Tag: Australia

Hop skip & jump

Dawn as we approach Airlie Beach – we were too large to have any chance of going a alongside, so it was a tender job.


Maureen & I were fortunate in being allocated to the above craft for the trip ashore, rather than a tender boat.

Not that there was anything wrong with the tender boats it was all to do with speed. It was a win / lose situation we arrived at the destination quite quickly, but the faster boat being larger took longer to manoeuvre amongst small private boats to discharge the passengers. The ship’s tender being slower but smaller was able to nip in and out of the other small craft and the passengers from both vessels were disembarked at the same time. QED.

We had visited Airlie Beach before, so knowing of the beauty of the place we were concerned that Cyclone Jasper (13 – 28 December 2023) might have caused a lot of damage.  Fortunately, Airlie Beach had been spared to an extent.
I posted a blog about Airlie Beach in November 2022 so will not repeat myself as nothing seemed to have changed since our last visit.
The above beach scene is part of the man-made lagoon to protect people from box jellyfish which can kill an adult.
The day was hot, and I thought as the hair on my head was getting thinner perhaps I should buy a hat.
The market near the beach, which is open whenever a cruise ship arrives, was the obvious place to buy a hat. I think the last time I wore a hat was during my time at sea in the early 1960’s so this was a big deal.
I bought a hat (which can be washed in a washing machine) and wore it for the rest of our time ashore.
It did protect me from the sun, but it also caused excessive sweating and I think I used the hat more as a fan than a head covering – we live and learn.

Around 5.00 pm we sailed from Airlie Beach to Yorkeys Knob near Cairns.

Flat calm as we slowly edge to our place to anchor.

Prepare the tender boats.

Tender boats away!

We soon built up speed.

It wasn’t long before we were at a boat harbour where Maureen & I stepped ashore with the idea of visiting the small town of Yorkeys Knob, which we had seen during a holiday in Cairns in 1992. It was a short drive from Cairns and just about to be developed.
We looked around a very busy carpark area, coaches being filled with tourists from the ship who had booked various tours. We needed to know how far it was to walk from the arrival area to the centre of Yorkys Knob.
So I asked a tour guide who was ‘collecting’ her ‘flock’ for a tour to somewhere inland.
She pointed to a man controlling tickets and she said get a ticket from him. So, we obtained a ticket at a cost of $25 each (which I thought was expensive for such a short drive, but perhaps my memory was not what is was thirty-two years ago and it was further than I anticipated.
Once the coach was full it pulled away and the driver gave a short chat of welcome as we speeded through a small town. When he reached the end of his welcome chat, he mentioned that the drive to Cairns would be about twenty minutes!
Our small problem was that we did not wish to visit Cairns having visited the place a few month earlier, but we didn’t have a choice – welcome to Cairns, and being a Sunday many shops would not open until lunchtime.

The above is the Crown Hotel, (think pub) which was opened in 1886, but closed as we made our way to a shopping centre.

We walked from the drop off point to the shopping centre that we knew would be open and treated our time in Cairns as a form of exercise – it was easier than walking around the ship.
The driver on our return gave a talk of the damage to Cairns during the Cyclone Jasper (13 – 28 December 2023).
We saw fields still flooded, rail lines damaged, and we were told that three aircraft had been moved to higher ground but all three were flooded and were complete losses.

Cairns Airport during the cyclone. Flood damaged aircraft can be seen.

Our next port of call would be Port Douglas which is 57 km (35 miles) from Yorkys Knob. I believe we took our time and anchored about midnight off Port Douglas.

Port Douglas in the distance- another tender job, but once ashore it was a short walk to the town centre.
I posted about Port Douglas in November 2022 – nothing had changed, and it was still very hot, and my new hat-fan came in handy.

We sailed for Willis Island (a weather station) at 6.00 pm at a speed to arrive just after breakfast.


Sunrise at 05.50 hr as we steered right into the sun heading for our visit to Willis Island. We approached the island slowly & without stopping the ship became tax free. (Think duty free drinks).
Check the November 2022 post for the history of the islands & why Australia has four people living on the island.

Weather or not . .

An interesting place, but I doubt that I’d be keen to spend months on the island.

 Next stop Brisbane.

