The White Hat Melbourne Newsletter

Archived Newsletter No.262 - 1 May 2008

Contents

Festivals
New White Hat Market Planner
Free Concerts
Fairs & fetes
Victoria's Hidden Gems
Musicals
Jazz
Bands
Classical music
Comedy
Vale John Cargher
Fashion
The White Hat Quiz

Festivals

This weekend the most interesting festivals are in the country. There is the literary and book festival in Clunes called Back to Booktown. If you are heading up to Clunes why not stop off at the Ballarat Heritage Festival and have a picnic on the banks of that impressive body of water Lake Wendouree (see below)

In the Dandenongs there is the Chestnut Festival (details at Food & Wine in Victoria)

while there is a steam rally at Lake Goldsmith (details at Steam Trains in Victoria)

a Shakespeare Festival in Avon (details at South Gippsland)

and the Bright Autumn Festival continues with its main parade and market day on Saturday (details at The High Country)

New White Hat Markets Planner

A number of readers have asked for a simple listing of markets by day and region. All of this information has long been on our website but market people, be they bargain hunters or stallholders, don’t want to be distracted by extraneous things like concerts, historical information or the outbreak of World War 3 – they just want to know what markets, fairs and fetes are on. We have attempted to solve this by creating our new market planner pages. Go to our home page and in the markets area you will see the title “Market planners’ with currently two links to early May and late May. Click on one of these and you will see a simple of listing of markets by day and region. In addition are listed fairs and fetes as well as any festivals that we know have a markets component.

Give it a try and let us know what you think. No market listing is 100% complete or 100% accurate but our feedback tells us that we are the “go to” site for Victorian markets. If you spot any mistakes let us know so we can fix them.

Free concerts

This Sunday there is free music in the park at Springvale. Also on Sunday is the first of a series of free classical concerts at Southbank. The first one features the Odeon Guitar Trio. Details at Free Concerts in Melbourne.

Fairs & fetes

If you went to our Market Planner page mentioned above you would already know about these fairs & fetes, but just to make it easier for those who weren't paying attention we will mention them again. On Saturday is the Croydon Toy Library Market while on Sunday is the Batman Park Kinder Fete, the Willmott Park Show Day, the Manchester Pre-School Family Fun Day and the Avon Village Fair Dar. The following weekend is Wandin Yallock Pre-School Open Day. Details at Fairs & Fetes.

Victoria's Hidden Gems

Lake Wendouree

Alright, alright, I know that Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree is hardly hidden but stay with me on this.

When the first white settlers arrived in the area they adopted the local Aboriginal names for various places. Balla Arat was the name for the area and thought to mean "resting place". Hence many older (and probably more correct) spellings of the fledgling European settlement have a double a – Ballaarat. A local hill was called Buninyong meaning "bended knee" because that is the shape that the local Aboriginal people recognised. Thus the current inhabitants proudly refer to this mid sized hill as Mount Buninyong.

As a youth growing up in Ballaarat, the history books told me that the swampy area that was later to be transformed into a lake got its name from the word Wendouree which was shouted by the local Aboriginals at the first party to arrive and attempt to set up a farming and grazing venture. "Wendouree” the history books told me meant “’Be Off" or "Go Away’”. Now it occurred to me that if I was a local Aborigine who had occupied and hunted this land for more generations than anyone could remember and Mr Youll and his party turn up and indicate they are going to take it all over and use it for whitefella stuff then Wendouree may mean something stronger than “be off”.

However, grazing wasn’t to be the immediate future of Ballaarat. The goldrush brought an enormous influx of people from all parts of the world and much of the countryside was rendered unrecognisable in the search for gold. The subsequent wealth turned the township into what was to become Australia’s largest inland city for the best part of a century. Civic works included an impressive main street with central gardens and statues and the Wendouree Swamp was converted into the manmade Lake Wendouree in much the same way that Albert Park Lake in Melbourne was created from swampland. The citizens of Ballarat (who had now dispensed with archaic spellings) were particularly proud of Lake Wendouree and impressive boatsheds were built around the shore and paddle steamers took locals and visitors from one side to the other then back again. During WWII, the visiting American troops declared they could solve the weed problem on the lake by draining it, clearing the site, then refilling it. This was never done but one local official is reputed to have said “if they can suck as hard as they blow they’ll have it done in no time.”

In the meantime you, gentle reader, may wish to reflect on what a more accurate translation of Wendouree might be and just how well Lake xxx would sit on promotional material for this fine city.

