When we first arrived in Melbourne we had studied the tourist maps and Alex had set the agenda. First stop was going to be the Australian Toy Museum in Collingwood.
When we first arrived in Melbourne we had studied the tourist maps and Alex had set the agenda. First stop was going to be the Australian Toy Museum in Collingwood.
Such was our eagerness to get the day started that I forgot to check what time the toy museum opened. It was only after we were bout to catch the 86 tram in Bourke street that I discovered that the place did not open until 10am - and it was just after 8.30am.
After a little bit of gentle persuasion Alex agreed that we should go for a walk down Bourke street to the mall in the heart of Melbourne.
We took our time and did a lot of window shopping eventually arriving at the corner of Bourke and Russell streets opposite Hungry Jacks where we decided to wait for the next tram. In the short period before the tram arrived I had an education in something that I hope to never see again.
Three rough looking youths in their late teens gathered about 4 or 5 metres from us at the tram stop and talked animatedly. They were standing where Alex is in the picture on the left. One of their number made a phone call and within minutes a man in his thirty’s dressed in a dark fake-leather top and jeans walked across to them. I could hear them in the relative stillness of the morning discussing prices for heroin. Money changed hands and what looked like little green “tablets” were dropped into the hand of an American-Negro and his Asian friend (seen here on the right soon after lighting up).
This in broad daylight right in front of me - as if they had been discussing the latest footy match. I could not believe it! I had never seen a drug swap taking place in my life before and here I was less than 24 hours in Melbourne and I had seen it all!
The kids with the drugs walked across to a sheltered shop doorway and, joined by others, fiddled around a bit and then lit up drug-laced homemade cigarettes. It was all pretty obvious but no-one seemed to care. The cafe opposite Hungry Jacks was full of people who either had not noticed what was taking place just metres away or were used to it... I was stunned!
I waited for the youngsters to go around the corner and walked to the doorway where they had lit up. There on the floor was one of the green “tablets”. It looked like a piece of a green balloon which had been tied in a knot making a small pea size compartment. The compartment was now empty... the drugs had already been consumed.
Just around the corner in a small street running parallel with Bourke Street was a mini-China Town. The coincidence with the Asian drug problem seemed rather obvious to me.
This all happened in just twenty minutes as we waited for and then boarded tram 86 to Collingwood.
The short tram trip to Smith Street, Collingwood took us to an older part of town. There were a number of heritage listed buildings including that of the Australian Toy Museum. It was still early - about 9.45am so we walked down the street getting in the atmosphere of Melbourne.
The walls between the shops were plastered with posters about everything and anything. Included in the posters was one dating back to an event on June 7th - the promotion of the violent anti-Hanson protests which took place at Dandenong.
On the poster were the names of those distributing the posters. They were:
La Trobe Students Representative Council, Bundoora.
National Union of Students, 490 Spencer Str, West Melbourne.
New International Bookshop, cnr Lygon and Victoria str, Carlton.
With “For more information, call Jill at La Trobe SRC on 9429 2976 or Jackie at NUS on 9326 7000.
At about 10am Alex and I entered the Australian Toy Museum which was, to be quite frank, a bit of a disappointment to me for the Au$6 cover charge. There were just three rooms of old toys. The Meccano collection was of most interest to me as I remember that my father ad bought me a “number 10” set back in the 60s when I was but knee high.
Alex enjoyed pressing the buttons which made the old trains go around their tracks while I looked out for and found a few toys that I could remember from the 60s.
Down below the museum they have a small narrow-gauge home made train which Alex enjoyed travelling on. At a dollar a ride it was quite good value...
We left the Australian Toy Museum and caught a tram back to town. From here we travelled by tram to St Kilda road. We got off at the national art gallery and spent a couple of hours walking around. The museum seemed to have a total obsession with Aboriginal art with very little else being featured.
The crowds were very light despite the Rembrandt exhibition taking place at the time. If the tickets had been cheaper Alex and I would have gone in but at Au$18 per adult we didn’t bother.
At about 3pm Alex and I took a walk down to the Grand Hyatt Hotel to see how long it takes to walk there. It turned out to be a casual 20 minute walk from the Kingston. During the walk we admired some of the interesting buildings and icons like this sculpture of a man holding up the earth on the Zurich Insurance building.
What a grand place the Grand Hyatt is! Snuck in the middle of an inner city block it has a foyer the size of the entire Kingston hotel and real large and glamorous conference rooms. We had a look at the Savoy Ballroom on the first floor which was being decked out in preparation for tomorrow’s Australian Financial Review/Telstra Internet award night. We heard that some 450 guests were expected tomorrow night compared to last year’s 250 guests.
It was time to return back to the hotel. Alex was such a good little kid he has been a real joy on this his first trip alone with Dad! When we got back to the Kingston Hotel we sat and watched television and then had a pizza and coke before retiring back to our room just after 6pm.
My first hand view of Melbourne is not a good one. There seemed to be an enormous number of “night creatures”... the dishevelled type who hang around and cause trouble. We found them in Bourke street in the city centre and in Smith street in Collingwood. It was only at the National Art Gallery and the Grand Hyatt that we seemed to have struck a small ‘vein’ of mainstream Australians. Maybe it is because it is a weekend... I guess we will find out tomorrow, but I would certainly never leave Alex alone for one minute in this city!
I like to think that Brisbane is a far safer and better place to live - from first impressions I think that I am right.