Adventures in the top end

Why is the Northern Territory still just a territory and not a state? This question has bugged me for ages, and after our recent trip to Darwin, I'm still non the wiser.

Florence Falls, Litchfield Park

For our Easter break we decided to take a trip up to Darwin, even Barnadi had never been to the Northern Territory before, so it was going to be a new adventure for both of us.  Getting off the plane it felt like we had touched down in another country.  Leaving behind the cold wet autumn in Melbourne to arrive in the tropical humid heat of Darwin, we could have just as easily been in Indonesia.

Darwin

We had hired a car as part of the package, although Darwin itself is small enough to walk around in a couple of hours it was not the main attraction for our visit.  In fact after just one night it was clear Darwin as a place to visit had very little going for it.  Historical buildings don't really exist as much of the original town was destroyed during the war or by tropical storms.  The CBD that exists stretched out on a peninsula between two harbours is growing with new tower blocks emerging all over the place, but there is a complete lack of any heritage buildings such as you would find in most other state capitals.  Despite being the capital city of the Northern Territories it seems everything shuts down on public holidays and Sundays leaving the place feeling more like a provincial town.  The few places that did open charged a significant premium for doing so and seemed to mainly cater for the enormous backpacker community.  The same backpackers that left Mitchel street feeling more like a Spanish island resort, with drunken louts clogging up the streets all night.

Magnetic Termite Mounds

Cathedral Termite Mound

We get up early the next day, our first diversion was to Litchfield park.  The closer of the two national parks we had planned to visit this trip.  Litchfield is a mere one and a half hours out of Darwin and boasts many beautiful waterfalls and colossal termite mounds.  The roads in the Northern Territories are some of the emptiest and fasted roads I had driven on in Australia, speed limits extending to 130km/h in some areas, the drive was long and tedious but well worth it (and still only a short ride compared with what we were about to attempt), our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds, so named as their flattened structures all aligned perfectly north to south.  There were of course plenty of the Cathedral mounds to admire as well, incredible to think something so small could construct something so big.  Once we had seen enough termites we continued on through the park to Florence falls the only waterfalls that we visited where it was safe to swim in the plunge pool.  Crocodiles are endemic to most of the waterways in the NT, fresh water and salt water making swimming a very treacherous past time.  The number of people already swimming at Florence falls however reassured me that if a crocodile was present, it would surely have had its fill by now.  After enjoying a swim in the deep clear waters we dried out on the rocks and ate a small lunch before we continued once more on our Journey.  The next waterfalls we stopped at were the Tolmer falls and we could only admire them from above, as there was no route down to the bottom, we didn't stay too long there before we got back in our car to our final waterfall of the day, the Wangi falls.  The Wangi falls are usually open for swimming, but due to high water levels the risk of crocodiles had forced the park rangers to close the area.  We attempted to do a circular walk here, but that path was closed too as the heavy rain had damaged one of the bridges.  So we just sat and admired the water so tempting to swim in, but so deceptively deadly.  We had dinner at a stake house that served crocodile, so I feel suitably assured we got our revenge.

Wangi falls, Litchfield Park

Rock Art

The next day, Easter Sunday we took on the challenge of driving all the way to Kakadu national park., world heritage listed and possibly the NT's second biggest attraction after Uluru.  The world heritage status however is under threat thanks to one foreign invader, the cane toad. The drive just to get there takes a good three hours and as the park itself is so vast you've still got another hour or so driving just to get somewhere.  The drive is not too dull as it passes through a variety of landscapes including forests, flooded wetlands and it crosses several giant majestic rivers,  The amount of dead Wallabies on the road however reminded me how important it was to get back before dark.  The most exciting spot along the road was the dingo, I haven't seen a wild dingo before so to just see one trotting along the side of the road casually turning his head to watch us pass was a real treat.  I'd picked two main areas I wanted to explore in Kakadu, Nourlangie Rock, a site of ancient aboriginal cave paintings and Yellow water a good spot for a cruise and some crocodile spotting.  The road to Yellow water unfortunately was closed due to flooding so we ended up with only one proper stop.  Luckily Nourlangie was worth the trip all by itself.  Before getting to Nourlangie itself we stopped at a neighbouring rock, which we climbed and were blessed with views of not only Nourlangie, but the vast flat plains bellow and the dramatic vast sheer cliffs that followed the horizon right down to where the Jim Jim falls would presumably be.  The rock art at Nourlangie was interesting and the cool shelter between the imposing rock faces made it an obvious choice for those early nomadic tribes to call home.  But as is usually the case in these matters, where man has done something impressive, nature has always trumped him.  The end of the track around the paintings took us on a climb to a lookout so stunning we could have stayed there all day, that is if the heat and the flies didn't force us to retreat back to the car and its life saving air conditioning.

