Australia 1988

Friday 24 June — Back to Sydney

Up at six, no hot water so no shower. Splashed water on my face and headed out for the railway station. On the way, I decided it might be better to go via Sydney, rather than the bus and train trip to Melbourne, so I got the 0710 XPT, City of Sydney. The XPT is based on the British Rail HST, but the air conditioning works and there is no smell of burning brake blocks when the brakes go on.

Seven cars, one class, buffet in the middle, two smoking cars at the front. I intended to have breakfast but lit my pipe first and settled for morning tea. Smoother ride than the CanberraMonaro Express last Tuesday, but only half an hour quicker, too many stops (on both trains) for really fast running. (The train is still capable of 125 but, because of track restrictions, it’s kilometres rather than miles per hour.) A couple of slow sections were easily recovered and we kept time all the way.

No roomettes available on the Melbourne Express tonight, just shared accommodation, so I booked for the InterCapital tomorrow and checked into the CB for tonight. Put ten films in for processing in two lots, Agfa and Kodak, ready on Monday but I won’t be back till next Friday. Checked sailings from Melbourne to Tasmania, I’ll have to decide about that soon.

Fish and chips for lunch down by the Circular Quay, then bought a ball of twine and a postpak and sent off accumulated bumf and some T-shirts. A beer or three till dusk, then off up to King’s Cross, the red-light district.

I don’t know what all the fuss is about, a few strip clubs, with touts outside, a few girls standing aimlessly about, they might be waiting for boyfriends, and the rest of it seemed to be takeaways and ice cream shops. Oh, there was the occasional adult book shops down stairs. On the way back into the city, I was propositioned by a pleasant young lady who took “no” for an answer.

Into the New Zealand Hotel where it is possible to obtain stubbies of DB, albeit at an exorbitant price.

Saturday 25 June — And on to Melbourne

Up at six, showered and off to the station. Checked the pack in for Melbourne, had a cup of tea, bought a paper and threw most of it away (the adverts) and went looking for the train. 42202 and 42216 in different liveries hauling one empty motorail wagon, baggage/power car, two first sitting (one smoking), buffet/diner similar to the Southerner only wider, and four second sitting, the last with guard at the back.

NSW 42216 (Clyde Engineering, 1969) at Albury after coming off the Intercapital

The sitting cars were the standard for country trains (in NSW) including the Brisbane Limited, with a quality of ride nearer the XPT than the Canberra - Monaro Express. Crossed the up Canberra XPT at Mittagong, then the up InterCapital at Junee, being held outside the station till it had moved off. OJ, steak and veg, fruit and ice cream, tea for lunch.

At Albury, we dropped 42216 before crossing the Murray River into Victoria, where all except us runs on broad gauge. Standard and broad gauge tracks run parallel, but the standard goes round the back of the stations so there were no stops between Albury and Melbourne, where we crawled along for the last fifteen minutes or so and arrived a couple of minutes late.

I picked up my bag and went round to the Kingsgate Hotel and booked in for two nights. Nipped out for a quick beer or three then retired.

Sunday 26 June — Melbourne

Long lie till the back of nine, cold outside, some thin cloud but mostly fine. Wandered round the city, most thing seem to open at twelve. Decided to walk down to Port Melbourne and enquire about a trip to Tasmania but, en route, I spotted some masts and found the Maritime Museum, with barque Polly Woodside, built 1885 in Belfast, sold to New Zealand in 1904 for trans-Tasman trade and renamed Rona, then a coal hulk in Port Melbourne, now restored.

On down to the port, no-one at the ferry terminal, I wandered round the pier then headed for the tram which left just as I got there. So I walked along the front to St Kilda and took the tram back from there. Both the Port Melbourne and St Kilda lines were suburban rail until quite recently and the trams make very tight turns on and off the railway tracks at level crossings. No freight now.

Along to the station, booked the Sydney Express for Wednesday night, couple of beers then booked the hotel for an extra couple of nights. To pot with Tassie.

