Day 36. Last day in Melbourne, day 8

The morning was spent at Williamstown North as guests of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Museum. The trip gave me the opportunity to ride a train, take a bus and do a bit of walking. We bought a MetLink day pass for Zone 1. At $6.80 per head our decision to return the car was vindicated. The Museum workshop and storage area is located on the abandoned railway workshops site. The Railway Museum takes the remaining sheds at the site.

I have featured a 1911 Hotchkiss car converted to a fire engine by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. This is one of 11 vehicles bound for South America which were unloaded in Melbourne for reasons unknown and bought by the MFB. Other photos shows appliances in storage. There are about 80.

Adrienne writes: We then returned to the city and visited the Exhibition Gardens and Building. I have included a photo showing the fountain in the foreground. This building was built in 1880 and used for the World Exhibition, and later, in 1901 to house the Victorian Parliament while the Parliament Building was used for the first sitting of the Australian Parliament. The last photo shows the city skyline from behind the Exhibition Building.

We then moved on to the Victorian Museum which is now situated behind the Exhibition Building. The old museum is now the State Library. We saw the Titanic Artefacts exhibition, and then saw the Insects, Dinosaur and Animals exhibits, then a Mind & Body exhibit, a Forest Walk and then the Melbourne Exhibition which had Phar Lap as it's core element. There was also an exhibition of design work from high school students which is an annual event here. Interesting. I then went to see an exhibition called “'til you drop shopping, a Melbourne history”, which was not very exciting.

Frank forgot to tell you yesterday about the chap who sat next to us at lunch. He bought two dessert sweets and a cup of coffee. He then proceeded to put in 6 sachets of sugar into his coffee. Diabetic, maybe? Interestingly he took the strawberry off one of the desserts and did not eat it. Fruit! Yuk!