Nourlangie Rock, Kakadu

We then spent what we thought was going to be our last night and day in Darwin.  Our flight wasn't until 6pm so we had a whole day to kill.  After checking out of our budget hotel we did a little drive following the coast North.  We took stops at the Botanical gardens and the Darwin museum, which was free to get in and so was well worth a visit as an air conditioned diversion.

As we arrived at the airport that evening, we dropped off the keys to the hire car and made our way to check in only to hear our flight had been cancelled.  Now Darwin really is the arse end of nowhere and there were no alternative flights we could get, and as driving would take several days longer than simply waiting for a replacement flight the next day we were completely stranded.  The airline did at least put us up in a nice hotel and provide dinner vouchers, so all was not lost as we guiltily made the most of an extra night in Darwin, knowing we should be feeling bad for missing a day of work.  Luckily both our bosses were understanding of our situation, not that there was anything that we could have done if they weren't.  More worryingly we had to arrange extra care for Jessie and Goofy.

21 hours later than planned we finally left Darwin.  All in all a good trip, but 2 important lessons were learnt in case we ever ventured to the top end again.
1. Go in the dry season
2. Don't stay in Darwin

Seaside living

Last weekend we said goodbye to our house guests from the last 4 months as they resumed their travels around Australia, next stop Sydney.   In celebration of Adam's birthday we took Adam and Coralee for lunch in Williamstown.  Barnadi found a nice looking seafood restaurant called the Strand which had views across the bay with the city skyline as its backdrop.  We shared a couple of starters including a selection of various sharing dishes and some soft shell crab.  For mains, Adam had lamb an unusual choice for a seafood restaurant.  Barnadi had the salmon after a difficult decision between the salmon and the risotto.  Both Coralee and myself had the Barramundi, we were all very happy with our choices and still had just enough room to try a little dessert.  We walked off our big lunch along the rocky seafront between the harbour and the beach.  The walk left me with a sense of envy as we looked at the stunning mansions along the shore with their even more stunning views.  An earlier check at a property website revealed that most of these foreshore mansions would require funds in the millions to acquire.  It is therefore an unrealistic dream that one day we might be able to move to a sea front property in Williamstown. 

View from Williamstown

The other big change in our household this week was the addition of central heating.  Despite Melbourne being hot in summer and cold in winter, insulating never seemed to play a part in building designs.  With our heating now installed the next step is to improve our insulation, double glazing being our first big priority, although at a cost of $13,000 + it may have to wait a little bit longer. 

We have created another area of poor insulating recently by installing a cat flap into our back door.  The flap itself didn't last long as Goofy constantly banging his head through it has successfully removed it permanently.  Jessie is really enjoying her new found freedom, having lots of space to run around and learning how to climb trees keeps her occupied most days.  She has even started hunting, although starting small, her current quarry is crickets.  She catches one and brings it into the house minus its back legs, she then lets it run for a bit before pouncing on it.  This process would be repeated indefinitely until the cricket gives up trying to escape, then she gets bored and leaves it alone, shaken but still alive.

Goofy trying out Jessie's new cat flap

Trials and Tribulations.

