Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

We had heard a lot about Melbourne as a city of artsy and culturally diverse character, and in our few days there we got a yummy taste of both of those. We stayed with Jane, a SERVAS host who is a teacher and a psychologist, working mainly with the large Indian and Bangladeshi student population in Melbourne. On vacation now, she likes to spend some part of her mornings at cafes reading the newspaper and people watching, and on our first day in the city she took us to a neighboring suburb to hers, where we sat at an Ethiopian-owned cafe and then walked through the maze of small shops filling the blocks: Indian grocery stores, with shelf after shelf of different chutneys; Sudanese variety shops, displaying long, colorful cotton robes of the type we saw in Upper Egypt; general South Asian stores selling everything from fake-bamboo mats to plastic buckets to decorative figurines. Our favorite was a large Vietnamese supermarkets, that was in reality a collection of separate stands, all of them brimming with a fresh, colorful variety of fruits and vegetables, and dotted with vendors shouting out the prices and quality of their wares in Vietnamese. While we couldn't understand what they were saying, we could understand the sticky plates of free samples that were found on each stand, and helped ourselves more than once. There was also a fish section of the market, with some still-flopping half-dead fish lying on ice, while others swam in small tanks helplessly awaiting the rubber mallet-wielding butchers who pulled them out for customers. We also walked through Chinatown, in the center of the city, and visited the Museum of Chinese-Australian History, an impressive small place with lots of information about the Chinese experience here, as well as an interactive multimedia exhibit that took us as "migrants" from Hong Kong harbor in 1857 to the hot, dusty goldfields of Australia. The story of Chinese migrants in Australia is quite similar to that of Chinese migrants to the western U.S.: numbers were very high in the late 19th century as they did extremely difficult and dangerous work, but as that work faded and the Chinese began to establish themselves more culturally and economically, both countries established harsh anti-Chinese measures (in the U.S. they couldn't own land or other property, and in 1905 they became the only group ever to be banned from immigrating to America; in Australia, the families of migrants were not allowed to come over, and the 1901 "White Australia" policy cut immigration from China and elsewhere in Asia until the mid-1960's). Somehow, the communities in both countries persevered, and have firm and important places in present society.

As for art, we got to see quite a lot of it in Melbourne, in both more and less traditional forms. In the two buildings of the National Gallery of Victoria, we wandered through galleries of 19th and 20th century Australian paintings, some of which resembled the romantic, adventurous nature scenes of the Hudson River School. The collection of Aboriginal artwork was astounding; beautiful to look at, it was also incredible to grapple with the way of thinking the paintings represented. I am only beginning to learn about Aboriginal beliefs and not even close to beginning to understand them, but what I think I can understand is that it is a worldview that is truly, thoroughly different from the one I'm used to-- and the fact that worldviews can be so different is pretty amazing in itself. The galleries also had a few quirky exhibits, some of which pushed the definition of art and culture in an interesting way: there was a stunning collection of mid-century hats by Melbourne's foremost milliner, a gallery of mint-condition sneakers analyzing their manifestations of form and function, and an interactive playing area tracing the development of video game effects and graphics! The feel of much of the city, with several funky-looking pedestrian bridges spanning the central river, a plaza with live-music containing several museums right near the downtown businesses, art deco buildings near the beach, and buzzing outdoor cafes absolutely everywhere seemed to encourage the art-viewing, art-making vibe.

Leaving Jane, her two cats, and the city, we took the plunge and rented a car for a drive along the coast. The disconcerting scariness of our first time driving on the left was certainly compounded by the fact that we hadn't driven on either side of the road in six months; but, once we got out of the city and away from the most crowded parts of the twisty-turny Great Ocean Road, we were actually able to relax and enjoy our two days of driving. The part of the road that was right on the coast, which lasted for several hours the first day, was quite beautiful, although I couldn't say it has anything over Rte. 101 on the Oregon Coast. One highlight was the statuesque limestone rocks called the Twelve Apostles, and another was leaving the crowds behind once we passed that landmark. The coolest thing was seeing koalas in the wild-- we pulled over in a spot where we saw a few other cars pulled over, and there they were, sleeping in the crooks of the trees! Toward dusk, as we drove through a long stretch of extremely dry fields, we came to a road sign warning of kangaroos in the next 30 kilometers-- and indeed, as we drove, we saw 20 or more in small groups along the edge of the forest (and, sadly, several that had been run over by the side of the road). They were super skittish and jumbed into the trees whenever we pulled over, but the thrill of seeing them lasted even if photos didn't. We spent the night in a room in a pub, an Aussie tradition (we've been told) that we enjoyed a lot, even though we were too tired to take advantage of the proximity of the bar. After a quick stop in the Coonawarra Valley wine region the following day (tasting at 9:30 in the morning really doesn't appeal), we drove on through more fields all the way to Adelaide.