Melbourne Odyssey: Day 4 Pulling the wool over Geelong

By the numbers

 

I wasn’t feeling too crash hot this morning as it felt like I had some sort of head cold. Although no surprise since the weather down in Melbourne is cooler than what I flew out from. I didn’t even bring cold weather gear with me. My plan was to get the train to Geelong to explore that city for a couple of hours and hope it wouldn’t rain where I would be. I might have coffee, but I very nearly gave myself decafe, which might not go down too well. I should have moved quicker if I wanted to get into the city sooner as it was around an hour out of Melbourne. I left a touch later than I was supposed to, but I managed to get the next train that would get me to Geelong. We passed through some towns like Sunshine that didn’t look too great and needed TLC. The station of Lara that I was going to visit tomorrow wasn’t very big at all, it was more blink and you would miss the place.

 

It was relaxing on the train and I had a suggestion of checking out the library. When I got off there was something I realised it wasn’t hot at all. I was actually getting a touch cold from being outside and hoped walking around would keep me warm. I was actually heading towards the Wool Museum, but I was distracted by the buildings including the art gallery with King George statue outside. Though there were actually two statues of him. I headed through a random street with food places that were mostly not open yet and found there were a few street art along the way. The museum that I was heading towards was pretty easy to find as I had to head towards the water and throughout the city there were signs pointing you to where you needed to go. The museum also was part of the information centre too.

 

It was only $10 to enter the Wool museum and it was actually an old Wool store, where wool was brokered to buyers. Geelong has a history with sheep and wool in the area from the 1800s. Basically DJ Denny’s were not the only people involved with the wool industry in the city of Geelong. I did find quite a few buildings with the name near the waterfront that were now part of the university and even the ABC. The story of sheep and Wool in Australia was interesting as they covered the issues behind working the land. Issues that included the destruction of native grasses, fly strike and the specific fly that that causes the issue. There were the hand tool that soon were made way for the electric shearers. What I didn’t know was that there were people who went to the various farms on push bikes that carried all their gear including swags. It seemed Geelong was where the million dollar bale of wool had been sold and that went to Japan. The story had a very bored security guy wondering what he was doing, but he changed once the price went up and was sold. It was interesting when they included the machinery that was used in the textiles industries to make things like clothing and even rugs. They explained some of the machines roles. They even had the last bale of wool that was from the wool stockpile when the wool price crashed in the 1970s and was stockpiled to wait for the price to increase. The museum was pretty different to what I thought it would be and that the company who once owned the building that was now the museum owned quite a few buildings in the area. I didnt realise wool had a huge story to tell in Australia and that included the issues relating to the welfare of the sheep, which apparently improved over time. I am glad that I actually ended up in the museum.

 

After the museum, I took a walk down to the bay and found I was literally shivering as it had to be jumper weather. The pier I found was actually a restaurant at the end of it and outside one of the buildings people were sitting, which I wondered why at the time until I realised there was a speaker out front of the ABC radio studio that was live steaming. People were listening to the radio program, which I thought was very different unless they do that at other locations too. Nearby was a carousel that was under cover and you could go for rides on. Some of the horses had been restored as they must have been saved from being destroyed. I wasn’t too sure on the story. The water front had painted bollards that were of various characters like fireman, ship captain and lifesavers spread out so I guess you could always hunt them down. I ended up wandering towards the Botanical gardens, although there wasn’t any hope that I was walking up a hill just to visit that especially when the time had me worried that rush hour would begin and the train would be full. I followed the signs back to the train station and actually was able to catch a train back to Melbourne just after school had been let out. I had a seat to myself the entire way, so I guess that I had missed part of the rush, but not by much at all.

 

I arrived back in the city and I had charged my phone along the way. Deciding that I needed a meal so that I wouldn’t need to go back out, I found something to eat that would fill the tank and be satisfied. The pub wasn’t that far from where I was staying so that was a good thing and at first I thought it was chockas though it hadn’t gotten that busy yet. By the time I left people were walking in. Tomorrows plan is to visit the International Airshow, though I will take my time as I would likely need it.