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The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter
Archived
Newsletter No.180 - 13 July 2006
Contents
This weekend there is an antiques and collectables fair at Williamstown. On Friday night the Craigieburn Pre School presents Rock’N’Rods featuring ‘Rocking Daddys’. Local police have already been strengthened to cater for this occasion. Details at Fairs & Fetes in Melbourne.
The Potter Museum of Art at Melbourne Uni has a series of winter breakfasts and talks. The first speaker is Dion Hall, artist, lecturer and design consultant. The discussion will centre around the evolving role of designers and emerging trends in the Australian design landscape. A continental breakfast is included in the cost of only $10. White Hat will certainly be there.
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image is calling on all up and coming filmmakers, animators and game developers to enter Screen It! 2006, it's national moving image competition for school students. This competition is also being extended to include all Australian secondary school students as well as continuing a category for primary students. Details at ACMI.
This short article has been transferred to The White Hat Guide to George Coppin.
The following weekend is a Wearable Art Bazaar at Abbotsford Convent. Tables are still available so you still have time to book. The occasional Magnolia Market is also running that weekend. Details at Twilight Markets in Melbourne.
The Design Festival finishes this weekend. The Bald Archies (an irreverent alternative to the Archibald portrait prize) are on display in the City Museum (Old Treasury Building). The Picasso exhibition has opened at the NGV and the Da Vinci Machines exhibition continues at the Docklands.
There are plenty of performances of classical music in Melbourne including the gala concert to launch the new Victorian Opera on Saturday night. You can find details of these concerts in our recent classical music newsletter.
If you are a fan of female barbershop music (and aren’t we all) there is a concert at Monash Uni entitled ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Vegas’. Also Debbie Reynolds is due to perform in Melbourne in early August. If you mum is about the age of Debbie, why not take her along to show her the wonders of modern conservation techniques. Next Friday at BMW Edge you can hear Buena Vista repertoire with Sally Ford and the Pachuco Playboys.
We had this personal message: “hi from na+ a+ venus bay.
we +hough+ venus bay was a shor+ dis+ance from inverloch.. we had +odrive for ever. we s+opped a+ a pub nex+ +o the river along +he way and the kombi wouldn+ s+ar+. +he fellows a+ +he pub said i+ was because +he radia+or needed wa+er and +hey gave us a con+ainer of wa+er. we couldn+ find the radia+or cap and were so embarrassed we emptied i+ in+o a vase in +he kombi and +ook back +he emp+y con+ainer so we wouldn+ look dumb. +hey seemed +o laugh a lo+. i hope we don= have +o go back +ha+ way.
love from na+”
A short season of the musical The Pajama Game begins next week at the Arts Centre. It’s just like Big Brother except the cast keep their pyjamas on. (Pedants’ Corner: Is this the correct spelling of the name of that musical?) And just to prove there is musical theatre in the suburbs, you can find Iolanthe in South Yarra, The Merry Widow in St Kilda and Carmen in Deepest Darkest Dandenong. Details at Theatre in Melbourne.
“Thought Henry Bolte's farm was near Meridith not Colac. Maybe he had another one at Colac. [Anyway I guess Meridith isn't that far from Colac for Melbournians?]
Sis.”
Sis, anything west of Sunshine or south of Laverton is the Western District and the home of the faded squattocracy who live in genteel poverty and venture out in their Fletcher Jones tweed jackets to muster their remaining seven sheep. Colac, Meredith, Casterton – it’s all the same to us here in our city apartments.
Near the Spring Street end of Little Bourke Street you will find an impressive brick building called Gordon House. It is currently a boutique hotel, but was once, under its original name of ‘Our Lodgings’, an important example of social philanthropy. George Coppin (who we have mentioned above) in association with a number of others funded this example of public housing. In the 1880s. There was no government funded public housing of consequence and so Coppin and others built a tenement block capable of accommodating 400 in inexpensive, sanitary and civilised surroundings. Particular attention was given to a healthy environment and ‘Our Lodgings’ contained internal open air courtyards which would have been deemed a luxury for the ‘lower classes’ of the time. Unfortunately those taking advantage of this low cost accommodation found the location ideal for continuing certain illegal activities and the premises were treated with scant respect by many of its inhabitants. In the end, the premises were turned into a refuge for homeless men (at least that way the women could no longer continue their trade on Little Bourke Street and bring their customer back to privately subsidised rooms) and the name was changed to Gordon Place in praise of that great hero of the British Empire. In the 1970s the building was renovated and restored into a series of apartments, boutique shops and restaurants. It was done quite well but the concept was slightly before its time and in an area that was still regarded as a little bit ‘seedy’. Nowadays, of course, there is no point opening a bar unless you have to approach it up some seedy lane. The place is now a boutique hotel and therefore not open to the general sticky-nose public. However if you approach the person at the desk with the general good breeding and savoir-fair that is the hallmark of a White Hat subscriber and say that you would like to have a look at the courtyard inside I’m sure they won’t mind. Once inside it doesn’t take much imagination to people the courtyards with the original tenants together with their somewhat earthy language. Just be prepared to be suddenly returned from your reverie by the voice of the polite hotel staff “Sir, modom, can we help you with anything?”
This weekend there is a Festa Carmine at Swan Hill and next weekend is the Midura Writers’ Festival. Also touring country Victoria at the moment are staged productions of Henry Lawson Short Stories and a touring troupe from the Australian Ballet performing works associated with the Ballets Russes.
How well do you know Melbourne? Melbourne Theatre - What street in Richmond is named after a theatre entrepreneur?
- What Victorian highway is named after an opera singer?
- What area in the Dandenongs is named after an opera entrepreneur? (our classical music newsletter subscribers should have no problem with this)
- Which popular stage performer was known as ‘Our Nell’?
- Henry van der Sluys adopted a shorter stage name and later was often known by the even shorter name of one of the characters he played. What was that stage name and what was the character name?
- George Coppin bought the schooner Appollo with the intention of taking his company to India. In the meantime he put it on the Melbourne to Portland trading route under Captain Loutit. What two Victorian place names resulted from this enterprise?
- By what name was J.C.Williamson’s theatre company often known?
- Where and what was ‘The Pram Factory’?
No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.
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