The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter

Archived Newsletter No.123 - 22 April 2005

Contents

Festivals
Art
A ghostly encounter
Theatre
Anzac Day
The five dimensions of Melbourne
What’s new?
Country Victoria

Festivals

This weekend is Buddha’s Birthday celebrations at Fed Square. Richmond also has a community festival celebrating its 150th birthday complete with fireworks. No doubt they will have a historical display documenting some of the unique approaches to local government developed in the shire. I suspect the saying “I’m as full as a meat inspector’s fridge” originated in Richmond. Details at Community Festivals.

Art

For those of you interested in rotary art there is the Rotary Art Show at Camberwell At the gallery in Fed Square is an exhibition of VCE artwork. I always find these student exhibitions to be some of the most heartening experiences of the year and will always go out of my way to wonder at the talent out there. Details of both at Exhibitions in Melbourne.

A ghostly encounter

It was late and I was sitting on the Post Office steps pondering this and that when he approached. At first I was going to move along because I thought it was one of the new breed of professional beggars who use veiled intimidation to generate their nightly take. But as he got closer I could see that he was shaking and was just a harmless old derro. He sat down next to me and didn’t ask for money – he just wanted to talk, and as he talked he seemed strangely familiar. It was then I noticed his dirty crumpled white hat. Was this some form of Ghost of Christmas Future come to warn me of what could happen to me twenty years down the track if I continued to have that glass of wine with dinner?

“This is the last place I remember” he said. “I had come from Bank Place and there was a group of men on the steps here discussing what was going to happen to this Ned Kelly character. His trial was due to start the next day, and I joined the group and was about to tell them about the old days where bringing a small amount of gold from the diggings could get your throat cut, and that’s the last I remember.” I recognised him now. “That’s because you collapsed then and never recovered” I explained.

As an artist S.T.Gill had given us some of the best records of Melbourne during the gold rush. Many of his paintings only reveal their gems by close examination of what is going on in the background. However, his drinking habits and unfortunate medical condition had reduced him to a sorry figure that day in 1880. “They took you off to the hospital, but you never recovered” I said. I thought it best not to mention that the official report said he was ‘crawling with vermin’. “Did I get a proper burial?” he asked. You have a fine grave in the New Melbourne Cemetery” I said. Again I felt it best not to mention that he had a pauper’s burial in an unmarked grave and was only later exhumed by the historical society (who got his dates wrong) and given a proper tombstone. “What does it say on the tombstone?” he asked. “S.T. Gill - The Artist of the Goldfields” I said “along with your dates”. He seemed relieved. It had not mentioned syphilis as a cause of death. After all, as Dr Johnson observed “In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath”.

We chatted a little longer before he disappeared in the direction of the Mitre Tavern. Perhaps he was hoping to exchange another of his sketches for a drink. “Who have you been talking to?” asked my friend. “Just an old drunk” I said. “If you sit quietly in the streets of Melbourne at this time of night you usually encounter some interesting people.”

You can find more information on The Artist of the Goldfields at S.T.Gill.

Theatre

“Weary – the Play’ has opened at the Athenaeum. Telling the story of how Weary Dunlop recorded and eventually published his war diaries this is an important play for anyone interested in understanding significant people from our recent past - and even more important for those who aren’t interested. I saw the play in its opening season in Launceston and can thoroughly recommend it. Other shows include Women of Asia, an adaptation of Camus’ The Outsider, a show called Smashed regarding rites of passage for a modern 15 year old, and an entertainment based around Tom Waites. Details of all these at Theatre in Melbourne.

Anzac Day

The dawn service at the Shrine is at 6am. After that you might choose to wander down and have a chat to the wonderful unassuming statue of Weary. The procession starts at 9am. Details at Shrine of Remembrance.

The five dimensions of Melbourne

People understand Melbourne in different ways, and we thought over the next few weeks we might describe some of the levels of understanding that we come across. For some people, Melbourne is a simple one dimensional place with ME at the centre. For others it has more levels than that. So let’s start off with:

One dimensional Melbourne

“Wait! I’ll just get a photo” he said. With that he pulled out his mobile phone, held it at arm’s length and took a photo of himself in front of the Post Office. He then made a number of quick movements with his thumb which I assumed meant that the wonders of human ingenuity, miniaturisation and satellite technology were being used to send to a number of acquaintances ‘ME in front of the Post Office in Melbourne’. His acquaintances could then file it along with the fuzzy pictures of ‘ME in front of the Mona Lisa’, ‘ME in front of the Sydney Opera House’ and ‘ME in front of the London Houses of Parliament’. I wondered whether I should mention that the Bourke Street hill behind us was were Tom Roberts painted his wonderful evocation of gold rush Melbourne and that if we moved along a few steps we would be standing where S.T.Gill collapsed. After all, he said he was interested in art. But then I remembered that he wasn’t interested in the Mona Lisa – he was interested in getting a photo of himself in front of the Mona Lisa. Mentioning the unfortunate case of S.T.Gill would only result in a photograph of ‘ME standing on the spot where some artist geezer died – spooky isn’t it?’ so we moved on. There are numbers of places around Melbourne that you only mention to those who will respect them. We moved on to Bank Place and ‘ME in front of the Mitre Tavern’. Despite the wonders of digital photography I doubt that the photograph will pick up any of the atmosphere of Gill’s wonderful little vignette of Bank Place that he completed not long before he died – despite having to steady his trembling hand with the other in order to manage it.

Out onto Collins Street. “I love travel,” he says “it broadens the mind. I think you have to stay in a place for a good period of time so that you really get to know it.” My experience is that six hours or six weeks don’t make much difference in cases such as his. “Look – here comes a tram” he said. He prepared for ‘ME with tram approaching from behind’ while I pondered whether to explain to him that we have a saying in Melbourne “He wouldn’t know if a tram ran over him until someone rang the bell”.

What's new?

There is a new Farmers’ Market due to open in Gisborne. Details at: Farmers' Markets. There are also new markets opening at Benalla and Sale. See under the appropriate regions at: Regional & Country Victoria. Fed Square has initiated two new regular events. The last Sunday of the month, the square will be made available to various car clubs for exhibitions. The first is for all you Beemer owners, so shine them up, buy a new pair of fluffy dice and head down to the square. Then on the last Thursday of the month there will be fashion events and parades. With the school holidays, the city has been full of little Shopping Barbies teetering on their high heels and carrying bags full of tat with the emperor’s new brand names on them, so you can now expect them all to wag school on the last Thursday of the month. Details at Federation Square.  At the end of the month the first Williamstown Blues & Roots Festival gets under way, so be prepared to get down and dirty in the spirit of the suburb that gave you Steve Bracks and Joan Kirner. Details at Music in Melbourne.

Country Victoria

This weekend there is the music festival at Apollo Bay, a Sacred Music Festival in the Southern Grampians, a Gems, Gold & Collectables fair at Moe, a Germanfest in the Wimmera (come dressed as your favourite pope) and Autumn Fest in Bright and a Shakespeare Festival at Stratford on Avon (that’s the Avon River in Gippsland). Details of all at: Victoria. We will probably head out into the country somewhere this weekend. We don’t usually plan anything. Just hop in the car with a small tent in the boot and you can always stumble across great things to do in Victoria. I think I’ll take along a copy of my local paper whose lead article trumpets “COLLINS STREET COMMUTERS WILL HAVE TO WALK UP TO 30m FURTHER TO CATCH TRAMS..” just so that I can impress the country people with how tough we are having it here in the city.