The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter

Archived Newsletter No.142 - 16 September 2005

Contents

Goodbye Lygon Street Festival
School holidays
Music
Chilean Festival
Theatre
Reader feedback
The saga continues
Flowers
Advance notice
The White Hat Quiz

Goodbye Lygon Street Festival

The Lygon Street Festival, claimed to be Australia’s first major street festival, is no more. In recent years it has gone through some rebadging and reshaping but this year it will be subsumed into the celebrations at the end of the Herald Sun Bike Tour. Another quiet demise was that of Melbourne Events – a monthly free publication by the Melbourne City Council. Its place has been taken by a quarterly publication with much fewer events and a weekly sheet available from Fed Square with a very limited range of events. The economics and sustainability of paper based publication as against use of the internet has presumably played a part.

So now, one of the best sources of what’s on is to go to our home page and choose the print version from the drop down menu. We have had numbers of subscribers who have told us that they took this into visitor centres such as Fed Square to obtain more information about certain events only to find that the official advisers were unaware of most of these events. So print out a copy each weekend and you can become an unofficial expert adviser on what to do in Melbourne.

School holidays

School holidays – time to replenish the cooking sherry.

Here are some suggestions:

• Under 3’s: Take them along to the Aquarium and park the pusher in front of the glass wall and ask them to find Nemo. That should be good for half an hour and saves buying a large plasma screen.
• 3-10yos. There’s a free performance at Fed Square called The Magic Word. Tell the kids they can have an ice-cream afterwards if they know the magic word. Next week there is a performance of Cinderella in the Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy.
• 8-14yos. Computer animation classes at the State Library. The classes are cheap enough, but if the kids any good you’ll then have to buy the software package and upgrade the computer . . . Still, it’s probably cheaper than therapy. Also puppet making workshops in South Yarra and make your own Eureka flag at the State Library.
• Family groups. There are free family tours of the State Library. If your kids are likely to study Year 12 English, this will be an interesting opportunity to show them what more than one book looks like. There is also a children’s Moon Lantern Festival in Richmond.
• For those of you who have children in what professionals refer to as the ‘feral stage’ (it lasts for between 2 and 15 years) then there is a BMX festival in Ballarat for the boys and for the girls a mobile phone and a full length mirror should do the trick for most of the holidays.

Details of all these at Children's Activities in Melbourne.

Music

There is a free conversation with Paul Grabowsky at the Arts Centre at 3pm on Sunday. The Stiletto Sisters are performing at the Albert Park Yacht Club, Renee Geyer at Hamer Hall, the Pro Arte orchestra at BMW Edge (Sunday) and on Saturday a chamber music concert at Glen Eira Town Hall with an elegiac mood – maybe in memory of the sacked council. Also look out for a special ticket offer for the Queenscliff Blues Train on the Channel 9 Postcards program at 5.30pm on Saturday.

Details at Music in Melbourne.

Chilean Festival

This weekend celebrates Chilean Independence Day and a number of printed guides state that there is a Chilean Festival at Highpoint Shopping Centre. However having rung a contact number I was told it was at 273 Miller Road Altona. There may have been a slight language problem on either side although I know my Spanish is workable. I have been told so by native speakers – “Your Spanish ees very good – why don’t you buy me a drink?” SBS on the other hand claim that they will be broadcasting from the Chilean Festival at the Dandenong Showgrounds. Maybe there are several and one is for Pinochet supporters. Anyway, why not head out and have some fun this weekends at the Chilean Festival in Highpoint – or maybe Altona – or possibly Dandenong. Find the final details at Ethnic Festivals in Melbourne.

Theatre

Stuff Happens continues at the Comedy Theatre and is sort of like Michael Moore for the thinking person. The Fringe Festival gets under way and I’m sure that some of it is excellent and some isn’t. I’ll let you figure out which is which. There are also a number of comedy improvisation nights at the moment. Details at Comedy in Melbourne.

Reader feedback

“Dear Mr White Hat
I sent to my Dad, who fancies himself as a Melbourne-place-names-and-other-stuff-buff the quiz questions of a couple of weeks ago. He gave me a long, detailed, rambling, digressing, tale into John Wren and the book loosely based on his life, 'Power Without Glory' by Frank Hardy. Did you know, for instance that Frank Hardy was Mary Hardy's brother. Mary Hardy was a TV favourite of the 1960s and 70s. Co-host of a Saturday night show featuring The Trots (horse trotting racing) and irreverent antics? She had a nose job at one time which was so outrageously extravagant and unusual in those days, the media pursued the story as if it were a world-wide scoop. This is what happens when a Melbourne-buff retains useless information. He regales his knowledge on his long-suffering but extremely well-raised and polite offspring - too polite to shout "shut up, will ya dad".