Odd thoughts & pics of Sydney

View from our balcony as we boarded the Majestic Princess – one never gets tired of the Sydney Harbour Bridge area.

As we slowly moved from our berth – the fun fair can be seen through the bridge.

Luna Park is the name of the fair, which was opened on this site in October 1936 and is still going.
The bridge was opened in 1932 and once opened the land where Luna Park is located went to tender.
Herman Phillips, his brothers and A. A. Abrahams were looking for a sight to create a fun park, but they were having problems with the local councils and residents. Fortunately, they won the tender and Luna Park as we now know it was opened in 1936.

 The first Luna Park was opened at Coney Island, New York, in 1903.
The above two fun fairs are the only funfairs in the world that are protected by government legislation.

The Opera House, which used to be a tram terminus – the Opera House opened in October 1973.
The point of land is known as Bennelong Point.
In the early 1790s, an Aboriginal man named Bennelong, who was employed by the British as a ‘go between’ between the local Aboriginals and the British, persuaded Governor Philips to build a brick house for him on the point of land. Hence the name.

One of the cheapest way to experience the harbour is to use the local ferries. The cost from the Sydney ferry terminal at Circular Quay to Manly is about $8.80 ($5.50 USD or £4.40) and the time it takes is around 30 minutes.
Manly is on the north side of the harbour near the Gap, and Watson’s Bay is on the south side near the Gap.

Warson’s Bay, which is one of my favourite spots – beach, good restaurant and a pub that offers fish & chips at a reasonable price. 
To walk off lunch it is a short walk and climb to the top of South Head which is a great place to see the harbour and the ocean.

Point Piper

For those with spare cash the view from the above homes across the harbour might be eye watering. A recent sale for a house is thought to have been sold for $69 million ($44.55 million USD or about £35.6 million)- in 2002 the main street of Point Piper was the 9th most expensive street in the world. I don’t have any idea of the street’s ranking today.

The famous ‘heads’ and the ‘gap’ – North head on the left and South head on the right.

Ferry boat cutting across our bow – there wasn’t any danger I had the camera on ‘zoom’. North Head behind the ferryboat.

Approaching the Gap – the vessel on the left is the pilot boat getting ready to take the pilot back to Circular Quay. Not sure about the small vessel on the right.

Pilot boat coming alongside to collect the pilot.
As always it has been pilot’s advice Captain’s orders. The only place where the pilot takes full command of a vessel is during the transit of the Panama Canal.

South Head of Sydney Harbour, pilot has disembarked, full ahead and the cruise has begun.   

Sail around Australia part one

Coral Princess – launched in 2002, maximum passenger number 1970, crew of 900 – maiden voyage January 2003. She and her sister ship Island Princess are the two smallest vessels in the Princess fleet. It is thought that the Coral & Island were kept by Princess because they were the only vessels small enough to pass through the Panama Canal.
Since 2016 when the new expansion of the canal was initiated the canal can now handle larger vessels.
I have heard that Coral Princess will be transferred to P & O Australia in a year or two.

Maureen & I had a balcony which we had booked a year in advance – I tried for a mini-suit but they had all been sold. The balcony cabin was fine except for the size of the shower – it worked well but I had to turn around to soap certain parts if I did not wish to turn the water off. It was challenging to keep the plastic shower curtain inside the shower base.

The view from our balcony – couldn’t complain.

Attending muster stations is no longer required – it is all on the TV – watch it on TV and then report to your muster station to be checked. The act of watching on TV I think registers on the system and on visiting the muster station your cabin key which is a Medallion     is scanned. The Medallion system worked very well. I have explained how the system works in earlier post, but will be happy to go into detail if asked.

Our cabin was on the starboard side and as we would be sailing north along the east coast of Australia, I would be able to photograph the sunrise from our balcony.

The best laid plans etc  . .

At least later in the day it was pleasant enough to sit outside.

