Introduction
Controversial Issues
Explorers - Past & Present
Indigenous Connections
Legends, Leaders & Larrikins
        Ned Kelly
        Phar Lap
        The Kennett Factor
Major Events
        Aussie Rules
        Formula One Grand Prix
        The Melbourne Cup
Marvellous Melbourne
Natural Wonders
        The Fitzroy & Treasury Gardens
Fairy Penguins
Our Pioneering Past

Victoria - the Garden State.

Welcome to compelling, vibrant, energetic Victoria, a complex mix of the conservative and the dynamic. Victorians are traditionalists at heart with a deep respect for their natural surroundings and strong ties to their heritage.

Victoria's charms are not as visible as other states, but once uncovered, consistently serve up something new and exciting for all visitors.

Sydney seems to capture most visitor's imagination with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge as a focal point and of course the harbour IS magnificent. Truthfully, I believe you should see Sydney, for who would go to England and not see London or France and not see Paris, but principally see Sydney so that you will appreciate the uniqueness that is Melbourne.

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Controversial Issues

The Birth of The Sydney Versus Melbourne Rivalry :

Visitors to both Melbourne and Sydney quickly become embroiled in the "which is best" debate. Melbourne's more conservative, Sydney brash and flamboyant, Sydney rains more but Melbourne is colder, and so it goes on.

The seeds of this rivalry first started to appear in the mid-1800's during the time of gold discovery in Victoria. The New South Wales colony considered itself the superior and the true capital. Sydney was astounded to see the up-start outpost buoyant with investment and the resultant infrastructure that wealth perpetuates. Melbourne was quickly matching Sydney as a city of consequence. The rivalry again reared it's head during Federation, and even as recently as the 2000 bid for the Olympic Games when both Melbourne and Sydney competed. Sydney won of course, but Melbourne got the Commonwealth Games and so it goes on..... and on.

Tie A Yellow Ribbon On An Albert Park Tree :

Formula One Motor Car Racing at Albert Park has been extremely controversial and each year there has been huge opposition to the event.

Many are concerned at the way the State Government introduced the Grand Prix to Albert Park and the enormous cost to taxpayers.

Save Albert Park was formed in February 1994. It objectives are to stop motor racing in Albert Park, to restore the park as public parkland for the Victorian Community and to work to protect Albert Park from the impact of the Grand Prix and other inappropriate development and activities.

SAP has the support of the Australian Conservation Foundation, the peak Victorian Trade Union Council and two opposition parties,( Democrats and Greens). It has become recognised as both the strongest defender of parks and an inspiration to other groups for the defence of Melbourne's heritage, rights of citizens and democratic principles.

SAP has held six rallies in Melbourne and another two in London; maintained a daily vigil in the park since November 1994, and conducted a sustained campaign of civil disobedience and park protests to delay construction works in the park. There have been more than 600 arrests but no protester has been charged.

International links with New York and Monza Park Groups have been established. The Chairman of the committee to stop auto racing in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, New York, addressed the October 1995 rally. A representative of the Coalition of Environmental Groups campaigning to protect Monza Park attended the march and rally on 10 March 1999.

SAP has been a constant presence and vows to continue to struggle to stop motor racing in Albert Park and restore it as public parkland for year round enjoyment for passive and active community recreation.

Albert Park Reserve :

Albert Park was established in 1862 and permanently reserved as a public park in 1876. It is recognised as one of Melbourne's most popular parks and as the home of amateur sport in Victoria. It includes a golf course, more than 20 grounds for various field sports, tennis and bowling greens.

Albert Park is not the historic home of the Australian Grand Prix. A few motor races were held in the 1950's on established roads with no impact on the park environment. No racing was Formula One. In 1959 the Bolte Government banned all further racing on the grounds of noise and the denial of public access to parkland.

The use of Albert Park has required facilitating legislation whose provisions have caused a major outcry from the Council of Civil Liberties, the Bar Council and the Law Institute of Victoria. The act excludes claims for compensation, removes the event from the jurisdiction of the Victorian Supreme Court, overrides environmental and planning laws, overrides the Freedom of Information Act and grants the Australian Grand Prix Corporation extensive powers to occupy and undertake works in the park.

Hey Big Spenders!! :

The park conversion has so far cost Victorians $55 million compared to South Australia's $26 million spent over the 11 year history of their management of the race.

Permanent Site Favoured :

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport and motor sport identities are on record as having favoured the development of a permanent venue which could host other racing and activities, as is the practice overseas. The Government ignored all advice that other sites could be developed more cheaply.

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Explorers - Past & Present

Hume And Hovell - Unlock The Southern Inland Route

In 1824, an Australian born bushman, Hamilton Hume, teemed up with a thirty-eight year old former sea captain named William Hovell. Hume had previous experience as an explorer and Hovell was expected to bring his navigational skills to the partnership. In October they formed their party and travelled south following roughly the route of today's Hume Highway, although they bi-passed Melbourne and ended up on the shores of Corio Bay near Geelong. They were deeply appreciative of the rich grazing land they discovered, considering it among the best yet found in Australia.

They returned to Sydney in 1825, after a successful exploration. Sadly, tension broke out between Hume and Hovell over the location they had reached. Their public bickering was demeaning but their enthusiasm for the land convinced the government to send a party to settle the southern lands. Unfortunately Hovell's faulty calculation of longitude had the new settlement located at Western Port, a sandy, swampy country that was abandoned after a few months. It took a further ten years before anyone tried again.

Victorian By Name But Courageous By Nature :

Victoria has always nurtured the exceptional sportsman or woman, but several courageous Victorians have recently come out against amazing odds and achieved the incredible. In 1997 Brigitte Muir became the first Australian woman to climb Everest, and the first Australian to climb the Seven Summits. Her husband Jon Muir has scaled Everest, and is an adventurer in his own right.

From Climbing Mountains To Climbing Mountains Of The Mind! :

Jesse Martin, 18, (he was 17 when he set out) returned in 1999 from sailing solo, unassisted and non-stop around the world, in an attempt to become the youngest person to do so. Jesse used only solar and wind generated power to publicise the need for the world to drastically reduce the burning of fossil fuels, and so reverse the effects of global warming.

To complete the circumnavigation Jesse sailed from Melbourne, east to South West Cape New Zealand, across the Pacific to round Cape Horn, up the coast of South America, across the equator to reach the Azores Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean, then south again around the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin and back to Melbourne. Before undertaking this trip he had spent only one night on his boat and had never sailed it outside Port Phillip Bay.

Jesse had dreamed of making this trip since he was 13-years old and his family gave him total support emotionally and financially. In three months they found him a sponsor, a boat, fitted it out and organised all the details that this huge venture entails. Jesse's dad Kon, worked full time for three months on getting the boat ready for the adventure.

Letting Go :

What goes through a parents mind when their teenage son sails off on a 27,000 nautical mile (50,000 kilometres) journey. This article was written before Louise Martin flew to the Azores for a reunion... a reunion in name only as they would only be able to speak across the water. Under strict guide-lines Jesse could not leave his boat or have anyone on board it, even his Mum, at anytime.

Extract from Herald Sun 08 May 1999. Writer Ed Gannon.

>> Sail Of The Century>>

>> For five months his mother, Louise, has accepted her oldest son is bobbing about the ocean at nature's mercy.

But as the time nears when she will finally see him, a sense of anxiety has come over her.

"I think in the last five months I have been resigned to what is happening, so I have kept my emotions in check, but now that I am going to see him, I am really starting to get nervous," she said before she left for the Azores.

Jesse sums it up this way: "Mum told me she thinks she has been pretty good about missing me, but when she sees me I think she'll be crying.

I don't know why, because she knows that I can sail the rest of the way home, but I suppose that's just something that Mums do. When the day arrives I'll probably feel different though."

While excited at the thought of seeing Jesse, Mrs Martin is mindful of the psychological effect it could have on someone who has not seen a person since early December.

"I'd say he'll be sad when we leave him, but it is up to us to encourage him that once he rounds the Azores, he is on his way home," she said.

She is confident Jesse will not put his goal in jeopardy despite the emotion of seeing his family. "I really think he is too strong for that," she said.>>

Go Jesse!!! :

The article continues with Jesse:

>>" Psychologically I think (hope) I'm fine. Apart from mumbling to my-self and walking around with my head tilted to one side, everything seems to be fine," he joked.

Jesse's mentor, John Hill, who provided the drive to prepare him, says getting to the halfway mark is a fantastic effort, but the rest of the journey will prove a strong test of will.

"His goal since Melbourne has been just to sail steadily, but now the race is on," he said.

He said Jessie was about 15 days behind current record-holder David Dicks' 274 days, but well within the age record of 18 years and 41 days.

"Jessie has a determination second to none, so we will all wait in anticipation to see if God is again kind to the blessed Jesse," Mr Hill said.>>

Jesse finished the 27,000 gruelling nautical miles in 300 days, failing to beat David Dick's solo and non-stop record, but he succeeded in being the youngest to sail solo, unassisted and non-stop.

Since Jesse returned home he has been feted as a national hero with invitations to the Melbourne Cup, interviews for the media, autographs, public appearances and sponsorship commitments. All this a far cry from solitary existence on his yacht the "Lionheart". On departure in December 1998, Jesse feared loneliness the most, but it seemed that once he got into the journey he missed human contact, affection and souvlaki the most. Strangely Jesse seems unaffected by all the attention and somehow has managed to keep his feet firmly on the ground.

During the March, 2000 visit of the Queen and Prince Phillip, Jesse was invited to meet the Prince and show him over Lionheart.

Extract from The Herald Sun Friday 24 March, 2000. Writer John Ferguson.

>> Jesse Fish Out of Water>>

>>Jesse Martin had to sail around the world, survive troubled waters and endure the mental torment of isolation to make himself the sort of person Prince Phillip would want to meet.

