This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Category Archives: 1999 Travels


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1999 Travels September 22

WEDNESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER      MORNINGTON

Another early start. We had to have Truck at the Frankston dealership by 8am.

We were lent a Discovery and were at Pakenham by 9am.

We worked on counting votes. Some of the work involved checking some of the counts done in local booths on Saturday, but a lot was sorting and counting absentee votes. The place seemed very disorganized, with people floating about doing bits here and there.

We had a thirty minute lunch break and got sandwiches at the local shops, then quickly went and checked out the local caravan park.

John had to leave at 4.15 to go back to Frankston for Truck. I could not go as we had intended, because I was part way through trying to sort out a very mixed-up vote count. Not surprising, in the muddle of the place!

So John went to Frankston, collected Truck, then came back and we worked until 11pm. It meant extra money, as we were paid by the hour, but was very tiring.

We had a tea break and bought fish and chips.

Then it was the long drive back to Mornington – and in fog.

We had already decided to move the van to Pakenham tomorrow, because this vote counting may last into next week.

The new roof rack was put on Truck, at the dealer’s. It is much better than the original one, because it has a mesh floor, rather than just cross members. This is going to make it much easier to pack.


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1999 Travels September 21

TUESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

We were both rather down today. I think there is an element of boredom setting in, though in John’s case, he is probably reacting to all that has happened in the past couple of weeks.

I drove to the shops and picked up the photo reprints, got them organized and mailed off.

I made soup for tea.

We were phoned in the late afternoon and asked if we wanted to go work, counting votes, at the Pakenham electoral office. We said yes – provided we could work around the Truck service that is scheduled for tomorrow. The man said that was alright.

More money – excellent!


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1999 Travels September 20

MONDAY 20 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

We drove to home. Got a later start than intended because John slept in.

We pruned the kiwi fruit vines – heavily. Left the clippings piled up in the vegie garden. They are such rampant plants that they must be pruned every year, or they grow all over the roof and displace tiles. Hopefully, when they have dried out a bit, K will pile them up and burn them.

The work had not been finished before it was time for John to go to the dentist, for his 2pm appointment, and he was annoyed about that.

While he was in the dentist – for ninety minutes – I went back and finished the cleaning up after the pruning.

John was a little shaky after the dental ordeal, so I drove back to Mornington – in heavy traffic.

We left the contents of the roof rack in John’s shed, at home, because we are finally going to get the new one, under warranty.

Tea was soup.


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1999 Travels September 19

SUNDAY 19 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

We spent a quiet morning, after a sleep-in.

After lunch we drove to the new Bunnings Warehouse that has set up locally. John had an enjoyable browse and I tagged along.

We are feeling quite aimless and it is not a pleasant feeling.

Tea was soup and leftover pizza. We are even eating rather poorly!


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1999 Travels September 18

SATURDAY 18 SEPTEMBER      MORNINGTON

We had an exceedingly early start, as we had to be at a school near Berwick, by 7.30am, and that was about 50kms away. The early morning was very cold, too.

John was allocated to be a standard polling booth official, checking people’s names and address and marking them off on the roll, and handing them voting papers.

Because I’d done election work a number of times before, and knew the ropes, John’s niece had me work with her on the absentee votes and deal with those whose names could not be found on the electoral roll. We were abnormally busy as it is apparently a confusing area and many people came in to vote, thinking they were enrolled for the Berwick electorate, but in fact were in Dandenong. I think there may have been an electorate boundary change, recently?

It was a long day, and tiring. We are not used to work! John’s niece and her husband were in charge of the booth, and it ran very smoothly – unlike some I have experienced! We were out by 9pm, which is pretty good as these things go.

The drive back to Mornington was tedious, in the dark and cold.

We had a very late tea of pizza.


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1999 Travels September 17

FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

We had a quiet day.

Drove into Mornington, then walked around the shops. It is a large and varied shopping centre.

I got the latest film processed – the family ones from the funeral were pleasing, and I put three of the negatives in to get prints done for the whole family.

We bought fish and chips for tea.


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1999 Travels September 16

THURSDAY 16 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

After a late start, went for a drive around some of the Mornington Peninsula coast.

It was a very windy day.

We followed the main road around the coast to Sorrento, where we watched the Queenscliff ferry come in.