Brisbane – the Coral Princess was one of the Company’s smallest vessels, yet it is still too large to pass under the bridge that crosses the Brisbane River. 
Brisbane’s cruise terminal is one of the most unattractive of all the cruise ports that I have experienced.
From our balcony we could see Brisbane airport and the various aircraft taking off and landing. There is a rail system from the airport into the city but there isn’t any public transport between the cruise terminal and the airport for passengers to use the rail system.
Princess arranged coaches from the cruise terminal to the city which takes about forty minutes at a cost of $40 per person round trip.
The first departure was 8.30 am and that group of people would be expected to reboard the coach for the return trip around 1.00 pm .
It was not a satisfactory arrangement, and the weather was not all that friendly with the promise of rain so Maureen and I decided to stay on board the ship.
This was our second visit to Brisbane via a cruise ship and we have yet to visit the city Centre.
The terminal cost $177 million dollars and was opened in 2020. To me it would be ideal for a fast river ‘cat’ to operate a service to/from the cruise terminal to encourage passengers to visit Brisbane city and spend money. We were not the only passengers who decided not to visit Brisbane because it was ‘all too hard’.

Our next port of call, which is stretching things a little, because it was an island, and the passengers were not allowed a shore.
We cruised off Willis Island and listened to a lecture about the island which is a weather station located 450 km (280 miles) off the coast of Australia.   I am writing this on the 16th December and a few days ago the island staff were evacuated due to tropical cyclone Jasper. Click below for the short film.

Evacuation

Finely managed to photograph the sunrise as we steamed towards Cairns.

On arrival in Cairns, we moored alongside at the passenger terminal which is only a short walk to the shopping area.
Larger vessel in the fleet would anchor off Yorkies Knob and the passengers would be tendered ashore and take buses to the city centre.

The dark building near the ship is Hemingway’s a brewery –
we couldn’t knock the welcome to Cairns. 

I took the above to record the artistical feel of the wharf, the brewery was on my left and the ship cast a shadow behind me. 

Cairns is a pleasant town with buildings that remind one of yesteryear. The last time we visited Cairns was around 1990, and not a lot had changed – wide streets, slow traffic, friendly people and the streets were clean.

As we walked around the town I clicked away with my camera but for some reason only a few registered – the above two are from the internet.

A gentle reminder to us that Cairns was a working port and we had to wait our turn to sail.

                                           Atlantic Infinity – Registered in Majuro 
Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands, which is a coral atoll of sixty-four islands in the Pacific Ocean, one of them being Bikini Atoll of atomic bomb fame.
We sailed soon after for Darwin.
The morning that we arrived I took the above photo – thick fog perhaps – but it was condensation on the lens of my camera as I stood on our balcony for less than thirty seconds.

A dry cloth and we were back to normal.

Our plan for Darwin was to visit the Cyclone Tracy Museum where they had a soundproof room to experience the recorded sound as Cyclone Tracy ‘attacked’ Darwin.

The aftermath of Darwin after the cyclone – picture from National Museum of Australia.

The cyclone wiped out 80% of Darwin, with winds as high as 217 km/hour (135 mph), seventy-one people were killed during the 24th to 26th December 1974, a Christmas never to be forgotten. 

The howl of the wind in the blacked out soundproof room was frightening, what it must have been like for the locals in 1974 I cannot imagine.  

Twisted powerlines during the cyclone – picture from Territorial Generation

Part of the wind damaged power equipment in the museum – I took the above photograph in 2018. 

I’d hate to say – if only . . to our children in the future.

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All ready for a wedding.

The flight from London to Melbourne was particularly good considering the last time Maureen & I flew to Australia, which was not long after we were married in 1970, we were also travelling ‘staff travel’, and we were ‘off-loaded’ in Hong Kong and we were stuck there for about four or five days.
As a couple it was inconvenient, but with two children an ‘off-load’ would have been a problem.

The wedding went well, and we all had a great time, and the children just loved the beach.

After the wedding we stayed with Maureen’s aunt & uncle who had emigrated from the UK in 1951.  They were very hospitable and during one visit to the city via the old ‘red rattler’ we thought we would check something out.

Chelsea

The above shows Chelsea station, although part of the Melbourne network living in Chelsea gave the feel that you were in a small town rather than a major city.
Note the level crossing to allow the train to pass through . . . it was quiet, and the beach just a couple of minutes’ walk from the station.

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Red Rattler 

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inside of a ‘red rattler – I think the red rattlers was discontinued in 1985.

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We arrived at the terminus in Melbourne, which is in the heart of the city.

Walking around the city we passed the Migration Services centre (I am not sure what the exact name was in 1978), but this was what I wanted to check out. 
From memory this office could give you permission to stay in Australia permanently. 