But 50,000km later and several months later, Martin found their meeting yesterday just a touch underwhelming.

He also seemed out of place. His black coat and tie didn't match his blue pants, nor did his dress and manner match the sea of blazers and pride that smothers the Sandringham Yacht Club.

Martin said later that, without meaning to offend, he didn't believe the Duke of Edinburgh seemed genuinely pleased to see him or his boat Lionheart. "I think he probably gets sick of doing this kind of stuff," a straight forward Martin said.

On top of this, Martin wondered whether the effort of putting on a tie and suit could be justified. Asked if it was worth it all, he said: "Without being disrespectful, no".>>

When Jesse departed on his adventure, like many others, I knew little about him or his family. I felt his parents were negligent in allowing him to set out on such an epic voyage. He seemed so vulnerable and so unprepared. But how wrong was I? As I followed Jesse's weekly updates in the Herald Sun, I changed my mind; his maturity and strength of spirit shone through. Like many others, my admiration and affection for Jesse grew as the months passed. We saw the vulnerable teenager who picked sultanas from his muesli and who ate his favourite foods first, but we also saw his courage and determination when he faced capsize and despair. I have nothing but admiration for Jesse and his family; especially his parents; it must have been hard to farewell him.

I failed to include one of Jesse's mission objectives : he wanted to prove to everyone that they can follow their dream. Jesse certainly exceeded this objective........ big time!

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Koorie Occupation of Melbourne

Prior to the arrival of European Settlers in 1835, there were two Koorie communities (in South eastern Australia Aborigines prefer the name Koorie) camped on the Yarra River banks. The Woi wurrung mob gathered around the current site of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Boon wurrung mob preferred the site near the present day Government House.

When walking through Yarra Park and the Fitzroy Gardens you can still find trees severely scarred from having the bark stripped from them for canoe making. Echoes of the Koorie past are found in names like Yarra, Toorak and Maribyrnong. Even the great game of football has links with a ball game played by Koories in the western district... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

William Buckley - Victoria's First Permanent European Resident :

William Buckley was born in 1780 at Macclesfield, County of Cheshire in England. At the age of twenty he was charged with stealing and sentenced to imprisonment. On 24 April 1803, Buckley was among 300 convicts sent to set up a penal settlement at Sullivan's Bay. (Located near Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula). The expedition included two ships, the Calcutta, which carried the convicts and some of their wives and children, a detachment of fifty marines, Lt-Col Collins, the leader of the expedition and his civil staff. The accompanying ship, the Ocean, carried several free settlers and their provisions. Also sailing on the Calcutta was the ten year old John Pascoe Fawkner, future founder of Melbourne, whose father was being transported for robbery.

Governor King had urged this settlement because of the ongoing fear of French occupation. Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins and his men arrived 14 October 1803 and prisoner Buckley was engaged on building works.

Collins seemed to not like the site, mainly because of the lack of fresh water, but his liking may have also been influenced by the promise of an additional 500 pounds if he was forced to move the settlement. The settlers and convicts commenced building but were constantly dogged by a feeling of unease about the permanency of the site.

Escape - but to where? :

Buckley was a model prisoner, but he harboured the urge to escape, hopefully to Sydney to the north. On 26 December 1803, Buckley and several others made a break for freedom. The going was harsh and the men were ill equipped. After several days of near starvation Buckley's two companions returned to the settlement, leaving him a free man with only his resolute, resourceful character to keep him alive. History records that only one of the returning men reached the Sullivan Bay settlement alive. It was generally accepted that Buckley had perished in the bush.

At first Buckley's diet was erratic and he did not have skills to capture game. Slowly he became more self sufficient, and after several weeks had even become quite comfortable. But Buckley was not a man to live alone and he realised it was companionship that he longed for most. He resolved to return to the settlement and began the long trek back to Sullivan Bay.

Near where Torquay is today, exhausted and near death, he took a spear from the top of a mound of earth to aid with his walking. Finally he could go no further. Since his escape he had walked from Sorrento to Melbourne to Geelong to Queenscliff (where he farewelled his companions) to Port Lonsdale to Aireys Inlet and back again almost to Barwon Heads.

Unlikely Salvation :

In a state of collapse he was found by two Koorie women who called their husbands and together they carried him to their camp. He was fed witchetty grubs and wrapped in warm possum skins. The Koories thought he was Murrangurk, the black man belonging to the spear, returned from the dead. They took him into their mob and it was through them that he learnt the skills needed to survive off the land.

Buckley soon started to speak the language, learn the customs and understand the traditions. He lived among the Koories for many seasons, quickly losing track of the years. They taught him the sacred nature of the land, where to find the best tucker and the significance of the seasons and the ritual dances. Buckley had been adopted by the Wothowurong mob and took the Barroworn (magpie) as his totem.

By late January 1804, Collins had abandoned the Sullivan's Bay site and took with them any hope Buckley had of returning to "civilisation". Today a memorial marks Victoria's first settlement.

Wild White Man :

In 1835, Batman, after completing his survey of Port Phillip, returned to Launceston leaving a occupation party at Indented Head (on the present Bellarine Peninsula). The group comprised three whitefellas and several Sydney blackfellas who were there to discourage settlement of the land Batman now claimed. The party were startled to encounter an enormous suntanned whiteman dressed in animal skins, with the initials WB tattooed on his arm. At first he could not understand their spoken English but slowly his native tongue came flooding back. At first they believed he was a castaway seaman but slowly the story unfolded that he was William Buckley, who had survived 32 years living in the bush.

Buckley was eventually pardoned and worked for some time as a Koorie interpreter for the Port Phillip authorities. His depth of understanding of both sides of the conflict did not prevent him from being trapped in the rapidly escalating war between the two clashing cultures. He became mis-trusted by both his former black friends and his white compatriots. Finally he made the decision to leave the colony as he could not bare to stay and witness the inevitable outcome.

On 28 December 1837, he sailed from Port Phillip, less than two and a half years after his "rescue". In 1840, the six foot six Buckley married the widowed Mrs Julia Eagers. It is said she was so short she could not reach her husband's arm, so she clasped instead a handkerchief looped from his elbow. In 1850, Buckley was pensioned from his job. He died in 1856 in Hobart Town, Tasmania, aged 76, from a fall from a dray. What a remarkable man and an even more remarkable story of mental courage and determination.

Aussie Rules :

Melbourne is home to Australian Rules Football which is now played in almost all capital cities across the country. The history of Aussie Rules is fascinating and owes its very existence to one of the colony's great sportsman Thomas (Tommy) Wellington Wills.

Extract from The Age Saturday 07 November 1998. Writer Martin Flanagan.

>> Australian Icarus>>

>> There is something uniquely Australian about football - Aboriginal Australian, that is. Thanks to this book we can set the record straight.

Sportsmen, and women, are public heroes. For that reason, and regardless of their wishes, they become players in larger social dramas. Les Darcy's life cannot be understood without reference to World War I, just as South African Zola Budd's career is inextricably intertwined with apartheid. Something similar is true of Tom Wills, the young man who made it possible for this country to evolve an indigenous code of football.

Wills grew up at Moyston, outside Ararat, where his father was the first white settler. The only children in the area were black and these were his playmates. He learnt their songs and language and collected their weapons of war. There is every reason to believe that he was exposed to the game a Scottish settler named James Dawson observed being played in the area and recorded as "Aboriginal Football". In 1850, at the age of 15, he was sent to Rugby school in England.

Six years later he returned to the colony extremely self-possessed, and, in sporting terms, quite magnificent. He promptly revolutionised Victorian sport, guiding the colony to its first victory over New South Wales in cricket. When the subject of a code of football arose for discussion and rugby was proposed, he famously declared, "No, we shall have a game of our own".

Tom Brown's School Days, which is a eulogy to Rugby school life and the virtue of manly games, had recently hit the colony. Victoria was booming and seeking to become the new force and direction in the land. Tommy's tenure as secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club was remarkably brief - he fought with almost everyone - but during his time the MCC drew up a list of rudimentary rules for a new code of football.

Basically, in both cricket and football, any team Wills played with won, and one of the defining characteristics of his sporting career was that he would play with anyone - even boys from the slums of Collingwood. He also drank and ran up debts. Displeased, his father took him to the frontier, now in Queensland, where father and son argued about how to treat the blacks. Father said they were passive, son, they were not. While Tom was away, the blacks attacked, killing his father, Horatio, and the rest of the party in the biggest massacre of whites by blacks in Australian history. The whites took more than ample revenge, sending out killing parties.

Tommy stayed in the north for another two years, drinking and gradually going crazy. He returned to Victoria but was never the same, and, in 1880, at 44, stabbed himself to death. But in 1866, five years after his father was murdered by Aborigines, he had done something equally strange. He had coached the Aboriginal cricket team that was the first Australian cricket team to tour England.

It was not my intention in writing this book to enter the war of pseudo-objective utterances about the origins of the game. I suspect that games, like novels, largely invent themselves. However, what I do know and can state as a fact is that Aboriginal people around Australia believe football is their game in the way they believe the didgeridoo is their instrument. Whitefellas play that, too. My inquiries, therefore, were threefold. I needed to know more about Tom Wills, about the Victoria of his day, and about the game Aboriginal people call marngrook.