Went for a walk on Portsea jetty.

Drove across to the “back” side and explored the Portsea Back Beach. Drove to the London Bridge lookout area.

09-16-1999 London Bridge Portsea back beach.jpg

London Bridge

It was, of course, from the Portsea Back Beach area that the then Prime Minister, Harold Holt, disappeared whilst swimming, in December 1967. No trace of him has ever been found. It is a treacherous beach but there were those who could not be satisfied with the obvious explanations of drowning, or shark attack. Amongst the more bizarre theories circulated were ones like the American CIA kidnapped him, via submarine!

09-16-1999 Portsea back beach.jpg

Portsea Back Beach, near where the Prime Minister disappeared, in 1967

A political crisis eventuated. There was rather a dearth of leadership material in the Liberal Party of the time, as the long serving Prime Minister Menzies had groomed Holt as his replacement, and had tended to shunt off other likely talent, sideways, to diplomatic postings and the like. Holt had not been in place long enough to consider his succession plan. Tensions with the Country Party and Liberals meant that Holt’s deputy was not an option for Prime Minister. The unprecedented solution saw a Senator – Gorton – become the Liberal Party leader and thus PM. He had to move to the House of Representatives, via a by-election. This sudden prominence of a Senator caused some to revise their opinion that the Senate was a burying ground for political hacks of little talent! Including some Senators themselves!

It was an interesting episode in what had, until then, been a very boring Australian political scene.

It was really too windy and chilly to be tempted to do any beach walking of substance. On a better day, we might have been tempted to do the very pleasant walk to Bushranger Bay.

But going for the drive gave an illusion that we were doing something other than just sitting around the van. We managed to drive 115kms.

Tea was sausages, fries, vegies.


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1999 Travels September 15

WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

The funeral of John’s sister was held today. It was rather harrowing, especially afterwards, when a family “wake” was held at the home of another sister. There was much reminiscing and recollection, as one would expect. Being a relative newcomer to the family, a lot of it did not mean much to me. But, even on such a day, the family alliances and antagonisms still surfaced. I think these are so much greater in large families.

N’s will was read. She had obviously put a lot of thought into this and people felt they were dealt with fairly. She had prepared a parcel of mementoes and wines from her cellar for each sister and brother. John received the opal pendant that had been the family’s 21st present to N. He thinks he will give it on to R.

I was able to take a rare photo – all the ten surviving siblings together, because brother C and sister M had come from their respective interstate homes.

Back at the van, our tea was leftover party pies, from the wake, and pizza from Monday night.

I think, on balance, that it is good that John has been here to be part of the family at this time.


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1999 Travels September 14

TUESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

We pottered about in the morning.

Drove to Moorabbin to Harvey Normans, for John to look at computer games. He bought one called Worms Armageddon. This will be his birthday present.

We refuelled Truck at a cheap outlet in Frankston – 70cpl.

The Landrover dealer phoned and rescheduled the Truck service.

We went to E – John’s sister’s, at Mornington, for tea, which was pleasant.


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1999 Travels September 13

MONDAY 13 SEPTEMBER     MORNINGTON

We left Mornington at 10am, to spend the day in our home area.

Went first to Chirnside Park to organize new glasses frames for John, as his have been broken for a while, and held together by tape. They cost $150.

We went to have a look at home. John was not happy with the state of the garden, where pruning and cutting back of plants has not been done. The pets were excited to see us, yet again.

We collected clothes suitable for the funeral, from home.

We both visited our dentist. As I suspected, my root canal filling, done in Cairns last year, is loose. He will replace it and hope that works – this is a cheaper option than treatment from an orthodontic dentist, even assuming I could get into see one. John has two big fillings to be done, one a correction of an old and worn  root canal. Our tooth works are going to cost over $2000! This puts us both into shock. John talks about just getting his teeth out and getting dentures – but that would cost nearly as much.

So we had a rather morose journey back to Mornington. We drove 106kms today.

Bought pizza for tea.

This time last week, we were at Mt Ive – and it was a much more pleasant day!

Then John’s niece, C, phoned. She and her husband are in charge of a polling booth in next Saturday’s State election, and she asked if we would work there. You bet we will! The several hundred dollars we will earn will go towards dental costs.