I queued and when it was my turn an Italian-Australian asked

‘What de u vant’

I said ‘I’d like to stay in Australia, please.’

‘What skil av u ?

‘I work for an airline.’

‘We don-t-a need you.’

‘But I can fly a B747!’ said, I lying to my back teeth.

‘We plenty pilot we don-a-need you – NEXT!’

A Vietnamese chap behind me with limited English was smiled at, and asked to sit down – PC had not been invented in at that time . . . 

After our holiday we arrived home in November 1978, and now I had to settle back into the routine of shift work and selling frozen food, and it was cold after the beautiful beach weather of Australia. 
To add to the cold weather mortgage rates were about to go up in early 1979 to just under 12%, we could no longer afford to live in our house or even in Congleton because of the cost of petrol and the proposed mortgage hike.

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In March of 1979 the Prime Minister, James Callaghan lost a vote of confidence in the House, and he was forced to call a general election.

As all this was happening Maureen and I were discussing our future and we both considered that since our last visit eight years earlier, Australia had change in a positive way.  The living standard of the average man had increased considerably, but Maureen & I had the feeling that we were going backwards in the UK, because we were being forced to move closer to work because of the high mortgage rate and the cost of petrol to get to work.
Discussion in Parliament anticipated that the mortgage rate in 1980 would reach 15%. 
By July 1979 petrol prices for 2-star petrol had jumped to £1.40 per gallon (£7.13 today). The fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979 caused oil prices to skyrocket.

Instead of moving closer to Manchester airport we decided sell up and migrate to Australia – if they would have us.
The decision was made easier for me than Maureen, because I woke up one morning and found myself looking forward to retiring, I was only 33! 
I had to do something!

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We booked a meeting with the Australian High Commission branch office in Manchester and arrived at the appointed time.

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Chatsworth House in Manchester, where the Australian Migration offices were located. 

The meeting started a little ‘coldly’ because the person that we were meeting did not like living in England and told us so.
He complained about the way the British park their cars on the wrong side of the road. In Australia one would not dream of parking a car facing the wrong way.
He then told us that he was being posted to Germany and he was looking forward to the Munich beer festival because he did not like English beer.

We did not feel as if the meeting was going well.

He then asked if I had a criminal record, and in a fit of trying to lighten the meeting I replied that I did not think that I still required one. There was a long, long silence.

At that time migration to Australia was based on a point system, the applicant had to reach a certain number of points in total.
Points were given for being able to speak English, the education level of the applicant, the number of children, the age of the applicant, job skills of the applicant, the amount of cash that we were taking and so on. 
He then told us that if it was up to him he would not allow us to migrate because I was unemployable and at the top end of the age group, and he expected me to go on the dole as soon as we arrived in Australia.
But, under the points rule he had to sanction our migration because we were paying our own way and did not require government support – at that time the £10 POM had finished, and it was now a £50 POM system, which was not available for us.

We had our interview on the 9th April 1979 and it was 15th October when we received permission to migrate. 

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On the 24th October, our passports arrived, which contained the visa to live in Australia. We had until 20th September 1980 to arrive in Australia, any later and we would not be allowed to migrate.

On the same day we put the house up for sale. 

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I took this picture in 2008, during a driving holiday in the UK.

When we lived in this house the front living room window was a picture window from ceiling to floor giving us spectacular views over the valley. The bow window must have been put in by the new owners.  

The house was sold in two days, on the 26th October 1979. We could start packing . . . Australia here we come!

The legal process began at the speed of a snail. 

Late November / early December the mortgage rate increased to 15% and our buyers withdrew their offer.  

A wide open sunburned country

Our next stop would be the Barossa Valley, which was a six hour drive from Broken Hill.

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As we headed south it was all open spaces.

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The pictures above reminded me of Jack Absalom’s paintings.

The Australian land has very distinctive smell,
for me it is the smell of Australia and I love it!

My Country  by Dorothea Mackellar

Words adapted from the poem My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, music by Tony Hatch and Vickie Trent, arranged by David Lawrence. Origin of audio track uncertain.

As we crossed the border from New South Wales in to South Australia we passed a warning sign that there was a quarantine border station 220 km south. Unchecked fruit was not allowed in to the area south of this border, because this area was one of Australia’s main wine producing area, and they were not taking any chances of fruit fly and contamination.