Monday 27 June — Melbourne

Got up a bit earlier this morning and had breakfast in the hotel. Not impressed. The guy used the espresso machine to put milk in my tea and left a head on it! Wandered around the town for the morning, this was my fourth day in Melbourne but the other three were all Sundays, quiet and mostly closed. Today I stuck my head into a couple of magnificent Victorian banks, modernisation has been made to fit the original ambience, the security guard in one told me that they get a lot of folk coming in just to admire it.

Took the train out to Williamstown. Walked round the end of the peninsula and back along the shore as far as the Williamstown Beach station. Pretty average, might be more interesting in warmer weather.

A few beers in the evening and a walk around the town looking for a takeaway. Plenty of ethnic restaurants but no takeaways after eight pm. So, back to the hotel and bed, but not before a session watching “The Shiralee” on TV. I read the Readers Digest condensed version in Auckland, the film is a bit different, probably because of different editors. After the first major deviation from the book, I could guess the ending so I retired.

Tuesday 28 June — Melbourne

Up a bit earlier still, but went into town for breakfast this time, much cheaper. Wandered aimlessly around. Walked through the Victoria Museum, observed the stuffed Phar Lap, rest of the place dealt with Victorian settlement plus some school kid science stuff which seemed well done, judging by the interest shown by the kids. Bought some stamps, Bicentennial joint issues with UK and NZ.

Returned to the Savoy Tavern for the exotic strippers. Missed most of the first act by being in the wrong bar. When I went through, the performer was down to suspender belt and stockings, strutting around not quite in time to the music. A lengthy break before the second act, a Canadian girl who would not have lasted five minutes as a go-go dancer in Edinburgh. She ended up the same way, suspender belt and stockings, only hers were red rather than black. And that was it, four records each. So I went back to the serious drinking in the public bar, then back to the hotel and bed.

Wednesday 29 June — Melbourne

Time to move. Packed the bags and headed for the station. Checked the big bag through to Sydney and left my overnight bag in a locker. Watched the arrival, thirty minutes late, of the Melbourne Express from Sydney, hauled by V-Line G516.

Wandered into town, had some tea, then took the train out to Frankston, down the bay. Pleasant place, stiff on-shore breeze. Chicken and chips, reasonable, but as has so often been the case, wrong potatoes. Back into Melbourne, round the loop at Flagstaff back into Melbourne, wander round the town, stopping for a few beers here and there. Back to the Savoy for a meal and a few final beers.

Over to the station.

“Due to an industrial dispute, the Sydney Express passengers will be conveyed by coach, departing from the main car park.”

Great!

So, to the car park, where I found a row of buses and much confusion. There was a board beside one bus, “Sydney Direct” so I boarded, took a window seat and looked as large as I could to discourage anyone from sitting beside me. It worked.

We left about five past eight, in the rain, and off up the Hume Highway. The rain soon stopped. I had a window open. The female half of a middle-aged couple sitting in front suggested I should close it, I said there was a strong stink of perfume in the bus, she said she hadn’t noticed as she had a slight cold. I reckon she was probably the culprit. The window stayed open but I rearranged the curtain to screen the draft.

We stopped by the roadside in the middle of nowhere, another bus pulled in behind and someone off that bus disappeared into the bushes. We were just two kilometres past a rest area. A bit later we stopped again, same thing, two kilometres before a rest area.

At 1015 we stopped at Euroa “for fifteen or twenty minutes”. I walked around and had a smoke and was back on the bus by half past but we didn’t move on till five to eleven. I closed the window, and the glass misted over immediately. The bus had forced ventilation, but was not air conditioned and had only single glazed windows. It was quite cold outside.