So finally after 3 long months of waiting I have started my new job at the Alfred, working within their clinical trials department.  It is strange to be back working on clinical trials again, and yet it is also all so familiar.  Thanks to the implementation of ICH GCP guidelines, trials are conducted in almost identical ways in most countries around the world.  Working in clinical trials is certainly not everyone's cup of tea.  It is highly regulated and involves excessive amounts of record keeping to the point of OCD.  It is also quite reassuring to see how similar the trials department here in Australia is to what I was doing back home, as where I worked before I was the only clinical trials pharmacist and with the help of my one technician I pretty much had to work it all out for myself.

Goofy has now finished his 5 week puppy school and his behaviour is much better, although that may also be linked simply to his maturation.  Goofy has pretty much got a full set of adult teeth, but unfortunately that hasn't really stopped him wanting to chew everything.  He does seem to be getting better with Jessie and isn't biting her quite so much.  Barnadi was unable to join me and Goofy for the last 3 lessons, as he had to work instead.  The dynamic of the group changed over those last lessons quite drastically.  Daisy continued to be hyperactive, but the others got bored of her antics and tended to ignore her.  Romeo got much braver, and seemed to latch on to Goofy as his new best friend.  Mr Fitch turned quite grumpy and Austin was growing into quite a precocious young upstart, in the final week he even tried to violate Goofy....Goofy being Goofy however, didn't even seem to notice.

Bundoora

When we first moved to Bundoora I always felt it was a bit of a nowhere place, an outer suburb which has been developed only very recently to cope with Melbourne's expanding population.  Its size, shape and politics gives one the impression that Bundoora is simply the space left behind when all the other surrounding suburbs were created.  It does not therefore contain the depth of history, variety of architecture or cultural significance of some of Melbourne's older inner suburbs.  Bundoora is governed by 3 separate municipalities, Darebin to the south, Banyule to the east and Whittlesea to the north and as such Bundoora has no obvious town centre or focal point in which its population of approximately 26,000 can congregate at or feel proud to be a part of.

But maybe I am being to harsh on the suburb I have now chosen to call my home, I have recently been doing quite a bit of research on the history of Bundoora and it seems there is still a great deal that Bundoora has to offer.  If the three opposing councils can stop competing and work together, then Bundoora looks like it might have quite a bright future after all.

Geography
Located 16km north of Melbourne CBD, and covering an area some 15km2 lies the suburb of Bundoora.  The southern border is marked by the Bundoora campus of La Trobe University and its northern border by Bundoora RMIT.  It's east and western edges are in part bordered by the Darebin creek and Plenty river respectively.  The main access to Bundoora is via Plenty road which runs north to south and is the route of the 86 tram and the Northern ring road which crosses Bundoora east to west.  Bundoora is a very green suburb and a lot of its area is given up to open parkland, golf courses and wildlife reserves, perhaps the most significant of these is Bundoora park which encompasses an area some180 hectares included in which is Mount Cooper a long extinct volcano and claimed to be the highest point in the metropolitan area of Melbourne.  Whether this is true or not I do not know, but it does give one an incredible view of the city.


View from Mount Cooper

History


Bundoora Homestead

The area along the Plenty river was first settled by white people in 1839, in that time the area was mainly given over to farming due to the rich fertile soil found in that area.  The name Bundoora is thought to come from the aboriginal word meaning "a plain where Kangaroos live".  The first post office was built in 1863 on the corner of Plenty road and Grimshaw street, the present day site of Narai Thai restaurant.  The area of Bundoora park was used for breeding thoroughbred horses and the Bundoora homestead was built by John Matthew Vincent Smith in 1900.  By 1920 however Smith sold the homestead to the government to convert into a hospital for returned world war 1 veterans with psychiatric disorders.  Perhaps the most famous doctor to work there was Dr John Cade, an Australian psychiatrist who first discovered the effects of lithium as a mood stabiliser.  The rural isolation of Bundoora meant that this was not the only psychiatric hospital to be built in the area, the Janefield training centre also opened in 1920, and a third psychiatric institution opened in 1949, Larundel, an extension of Mont Park hospital.  The birth of psychotropic pharmacotherapy after world war 2 lead to a complete change in the way mental health disorders were managed and one by one each of these hospitals closed down.  Most of the Repatriation hospital was torn down, with only the old homestead being left intact, La Trobe built their campus on the site of the old Mont Park hospital and the RMIT on that of the Janefield training centre.