Two and a half hours after reading the quarantine warning all vehicles were stopped at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Ooda Wirra.

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The road was designed so that a vehicle had to pass through this check point. There wasn’t any way of getting through without being checked. The above picture is more of an illustration, because when we arrived the barrier was solid concrete and metal, and we had to zig-zag through to the other side.

As soon as the inspector (very polite and friendly) asked if we had any fruit it dawned on me that I’d forgotten about two bananas in our chiller bag. I exited the car and opened the boot (trunk for the US) and then opened the chiller bags so that the inspector could see all our food as I removed two bananas and gave them to him.

There was a large sign stating that any fruit found would not be allowed to be consumed by the owner – hence the warning 220 km, 175 km and 100 km earlier . . . . . we live and learn as I forfeited this pensioner’s lunch.

I didn’t object to handing over the fruit as we had been warned – several times. When I saw the picture of a bunch of bananas at the quarantine station,  that’s when I remembered about the forbidden fruit in the chiller bag.

They named them twice.

March, 2015 Road Trip
Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Beechworth, Hay, Mildura,
Broken Hill,  Tanunda, Adelaide, Robe, Ballarat, Albury, Sydney.
4305 km door to door.

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My wife and I have seen quite a lot of Asia so we thought it was about time that we saw some more of Australia.
We decided to visit Adelaide, which would also give us a chance to visit my wife’s cousin.
I planned the ‘Road Trip’, as it was now being called, to be basically anticlockwise – Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Mildura, Broken Hill, Adelaide, Robe, Ballarat, Beechworth, Yass and home – nine stops.
I checked each stop for local fairs, markets or festivals, partly for us to see and expereince, and depending on the size of the festival, could we obtain accommodation at the ‘right’ price. The one that caused me some concern was the Adelaide Festival, which is extremely popular, but not with me, because I was only interested in the nightly rate, and large festivals had a tendency to increase the nightly rates.
I worked out that if we left Sydney late February by the time we reached Adelaide the festival would be reaching the end, and perhaps the accommodation costs would not be too big of a consideration.
I contacted a B & B that looked attractive and asked for a booking. I was told that they were full until the 12th March, and they knew that other B & B were also full, if I wanted a similar standard as the one I’d picked. I knew we would be able to book hotels, but the price per night was more expensive than we were used to paying in Asia at five star resorts, so I balked at paying over the odds due to a festival. I had to re-think the basic plans to be in Adelaide no earlier than the 12th March.
Back to the drawing board and I came up with a cockeyed plan for ten stops and we would zig zag our way to Adelaide, and still arrive on the 12th as planned.
Our first stop would be Wagga Wagga, (NSW) and then Beechworth in northern Victoria. This zig would take us away from the main route to S. Australia, but we did wish to see the place, which is why it was at the end of our original plan. Now that it was near the beginning I had to find the best route from Beechworth to somewhere on the way to Mildura. I could have driven right through, but it was supposed to be a holiday and driving flat out for seven or eight hours was not attractive, plus I could be over tired and make a mistake. I was happy with a four hour drive so I researched the towns on the way to Mildura, which were between three and five hours drive from Beechworth. Eventually I found Hay a small town in southern NSW, and checked this place out for a night stop.
On checking various motels and B & Bs I came across ‘Interesting things to do in Hay’ on the Hay web site, so I clicked on this link and found the Dunera Museum!

In the mid 60’s I’d sailed in the Dunera as a cadet when she was a school ship. During the war she had been a troop ship, and in 1940 she was used to ship nearly 2000 German and Austrian Jewish internees to Australia.

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Many of the internees had fled Nazi Germany to the UK in the late 1930’s. Unfortunately many German & Austrian people living in Britain at that time were considered a security risk, so they were rounded up and placed in camps. The plan was to send them to Canada, but this didn’t work out and they were sent in HMT Dunera to Australia. The guards on the ship, and some of the crew, were not all that sympathetic to the internees, and the voyage became infamous, and the internees became known as the Dunera Boys.

I don’t think there were any women in the group, because wives and children were considered a lower risk, and were kept in Britain.

Knowing the history of the Dunera Boys and having sailed in her twenty five years after the fateful voyage, I just had to stop in Hay to visit the museum.

