Month: January 2024

Two days left

Burnie (circled) is on the northern coast of Tasmania.

Compared to mainland Australia Tasmania looks ‘small’ but to give you a better idea of the size of Tasmania the island is a similar size to Ireland, and larger than Belgium, Denmark or Sri Lanka.

Once again, the shuttle bus service was free to visit the town. When the bus stopped near the town centre the Lady Mayoress of Burnie, Teeny Brumby, boarded to welcome us to her town. She had her chain of office around her neck but not the cloak.

It was a nice touch and must have been tiering for her because she welcomed each of the buses – Coral Princess had 1900 passengers, but I don’t know how long she kept up the welcoming.

Sunday in Bernie – the main street was quiet

There was a small local craft market near were the coaches stopped, but all the main street shops were closed except for the Red Cross shop – again.

The local beach was popular for exercise.

One of Burnie’s main exports is wood chip – nearly two million tons a year and nearly a million tons of logs.

Emu Bay as we sailed from Burnie.

Pilot boat coming alongside to ferry the pilot back ashore.
Photo taken from our balcony.

It was an overnight sail from Bernie to Hobart.

View from our balcony as we moved alongside.

The boat harbour and the Coral Princess can just be seen on the right side of the photo.

Later in the morning the light was different. Coral Princess in the background.

Seals in the harbour – statues

There was a competition on the ship for creating a model. The above is the winner – it took the creator & his wife four days of solid work. The model was made from cardboard.
You cannot see in the above photograph but each porthole on the model has the face of a different crew member. See below.

The swimming pool crew did not just stack towels  . . . . 

There was a small museum onboard about how things were ‘done’ in earlier times. It was interesting and I was surprised to see a BISNC vessel.

When I was at sea it was with this company British India Steam Navigation Co Ltd. (I could not see or work out the ship’s name.)

This one was easier P&O Moldavia – 1922 built in Birkenhead (the town where I was born) by Cammell Lairds Ship building.
She was built for the Australian run – her final voyage was in September 1937 from Sydney to the UK.
In April 1938 she was sold for the breakers yard in Newport, Monmouth shire.

I was returning a book to the ship’s library and noticed a middle-aged lady (couldn’t say old lady because I think I am older than her) sorting returned books into alphabetical order.
She was using the area on the left of the picture.
The lady was not in uniform nor did she have a badge indicating that she was a member of the crew so I asked if she was a crew member.
‘No Dear’ she replied, “I just like to keep busy.’
Then it occurred to me that perhaps she and her husband were the couple who had been sailing in Coral Princess for a long time and had been on TV.
I asked if she was the lady who had been onboard for 450 days, ‘No Dear’ she replied, ‘I think it is nearly closer to 700 days.’
Then we were interrupted as other passengers entered to return books. 

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All of a sudden it is time to pack – 28 days can go very fast on a holiday.

Welcome to Sydney at 5.30 am, at least it was warm enough for shorts. 

Around Australia with six days to go

Adelaide

On arrival in Adelaide, we were met by Maureen’s cousin Hazel and her husband Ray and they kindly took us to Hahndorf which is a short drive in to the hills from Adelaide.
The small town has a German background so rather than repeat myself I have added a link to a blog about Hahndorf that I posted in 2016. Not much had changed since our first visit because the small town is a protected town.
There was one noticeable change for me because when we visited a German style restaurant for lunch and ordered a German beer for Ray and myself, I was asked to pay $30 deposit for the ‘steins’ and a lot less for the actual beer. I’ve never been asked to pay a deposit for a beer container.

At the end of the lunch, I did receive my deposit back as I paid the bill.

A Stirling coincidence

Melbourne

                                                  Our next stop was Melbourne.
In Melbourne we were met by two old friends that we hadn’t seen for thirty-eight years.
We used to live near each other in the early 1980’s when Maureen I built our first house in 1981 in a small (as it was then) town called Sunbury (named after the London Sunbury). 

Sometime in 1981, I’m with our two children next to the bricks that would be used to build our home. At that time, we lived in rented accommodation about an hour’s drive from where we planned live.
We visited the sight to make sure that the correct bricks (as in colour & texture) had been delivered. I did not want anything to go wrong. As you can see the area was wide open, the only thing that had already been built was the road through the anticipated new suburb.

We were keen to move in to be ready for the new school year for our son & daughter.
The school was a new school, and we wanted our two children to start school at the same time as every other child in the area. 
The above is my son on his first day at school, our daughter experienced her first day at school in the UK.
I posted the above to show the wide-open space that was in front of our house. 

Our first house built in 1981 – photograph taken 2023 – how time flies.