Facilities and recreation
There is a lot to see and do in Bundoora...if you like Golf.  There are two golf courses in Bundoora, one in Bundoora park and the other, Strathallan golf club located between the La Trobe nature reserve and the Gresswell habitat link.  For those who do not like golf however there is still a surprising amount to do. 
For shop-a-holics there is a factory outlet store at University hill a shopping centre near the RMIT and two other shopping centres at Bundoora square and Polaris. 
There are also plenty of restaurants to choose from, if you like Thai, Indian or pizza that is.  There is a 10 pin bowling alley and pool hall along Grimshaw street, but unusually for a University rich area there are not really any bars or clubs to go out at night. 
For those into culture, the Bundoora homestead is now open as an art gallery, it is free to enter and they have continually changing exhibits and a small café if all that art work gets you thirsty.
For kids there is the Cooper settlement, located in Bundoora park inside which you will find a heritage village, a petting farm and a small wildlife reserve, educational and fun.
For those more into nature then there are several wildlife reserves including one at La Trobe university and there is also a beautifully winding cycle track along the Darebin creek to explore.


Larundel, Main hospital building

Development
Bundoora is currently undergoing a mass of new developments some good, some not so good.  The old shopping centre at Bundoora square is getting old and tired, its design was never that attractive primarily consisting of a giant car park with a few ugly shops dropped in the middle.  Their attempt to brighten the place up with murals does little to improve the character of the place.  Two new shopping precincts are currently being developed.  The first to the north is University hill, located by the RMIT the plot encompasses a wide area that is now being developed.  The first stage is already complete and includes a large factory outlet store as well as some smaller retail outlets, the majority of the rest of the development will be given over to medium density residential properties.  Polaris to the south is a much smaller site and yet I feel it has a much greater potential.  Located just north of La Trobe university and to the east of Bundoora park, Polaris is being built on the old Larundel site.  What remains of the old psychiatric hospital which closed in 1999 has been extensively vandalised with several of the buildings completely unsalvageable, some however have been incorporated into the redevelopment of the site, giving the development the opportunity to mix old and new architecture and retain the history of the area for future generations to appreciate.  Combine this to its favourable location by Bundoora park and you can see why this is the development I am most excited about.


Polaris

Residential development is also exploding in Bundoora, not just at the Polaris and University hill sites, but all along Plenty road new apartments and townhouses are being constructed.  One which is probably less favourable amongst the current locals is being planned on the site of an old Smorgys restaurant that burnt down last year.  The site is located by the edge of Bundoora park, and approval has been gained for 5-6 apartment blocks, the tallest being 8 stories high.  As well as being higher than any other building in the area, its proximity to Bundoora park seems a little out of place and unsympathetic to its surroundings.
One area of development that still really needs to be looked at is transport, as previously mentioned the 86 tram runs up Plenty road.  This route is always slow and unreliable, trams frequently are late or break down and the journey into the CBD can take over an hour.  There are no train lines that run through Bundoora and buses are as much victims of the ever increasing traffic as all the other commuters.  If the population continues to boom as planned by all this development then improvements to transport links need to be seriously considered.

So all in all I guess Bundoora is not really that bad after all.  There is a surprisingly large number of things to see and do and It has quite a unique history which is being preserved, shopping facilities are improving and a lot of money is being invested in developing the area.  Transport links to the CBD and other suburbs are slow but they do exist.  Bundoora might not have the obvious class of Northcote, the hipster appeal of Fitzroy or the nightlife of St Kilda but it does have its own charm and I for one am proud to call Bundoora my home.

Road to recovery

Jessie has been making an incredible recovery from her operation, the very next day she had begun eating and drinking again and more importantly purring again.  We took her cone off during the day so she could move about more easily, but put it back on at night to ensure she didn't have a go at her stitches while we weren't looking.  As the days went on she became more and more like her old self, her stitches remained in place and the wound appears to be healing nicely. 