I asked an old Gunditjmara woman living in the western districts of Victoria about it. She looked at me as if I had broken wind in public. "That's men's business," she hissed. I talked to Malcolm Jagamarra, initiated Warlpiri man and artist. He told me about a football game the Warlpiri, a desert people, play called putulu. He imitated an old man singing an emu dreaming song before his team went out to play. "Emus run fast," he explained. Ten years earlier, at the Yuendumu sports week-end, the so-called black Olympics, I had met Ian King, organiser of the second Aboriginal Cricket Tour in 1988. King, a Queenslander of Aboriginal descent, and former Sheffield Shield cricketer, told me Australian football had parallels with the corroboree.>>

It continues:

>>Wills became more underhand as he got older, frequently being accused of cheating at cricket. His critics call him selfish. Those who loved him, like his brother Horace, said he was reckless but generous with it. At the time of his death, he was a neglected figure suffering from delirium tantrums.

Why did I write The Call? Because I want people to go to football matches and see more than the spectacle, however entertaining that may be. I want them to see something that comes from this land and has both white and Aboriginal legends. I further hoped they might see the imprint of a young man who took it for granted that he could reshape the world as he saw fit. Tom Wills is an Australian Icarus. If you want to see him fly, go to the MCG next time Jeff Farmer is playing.>>

"The Call", Martin Flanagan's historical novel based on the life of Tom Wills is published by Allen & Unwin.

So grab your Footy Record, clutch a hot pie for warmth, a cold beer to keep the circulation moving and "watch the big men fly". The only place to watch the footy is at the MCG, known in summer as the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but in winter transformed into the football mecca , "The G". Choose seats undercover and in a "dry area" if you don't mind foregoing a beer. Be prepared to hear some colourful and loud barracking which generally seems to increase in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed.

Its not easy to understand a game where you get ahead by kicking a few behinds, but if the thought appeals head off to the "G".

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Ned Kelly - Our Most Famous Bushranger of All

Edward (Ned) Kelly was born in June 1855, at a time when his parents owned a small selection at Beveridge, twenty four miles from Melbourne, on the Melbourne to Sydney road. The Kelly's did not register their son's birth, so we do not know if he was born at home, in Beveridge, or at Wallan, the home of his maternal grand-parents. He was the third child and first son of John and Ellen Kelly, both of Ireland. His father Johnny was an ex-convict and his mother was a "Bounty Migrant". Because of the scarcity of labour in the 1840's, agents were paid a bounty of fifteen pounds for every adult they landed alive in Australia.

Despite being a convict, John (Red) Kelly was an intelligent man who could read and write. He met his future wife at Wallan during a time when even the ugliest woman had dozens of offers. That their union was a strong one is confirmed by Ellen's pride in her husband. The Kelly clan were not unlike hundreds of arriving Irish, hoping to start afresh in a new land, free of the English yoke. Sadly history was to prove this impossible. When they arrived in Australia, they were to find that many of the police were English, bringing with them all the hatreds and prejudices from the old country.

Skilled Horseman and Crack Shot :

Ned Kelly grew up to become one of the best horseman in north eastern Victoria, a crack shot and more than a match for any man in a brawl. Like many of the Irish, he was an angry youth, rebellious, contemptuous of authority, unruly and defiant, and as history was to confirm, he had every reason to be.

In 1869, aged fourteen, he was charged with robbery with violence, when it was alleged he hit a Chinese with a stick and demanded his money. The charge was dismissed. A year later he was charged with robbery under arms but freed for lack of evidence. In 1870 he was charged with assault and jailed at Beechworth Jail for three months with hard labour. His jail description read : height 5ft 6in, weight, 11st 4lb, sallow complexion, hazel eyes, dark brown hair, broad visage, eyebrows meeting, nine scars on head and hands.

In March 1871, less than three weeks after his release from Beechworth Jail, he was charged with the theft of a thoroughbred mare. The charge was amended to receiving, when it was found that the mare was stolen seventeen days before Kelly was released from jail. "Wild" Wright , a friend of the Kellys was jailed for eighteen months for the theft. Wright confirmed that Kelly did not know the horse was stolen, but Ned was sentenced to three years at Pentridge, Victoria's toughest jail.

On his release Kelly worked for three years as a timber-cutter and station-hand in the Wombat Ranges. Despite his history he held down jobs, was hard working and stayed out of trouble.

Ned Kelly - A Forced Outlaw :

In September 1877, on one of his infrequent visits, Ned was arrested in Benalla for drunkenness. Kelly swore that he had been drugged by the publican. This was the defining moment in the Ned Kelly story. In the next two years Ned and the Kelly Gang killed three police, captured two towns, robbed two banks, distributed money to their supporters, stole numerous horses and terrorised north eastern Victoria. Ned became famous for wearing a heavy suit of armour to protect him from gunfire. Police and civilians alike were given the right via "The Felons' Apprehension Act, 1878", to shoot the Kelly brothers on sight.

The following extract is taken from The Age Saturday 14 November 1998.  Writer Mary Ryllis Clark.

>>The Iron Men of Glenrowan>>

>> No figure in Australian history arouses as much emotion as Ned Kelly. Arguments continue to rage over whether he was anti-authoritarian, ruthless murderer or a young man of exceptional charisma driven by harsh circumstances, including police harassment of his family, into becoming an outlaw.

Ian Jones, author of several books on Ned Kelly, believes Kelly was a political visionary, a potential Australian Garibaldi. The idea of making the armour, he claims was not just to protect the gang in the course of robbing banks but part of a much bigger plan in which Kelly dreamed of forming a republic and achieving freedom from colonial rule.>>

It continues:

>> Ned's inspiration was his favourite novel, Lorna Doone, in which the wild Doone outlaws wore "iron plates on breasts and head".>>

It continues:

>>It was entirely Ned's idea. He collected or stole about 30 single-furrow plough mould boards from sympathetic farmers and blacksmiths in Glenrowan district and, with fellow gang members, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart, Joe Byrne and his cousin Tom Lloyd, made the prototype in a rough bush forge in the winter of 1879 while hiding out in the Wombat Ranges.>>

Legend In His Own Lifetime :

There were many relatives and sympathisers who sheltered the gang and passed on information about police movements. The community was roughly divided into the wealthy landowners, mostly English, and the rebellious Irish labourers, ex-convicts and small settlers. As Kelly's notoriety spread, so too did the rewards that were offered for the gangs apprehension. By February 1879 the reward had reached 8000 pounds, a fortune at that time.

The Last Stand :

The shoot out that ended the Kelly Gang, took place on Monday 28 June 1880. It was an all day affair with more than five hundred spectators by siege end. In what became known as "Kelly's Last Stand", Ned, brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart were trapped at Glenrowan. Ned had the opportunity to escape but instead chose to stay and fight. Dressed in quarter inch thick armour which weighed around ninety seven pounds, suffering several wounds and barely able to stand or hold his own gun he attacked the police from the rear.

Although the armour covered Ned's head and torso, as each bullet hit it bruised the flesh underneath and caused him to stagger backwards. Each time he fell, he got up again. When finally captured, bleeding and in pain from more than thirty bullet and shot-gun pellet wounds, he was asked why he didn't leave. He replied: " A man would be a nice sort of a dingo to walk out on his mates."

Dan Kelly and Steve Hart are believed to have died of gun shot wounds, although their exact fate will never be known. The building was torched by police, and what was believed to be the charred remains of Dan and Steve were unrecognisable. Only the body of Joe Byrne was pulled from the fire. The next day it was transferred to Benalla Police Station where it was strung up outside for the public and press to see.

The wounded Ned Kelly, was transferred to Melbourne where a large crowd met the train at Spencer Street Railway Station. Ironically, he was cared for by a succession of Melbourne's best doctors who were ordered to keep him alive....... so he could be hanged. Surprisingly Ned recovered both health and spirits quickly.

On 31 July 1880 he was taken by train to Beechworth for trial. The court room was packed - including more than one hundred women - and many of Ned's relatives. It was soon decided that the trial would be moved to Melbourne because of the limited chances of getting an impartial local jury.

Public Call For Clemency :

Kelly's trial began on October 28 1880 in the Central Criminal Court, Melbourne where he was quickly convicted of murder. Kelly did not give evidence on his own behalf and many have since questioned the legal standards shown throughout the trial.

At a time when hanging was relatively common, 60,000 Victorians signed a petition that his death sentence be commuted.

A Dignified Death :

The day before his death, Ned posed for a final photograph where he took special care with his dress  and toilet. He wanted his family to have a good likeness of him, and he especially did not want to be remembered as a condemned man or bedraggled outlaw.

Edward Kelly was hanged at Melbourne Jail on 11 November, 1880. Present were twenty two official witnesses of whom eight were journalists. None of the press saw Kelly near collapse and having to be assisted to the gallows as police witnesses later alleged, but there was controversy over Kelly's last words: "Ah well, I suppose it had to come to this " or the more popular "Such is life". Perhaps he said both.

No Dignity After Death :

In a gruesome autopsy, Ned Kelly's head was cut off, shaved and oiled for closer inspection, and a death mask made. The skull was stripped of its flesh and kept as a souvenir by a minor State Government official. The headless body was buried in an unmarked grave at the Old Melbourne Gaol, but was later transferred from there to Pentridge Prison.

Pentridge Prison has since closed and is now set to be a ritzy suburb within a suburb. The developers have pledged to save the graves, which include those of Kelly, and to create a museum incorporating part of the old bluestone prison where Ned was imprisoned for three years.

Royal Commission Questions Kelly's Treatment :

Within two years of Kelly's death many of the police involved with his case, including the Police Commissioner and senior offices, were forced to resign or retire. A Royal Commission found that Kelly had not been given the full benefit of the law, or as an Aussie would say, he had not been given a "fair go".

As Famous Today :

It was the traits of fearless courage and loyalty that helped launch Kelly into the history books. Outlaws are commonly remembered as heroes, but with Ned Kelly, Australia has gone much further than that. One of the greatest compliments an Australian can pay is to say "you're as game as Ned Kelly". Today in north east Victoria the area surrounding Glenrowan is very proud to be called "Kelly Country" and the town itself celebrates the infamous "Last Stand".

