We spent the day in Melbourne rather than going out to the Koala Sanctuary. Actually...seen Koala's, done that. The day was beautiful and we did some more sightseeing around the city. Didn't really go anywhere in particular, but we did shoot some random pics from around the area here.
Australia is a major producer of opals. In fact, something like 96% of the opals mined in the world come from Australia. There area a couple opal shops in the city, and we visited one on Flinders Lane. This was interesting. The business is owned by a guy who started mining opals (digging with pick and shovel) back in the mid-1960's and we got a thorough tour through the intricacies of opal mining, cutting, grinding, and polishing from his daughter. Of course...we didn't leave empty-handed either.
We next went back to the area near our hotel to do some shopping. The Central Railway Station, which houses bus, subway, light rail, and streetcar infrastructure has a huge shopping mall above the underground areas that is very nice. Inside the mall is an old shot tower that has been restored and is now an outback outfitting store and small museum:
This thing has five levels of shopping and you can see how busy it is...Doesn't anyone work here?
This is one of the buildings at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology...RMIT. Not convinced, though, that it rates up there with our MIT:
This is the Victoria State Library and a statue of one Sir Redmond Barry, and early Supreme Court Justice:
And these are a few of the locals enjoying a nice spring day on the lawn of the library:
This is the old City Police Station and Jail, built in 1909 and just up the street from the Library. A really striking example of Gothic architecture:
This building is around the corner from the jail and is the headquarters of the Trade Unions in Victoria. I suspect their Unions have gone pretty much the way our Unions have in the states, though. Anyway, pretty impressive building:
One thing that's impressed us while in Australia is the amount of construction going on. Sydney, Canberra, Cairns, Brisbane, and Melbourne are all undergoing major building booms in their downtown areas. Here is a good example of "the old vs the new" in Melbourne:
We leave in the morning for Hobart, Tasmania and five days on Tasmania. Tasmania is a state of Australia and is an island 240 km (150 miles) south of Melbourne.
Pat's Paragraph....... Roger got his hair cut today and the lady who did it was from Vietnam. Now since we've been here, we have learned to translate 'Aussie' into American. But this lady was a challenge. Her parents were from China and had been moved to Vietnam. Her father decided his 10 children were going to have better lives and worked to get them out. He divided them into groups of 2 each and secretly put them on 5 different ships. It didn't matter where they were going, they were going Out. So when she and her sister left together, they didn't know where they would be landing. This was during the '70's when all the 'Boat' people were sneaking out. She and her sister ended up in Hong Kong. Each group went to different nations; Australia, the Philippines, and one more. Her 2 brothers were cheated by the captain and woke up one morning being arrested, they were back in Vietnam. It took 3 years to find out, through an uncle, where everyone finally ended up. Her brothers did get out later but her parents never did make it out. She and her sister later moved from Hong Kong to Australia to be with her other sisters. Now try translating Chinese, Vietnamese, Hong Kong speaks British and then Australian all mixed together!! The more she talked, the faster her scissors flew. She was very passionate about her story and I was afraid Roger might end up missing an ear or partially bald. Nope, no calamities or missing parts, she did a good job.
As we waited at an intersection I saw every kind of car you could imagine, actually a larger variety than if you were in the States. The most common seen here is a Holden and they make sport cars, trucks and cars. Roger says this is a division of General Motors. But we even saw a Citroen, a Bentley sports car ($$$$ I didn't even recognize the emblem), Mini-Coopers and 1 old Dodge and 1 old Chevy, all with steering wheels on the wrong side of the car which would be the right side of the car. Fords are made here so they are pretty common. NOT a lot of Harley Davidsons because every HD bike has to be shipped to New Zealand, then modified to meet Australian requirements before being shipped here, adding about $10,000.00 to the price per the dealership sales person. Ouch! The motorcycles you see here are Triumphs and Kawasakis except for the police who ride BMW's. Nicccce!