A happy Jessie

Goofy on the other hand is getting increasingly frustrated with being kept separated from Jessie, but as much as he loves to play with her, he plays too rough and while she is in this state we have no choice but to keep him outside.  Goofy did get a little reward however, in the form of week 2 of puppy school.  The same group of puppies were there as last week, Austin although still small had grown more precocious and was barking viciously at everyone, including Daisy.  Goofy having a bit of a crush on Daisy however stood to her defence.  Mr Fitz was his usual amiable self, and even Romeo the snooty Pomeranian made a little bit more of an effort to socialise.  The main focus of this weeks class was diet, with a bit of walking on a lead and the command drop also being taught.

A better behaved Goofy?

This weekend saw the return of Melbourne's white night, which I have been looking forward to ever since its debut last year.  Barnadi was working as usual so I met up with Cameron in town, Kirsten was also meant to be coming, but due to a few seconds of rain earlier in the day she stood us up.  There were a lot of installations returned from last years event, but also a significant number of new pieces.  I don't know if it was just that the novelty had worn off, or that the crowds were just too big, but the start of the night did not fill me with the same sense of awe and magic as it had done the previous year.  Cameron and I started our night heading up to an event called purple rain at the top of the CBD, but the queues were so long it would have been pointless to even attempt to get in, the same thing happened outside the synchronised swimming.  The walk back down Swanston street was a real struggle and we took a breather down Bourke street where the bank of Melbourne had set up a small seating area for exactly that purpose.  When we finally made it down to Flinders street station we were about ready to give up, but we cut under the station, over a bridge to Southbank and double backed to the Queen Victoria Gardens were a colossal frame supporting a dozen spotlights pointing into the sky stood, it was here that Barnadi called to say he had finished work and arrived in the CBD.  We met him outside the arts centre, but by this time Cameron had had enough and went home.  Barnadi and I stayed out for another couple of hours the crowds had eased a little by this point and so it became much more enjoyable.  We spent some time in Federation square watching the giant dance class in session, sat by a giant pyramid of sand with flickering lights projected onto it and disturbing sounds playing in the background, we even entered a small room with flickering lights and mirrors which gave the illusion that the whole place was shaking.  We then went home happy with a night well spent.

White Night Melbourne

Back to School

Goofy being Goofy

Last week Goofy had his first day at Puppy School, a very interesting experience for Goofy.  The 'School' was located at the vet we use in Thomastown, and it must have made a good impression on Goofy as he headed straight over to the class room area when Barnadi took him for his vaccinations this morning.  In the class there were 4 other puppies a grumpy Pomeranian called Romeo, a Spoodle named Daisy, A terrier called Mr Fitz and a tiny golden Labrador called Austin.  As the only girl in the group Daisy was a complete flirt, all Austin wanted to do was sleep, Romeo kept himself to himself and Mr Fitz seemed a very sociable chap.  Goofy at 16.6kg towered over them all and completely dominated all the others at playtime.  As you might expect, puppy school is more for the owners sake than the animals, while Goofy was having the time of his life, we were being taught about everything from toilet training to dealing with unwanted behaviours.  The only command they taught us in the first lesson was sit, which is something Goofy can actually do quite well already, and has done so from a very early age.  The course is for 5 weeks and for only $75 was a bargain.



Poor, poor Jessie

Jessie has unfortunately not been having such a good time of it.  This morning she had a trip to the vet to get spayed.  She is now sitting on the front door mat in her cone of shame, growling at anyone who comes near.  I am not sure which is distressing her more, the pain from the surgery, the indignity of the cone, or just a general mistrust of all human kind.  I doubt she will be as keen to jump into her carry case from now on, or make the journey to the Vet.  It is very distressing to see her like this and I really hope she can learn to forgive us soon, for as much as I want to comfort her there is nothing I can do.