Today, in what is now called the Old Melbourne Jail, the scaffold that ended Kelly's life still survives. The death mask is still on display. The atmosphere is chilling, or perhaps it is the horror of the 135 hangings that took place there that still pervade the place.

The Last Man To Hang In Victoria :

On 03 February 1967, Ronald Ryan, 42, was the last man hanged in Victoria. In a prison break-out on 19 December 1965, Ryan was thought to have shot dead a Pentridge Prison warder. After 18 days on the run, Ryan and his accomplice were recaptured. Ryan was convicted of murder and given the statutory death sentence.

Public Condemnation of The Hanging :

The then Premier, Henry Bolte, ordered the hanging to proceed despite widespread protests. Queen  Elizabeth rejected the appeal to commute the death sentence and Ryan was hanged a week later. Australia has since abolished the death penalty, but there are repeated calls for its return.

Last Stand On Canvas :

The Kelly "magic" even touched Mick Jagger, who came to Australia and made a rather insignificant movie with himself as Ned.

Extract from Herald Sun Sunday 02 April, 2000. Writer Adam Swar.

>> Mick's Flop In Kelly Country>>

>>When the movie Ned Kelly premiered at Glenrowan on July 28, 1970, three homemade bombs exploded in the main street.

Locals say the bombs shook the buildings surrounding the Glenrowan Hall - where the film premiered - and "lit up the night like a fireworks display".

No one was injured in the blasts and there was only slight damage to the walls of nearby buildings.

A gang of six Glenrowan men claimed responsibility for the bombs saying they were planted in protest against the casting of Mick Jagger as Kelly.

Sydney director Michael Jenkins is hoping for a better reception to his film Fanatic Heart, about the bushranger.

Work on the $13 million film, starring Alex Dimitriades, will start later in the year. (2000)

But, it seems Kelly fanatics will never be satisfied with a celluloid telling of the bushranger's life.

They believed Yahoo Serious, in Reckless Kelly, and Jagger, in Ned Kelly, belittles their hero; the former trying to be funny and the latter, funny by default.

Early in 1969, Ned Kelly director Tony Richardson's decision to cast Jagger became a national obsession.

A group called Citizens of Kelly Country petitioned the then Minister for Immigration, Billy Sneddon, to prevent Jagger's entry into Australia.

They cited, among other things, the fact that Jagger had been remanded on drug charges a month before shooting on the film was due to start.

A Glenrowan publican also made headlines when he said bringing Jagger to Australia to play Kelly was like sending Normie Rowe to England to play Robin Hood - "except that Normie was a decent bloke."

Indeed, what was the wisdom, many commentators asked, in getting a "puny pom" as our "Ned".?

Richardson seemed to be the only one who thought Jagger was right for the job. But even he must have had second thoughts when Jagger visited Melbourne to inspect the bushranger's relic.

The 169cm, 57kg rock star was unable to pick up the iron headguard used by the 180cm, 76kg Kelly in his last shoot out. In the film Jagger used a lightweight aluminium replica.

Some movies are born fortunate. Others are cursed from day one. From the moment Jagger and girlfriend Marianne Faithful arrived in Australia in July, 1969, there was trouble.

Faithful was to play Kelly's sister. But, after she arrived in Sydney, the recovering heroin addict took 150 sleeping pills to punish Jagger for "not caring enough" about the death of sacked Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

During her drug-induced psychosis, Faithful said Jones, who had died six days earlier, "visited" her hotel suite and "talked" to her. Moments later she plunged into a week-long coma and Richardson had to replace her.

The people of Glenrowan were furious the $2.5 million film was being shot in Bungendore and Braidwood, near Canberra, instead of traditional Kelly country.

The director argued Glenrowan was too settled and accessible to the public. And, he said, the old buildings in Bungendore and Braidwood were able to be transformed more readily into the bank at Euroa and the hotels at Jerilderie and Glenrowan.

The film brought a brief boom of activity to both towns. Locals were delighted and Richardson's production company, Woodfall, bought their derelict wooden sheds and paid them to shoot kangaroos.

About a month into shooting, when the grumbling over Jagger's casting had quietened, the rock star's right hand was cut and burned when the old pistol he was using backfired.

The wound took 16 stitches and a piece of metal had to be removed from the base of one of his fingers. A doctor at Canberra Community Hospital told Jagger he would never play guitar again.

When the 10-week shoot finished, Richardson told reporters he wanted to "forget all about Ned Kelly".

And, at the Glenrowan premiere of Ned Kelly, the pre-show entertainment was also a disaster.

While attempting to create a typical Kelly hold-up, the actor playing Ned fell from his horse and cut his forehead on a replica of the Kelly helmet.

Joe Byrne could not saddle his horse and Steve Hart shot himself in the hand with a starting pistol.

The only Ned Kelly cast member who attended the premiere was Stan Roach, a ditch digger for the Sydney Board of Works who played a black tracker. To make the event, Roach caught the Spirit of Progress from Sydney to Wodonga and hitchhiked from Wodonga to Glenrowan.

Critics were unkind to Ned Kelly and were particularly underwhelmed by Jagger's performance. Some said his accent was to blame. Others said it was his lack of animation - not to mention stature.

The Rolling Stones arrived in Melbourne 25 years later and Jagger blushed when Keith Richards grabbed him and bellowed "Ned Kelly! Ned Kelly!" to waiting media.

The Stone seemed to be embarrassed by the ordeal. And, quite frankly, so are we.>>>

This was not the first time a movie had been made about the Kelly Gang; the first was "The Kelly Gang" in 1905; "The Kelly Gang" in 1917; "The Kelly Gang" in 1920; "When The Kelly's Were Out" in 1923; "When The Kelly's Rode" in 1934; "The Glenrowan Affair" in 1955, Mick Jagger's "Ned Kelly" in 1970 and the exceptionally tasteless "Reckless Kelly" in 1993. Good luck to Michael Jenkins....you'll need it........ Australian's are very sensitive about the portrayal of their icons and Ned in particular.

A Twist In The Tale :

In the early 70's, what was believed to be Ned's skull was returned for display at the Old Melbourne Jail. Towards the end of the 70's it again disappeared, supposedly stolen by those who were angry at the public display and lack of respect shown to Kelly.

Extract from Herald Sun 18 January 2000. Writer Kamahl Cogdon.

>> Skull Custodian Warned>>

>>The self-appointed custodian of bushranger Ned Kelly's skull could be charged over its disappearance from Old Melbourne Jail.

Police yesterday warned that they could charge Tom Baxter, with theft after the Western Australian farmer reportedly revealed he stole the skull as a protest 22 years ago.

Acting Cdr Tony Warren said the main objective was the skull's swift return to its rightful owners, but Victorian police might also interview Mr Baxter.

Mr Baxter, 44, yesterday distanced himself from a report he had admitted the theft.

"I don't remember saying that, " he said. "I don't want to go on the public record being the thief. I see myself as the custodian. The way I look at it the skull has been liberated."

Jail manager Amanda Baker yesterday demanded the skull of the country's most famous outlaw be returned immediately and unconditionally.

But Mr Baxter said he would relinquish his "custodianship" only with a guarantee of a proper burial.

He said he wanted a committee of eminent Australians to look after the skull and choose a final resting place in consecrated ground.

Mr Baxter said he had never spoken to the Old Melbourne Jail or its governing body, the National Trust of Australia, and had no plans to deal with them.

The ardent republican of Irish heritage told the Australian newspaper he was appalled when he saw the bushranger's remains displayed at the Old Melbourne Jail.

"I pinched it to protest about the way it was being used wrongfully as a police trophy," he said.

"What I am hoping to achieve now is simple burial, 112 years after Kelly was butchered."

"I want him to have the dignity of a burial in consecrated ground and if we could achieve that I'd be more than willing to pass the skull back."

But Ms Baker said the skull belonged to the Old Melbourne Jail and it was entitled to do what it deemed best for its conservation. She said burying it would only invite another theft.

The rest of the bushranger's remains are buried in the grounds of the abandoned Pentridge Prison, but Ms Baker said no decision had been made on their fate since the sale of the site.>>

It is interesting to note that the police wanted a "swift return to its rightful owners"; funny really ........... it seems to me that no one has a greater claim to it than Ned Kelly... after all, it is his head! And going hand-in-glove with the return of his head would also be a burial in consecrated ground. History has proved that this man was severely wronged by the Police and later by the legal system. I was revolted by the Kelly death mask on display at the Old Melbourne Jail and the thought of seeing Ned's skull I find equally distasteful..... even barbaric.

A Twist In The Twist :

Extract from Herald Sun Sunday 28 November, 1999. Writer Derek Ballantine.

>> It was Dan>>

>>Australian history has been turned on its head with confirmation that Ned Kelly's brother, Dan, survived the so-called last stand at Glenrowan.

Dan was spotted in Queensland 30 years after he was supposed to have died in the famous shootout in northeast Victoria.

He was recognised at a horse sale in Dalby, about 1910, by a scar on his cheek inflicted in a fight at a dance in his youth.

According to the recently compiled history of a family of Kelly sympathisers in Wagga NSW, Dan had changed his name to Jack Day and was working as a horse-breaker.

The history goes further, claiming gang member Steve Hart also escaped the Glenrowan battle in which Ned Kelly was wounded.

Wagga amateur historian Patrick Byrnes, who grandfather was a friend of the Kelly's, is behind the new version.

He has researched his family's roots, and close links with the Kelly gang, in writing a history that was intended only for the eyes of his immediate relatives.

Mr Byrnes claims:

* Ned and Dan escaped the siege at the Glenrowan Inn, but Ned returned to face police and was captured.

* Dan made his way to Queensland, going by the names Jack Day, Joe Ryan and Dan Ryan.

