Melbourne

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3.09.2007 Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne was the creation of a Tasmanian farmer named John Bateman who arrived in 1855; he began trading blankets, mirrors and etc. for a half million acres of native land from the aborigines that had previously lived around the area for an estimated 40,000 years. The discovery of gold in the 1850’s coincided with the Victorian colony being separated from New South Wales to become the State of Victoria thus gaining some independence from Great Britain. It was the Gold Rush that propelled Melbourne forward and Melbourne became the second largest city in the British Empire. When Australia became a nation at Federation on the 1^st of January 1901, Melbourne became the new nation’s temporary capital. It was not until 1927 that parliament transferred to the new city of Camberra which was purposely built to become the national capital settling the argument between Melbourne and Sydney as to where the capital should be.

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We took a bus tour of the city that was disappointing. We traveled down the Esplanade past some of Melbourne’s inner seaside beaches to St.Kilda and Elwood and. then though the suburbs of South Yarra and Toorak, the fashionable residential districts. We then stopped at The Shrine of Remembrance and The Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day and the shrine dedicated to Australian war dead was very impressive. We did not have time to see much of the gardens. Downtown was more impressive as we passed the Royal Exhibition Building built in 180l, the Railroad Terminal and St. Paul’s Cathedral, Sallie and I left the tour downtown and walked across The Prince Bridge to Southgate, a lovely area with wlalks, restaurants and shops along the Yarra River. We had just ordered when we spotted Kindra who is one of the hairdressers on ship and does both our hair. She is a 47 year old divorcee without children from St. Louis who is thinking of moving to New Zealand. We had a good meal and an interesting conversation. I messed up on where we were to go to catch a shuttle back to the ship and we ended up taking a cab back. Security is tight in Australia. It took us 30 minutes to get the ship this morning clearing security. upon initially entering the country. Our afternoon departure was delayed 30 minutes in order frogmen from a harbor police boat to check the bottom of our ship for magnetic mines.

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3.10.2007 At Sea

It was a good day with a lot of activities including a great enrichment lecture by Paula Smith, “The Birth of the Sydney Opera House”. It was a formal night for dinner to say goodbye to those leaving us in Sidney. Since The Smith’s are leaving, the six of us had dinner together and went to bed early planning to be up early (6:30 AM) for what promises to be a spectacular arrival in one of the spectacular ports in the world.