Apparently John Wren was a Protestant (relevance? I don't know). He was a great friend of Daniel Mannix a senior of the Catholic Church. According to my dad, John Wren (remember him - the book, Power Without Glory was loosely based on his life), so John Wren bought the very famous property "Raheen" (now owned by the Pratts) for Daniel Mannix. I guess this was in the late 1950s/early 1960s but I had zoned-out and started sticky-taping my nostrils together as a diversionary tactic and for my personal amusement by the time

Dad got to this bit. Included in this never-ending story was a brief fact about Raheen's many acres of land being sub-divided and sold off in 1959. Raheen is located around Studley Park Road, Kew. Apparently the blocks of land were going for 18,000 pounds. I can't be sure that this is right because in 1954 my mum and dad bought their house in Balwyn on a 1/2 acre block for around 7,000 pounds. Yet only 4 or so kms away and five years later blocks of land of a similar size were going for nearly three times that - without a house? Maybe it was 1,800 pounds and dad has added a 'zero' because it just sounds too cheap. Still, if true, it's a demonstration that property booms have been around a long time and we should've all bought blocks of land in Kew in the late 1950s. Anyway, that's what the mention of John Wren's name generated for my dad.

At least these useless facts were a welcome break from the groaningly sick jokes my Dad has repeatedly inflicted on the family for decades. Thanks for that, Mr White Hat.

Regarding the question about Cape Clear near Ballarat. Dad says that in the days when gold mining was still going on in Ballarat there was a high population of Irishmen. In their beautiful lilting Irish accents the miners would lower the bucket shouting "Cape Clear" (Keep Clear!) to warn the miners below.

Thanks for a great late-week read.
Cheers, Karen.”

“You have lots of questions about Melbourne. What about us bushies. Can we have some questions about country Victoria?
Mulga George”

Certainly George. See this weeks quiz.

The Saga Continues

Being the true and authentic history of the power of the White Hat

I placed the hat on my head as instructed. The posters of early Melbourne on the wall seemed to slowly change from sepia to colour and I gradually realised that all I had to do was walk through one of those posters and I would be back in early Melbourne. Clunk! “That didn’t work” I said to myself. “Of course it didn’t” said the voice in my head – or was it on my head. “It only works in Dr Who – not in real life. Now straighten my brim and let’s get going”. “Stupid, stupid, stupid” I said to myself as I used the more conventional exit.

“Please don’t repeat the one word just because you have no better grasp of the language” said the voice. “This could be even worse than the last time” it said. “What last time” I asked. “Never mind. Just get going. We’ve got a mystery to solve.”

Flowers

This weekend there is a Turkish Tulip Festival in Silvan in the Dandenongs, daffodils at St Erth, and wildflowers at Anglesea. Also the David Jones Spring Floral Display finishes this weekend. Details at Flower and Garden Festivals in Melbourne.

Advance notice

Next weekend is the Mildura Country Music Festival and the Mahogany Ship Symposium in Warrnambool. Details at Events in Country Victoria.

The White Hat Quiz

How well do you know Melbourne?

How well do you know Melbourne?

First to last week’s quiz.

First to last week’s quiz. We had lots of correct answers although Kevin seemed to think that the answer to all questions was St Kilda. So here is a combination of your answers.

Please note: This section of the newsletter has been removed as it forms part of a forthcoming publication or because it is forms part of our Questing activities. If you find yourself on a tour where the guide is White Hat Accredited they are likely to know the answer to many questions you may have in this area. All guides on White Hat Tours are White Hat Accredited.

Now to this week’s quiz.

Now to this week. How well do you know Victoria?

Where and what is:

1. The Eucy Still
2. The Pope’s Eye
3. Elephant’s Hide
4. Big Lizzie
5. The Drop (not quite Victoria)
6. The Rip
7. The Mahogany Ship
8. Mount Hollard-Smith
9. Squeaky Beach

There, Karen. That should shut your dad up for a while.