* Gang member Steve Hart also escaped, travelling first to Queensland and then possibly to India.

* The charred bodies found after police set fire to the inn, generally regarded as Dan Kelly and Hart, were two drunken swagmen.

"There is no doubt that Dan Kelly and Steve Hart were seen at Tolmie (south of Glenrowan) three days after the siege," Mr Byrnes argues. "My family knew of the escape and talked about it often, passing down the information".

His account contradicts Wangaratta schoolteacher Barry McArthur, whose theories were published in the Sunday Herald Sun two weeks ago.

Mr McArthur suspected Ned escaped, leaving Dan to go to the gallows in his place in a case of mistaken identity - but no evidence supports that view.

The stories emerging as a result of the controversy suggest there are holes in the accepted history of the Kelly gang and that some assumptions about the Glenrowan siege are wrong.

The likelihood of survivors after Glenrowan appears especially strong now Mr Byrnes has come forward with his history.

His version is compelling because it brings together the stories of family members who had close contacts with the Kelly Gang, often in helping the outlaws evade capture when on the run for killing three policemen at Stringybark Creek in 1878.

Mr Byrne's grand-father, Frederick Byrnes, told of hiding the gang in crops on the family property at St James, east of Wangaratta, and sending pursuers in the wrong direction.

One branch of the family, the Doyles, provided fresh horses to help the gang escape troopers.

Another branch, the Walkers, left pots of soup and stew at the gate for the outlaws to pick up at night.

It was a member of that branch, Thomas Walker, who fought with Dan at a dance, hitting him in the face with stirrup irons.>>

A Further Twist In The Twist :

A further detail has been added to the Kelly Story. It is now rumoured that the skull from the Old Melbourne Jail was not that of Ned Kelly but of an unknown woman. Extensive testing will need to be done, if, and when the skull is returned. Even in death Ned Kelly continues to inspire controversy and fierce loyalties.

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Phar Lap

The Greatest Melbourne Cup Winner of All !

The Trainer :

The winner of the first Melbourne Cup was Archer, but the most well known and loved was Phar Lap. Harry Telford was a battling trainer, barely able to pay his feed bill when he gambled on buying a well-bred yearling sight unseen. When he studied the 1928 New Zealand Yearling Sales catalogue he was drawn to a chestnut colt by Night Raid out of Entreaty. Telford knew that Night Raid came from England and that his family tree included Carbine, a great horse, who had also won the 1890 Melbourne Cup. He gambled that perhaps...just perhaps... here was another Carbine. Telford contacted his brother in New Zealand and arranged that he bid up to 200 pounds for the chestnut. On the day of the sale the two year old looked so ugly and ungainly that Hugh Telford doubted the sanity of his brother's purchase.

The Part-Owner :

Telford did not have the money to buy the horse so he obtained the 160 guineas from wily American businessman Dave Davis. Over the next four years Davis and a small band of friends pulled off betting coups that today would be worth millions of dollars.

The Horse :

A young Asian student who visited Telford stables came up with the name Phar Lap (pronounced Far Lap) which is Thai for "lightning" or "wink of the skies".

The Strapper :

Tommy Woodcock was twenty two in 1928 when Phar Lap arrived in Sydney. His dad was a stage coach driver for Cobb & Co and Tommy lived for horses. He was small, light, gentle with his charges, and there were few horses that he couldn't ride. Woodcock was happy working for Telford despite often not being paid. He was keen to learn about training and bringing horses to their peak at just the right time. Woodcock and the big chestnut bonded and it was Tommy who stayed with his beloved "Bobby" to the very end.

The Scenario :

So the stage is set. Telford seeking notoriety as a trainer, Davis the owner, staying just inside the law but constantly seeking bigger and better returns, the horse with a big heart, always willing to give of his best, and the strapper, who genuinely loved his charge, but who had no control over events.

The following article appeared in the Herald Sun July 6 1999.

Writer Nick Richardson.

>>Revealed: last living link with Phar Lap>>

>> The last living link with racing legend Phar Lap lives alone with his memories in a 120 year old homestead far from racetracks the giant chestnut dominated.

In the 70th anniversary year of Phar Lap's famous first victory, the Herald Sun has found "Big Red's" jockey on that auspicious day, Jack Baker.

He rode Phar Lap twice, once when he finished last, and then at Sydney's Rosehill racetrack, in a 1200m maiden handicap.

It was just two weeks after Baker's 18th birthday when he rode the then two year old Phar Lap to victory.

The date is firmly fixed in the history of Australian racing - April 27, 1929.

The reign of greatness, which would stretch over the next three years - and end tragically with Phar Lap's mysterious death in the United States in 1932 - had started.

But Baker recalled that he was not too impressed with the gelding at first.

"You used to have to carry a whip on him to make him go", he said.

"He had three or four runs as a two year old and never got hot. Then he started to win."

Baker never got a look in after that first win. As Phar Lap became more successful, the teenage apprentice was relegated down the list of preferred riders.

But it did not bother him. He had had his moment of glory, even if he was not aware how significant that victory would become.>>

It was at Rosehill that Davis and his betting group made their first kill.

Telford had obviously passed on the information that the horse was reaching his peak.

The Herald Sun article continues:

>> Jack Baker has relived that race many times. Now aged 88, he lives alone in a homestead named "Rosehill", where the walls are hung with memories and his dining table is covered by neat rows of framed photos.

He is the last living link with a racing legend. Telford died long ago. Phar Lap's owner, David Davis has gone too. Jim Pike, the jockey who once said it was sacrilege to ride other horses after being on Phar Lap, is also dead.>>

It continues:

>>But someone knew something that day at Rosehill. Phar Lap was backed in from 20-1." He was only 7-1 (at the start)", Baker said. "They had a good bit of money on him. In his other races there wasn't a quid for him or anything.">>

It continues:

>>Baker's sling for winning was 25 pound ($50), a small fortune when a fiver was the more likely reward for a ride well done. Baker put it straight in the bank.

He still has a copy of the winner's cheque made out to Telford for 173 pound. It sits on his wall, framed, with a small picture of Phar Lap and his famed strapper, Tommy Woodcock, tucked into the frame and curling at the edges.

Baker's winning ride was his last on Phar Lap. Other jockeys came along - Jimmy Munro, Billy Elliot and Pike who rode him for in 30 races for 27 wins.

"I lost sight of him all together", Baker said. "He got too bloody good. There would have been fights for it (to ride him)">>

The Champion :

In his four years on the track Phar Lap won 37 of 51 races, including 14 in a row in 1930-31. On Saturday 01 November 1930, Phar Lap and his strapper Tommy Woodcock were shot at while returning from an early morning gallop at the Caulfield race track. There were also threats of poison darts and acid. Three days later, Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup, carrying 62.5kgs or more than 4kgs than any other four year old had ever carried in a Cup.

Phar Lap survived the attempts against his life, but he could not beat the petty racing bureaucrats who changed the rules, forcing him to carry as much as three stone more than his rivals. Phar Lap's last race in Australia was the 1931 Melbourne Cup in which he finished eighth.

Journey to the USA and Mexico :

Davis decided to take him to America where he believed Phar Lap could start winning again. In 1932, against enormous odds, Phar Lap won the Aqua Caliente Handicap in Mexico. The odds against him were enormous. He had travelled half way round the world to race out of season, wore shoes he had never previously worn, started from stalls he had never used before, raced on an unfamiliar track and carried a "secret" injury.

The Herald Sun article continues:

>>By the time Baker returned to Armidale, in north eastern NSW, three years later, Phar Lap had won a Melbourne Cup, two Cox Plates, the Victorian and AJC Derbys and the Agua Caliente handicap in Mexico.

The racing world was his. But two weeks after the chestnut's slashing win in Mexico, he was dead, killed by a mysterious illness.

Baker, like everyone else, has no idea what killed the champion, even though Baker has spent a lifetime around horses.>>

A Well-Earned Rest Turns To Disaster :

After his win in Mexico, Phar Lap was rested at a private ranch near Menlo Park in California. Early on the morning of Tuesday 05 April, Tommy Woodcock found the horse looking ill - his temperature was high and he was in great pain. At midday Phar Lap haemorrhaged and died. Woodcock was devastated and threw himself on the horse and wept.

Stunned Disbelief At the Death :

Both Australians and Americans were stunned by Phar Lap's death. Australia's Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons called it a "great tragedy".

Despite exhaustive, but uncoordinated and inconclusive forensic tests the actual cause of death has never been discovered. One autopsy found that the horse's stomach and intestines were inflamed, suggesting possible poisoning. Rumours of deliberate poisoning abounded.

Investigation of the ranch showed that some trees had recently been sprayed with lead-arsenate insecticide, which may have drifted onto grass

that Phar Lap had eaten. A second autopsy suggested that Phar Lap had died of a "colicky condition" (bad stomach pains), possibly from eating damp feed.

A devastated Woodcock disputed these findings saying he had fed Phar Lap by hand, and knew enough about colic to know that something else killed his mate. Woodcock mysteriously said he thought he knew what killed Phar Lap and for many years he was hounded for his efforts. Years passed and Woodcock's silence suggested he was as lost for an answer as everyone else.

In 1989, some racing people claimed Woodcock had accidentally killed the horse by giving him a double dose of Fowler's Solution, a tonic containing arsenic which is given to horses to stimulate their appetites.

The truth will never be known.

Museum Victoria's Favourite Exhibit :

Phar Lap returned to Australia. His hide was mounted, shortly after his death, by Jonas Bros of New York. The skin was placed over a shell of clay, plaster, roofing paper and burlap, supported by a steel and timber frame. Pieces of cord were used to simulate veins. It was donated by David Davis to the National Museum of Victoria.

