no other reason but to check for alcohol. No one under 18 is allowed into a place which serves alcohol.  If a bartender serves anyone under 18, he looses his job and pays a $100 fine.  The landlord, even if he or she is not present pays a fine of $10,000.  We tasted 3 different kinds of beer or ales or lagers. I am not a beer drinker, so I do not really know the difference.

 The bar was made of bricks which had been made by the early convicts.  Each convict had a unique stamp so the jailers could tell how many bricks he had made.  I do not have any idea how these bricks ended up in the bar.

Of course, we had to have dessert!  The local gelato shop served over 50 kinds of gelato and sherbet.  My favorite was salted caramel with white chocolate shavings.

The whole tour took place in pouring rain.  Fortunately this was not a walking tour since the stops were all over town, even in a section called Woolloomooroo.  Our guide,  holding an umbrella, escorted each of us to the doors


In the evening I was working on a puzzle and looked up to see some people were interested.  They stopped on the way to their evening performance, a look at aboriginal dance and traditions.

Blue Mountains and Misty Sisters

The Blue Mountains lie only a couple of hours west of Sydney.   These mountains reach over 3000 feet and are covered with forest.  The eucalyptus trees emit a vapor which can remind you of sick days with a chest rubbed with Mentholatum.  The sun reacts with this vapor, giving the mountains a faint blue color from a distance.  Personally I did not smell that scent, nor did the mountains look very blue, but that is what we were told on our trip into the mountains.

The mountains contain coal, which was mined by hardy men who descended into the valley to dig the coal.  Then the coal was loaded into carts pulled by "pit ponies" and taken to a steep lift to the top.  The coal mines are gone, but one family bought the area and turned it into a tourist attraction called Scenic World. 









We took the Scenic railway to the valley floor where an elevated boardwalk wandered above the ground to protect the rainforest floor (and to provide easier walking.)  In addition to eucalyptus trees, there were tree ferns reaching 30-40 feet, other trees and vines connecting the trees and providing a canopy over the valley.



In order to get to the bottom we took the 52 degree railroad.  The cars used to be open, but, you know government, and now all are enclosed for safety reasons.




















Rather than retrace our steps on the walkway, we rose to the top in a hanging box, which held 40 or so people, to be drawn up on a cable for a swaying ride.  The fun never ends.






















After those adventures it was time for a break, which I shared with this fellow.  He hopped from table to table looking for crumbs and then to the roof to sing his appreciation.

The magpie has a beautiful song.

The adventures were not over yet.  The last leg of the trip was on the Scenic Skyway across to the other side of the valley.  Although it was misty, we were able to see the falls and the Three Sisters.





























The tour included lunch at the histortic Hotel Carrington in Koolumba and a final stop in Leura, a town famous for having a concentration of restaurant and shops to buy expensive second-hand clothing and other items.

I am not sure how a video will work here, but I will include one of the train ride.