Smoke gets in your eyes

The whole of Melbourne is currently coated in a thick blanket of smoke.  As the CFA fire warnings slip back out of the red and into the blues and yellows, most of the fires that were burning have now been brought under control.  The hot still air however has meant the smoke from all these fires has lingered on leaving the city in a chocking haze.  I half expected this cloud of smoke to stimulate a massive influx of patients onto the respiratory ward where I work at the Alfred hospital, but fortunately this fear has so far not manifested itself.  The Summer months are always a worrying time, with the inevitable grass fires that the hot dry weather triggers.  It is especially worrying for us now we live in one of the outer suburbs, where there is so much bush and parkland around us.  As always a large number of these fires did not start spontaneously and have been deliberately started by people who obviously have serious mental health issues.  One such person, responsible for the fire in Fawkner last weekend has thankfully been apprehended, but there always seems to be a fresh load of budding 'firebugs' ready to replace those that get caught.

Life post holiday has quickly returned to normal and it is already as if the holiday never happened.  It is not surprising I suppose, that Barnadi was keen for us to book our next one as soon as possible.  So last weekend we took a trip to our old travel agent in Northcote plaza and booked return flights to the UK.  While there Barnadi decided we should pop into Telstra, our internet/phone package was about to come to the end of its contract and since we never use our land line apart from receiving cold callers, he figured it may be cheaper just to get internet alone.  He was wrong, in fact if we cancelled the phone line our bills would go up by an extra $11, so not surprisingly we kept the phone line.  I then wanted to check if maybe bundling our internet with Foxtel (a paid cable TV service) may be a cheaper alternative, it wasn't, but then it wasn't that much more expensive either.  So after some deliberation over a free coffee that Telstra provided, it seems bribery does work after all.  It didn't take long for us to decided that free to air TV in Australia is so bad it was worth giving it a go, we can afford it, and it is only a year contract, after which we could always cancel it again.  Our final stop in Northcote that day was to a shop on the high street called 'the Book Grocer', a café/book shop.  Books in Australia, like everything it seems, are disproportionately more expensive here than they are in the rest of the world.  A new paper back, for example is likely to set you back around $20.  In 'the Book Grocer' however there is not a single book over $10!  We splashed out on 3 new books, which should help me through my long daily commutes to and from work.  It is always nice to come back to Northcote, it was my first home in Melbourne, and I do miss living there.

That night Barnadi was working, but I wasn't and as the pharmacy in Epping hasn't phoned me to ask if I can do any shifts since before Christmas, I think I can officially say I no longer work there.  So free to do as I pleased I joined a group of friends from work in the CBD for a night of Karaoke to celebrate one of the pharmacists' birthday.  FM Karaoke on Bourke street takes the form of a small downstairs bar with several rooms upstairs for hire by the hour.  The majority of the songs available are Japanese or Korean, and the English songs are typically at least 20 years old.  After a slow start while we waited for the Birthday girl to break the ice by choosing her first song, the pace quickly picked up so that by the end of the two hours there were still a lot of unsung songs waiting in the playlist.  I joined in a lot of the singing, but my one 'piece de resistance' was going all out on Elton Johns 'Your Song', in the Moulin Rouge style.  It may have been a little over the top, but I decided if I was going to sing badly, I may as well go all out rather than settling for the flat monotone adopted by those who can't decided on a key that will allow them to hit the high and low notes and so end up somewhere in the middle.

For our Sunday recovery, Barnadi and I joined a couple of my friends from work, Cameron and Kirsten, down in Richmond for Brunch in a place called Top Paddock.  The place was packed and had a waiting list of people to get in, this made Barnadi a little grumpy as it was getting close to 11am and he hadn't eaten yet.  The queue moved relatively quickly however and it wasn't too long before we were seated inside.  I ordered a dish of white anchovies with egg on sour dough toast, and it was definitely worth the wait, a very tasty if not slightly unorthodox breakfast.  On our way home we couldn't resist popping into Pet barn where we purchased a couple of new squeaky toys for Goofy.  He'd managed to remove the squeakers from all his old ones.  Goofy starts puppy school this week and we are hoping this will help him to calm down.  It's a shame there isn't a kitten school for Jessie.