Dry, dusty, style city

We've just got back from a couple of days in Melbourne, Australia's most stylish city, but also its driest and most smoky. Eighty klms out of Melbourne on the Hume highway we saw stark evidence of the 7 Feb. fires - with about a 15klms section burnt to a cinder on each side of the highway. The city was in a sober mood with the big memorial service on Sunday at the Rod Laver Arena. We guiltily took advantage of the free public transport provided to visit the Arts Centre and St Kilda Beach markets on Sunday. Everyone on the trams was talking about the fires, the weather, the heat, the drought.


St Kilda was lively, the streets crowded with a big kids' triathlon event and the Esplanade Markets. All the grass in the esplanade parks was like straw and even the agapanthus beds were dying! The kids at Luna Park looked happy enough though.

We caught up with Rob's friend David T. in Melbourne, spending a lot of time in restaurants eating wonderful food and catching up with David's very eventful life. We met up with him and some friends on our first night at the wonderful Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill on Southbank. We gave the carefully aged beef dishes a miss (a pity in a way because this is what the restaurant is famous for!) but enjoyed its exceptional seafood. I loved the visual impact of the smoke filled evening sky as we walked back to our apartment in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Sunday night we enjoyed wonderful Vietnamese food with David and his three gorgeous girls (and S-I-L Steven) at Richmond. Monday we did a long yum cha lunch at the Shark Fin Inn on Bourke St and Tuesday (yesterday) an even longer lunch at the stupendous Flower Drum in Market Lane. It didn't leave us very much time for other explorations of Melbourne!

We managed to squeeze in an afternoon in Fitzroy, wandering down the hip and happening Brunswick and Gertrude Streets. I found an old favourite: The Artist's Garden, still going strong and still with some wonderful ways of combining art in courtyard gardens.

It was 35oC in Melbourne this afternoon so we had to make a long stop in the beautiful old Provincial Hotel on Brunswick street for a long cool beer.

I was intrigued by the plaques on quite a few of the public buildings in Fitzroy describing their connection with the local Indigenous population. I discovered that they were part of the Aboriginal History of Fitzroy Plaques and Places Project, launched early this year. Another little link in the reconciliation process.

We drove back to Canberra today. The smoke haze followed us to Gundagai. The $800million Hume Highway upgrade is very impressive, especially now the Albury Wodonga bypass is complete. However the 150klm of remaining roadworks under construction makes for a slow trip in parts.