When we moved in we didn’t have a neighbour on both sides – the one on the left was being built and the other side was an empty plot of land. 
I looked across the road and the views were of houses as far as I could see.
We used to be able to see Mount Macedon, where the movie Picnic at Hanging Rock was set, now the view was no more. Below is a link to a blog about the bush fire that we experienced in Sunbury, our first Australian bush fire. The first half of the post has nothing to do with the bushfire.

Christmas 1981 to Feb 1983.

The one place in Sunbury that had not changed in 38 years was the local church, St Mary’s Anglican church. 

In 2017 the church congregation celebrated the 150th year of Christian services.

New shopping centre, car yards on the outskirts, new home site areas pegged out for house after house, the place had grown.

On our return to the ship, I tried to capture the new feel of Melbourne. When we lived in Melbourne the drive from home was along country lanes to the airport area followed by freeway into the city.

Today the three-lane freeway has been upgraded to a five (I think) lane freeway that allows for high speed travel. Passing the airport, which was opened in 1970, the freeway continued a lot closer to Sunbury than I remembered and much of the land around the airport that used to be fields is now a cargo village and other support industries for the airport.
I suppose this is progress.

The journey back to the ship would take us over the West Gate Bridge, which opened in 1978. I lived in Melbourne from late 1980 t0 1985 and never had cause to use this bridge, but we would today. 

Elevated loop of M1 Melbourne highway going through West Gate bridge during rush hour high traffic time with lots of driving cars above local residential houses.

Above picture off the internet

Melbourne CBD as we approached the West Gate Bridge that took us over the Yarra River. 

The West Gate Bridge as we approached the area where the cruise ship was berthed. The bridge carried five lanes each way at high speed, and I was glad that I was not navigating.

I took the above from the road to illustrate how green the area is where the cruise ships dock along a dedicated cruise pier.

At the end of the street our cruise ship can be seen

It was farewell Melbourne.

Sailing around Australia part five

A night alongside as we waited for the wind to drop –

We had the entertainment in the evening Drew Levi Huntsman who sang and played music from Elton John & Billy Joel, but mainly Elton John.

Saturday was supposed to be alongside in Fremantle (11th November) but we didn’t go alongside until around 8.00 pm on the 11th. Best laid plans etc – we had arranged to meet friends on the 11 th for lunch, but fortunately we were able to contact them about the delay.

The following day being Sunday meant that the local shops in Fremantle would not be opening until 11.00 am and we were to meet our friends at 11.30 am.
BUT there was a silver lining the Sunday Market was open.

Clothes and more clothes and crowds.

  

It didn’t take long for Maureen & I to have our fill of the market.

 Walking past the closed shops I had to take this picture . . .mainly for Liverpool & Birkenhead readers.

For those who may not know of the word Scouse is a name given to those born in and around Merseyside UK.

It was a short walk from the market to the area where we disembarked from our shuttle bus.
We wanted to see parts of the old town near St John’s Anglican church.

The current church is the second church on this site – the first being opened in 1843 and the current church was consecrated in 1882.

After we had walked around the outside of St John’s church, I saw a statue close to the Church and walked over to read the details.

After reading the outline of Vice Marshall’s record I photograph the statue.

Air Vice Marshal
Hughie Idwal Edwards
The Air Vice Martial began his military life in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1935, and in 1936 was transferred to the RAF in the UK. 

In April 1940 his war began –

4th July 1941 Distinguished Flying Cross
22nd July 1941 Awarded the Victoria Cross 
8th January 1943 Distinguished Service Order  
01 January 1945 Mentioned in Dispatches 

and in peacetime  . . . .

11th February 19 1947 Officer of the Order of the British Empire
11th January 1959 Companion of the Order of the Bath
 01 July 1959 appointed as aide-de-camp to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
8th October 1974 Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George 
1974 – 1975 Governor of Western Australia 
For more details click the link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughie_Edwards

He became the most highly decorated Australian serviceman of WW2.

The Vice Marshall’s parent were Welsh, but he was born in Fremantle.
Idwal is Welsh for ‘Lord of the Wall’.
There is a small lake in the Snowden National Park in North Wales named Llyn Idwal. (Lake Idwal)

It was a pleasant sunny day to just wander around the quiet streets and the only shop that we saw open before 11.00 was the Australian Red Cross shop with a sign welcoming cruise passengers. 

I took the above picture because of the old building – I liked it – I think it is called Higham’s Building.
The above picture with people on the left is the location of the Australian Red Cross – it was popular being the only shop open. 