Thursday 30 June — Sydney

We crossed the Murray about 0100, and I must have dozed a bit now and then. We’d had another roadside stop, someone on the other bus having an asthma attack. Stopped again at a 24 hour service station in Albury, for half an hour or so. Just as we were about to leave, some woman decided to take her child to the toilet. Then there was a couple of girls missing. Then the bus went round the back of the service station where there was a couple of other buses. Some shuffling of luggage and persons took place, we must have been picking up passengers. Then another child wanted to go to the toilet. The half hour had stretched to forty-five minutes before we got going.

Another roadside stop by a filling station to change drivers, let folk visit the toilet or have a smoke. That took twenty minutes. Stop for fuel just before Yass, another twenty minutes. Reached Goulburn at five past seven and stopped for breakfast at the Big Merino, Australia’s Agrodome with a thirty foot sheep at the roadside. Weather cold and misty, but I think there’s blue sky above it. There had been some interesting effects with mist and moonlight during the night.

I had tea and fruit for breakfast, help yourself to tea so I “accidentally” picked up a two person pot with two tea-bags but that only made three cups without adding water. Still, that was sufficient. We were supposed to carry on at eight, and the driver did make an attempt to go but we had to tell him that we were missing the gaggle of mothers and weans who had been at the back of the bus. After the first stop, he hadn’t been making much effort to check whether everyone was aboard.

The driver announced that our eta at Sydney Central station was ten o’clock but it was about quarter past eleven before we made it, taking about half an hour for the last kilometre into the station, including three and three quarter sides of a large oneway block.

I went to the Western Australia travel office in the station intending to book the bus to Geraldton for my arrival in Perth, but they don’t handle bus bookings (even though it is a Westrail bus), and they didn’t even have a timetable. (I later found this was a good thing as the train was late.)

Booked into the CB Hotel for three nights and went up the town. Strolled through the Botanic Gardens, round the Opera House, and up on to the bridge. One of the towers is open to the public and the view from the top is excellent. There was an exhibition on the way up on the building of the bridge, interesting.

Two beers in the Glenmore Hotel, “a few Argyle steps above the rest”, then remembered the slides. The guy in the Kodak shop had spent some time in Kyle a few years ago. Boring evening up Oxford St, the taco sauce was mild.

Friday 1 July — Sydney

Fruit and tea for breakfast in the shop where I bought milk last night. Went round to the railway Shop and bought some things. At the station bookshop I glanced through a Footrot Flats “It’s a dog’s life” and realised that it was different from the NZ edition so I bought it. Picked up a postpak, larger than before, and realised that I would have difficulty filling it with what was to hand so I’d better go out and buy some more. But I’ll go and book a passage to Hong Kong first, from Darwin via Bali.

My ticket was issued by Atlantic and Pacific in Auckland and they said they had an office in Sydney which would handle my onward reservations. Look them up in the phone book. Find the office in O’Connell St, they’ve moved to Pitt St, near my hotel! Walk back there, no name plate so I tried the floor with no occupant and there they were. But they don’t handle flights, just internal tours so they directed me to Garuda in Bligh St, round the corner from O’Connell St!

When I got down there, it was their admin office, tickets are handled in Clarence St. So I went there and had a pleasant chat with a lassie who sorted out some good connections and then said “of course, your passport is valid for another six months?” which it wasn’t. The Indonesian authorities won’t let anyone in if their passport has less than six months to run. Back to square one.

I’ll go direct from Brisbane, I didn’t really want to go to Bali anyway. Head for Quantas, pass Air NZ, stick my head in but they don’t fly to Hong Kong. At Quantas, take a seat and someone will see you shortly. Twenty-five minutes later, takes one look at my ticket and refuses to touch it, it must be endorsed by Air NZ before it can be changed. Back to Air NZ, according to their computer, Cathay Pacific have two flights a week from Brisbane to Quantas’s one so I decide to go by Cathay. When I get there, they only have one flight a week and it is fully booked till the middle of September, so I end up flying from Sydney.

By this time I’m so cheesed off that I can’t be bothered with shopping and go for some beer instead. Back at the hotel, I threw a few things in the postpak and lo, I can fill it, but the post office is closed so it looks like I’ll have to carry it all the way to Perth.

