How many times have I been to Australia? I guess I’d have to look at my passports to answer that one. But this is the second time this year – I left in January and now I’m back in September. By now I don’t feel like a tourist anymore, as there are certain things I’m so familiar with; my knee will prevent me from travelling around too much this time so I’ll be living day-to-day as if already an Australian resident.
The airport shuttlebus offloaded me at Dan Murphy’s booze emporium in Frankston, along with several other people who were whisked away in cars, and one woman who, like me, wasn’t: ‘We’ve been dumped, dear,’ she says to me. Before we could plan a Thelma and Louise road trip our lifts turned up, ‘Ah well, maybe another time,’ was her parting shot as we got into our separate cars.
There is nothing better than a shower, a change of clothes and a bowl of soup when you’ve been travelling – and that’s exactly what I got.
Lovely to be back with Ben and India again, and meet Kali, the new addition to the family: long-haired, black and timid and skittery to start. A rescue cat. My first thought – four weeks of wheezing, but it never materialised so I guess I’m over that phase. She’s a beautiful animal, quite captivating. The first cat I’ve taken to since Heidi who died about seven years ago.
I don’t think I explored anything new this trip. Ben was working in Melbourne during most of the four weeks I was there and India was finishing her first year of an online degree and working from home on the computer everyday. She and Lucy flew over to New Zealand for a family celebration in the middle of my stay and Ben and I hung out a little more together – and that included going out and getting me a new laptop and sorting out software packages to help me get my writing going. I now have a brilliant little machine running Linus Mint, and I love it! I would spend most of my days either catching the train or bus to favourite places: Mornington, Melbourne or catching a local bus into Frankston, walking to the beach or researching in the library. On bad-knee days I’d work on my novel at home, with India in another room working on her studies and then sometimes we’d give ourselves a break and go out for lunch. I was definitely not a tourist any more!
One day I caught the train with Ben into Melbourne and after a tasty breakfast at Prahran Market on Chapel Street I took a tram across to Federation Square and went to the Ian Potter Centre, part of the National Gallery of Victoria (my favourite place in Melbourne – but closed that day!) and did a lot of research into early Europeans in Australia. They have a fascinating timeline there, on a glassed-in walkway overlooking an indoor arena where cafes and restaurants spill out onto the concourse and entertainers amuse passersby. I spent a few hours there – and later in the art gallery itself – and found a new direction to take in my novel about a Whitby man who sailed on the Endeavour with Captain Cook and who established links in Australia which had consequences for one (maybe two..) of his descendants. I’ll let you know when the book – Finding Endeavour – is published! I met up with Ben when he finished work and we took the tram to Toorak Rd and spent a couple of hours with friends before catching the train home from South Yarra. Melbourne must be one of the easiest cities in the world to get around – the city centre trams are fantastic and so are the train services around the city and to the suburbs.
On a second trip to Melbourne I spent hours at the Melbourne Museum which is home to the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre. They have just opened a groundbreaking new, permanent exhibition: ‘First Peoples’. 
This is a true co-operative venture co-curated by the Victorian Koori Community and the Musum, and explores 2,000 generations of Koori history and culture from early beginnings, through European settlement in 1788 and up to the present day. Although the emphasis is on the Koori culture – of Victoria and New South Wales – it also includes all other groups in Australia and the Torres Straits. 
A really fascinating exhibition seen from the perspective of Australia’s First Peoples, it shows us that their ancient practices could teach us a thing or two about how to conserve our planet today. There is so much in the way of knowledge and skills that has been lost; it’s good that so many present-day First Peoples remember what they learnt from grandparents and are willing to share this with everybody.
Well, it was a relaxing and fruitful stay in Australia this time. Not only did I get a lot of research done, but I got into the habit of hopping on the bus to Frankston, wandering around the shops, sitting in bookshops and reading, drinking coffee at the library and chatting to people at the magazine end. 
I bought wire and beads and made rings for everyone, painted with Lucy and watched TV serials with Ben and India. I’d had a two-week whirlwind trip in Canada and New Zealand, so it was good to chill out for four weeks and just take things easy.
On my last day, Ben and I drove to Sorrento, farther down the Peninsula. The weather was wild and wet – and very windy. There had been storms over the last few days which had blown over quite a few eucalyptus trees – they have a very small, shallow rootball, and the heavy rains had dislodged them.
So we set off: it rained, the sun came out, it rained again, the wind tossed the trees around, then there was thunder and lightning, then it dried up again. It was so changeable that I even went online to see if my plane had been cancelled! But we had a lovely day, a good lunch in Rye and posted a package back home for me in Sorrento. We had a coffee on the south side of Sorrento, in a beach cafe on the coast of the Southern Ocean then drove a kilometre or two to the north side and the relatively calmer waters of Port Phillip Bay. 
Then we returned home, pulled India away from her studies, and drove to the airport where we had a snack before I caught my midnight plane to Abu Dhabi and then another on to Heathrow.
Patamateria 