Since 1933, Phar Lap had left the old Museum at 328 Swanston Street only once. In 1980, 50 years after his historic Cup win, he was transported to Flemington Race Club for the Melbourne Cup carnival. After being on continual display since December 1932, Phar Lap is currently in storage (or should we say out to pasture) until he is rehoused in the new Melbourne Museum in July, 2000.

In honour of the famous champion, Racing Victoria have donated a new glass display case. Phar Lap has always been one of the most popular exhibits at the Museum and we know he will be again.

Extract from Herald Sun Sunday 08 June 1997. Writer Derek Ballantine.

>> Phar Lap rated a $10 million treasure>>

>> He has been dead 65 years, but Phar Lap is still the most valuable horse in Australia.

The Museum of Victoria has put a $10 million price tag on its star exhibit.

But he is not for sale - the museum's valuation is for housekeeping purposes as it conducts a stock take of the 16 million items in its massive collection.

The valuation rates Phar Lap twice as precious as even Octagonal, recently retired as Australia's top stake-winning racehorse.

"The only way to test the valuation would be to offer him at auction, but we believe $10 million is a true reflection of his worth", said Martin Hallett, a senior official at the museum.

Foaled in 1926, Phar Lap raced until his mysterious death in the United States in 1932, winning 37 of his 51 starts.

The Museum believes Phar Lap is still more popular than any other horse in Australia's history, having been viewed by millions of people since he went on display in a glass cabinet in Melbourne in the 1930's.

Phar Laps skeleton is in New Zealand and his heart, weighing an extraordinary 6.3kg is in Canberra.

Scores of requests to borrow him have been received since the museum announced it was closing for two years pending construction of new premises next to the Royal Exhibition Building.

But Phar Lap will not be disturbed until the last minute. He will remain at the old museum while it is absorbed into the State Library because he is considered too fragile to move into storage or another public viewing area.>>

A Twist In The Tale :

Interestingly, years after Phar Lap's death, Captain Tom Hogg, a leading English trainer and veterinarian and owner of Night Raid, questioned that his horse could sire Phar Lap. He felt that Night Raid was too narrow, and lacked too much size, substance and bone to produce a big boned horse like Phar Lap.

As a racer Night Raid was not successful but he went on to sire the famous Nightmarch. Had Phar Lap been part of a mixup when shipped to the yearling sales...it's possible and one of the many questions that remain after the death of the great horse.

During the autopsy it was found that Phar Lap's heart was almost twice the normal size; but this had to be wrong, everyone knew that he was a horse that was "all heart".

Phar Lap's Cox Plate Trophy :

On Monday 08 November 1999, Phar Lap's Cox Plate trophy, was sold at auction for a record $420,000. This made the trophy the most expensive piece of racing memorabilia in Australia.

That the trophy has survived intact is a stroke of good fortune. Before the running of the race, Davis and Telford flipped a coin to decide who would keep the trophy should Phar Lap win. Davis won and took it to the US where it was found, decades later, in a study by his son. The Davis family has loaned the trophy to the Museum of Victoria since 1993. It is believed to be the only one of Phar Lap's surviving. During the depression, trainer Harry Telford melted the rest down.

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The Kennett Factor

You have read of the huge developments to be made at Docklands and the enormous resources poured into the Arts infrastructure. But during the Kennett era, Victorians experienced rationalisation and restructuring in areas of education, policing, health and emergency services, industrial relations, environment, local government, transport and justice. Victoria spent less on Education than any other state of Australia. Schools were forced to introduce charges for what was once free Education.

There had been enormous spending cuts to Hospitals and Emergency Services. The Public Health system was plagued with strikes and claims made that patients were spending up to three days on trolleys because of chronic bed shortages.

The Public Transport ticketing system lost the government hundreds of thousands of dollars. Victoria sold its electricity and trains to the private sector, many to overseas buyers, and only water and sewerage have survived as public utilities.

Many asked, how can a government that performs so poorly in so many important fields of policy continue to show resilience at the polls?

The continual reply seemed to be the formidable political skills of the then Premier, Jeff Kennett.

Extract from The Age 24 July 1999. Writer John Power who is reviewing "The Kennett Revolution - Victorian Politics In The 1990's" Edited by Brian Costar and Nicholas Economou.

>> In view of these serious policy shortcomings, how has Kennett managed to fare so well in the polls? In his chapter on leadership style, Graham Little draws an illuminating parallel with President Reagan, for both have exhibited a boyish charm that can disarm much criticism. But the comparison can be pushed further.

Both thought to persuade their peoples to define themselves primarily as consumers of services provided by the private sector. Once so persuaded, a constituency of consumers is normally not very demanding. So long as there is no major fiasco in service provision, they are happy to support the status quo. The Kennett style of presentation, like that of Reagan before him, is that of a businessman who has sold off all of the shops in a suburban shopping mall that he controls, and amuses himself by staging midday entertainments in the atrium. If the consumers have any complaints about price or quality, they should take them to the shopkeepers and not disturb the entertainment he is providing for everyone else.>>

Electoral Backlash :

But something unexpected happened in the 1999 State elections. Kennett's Liberal party were defeated. Australia was stunned to hear that the most powerful, and seemingly invincible state leader had been rejected by the electorate. It seems what government accountants and other economic rationalists had hailed as a fiscal success was not valued as such by voters. Kennett had embraced privatisation with vigour, selling off gas and power, the railways, trams, a part of the state's medical infrastructure, and half of Victoria's jails. An audit has shown that the Liberal government has left a healthy bank balance, but little else, as so much has been sold.

There had been a dramatic falling off in standards of services provided by the government and country Victorians were disenchanted by the massive infra-structure spending in Melbourne. The "bush" was angry, as banking, post office, school and hospital services were depleted. This throws up the age old argument of how we rate the "success" of our government; should we be aiming for an AAA credit rating or a more equitable and balanced society where no child lives in poverty?

Extract from Herald Sun Tuesday October 19 1999. Writer Paul Gray.

>> Kings Are Dead>>

>>Jeff Kennett's departure signals a major change in Australian politics.

It means not just a change in the state of Victoria, but a major transformation of the way Australians see and think about their political leaders.

The changing of the guard in government - one party out, a new party in - has long been a regular feature of our politics.

In this light, the replacement of Victoria's seven-year-old coalition government with independents-backed Labour is nothing new.

But the departure of strong man Premier Jeff Kennett, and the installation of "nice guy" Labour Leader Steve Bracks in his place, has a significance beyond just another regulation change of government.

The message buried beneath the chaos of the Kennett Government's last days is this: it is the end of "presidential politics" in Australia.

In the weeks ahead, people around the nation will express amazement that Jeff Kennett, for years the most commanding figure to have stomped across the nation's political landscape, is suddenly premier no more.

Yet for Mr Kennett, the writing has long been on the wall. In an era when the Australian public has shown disenchantment with traditional styles of politics, leaders of the Kennett species have increasingly grown endangered.

Like defeated Labour Prime Minister Paul Keating before him, Mr Kennett had lost out to a more humble "suburban" style of political opponent.

Mr Keating, the "dominator" of Labour politics, was obliterated at the polls by the uncharismatic John Howard.

Now Steve Bracks, a man few Victorians would have recognised in the street just six months ago, has brought down the last of our domineering political leaders.

This is not just the end of Jeff. It's the end of political charisma as we've known it.

Three important changes have occurred in the political behaviour of Australians in the past two decades. First, disenchantment with the major political parties has grown.

This has been seen in their declining memberships and, in rural and regional Australia, growing threats to the traditional grip of the Nationals.

Second, voters have given increased power to independent MP's.

Independents now sit in every state parliament, keeping governments on narrow margins in five of them. And the trend is growing.

The third significant change was the emergence of Pauline Hanson. Though she was finally rejected by voters, her awkward, inarticulate style won her many public backers in the two years after her surprise 1996 win in the seat of Ipswich.

Recent opinion polls in Queensland suggest her failure to lead One Nation to dizzy political heights has more to do with the rejection of her anti-multicultural policies rather than her lack of outward sophistication.

Though hated by political sophisticates, Hanson's lack of polish was a major asset for her with the broader public. This reflects the disenchantment with traditional political leadership styles.

Today's bookish NSW Premier Bob Carr projects a totally different image from the tough, aggressive style of his Labour predecessor, Neville Wran, famous for the line that "Balmain boys don't cry." They don't win power either these days.

The contrary argument is that Jeff Kennett lost power in Victoria, because of policy issues. Certainly, opinion surveys showed many Victorians rejected Kennett Government policies on issues like the Auditor-General and changes to worker's rights.

Rural areas were critical to Kennett's defeat. Here both policy issues (Kennett's favouritism towards the city) and personality issues (National leaders seen as selling out the bush) worked strongly against the government.

But what was not recognised by pundits or major party insiders was the severity of the public's rejection of the Premier's personal style.

The symbolism of Mr Kennett's gagging of his own candidates from talking to the media during the campaign may have played a key role.

Victoria's public and politicians must now live with minority government - a new experience for most. We must learn new lessons.

The first of these is that Australian democratic values have changed. The era of ''the king" is dead. The era of political humility takes its place.>>

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Major Events

Melbourne The Major Events Capital :

Australians are sporting mad and Victorians are just a little more so.

Melbourne is host to some of the nation's most exciting sporting events.

The Australian 500cc Grand Prix at Phillip Island in October, The Australian Football Grand Final, the Formula One Grand Prix, The $5 million World Matchplay Golfing Championship in 2001 and lets not forget the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

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Melbourne is home to Australian Rules Football which is now played in almost all capital cities across the country. The history of Aussie Rules is fascinating and owes its very existence to one of the colony's great sportsman Thomas (Tommy) Wellington Wills.

Extract from The Age Saturday 07 November 1998. Writer Martin Flanagan.