Went up King’s Cross again for an amble, a couple of girls tried to open a conversation but I ran away. On the way back, looking in a post office window, I saw that postal services are available at Martin Place on Saturday mornings.

Saturday 2 July — Sydney

Breakfast in a cafe across the road, very good, two sausages, three rashers of bacon, some mashed potatoes, chips and peas plus a pot of tea and two slices of toast for $4.80. Walked down to Martin Place to check the postal services and they do take parcels. Fetched the box and posted it, $12.95 for 4.88 kg.

Went to Town Hall station and took a train to Bondi Junction, then walked down to the Beach. Quiet, only a few surfers and no bathing beauties, but it is mid-winter after all. Walked to the other end of the beach, not far, then back along the shops. Stopped for a pot of tea and a fruit tart, pastry case lined with chocolate then custard then a layer of fresh fruit, kiwifruit, grape, pineapple, peach, glazed with something.

Bought some souvenirs then walked back towards the station. Stopped to watch a football match at Waverley, an un-equal struggle, one side physically bigger and the other lacking skill to compensate. In the five minutes before half time, the bigger side scored two goals, the second from a free kick awarded when the keeper either took more than three steps with the ball in his hands, or he ran out of the box. He must have said something to the referee ’cos he got a yellow card as well. Judging by the standard of dress of the referee and linesmen, it was probably a senior match, perhaps one for the coupon.

Passed a wedding reception in progress on the roof of the Council Chambers, naval uniforms I think.

Back at Town Hall, caught another train to Hornsby, via the Harbour Bridge. Crossed the platform and returned to Central via Strathfield. Checked out photo spots for trains leaving Central but nothing convenient. Redfern is a decrepit area. A beer or three on the way back to the hotel, saw the start of a World About Us programme on Kakadu near Darwin.

Down to Darling Harbour in the evening, dead. Into a pub about nine o’clock, dead. Back to the hotel and bed.

Sunday 3 July — A start on the Indian Pacific

Checked out and headed for Central Station. Booked the big bag through to Perth, the small bag in a luggage locker. Hung around to watch the 0933 departure of the Thirlmere Special, hauled by 3642. (There is a model of 3601 in the station cocktail lounge, built 1921-26 by apprentices at the Lockley St Instructional Workshops.) They had problems coupling onto the carriages and were twenty minutes late departing. I wish they wouldn’t stand inside the buffers while trying to couple up.

Then to Paddy’s Market at Haymarket, soon to be demolished. Just like the Barras, only I think it’s smaller. Then to Darling Harbour again. The monorail was running for disabled persons today. Took a few photos. Drifted down to Circular Quay, liner Finestar? at the passenger terminal, then back to the station for a couple of beers before train time.

At last the Indian Pacific for real. Two electric locos, 8648 and 8622, motorail wagon with one car, spare staff sleeper, power car, staff sleeper, two NSW liveried sitting cars to be dropped at Adelaide, second club car, two second sleepers, dining car, lounge car, twinettes, roomettes, twinettes, parcel wagon.

The inspector at the front end on the platform was not happy, everything was running late, the train should have been platformed an hour earlier. However, we departed only a couple of minutes late although we did lose a few more minutes before Lithgow, where we dropped the electric locos. My end of the train was well off the platform so I didn’t get to see what they put on, nor did I get to clean my window.

We had crossed the eastbound IP east of Leura when it was running nearly three hours late. I had spent some time in the lounge talking to a Dutch rubber planter travelling by train to get an impression of the size of Australia, told him I was travelling by train to travel by train. Not sure he understood.

Anyway, after a bit of shuffling, we were eighteen minutes late out of Lithgow. On into the night. Steak for dinner, pretty tough. Only a few minutes late arriving at Parkes where I think they took off the front two engines, 8012 leading I know not what, leaving one to haul us across the flat land to Broken Hill.