Times change. Using the city water supply to replenish an artificial lake is no longer possible so Lake Wendouree is currently the Wendouree Plain where you will not find enough water to float a toy boat. It possibly has some similarities to a time of lower sea levels when Port Phillip Bay was a dry plain with the Yarra River meandering through the middle. The boatsheds all around the lake sit idle waiting for a time when stormwater and recycling will restore it to its former glory.

Just as people make special trips to Lake Eyre on the occasions when it actually has water in it, why not make a trip to Lake Wendouree while it is empty? There are plenty of photo opportunities. Find yourself a barbecue or picnic spot and spread yourselves out. And if anyone else comes and tries to use your barbecue just tell them “Wendouree! Wendouree!”

This weekend there is a heritage festival in Ballarat. Details at Ballarat.

Musicals

Guys & Dolls continues at the Princess, there is a production of Pippin at the Athenaeum and Sweeney Todd opens soon at Melbourne Uni. Details at Musicals in Melbourne.

Bands

The Forum has an impressive list of bands and performers over coming months. This week you can hear Against Me! And Stereophonics. Details at Forum Theatre.

Jazz

The major festival called Melbourne Jazz continues. Details at Jazz in Melbourne.

Classical music

This week you can enjoy Soup & Song at Cranbourne, Arabella & Carmen continue at the Arts Centre, a rare staged production of The Soldier’s Tale at the Abbotsford Convent, the MSO continue their contemporary series at the Malthouse, the Stonnington Symphony play Grainger, Grieg & Berlioz, there are Bach’s 6 Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin in Northcote, Haydn’s Creation, the TinAlley Quartet, Ensemble Liaison and a Cry Baby classical concert in Fitzroy. Next weekend you can hear the Poulenc & Dvorak Stabat Maters and a concert of mandolins & balalaikas. Details at Classical Music in Melbourne.

Comedy

There are new low-cost comedy offerings in Fitzroy and the Hotel Discovery in the city. Details at Comedy in Melbourne.

Vale John Cargher

“Of course whenever you hear that music it conjures up that whole era. It’s what we were all listening to at the time!” The moustache bristled slightly. “I wasn’t listening to it,” says John “were you listening to it?” he asks chosen people in the room who affirm that they were not. “What about you, young man,” he says fixing his gaze on me. “Were you listening to it?” I also confirm that I was listening to other things.

John Cargher, possibly best known to Australians in recent years as the creator and presenter of the radio program “Singers of Renown’, died at his home this week aged 89 having continued to work until several weeks before. I did not know him well, but had numbers of interactions with him at social and official occasions. He did not force his views or tastes on others, but would not demur when others attempted to force their tastes and opinions on him. Although meticulously polite, he would not let mindless generalisations go unchallenged. On one such occasion he indicated to me that although it would be more socially convenient to go with the flow, there is a responsibility to challenge such assertions because otherwise you are giving people a licence to rewrite history.

As a man who valued his independence he did not always fit well into the ABC. His strong business and entrepreneurial background did not sit well with some colleagues who felt that any achievements that involved an element of profit were self evidently evil. From management’s point of view he was also a problem. He was one of that worst category of employee – the organisation needed him more than he needed it – and even until recently he was quite happy to state publicly where he felt the organisation had been wrong-headed. It is perhaps ironic that this independent person who did not fit the mould continued each week to produce programs that fitted the ABC Charter to “inform, educate and entertain” while management were anxious to produce quiz shows about ephemera.

“Of course it now all seems rather naive and simplistic” says his colleague “but that’s what we all thought back then.” The moustache starts to bristle again.

Vale John Cargher. You did not go gentle into that good night.

Fashion

Next Friday night there is a fashion show and night market dedicated to ‘fair trade’ in the fashion business. Details at Fashion in Melbourne.

The White Hat Quiz

First to last week’s quiz.

Australians at war

Mark was first with his answers. Her they are

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

Some Australian Singers of Renown

1. Where in Melbourne would you find statues of Kylie and John Farnham?
2. What Australian singers named themselves after Melbourne, an outback town and Australia respectively?
3. What particularly beautiful woman was a darling of the Melbourne operetta and pantomime stage in the early years of the twentieth century?
4. In the 1990s an Australian singer was a highlight of the Glastonbury Rock Festival. Who was the singer and what was the song?
5. What Australian singer wrote and performed a highly successful song about an item of footwear?
6. When the English singer Clara Butt was due to tour Australia she consulted Nellie Melba on what sort of music she should sing to Australian audiences. What was Nellie’s supposed reply?
7. Who gave the first song recital in the Sydney Opera House and was he Australian?
8. Opera singers can often be particularly bad at singing light music and pop singers can also be embarrassing when attempting music outside their field. What is your nomination for the most embarrassing example by an Australian singer?

No prizes – just glory and a warm inner glow.