Our round the world trip (7): sightseeing & friends in Melbourne
The group’s second full day in Melbourne – Day 8 (Tuesday) for Roger & Vee – was a free day in the schedule and most of the group left the hotel by 7 am to go on an all-day optional tour of the Great Ocean Road. We two remained in the city where it was a blazing day of 36C (97F) – the ninth day of a record local heatwave – in order to meet some friends of Roger’s and, in between these meetings, fit in a bit more sightseeing.
So before lunch we strolled over to the Eureka Skydeck 88 building which is 984 feet (300 metres) tall and has the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere (AU$ 18 a head for us seniors). The lift takes you up to Level 88 in less than 40 seconds where there are spectacular views of Melbourne from floor to ceiling windows.
A special attraction is something called The Edge which is a glass cube that projects 3 metres out of the building . A warning sign suggests that people with various psychological fears or physical conditions should not enter The Cube, but naturally Roger & Vee were not going to pass up this opportunity even if it cost another AU$ 10 each and AU$ 15 for an official photograph (personal cameras are not permitted). When you first enter The Cube and the connecting door is locked, all the glass – sides, top and bottom – are opaque. Then, in a flash, the glass turns clear to present you with the sensation of hanging in space. Just to add to the sense of atmosphere, after a while, cracking noises are emitted to test your nerves. We loved it.
At this point, we took a taxi out to the St Kilda part of the city which is simply beautiful: blue sea, golden beach, palm trees. At a restaurant called “The Stokehouse”, we had lunch on the upper floor overlooking Port Phillip Bay. The food was really excellent: Roger had battered rock flathead fillets, while Vee ordered braised rabbit.
Our hosts were Kevin Hutchings, Managing Director, and Steve Muir, Manager Wastewater Source Control & Treatment, of South East Water which is a statutory authority providing services to 1.5 M customers in the city. Roger, who is Chair of the Customer Challenge Group at the namesake South East Water in England, had met Steve the previous summer while the Australian was on secondment to the English company. A decade of drought in Australia has made water supply a high profile issue and Kevin told us that his customers were now using 40% less water than 10 years ago through a variety of innovative water preservation measures. However, prices have doubled in the last five years and the need to fund a Government-built desalination plant will boost prices by a further 34% next year.
Returning to the city centre, we resumed our tourist mode by visiting the city’s Immigration Museum. Of course, the entire history of Australia can be told through its varying, and often controversial, immigration policies. The museum’s curators are clearly keen to address these issues frankly and in the entrance lobby is a sign acknowledging that the building is located on “the traditional lands of the First People, the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung of the greater Kulin Nation”.
Australia has had more than nine million immigrants since 1788 and some three million of them arrived in the peak period of 1945-1970 ( which included Vee’s twin sister for a time). Naturally, most of them arrived by sea and therefore the largest set of displays in the museum is set in a structure resembling a ship which is located in The Long Room (originally the main hall of the Customs House).
In the evening, we met more friends for dinner. In 1971 (an astonishing 42 years ago!), in the Department of Management Sciences at the then University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, only two students obtained First Class Honours degrees. One was Roger and the other was the really clever one, Greg Bamber who went on to become a professor of industrial relations at the local Monash University. We met Greg for a meal with his wife Dale and friends Joyce from Australia and Chris from Britain. We ate at a place called “The Deck” on the Southbank by the river, caught up on news of children and grandchildren, and had a lively conversation covering British and Australian politics.
Off now to Alice Springs …