>> Australian Icarus>>

>> There is something uniquely Australian about football - Aboriginal Australian, that is. Thanks to this book we can set the record straight.

Sportsmen, and women, are public heroes. For that reason, and regardless of their wishes, they become players in larger social dramas. Les Darcy's life cannot be understood without reference to World War I, just as South African Zola Budd's career is inextricably intertwined with apartheid. Something similar is true of Tom Wills, the young man who made it possible for this country to evolve an indigenous code of football.

Wills grew up at Moyston, outside Ararat, where his father was the first white settler. The only children in the area were black and these were his playmates. He learnt their songs and language and collected their weapons of war. There is every reason to believe that he was exposed to the game a Scottish settler named James Dawson observed being played in the area and recorded as "Aboriginal Football". In 1850, at the age of 15, he was sent to Rugby school in England.

Six years later he returned to the colony extremely self-possessed, and, in sporting terms, quite magnificent. He promptly revolutionised Victorian sport, guiding the colony to its first victory over New South Wales in cricket. When the subject of a code of football arose for discussion and rugby was proposed, he famously declared, "No, we shall have a game of our own".

Tom Brown's School Days, which is a eulogy to Rugby school life and the virtue of manly games, had recently hit the colony. Victoria was booming and seeking to become the new force and direction in the land. Tommy's tenure as secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club was remarkably brief - he fought with almost everyone - but during his time the MCC drew up a list of rudimentary rules for a new code of football.

Basically, in both cricket and football, any team Wills played with won, and one of the defining characteristics of his sporting career was that he would play with anyone - even boys from the slums of Collingwood. He also drank and ran up debts. Displeased, his father took him to the frontier, now in Queensland, where father and son argued about how to treat the blacks. Father said they were passive, son, they were not. While Tom was away, the blacks attacked, killing his father, Horatio, and the rest of the party in the biggest massacre of whites by blacks in Australian history. The whites took more than ample revenge, sending out killing parties.

Tommy stayed in the north for another two years, drinking and gradually going crazy. He returned to Victoria but was never the same, and, in 1880, at 44, stabbed himself to death. But in 1866, five years after his father was murdered by Aborigines, he had done something equally strange. He had coached the Aboriginal cricket team that was the first Australian cricket team to tour England.

It was not my intention in writing this book to enter the war of pseudo-objective utterances about the origins of the game. I suspect that games, like novels, largely invent themselves. However, what I do know and can state as a fact is that Aboriginal people around Australia believe football is their game in the way they believe the didgeridoo is their instrument. Whitefellas play that, too. My inquiries, therefore, were threefold. I needed to know more about Tom Wills, about the Victoria of his day, and about the game Aboriginal people call marngrook.

I asked an old Gunditjmara woman living in the western districts of Victoria about it. She looked at me as if I had broken wind in public. "That's men's business," she hissed. I talked to Malcolm Jagamarra, initiated Warlpiri man and artist. He told me about a football game the Warlpiri, a desert people, play called putulu. He imitated an old man singing an emu dreaming song before his team went out to play. "Emus run fast," he explained. Ten years earlier, at the Yuendumu sports week-end, the so-called black Olympics, I had met Ian King, organiser of the second Aboriginal Cricket Tour in 1988. King, a Queenslander of Aboriginal descent, and former Sheffield Shield cricketer, told me Australian football had parallels with the corroboree.>>

It continues:

>>Wills became more underhand as he got older, frequently being accused of cheating at cricket. His critics call him selfish. Those who loved him, like his brother Horace, said he was reckless but generous with it. At the time of his death, he was a neglected figure suffering from delirium tantrums.

Why did I write The Call? Because I want people to go to football matches and see more than the spectacle, however entertaining that may be. I want them to see something that comes from this land and has both white and Aboriginal legends. I further hoped they might see the imprint of a young man who took it for granted that he could reshape the world as he saw fit. Tom Wills is an Australian Icarus. If you want to see him fly, go to the MCG next time Jeff Farmer is playing.>>

"The Call", Martin Flanagan's historical novel based on the life of Tom Wills is published by Allen & Unwin.

So grab your Footy Record, clutch a hot pie for warmth, a cold beer to keep the circulation moving and "watch the big men fly". The only place to watch the footy is at the MCG, known in summer as the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but in winter transformed into the football mecca , "The G". Choose seats undercover and in a "dry area" if you don't mind foregoing a beer. Be prepared to hear some colourful and loud barracking which generally seems to increase in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed.

Its not easy to understand a game where you get ahead by kicking a few behinds, but if the thought appeals head off to the "G".

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Formula One Grand Prix

The Australian Grand Prix is the opening round of the FIA Formula One World Championships. This four day festival of motor sport brings the world's best drivers to Melbourne. The last event held in March 2000, saw visitors such as former Beatle George Harrison, Jackie Stewart and Nicki Lauda visit the Albert Park temporary circuit.

Officials from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway came to Albert Park in 1999 to learn more about the technical running of a Grand Prix. Melbourne has twice won the Formula One Constructors Association Award for holding the best GP - in 1996 and 1997. An American GP was last held in Phoenix in 1991 and will return to the USA late 2000.

Formula One racing is all about speed, power, noise, excitement, drama, glory, champagne and tears, and for those who are true "petrol heads" there is nothing like the sound of the engines firing for action.

When Money Is No Object :

The money spent on Formula One is mind blowing with each team operating an average $27 million travel budget per year. Incidentally just to bring all their cars, support network and equipment to Melbourne takes three 747's.

It is rumoured that Zanardi took a $10 million pay cut (imagine what he previously earned) when he switched from Champ Car racing in the USA, to drive with the 1999 Williams team. But besides paying their super-star drivers, there are up to 250 staff per team. Formula One teams also have to purchase the most expensive, complex and hi-tech piece of sporting equipment ever- their car, and at more than $1 million each, they don't come cheap!

Compare these costings with the family car:

Exhaust system $10,000 - $15,000
Radiators $98,000 - normally changed after two races.
Mirrors $750 - $1,000
Tyres $1000 each.
Monocoque or the car body $175,000 each. Made from ultra-strong carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb composite. Minimum eight per season.
Steering wheel - Mechanical parts last whole season, electronics two races. Wheel up to $25,000, Steering system $7,500.
Shock absorbers: $10,000 set. Five sets per car plus development during season.
Suspension front/rear $20,000.
Bodywork repainted after each race $10,000.
Seat six per season at $5000 each.

Finely Tuned Crew, Car, and Driver :

Getting it right the first time and with maximum speed is the order of the day. It's not only the driver who is constantly refining and improving his skill but the car and the team must also be at their peak.

Extract Herald Sun 04 March 1999. Writer Paul Glover.

>>The Hardline of F1 Refuelling>>

Refuelling a grand prix car is nothing like a top-up at your local service station. Like everything in F1 it's a hi-tech race against time. Get it right and the car will rocket back into the race with exactly the right amount of go gas after just a couple of seconds. But if the special connector doesn't hook up properly, or the seals don't seal properly, or the car's fuel flap won't open, it can become a disaster. That's why the pit crews must wear a full set of fire-resistant clothing.

Jos Verstappen found out about the risks in a Benetton flare-up during a German pit-stop, Pedro Diniz knows after a flaming exit when his system leaked, and David Coulthard lost his shot at least year's French GP when the system wouldn't hook up properly.

The refuelling rigs, all identical, are a military system developed for combat use on helicopters. There are many tiny parts and seals that must operate perfectly. The cars also have a driver release for the fuel cap cover, which must be triggered exactly to let the crew do its job and then shut properly afterwards to prevent a penalty stop on safety grounds.>>

Taxing Mentally and Physically :

Driver F1 is not like driving the family car. The driver is punished mentally and physically. It takes enormous courage, extreme fitness, skill and determination to become a Grand Prix team driver.

Extract from Herald Sun 04 March 1999. Writer Russell Lewis.

>> The Pressure Cooker>>

>> In their quest for glory, drivers sustain incredible stress and G-forces.

1. Lateral loads - pressures in excess of 30kg are exerted on neck muscles.

2. Deceleration/ 3. Acceleration - neck muscles are under constant pressure. Deceleration forces under braking can reach 4G.

4. Lower body - drivers are "clamped" to their seats by a six point harness. Hips are exposed to lateral G-force pressures up to 100kg. Knees and ankles also suffer.

5. Vision - deteriorates as blood flow to the eyes is impaired. Perspective becomes distorted. This is compounded by "bumpy" tracks and some corners are driven virtually "blind"!

6. Arms & hands - down force levels increase car weight to 1.25 tonnes. This force ensures constant stress, in particular on forearms, wrists and hands.

7. Heart rate - at rest, the normal heart rate is between 60-80 beats per minute. At qualifying and race speeds, this can increase to 180-210 beats.

8. Dehydration - up to a litre of body fluid may be lost during a race.

Driving force:

A F1 car can accelerate from a standing start to 166kmh and then brake back to a standstill in a little over 6.0 seconds. Lateral forces in excess of 3.5G can be experienced through high-speed bends such as Spa's Eau Range - a curve which also inflicts the added pressure of spinal compression as combined down force and tyre grip "stick" the car to the road.

At 2G, driver's body weight is effectively doubled; loss of consciousness is normally experienced at 8-9G.>>

F1 Is Dangerous and Demanding :

New regulations in 1999 have placed strict emphasis on safety. Dwelling on the dangers is not a positive way to enter a race... but dangers there are and death can be your passenger. This year new safety seats were introduced to help protect the injured driver.

Extract from the Herald Sun 04 March 1999. Writer Stuart Sykes.

>> Seated In Safety>>

>> Scots, as everyone knows, give nothing away. Triple world champion Jackie Stewart, who has his own F1 team, was particularly stingy with blood - he never spilt a drop of it in his 99-race grand prix career.

