The scarier side of OZ!

February 20, 2009

If this is Friday it must be .... Melbourne, AUS. Spent the last official port of call for Australia seeing the scarier part of AUS. Many of you have been asking about the fires and floods you have been hearing about in the news. We have been completely unaffected by them on this trip. Most of the time they were burning while we were in NZ. We were periodically unsure if the ship was going to stop in Melbourne over the last two weeks, however in the end, the decision was to go. Spoke with some locals today to get the down low on what was really happening. Here’s the word on the street from the people who live here:

The fires stopped just on the outskirts of the city of Melbourne – scorched some of the suburban areas, but did not enter in too far. To date, 210 precious souls have lost their lives. My first question was – Wasn’t there any warning? Why weren’t areas evacuated? Here’s how one local explained the tragedy to me. There are fires every year around this area – most people are prepared for them and the standard operations are to stay on your property to assist in protecting your land – usually it’s never a problem. This year was different. Extreme heat (46 degrees Celsius), drought that carried on for months, extreme high winds all contributed to create the “perfect firestorm” of the century. Flames rose as high as a church steeple and travelled at about 60km’s per hour devouring everything in their path. The carnage was complete in about 1-2 hours on one day. Some horrific stories of people trying to outrun the flames in their car and being engulfed by them. People and homes had no warning as this storm rose up and ravaged everything very suddenly and mercilessly. There was no hope of escape. As of today, fires are still burning in outlying areas, but are contained. Donations for relief efforts can be found everywhere, even on our ship. Melbourne is known as a “garden city”. What we found today as we walked around were acres of brown grass, green leaves on live trees turning brown and crumbling off, the only vegetation growing anywhere in the ground were cacti, palm trees and dessert foliage. There is no smell of smoke in the air, but it is evident that this area has been under extreme drought conditions for a while. On the up side, the spirit of the Aussies is alive and strong. They are a pioneering and positive nation. They will get through this difficult time with typical Aussie optimism and fortitude. One person told me today, Melbourne will once again return to being the beautiful “garden city” it so proudly professes to be. Even brighter and more alive than it was before this terrible season of loss. When there is great adversity all around, the Aussie spirit digs in and moves forward. Impressive.

As for the rest of the city of Melbourne, it is an interesting mix of the old and new. Mixed in amongst the beautiful buildings from the 1800’s are some rather unique, modern art architecture in the form of skyscrapers, statues, and facades on buildings. A very eclectic look for a downtown – the jury is still out on whether I like it or not. It’s definitely unique. We spent the afternoon walking along the boardwalk that follows the river running through the city (kind of like the Rideau Canal in Ottawa). We ended up in front of the Melbourne Aquarium and decided to have a look inside. Yep ... this definitely exposed us to more of the scarier sides of AUS! While our previous trips to conservation areas showed us the cute and cuddly critters of NZ and AUS, this place delighted in going into great detail with in-your-face visuals of water pythons, bird-eating spiders, scorpions, poison arrow frogs, hissing cockroaches the size of a man’s palm, man-o-war jellyfish, deadly sting rays and, of course, SHARKS of a zillion varieties! Remember I told you in my first blog that 12 of the world’s deadliest creatures call AUS their home – ya – well, we saw most of them today in this aquarium of all places! Not gonna lie, I’m not a fan of all things ugly and deadly, however, I did find myself intrigued to see these creepy , crawly things so closely (and more importantly, behind several inches of very thick glass!). I’m always excited to learn something new – and my quota was filled today!

Hopped on a city tram that gave a free “tour” on the history of Melbourne. Gotta say, one of the things both John and I appreciate about NZ and AUS is the huge amount of free beauty they offer tourists and locals. Most of what we have seen over the last few weeks would likely have been barricaded and had some sort of fee or tax attached to it if you wanted to view it in Canada. Museums, local transportation, historic sites, all naturally occurring phenomena are free for the viewing by anyone and everyone who wants to take the time to indulge both here in AUS and NZ. It’s that spirit of generosity and hospitality that speaks the loudest for both of these countries. They bend over backwards to make you feel welcome. Very heartening – we could all learn something from that. It leaves a wonderful impression.

One more day at sea and then we are back in Sydney on Sunday morning. Meeting a couple of exceptional individuals in Restorative Justice and giving a presentation at the Australian Institute of Criminology before heading home on Tuesday. More on that in coming days!

Peace from Melbourne,

Robin

Things I learned today:

1. Gentoo Penguins are “cheeky and feisty”- my kind of bird!
2. Mother sharks will eat their young ... hmm.
3. The human spirit is very resilient and wired to rise up out of ashes of tragedy – all around the world.