My journey down under actually started with a movie. Several, in fact, including Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock and Gillian Armstrong's My Brilliant Career. During our regular Sunday phone calls, I couldn't stop talking to Dad about Australian movies I'd seen. Recently retired, he took it a step farther. "Why don't we go there?"
The view from Hanging Rock lived up to my expectations. You go to Australia for the natural beauty of the vast landscape more than anything. Just 15 million people populated a country the size of America when we visited, with most living on the coast.
En route to Victoria for Christmas, we meandered through the wet and rainy
Blue Mountains of
New South Wales cooking meals in our Kombi kitchen. We equipped it with a propane-fueled refrigerator and stove.
Just as essential was a screened annex, to keep out the flies and mosquitoes.
Dad changed the oil the first chance he got using the tools he dragged all the way from El Paso.
I mapped a gawk at every waterfall.
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| Tianjara Falls, New South Wales |
En route to Victoria we passed through chilly
Canberra, the nation's
capital. Entirely planned (by an American!) it sits on formerly Aboriginal land about halfway through Sydney and Melbourne, both of which had vied for capital status. Here's the view from the
Australian War Memorial.
Victoria's spectacular land- and seascapes did not disappoint.
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| Gippsland, Victoria |
Dad was eager to get to Melbourne to meet Gus, an American expatriate and Australian actor. His brother, an Army buddy, led us to believe he was The Man From Snowy River. We detoured to get a look at the landmark. The Snowy Mountains include Mount Kosciuszko, the continent's highest peak at 7300 feet above sea level.
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| Ken, Snowy River |
After a week on the road, I wanted a shower more than anything. We found a modest guest house in St. Kilda, near the beach, and explored Melbourne on our own for several days. Australians do love their water sports.
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| Port Phillip Bay |
Melbourne immediately felt more cultured than Sydney, a city of strivers.
Nicholas, a Perth transplant, had sneered it was for old ladies.
A Vietnamese tram conductor allowed me to take her picture. Australian racists expressed their anti-immigrant fervor by spray painting "Out Asian Filth" on many blank walls.
The massive, outdoor food market offered an abundance of fresh produce.
Loin lamb chops were incredibly cheap!
Gus and Rita, whom he called his "lady," invited us to spend Christmas Eve at their country home in St. Andrews, just north of Melbourne. Gus's youngest son with his divorced wife showed up, too. Michael more than compensated for the absence of older brother Paul, a professional dancer who went on to ACTUALLY star in
Strictly Ballroom, Baz Luhrman's first film. Dad and I saw him perform with the
Sydney Dance Company at the Opera House just before we returned to the States.
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| Michael, Rita & Gus |
Michael wanted to be an actor like Gus, who belittled him constantly. We spent a lot of time smiling at one another, but we never found any time alone in a house full of people who gathered around an upright piano to sing for their own entertainment. Sadly, Michael committed suicide in 2000. The walk we took with our fathers in an abandoned gold mine still lives on in my erotic imagination.
By the time we reached the
Grampians, the Kombi had a name: the Hummer, because it had been running so smoothly, not always the case with Hon VWs.
Victoria had waterfalls, too. Look for me in the turquoise tee near the bottom, left.
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McKenzie Falls, Victoria
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