Stewart was pre-occupied with safety during the 1960's and 70's when many drivers were killed, and that preoccupation lives on today.

It shows in the new driving seat being used by his Stewart-Ford team this year for drivers Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello.

As soon as automotive supply giant Lear came on board as a Stewart technical partner in 1997 it was obvious the American firm would bring its own innovative ideas to the team and to F1 in general.

The team's technicians were even called in last year to help Ferrari's Eddie Irvine, who suffered chronic back troubles in his cramped cockpit. Lear eventually developed a new seat which took away the pain.

But the safety seat is different - and new.

Developed by Stewart and Lear, it enhances driver safety by having an integral spinal splint. Why is it so important?

It ends the days of waiting anxiously for a driver to be removed from their damaged car after the crash.

The seat has been designed so the driver and seat can be slid out of a F1 car's carbon fibre cockpit as one, so the injured driver no longer has to be moved on to any form of spinal support. The driver gets the essential support from the seat which is always in the car.

The Lear seat may be one of the rare developments that benefit not just one team, but all of the drivers who put themselves at high-speed risk overtime they take to the track.>>

Driver Championship :

Throughout the 90's car design and aerodynamics have played an increasingly important role in deciding the driver championship. It now seems true to say that a great car can overshadow the ability of even the best driver.

It is interesting to note that whoever wins the first grand prix of  the season is tipped to win the World Championship. Here's the last few years statistics which show that all, but the 1997 Coulthard win in Melbourne, supports this theory.

1990 Winner first race: Senna Championship: Senna
1991 Winner first race: Senna Championship: Senna
1992 Winner first race: Mansell Championship: Mansell
1993 Winner first race: Prost Championship: Prost
1994 Winner first race: Schumacher Championship: Schumacher
1995 Winner first race: Schumacher Championship: Schumacher
1996 Winner first race: Hill Championship: Hill
1997 Winner first race: Coulthard Championship: Villeneuve
1998 Winner first race: Hakkinen Championship: Hakkinen

The Date :

The Melbourne Grand Prix and Moomba celebrations are held on the Labour Day long weekend in March.

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The Melbourne Cup

Melbourne is home to the world famous "horse race that stops a nation" held on the first Tuesday in November. The Melbourne Cup was first held in 1861 when immense wealth was made from the goldfields. It was, and remains today, an extravagant social occasion that is the highlight of the Spring Racing season, and the richest racing event in Australia.

Extract from the Herald Sun Tuesday 02 November 1999. Writer Ross Brundrett

>> The Cup That Nobbles A Nation>>

Funny, isn't it, how every year around the time of the AFL Grand Final we get down on our knees and offer thanks to the MCG for hosting the greatest sporting event of them all.

And during the Australian Open fortnight, we lavish praise on the tennis Grand Slam event that makes Melbourne the "sporting capital of the world".

And when the hype of the Grand Prix hits town like a whirlwind, we all get carried away with the shiny, Formula One glamour of it all and kid ourselves into thinking it is the Main Event.

In any other city it might well be ......indeed, any one of the aforementioned trio could qualify for the title.

Any city would be proud to hang its hat - on any one of them. Any city, that is, except Melbourne.

Because Melbourne has the cup. Sorry, I mean, The Cup. The Cup that sets it aside from any other city in the world. Does New York have a cup? Or London or Tokyo or Rome?

Sydney has a cup, of course, but not a cup that could hope to stop the city, let alone the nation.

No, the Melbourne Cup alone lays claim to that feat. It is an annual phenomenon that never ceases to amaze.

And all Australians share in it. Not just the odd - hundred thousand who flock to Royal Flemington (perhaps soon to become plain Flemington), but Australians everywhere, from Albany to Fannie Bay, rejoice in the pure wonderment of The Cup.

They have sweeps and opinions and each-way bets and arguments, and they sit and stand and strain in front of TV sets across the nation as the amazing day unfolds all over again. And, at the end of it all, they can't help but shake their heads in admiration.

What's that? It's only a horse race? Some people might try to tell you this. Some humourless, wowserish, blinkered, cynical types who probably see Sir Donald Bradman as just a bloke who was good at hitting a ball with his bat, who say Australia's triumph at the America's Cup as just another boat race.....

But the vast majority know better. That is why we embrace it so. And it's not just the punters. It's the once-a-year dabblers and the partygoers. The yobs and the snobs. They all love it for different reasons, but mostly they love it because it is ours, unquestionably, and it is unique.

It may have started as just another horse race, but it is a hybrid, a cultural hotchpotch of fashion and food and raucous behaviour and unbridled celebration.....it is the one time of the year when Melburnians feel free to act like Sydneysiders.

And it keeps getting bigger. Like a runaway conga line that doesn't know how to stop, sucking in more and more people as it chugs merrily along.

It's recession-proof, it's weatherproof and, as our former governor-general Sir John Kerr found out in 1977, it's about 100 per-cent proof.

If it was just a horse race, would men still be decking themselves out in gorilla suits and top hats and stubby shorts and women still be dressing up as nuns, 25 years after it was considered funny?

If it was just a horse race, why would the usual suspects, the Peter Jansons and Lillian Franks, come back again and again and again and always seem like they're having fun at The Cup for the very first time?

If it was just a horse race, why would someone as outlandish as the mad hatter, Peter Jago, bother to turn up at all? And why would so many people go to such extravagant excess?

If it was just a horse race, why would some people head off for the track at early as 7am and why would some others still be loath to depart the lush Flemington lawns long after the sun has set and the last champagne bottle drained?

No, it is something special (and a curse on Bruce McAvaney for diminishing that sentiment), a rare flower indeed, lovingly nurtured and mutually appreciated. The Cup has done so much for Melbourne and Melbourne has done so much for The Cup.

The international horses have merely added to the intrigue and given the race a more worldly feel, somehow made it more complete, not that we ever thought it was lacking.

If there is a worry in all of this, it is that in our eagerness to embrace the Melbourne Cup and all of its elements, we may be in danger of going over the top.

The saddest scenes I see on Cup Day are of enthusiasts who have celebrated a little too hard too early, like jockeys who have used their whips well before the clock tower and died on their run long before the finishing post.

As the Cup's king Bart Cummings would tell you, preparing for The Cup means being at your best when the race begins at 3.20pm..... certainly not being unconscious.

Similarly, I am disappointed that so many people now consider it fair form to make a holiday out of the Monday before The Cup. This, to my mind, dilutes the importance of the day itself.

Anyway, it makes much more sense to make a holiday of the Wednesday following The Cup. They could call it Recovery Day, a day to recognise the importance of the hangover.>>>

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With great foresight, Melbourne's forefathers lay the foundations for what is, today, considered to be one of the world's most livable cities. Graced with tree-lined boulevards and an understated elegance Australia's second largest city is the "jewel in the crown".

The Flamboyant Fifties :

The discovery of gold near Ballarat in 1851 was a defining time in the history of Melbourne. Thousands of fortune seekers poured through the city before heading north to Ballarat, Bendigo and other gold towns. The wealth Melbourne generated from gold discovery between 1853 and 1857 would amount to forty billion dollars at today's values. During this time Melbourne became home to some of the richest people in the world.

Entrepreneurs optimistically erected buildings with "Venetian Gothic" facades and other flamboyant touches. Community developments such as the classically designed Melbourne Town Hall and Melbourne Club echoed the unbridled optimism of the day. Melbourne was buoyant and investment flourished.

The Banking Boom :

History tells us that many of Victoria's first bank branches were actually makeshift portables on the goldfields. But not for long. A walk down Collins Street can still point to the glory days, when working for a bank was regarded as a privilege; staff virtually worked for nothing for the first few years and had to ask the bank's permission to marry. From the discovery of gold in Victoria, banks have gone from strength to strength.

Still remaining are buildings such as the Bank of Australasia, on the western corner of Queen and Collins Streets, which is currently undergoing a $35 million conversion to a luxury hotel. Across the road at 380 Collins Street is the gothic-style ANZ bank which could pass for either a Venetian palace or a European Cathedral. When built, no expense was spared in the creation of this awe-inspiring building. Verdon, the banker responsible went 75% over budget. The banking chamber ceilings were gilded so extensively it was said there was enough gold leaf to run a 2.5cm wide ribbon around the equator. In Verdun's upstairs apartments the chandeliers were ringed with semi-precious stones, there was oak panelling, walnut fittings and more gold leaf. His boudoir walls were of highly embossed Japanese leather. And who says Bankers are boring?

"Doing The Block" :

Acquaint yourself with 19th century Melbourne by meandering through the connecting arcades and alleyways that criss-cross the city, all inhabited by tiny cafes and stylish boutiques .

My personal favourite is the Block Arcade which first opened for shopping in 1892, with the Elizabeth Street wing following ten months later. Architect David Agnew gained his design inspiration from the Galleria Vittoria in Milan and echoes of this can be seen in the magnificent rotunda, the tall glass shop fronts and the intricate mosaic floors.

Extract from Herald Sun 30 July 1999. Writer Nadine Cresswell-Myatt.

>>The Block has always been the Queen Victoria of Melbourne's architecture, a place of decorum and gentile times. Here gentlemen once tipped their top hats at women shoppers.

The Block was (once) a female haunt with 14 milliners and every second shop selling bridal wear.

Shopping expeditions always ended at the Hopetoun Tea Rooms. Named after Victoria's first governor. They were considered, as they are today, an elegant setting for afternoon tea.

Here the manners of young ladies were presided over by dowager older relatives.

In the late afternoon these young ladies and their chaperones and Melbourne's small population of civil servants and businessmen would spill out on to the pavements to stroll along Collins Street, between Elizabeth and Swanston Streets.