Our next stop would be three nights in Mildura, on the Murray River, followed by Broken Hill for three nights, and then Tanunda in the Barossa Valley for two nights, which was about a ninety minute drive outside Adelaide. These two nights in the Barossa would be the last two nights of the Festival, which would allow us to move in to the B & B on Saturday 14th March.

We would be in Adelaide for four nights, the longest time at any of the stops, after which it would be Robe, two nights, Ballarat for one night, and finally Albury for a single night before the last six hours drive home.

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Using the freeway the drive from Sydney to Wagga Wagga went well. We left home at 8.40 am, on a Sunday; the traffic was light, so we were able to make good time. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Bookham. The place was picked at random, because we didn’t know when we would stop or where. We felt peckish, so we stopped.

Bookham was ‘advertised’ as a rest stop and I thought it would be just a lay-by, but it was a small hamlet; very quiet with a small car park, picnic tables, a toilet block and a petrol station fifty metres from the parking area. Across the road was an old church with ‘character’.

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The above is the main street of Bookham . . . the traffic on the freeway could just be heard.

We arrived at the motel in Wagga Wagga at 2.00 pm. The bush areas must have something in the water when towns are given the same name twice. Just on the outskirts of Wagga Wagga we passed through Gumly Gumly, and later in our road trip we stood on a lookout point called Mundi Mundi.

For all our accommodation I used Trip Advisor as a guide to the standard of service, and cleanliness. Our first stop being Wagga Wagga, was the test factor of previous visitors’ recommendations. I’d booked us in to the The Junction Motor Inn  in Wagga Wagga, and I found that the web site was easy to use, and responses to my e-mails were fast.
Jill & Peter, the owners, were very friendly and helpful on our arrival advising us where to eat and how best to get in to the town centre and where to park.

Our accommodation was spotless and a good size, with plenty of parking right outside the door.

DSC03449rBecause it was a Sunday the motel was very quiet – on arrival we were the only car in the car park area. Later, a number of others arrived or returned from days out sightseeing.

After we’d unpacked the necessities, we drove the short distance to the town centre. Like many country towns on a Sunday afternoon, it was QUIET! The only department store closed at 3.00 pm, ten minutes before our arrival. I hate shops, so how lucky can I get?

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Sunday afternoon in Wagga Wagga

We walked the length of the centre and the one thing I noticed was that they had a beautiful memorial park for those who served and died in all wars. The roses, the fountain and the eternal flame made a big impression on me, particular for such a small town.

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The Eternal Flame Garden

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Memorial gardens

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In memory of . . . .

Running alongside the garden area was the Murrumbidgee River, which snaked and turned across the country to beyond Hay and eventually in to the Murray River. The Murrumbidge River is 1488 km long, stretching from the head waters in the ACT (Australian Capital Territories) to the Murray River, which forms the border between NSW & Victoria. If I’d have realised this I might have considered ‘boating’ instead of ‘roading’ because our plans would take us from Wagga Wagga to Hay and on to Midura, all place connected by rivers.

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During the afternoon we visited the local Club to check it out for our evening meal. The Club was a sporting club, but as I am not particularly sports minded I have no idea which sport the club followed. The system in Australia is that you can visit any club for drinks and a meal (you don’t have to be a member), as long as you are more than five kilometers away from your own home.

The restaurant looked fine, so we asked if we had to book for that evening, and the young lady that we spoke to told us that all should be OK if we arrived early, and that they started serving at six.

The club offered a courtesy coach to and from the club, and as we were not all that far from the club we booked the bus for a 6.00 pm pick up, from our motel. Using the bus would allow us to have a glass of wine with the meal and not worry about driving.

A few minutes after six the bus arrived and we boarded, only to find that there were quite a few people already on board. The larger than expected number of people impressed us, and confirmed that we had made the right choice for our meal, because it was obviously a very popular club.

We headed away from the club and I thought we must be picking up more people for the evening session. How wrong was I, the bus did a large circuit of the housing area dropping off the lunchtime members. My wife and I were the only passengers going to the club that evening!

On entering the restaurant about 6.30 pm we found that there were six or seven other people already eating, so we had a seating choice of between twenty and thirty tables!

 

Next stop Beechworth in Victoria.