We met our friends and they had arranged a lovely lunch at their home.
Later they were kind enough to drive us back to the ship – after such a beautiful day the weather let us down as we approached the cruise ship. 

The delay in Geraldton due to bad weather Coral Princess was forced to cancel our visit to Busselton (Margaret River wine area) and Albany, which is close to being the southernmost tip of Western Australia, famous for being the last port of call for troops leaving Australia in WW1. 

I have marked the two missed ports – our next port would be Adelaide the other side of the Great Australian Bight

 

We sailed from Fremantle on the evening of the 12th of November and arrived in Adelaide on the morning of the 16th November.
Some might say that the days at sea were too long, but for me it brought back memories of the ‘cleanliness’ of the sea and the pleasure of the isolation in the vastness of the ocean.
Going to sea in the 1960’s without satellites, without the internet, without mobile phones, without I pads, without Google maps, without TV unless you were alongside in port – being at sea was ‘clean’- we navigated using a sexton,  

The basic concept hasn’t changed as to working out latitude. 

and thanks to John Harrison and his Chronometer we worked out our longitude.

As a cadet we read a lot, studied somewhat, and worked alongside the crew to learn as much as we could because one day, if we passed our exams, we would be a deck officer. 
I do not know if the use of a sextant & chronometer is still taught to budding deck officers.  

Sailing around Australia part four

I stepped on to the balcony to check the sunrise only to see that we had collected some company as we approached Geraldton.

The weather looked a bit iffy as we approached the channel into the harbour.

We had entered the channel which was narrow. Three marker posts can be seen in the photograph – I mention this because of what happened later.

Once we were in the harbour, we were gentle moved alongside.

It was not long before we were allowed ashore, and coaches transported us from the docks to the town centre.

One of the main sites in Geraldton is the memorial to the crew of HMAS Sydney, sunk in November 1941.

The Memorial to HMAS Sydney –

By looking closely, you will see the stainless steel roof of the memorial is made up of metal seagulls – there are 645 seagulls, one for each crew members of HMAS Sydney.

In addition to the main memorial there is a statue of a woman looking out to sea for her husband who is a member of HMAS Sydney’s crew.
The artist who created the waiting woman is Joan Walsh-Smith, only later did I realise that I had photographs of her work in Perth.

I photographed the above statue along with others in 2016 in Perth.

One of the main roads in Geraldton, very quiet and pleasant. They had a couple of great second-hand book shops, which I just had to visit. The population of Geraldton is around 39,000.

Graffiti or perhaps art.

An unusual roundabout – later I realised why it was shaped as it is.

On the way back to the ship we saw thew real lighthouse.

Point Moor Lighthouse 34 metres (112 feet) tall, built in 1878.

Constructed by Chance Bros. of Birmingham UK, prefabricated and shipped out to West Australia.
It is still in use and the light can be seen 26 km (16 miles) at sea.

We had docked in a working port, which is why we were not allowed to walk through the port.
Geraldton is four-and a half-hour drive north of Perth (which is the capital of W. Australia).

Our scheduled sailing time from Geraldton was 5.00 pm, but we had a problem of high winds, and the Master did not want to risk the narrow channel with such high winds so we did not sail until the following day, which caused a knock-on effect after Fremantle, which is the port for Perth.

Sailing aground Australia part three

It was an overnight cruise from Kuri Bay to Broome and this time we moved alongside the ‘new’ pier. Maureen and I visited Broome for a holiday in 2016 and I don’t think they had such a long pier at that time.

Once again, we were able to take the free shuttle in to the town centre. The town had not changed that much, and we were able to have a walk around, but not too long as it was very hot.
After our holiday in 2016 I wrote blogs about Broome so I didn’t wish to repeat a blog I have included three links below and as the area around Broome hasn’t changed much new readers might find the links interesting.

Remember when?

String of Pearls

Come fly with me!

From Broome we sailed for Geraldton, which took us two days at sea.
On the 9th of November, while at sea off the coast of Western Australia near Monkey Is. a remembrance service for HMAS Sydney, which was sunk in these waters on the 19th of November 1941.

The service was held in the theatre at 11.00 am – the theatre was packed.

Above photograph is of the Australian ex-servicemen who arranged the service and also handed out poppies and service sheets as we entered the theatre.
The service was a combined service for Remembrance Day (11th Nov) and a memorial service for the crew of HMAS Sydney, none of the crew of HMAS Sydney survived.
Our schedule was that we would arrive in Fremantle on the 11th November – a port day.
If you wish to read of the battle see the link below – the wreck of both vessels in the battle were located in 2008.
https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/hmas_sydney

The Last Post was played, followed by a minute’s silence – followed by Reveille.

The Last Post