Parliment, City Council, and Tour of the City

Today started off with our group catching the train into downtown from Cheltham station. You may notice that Wes, our taller counterpart, is missing from these photos. No worries! We did not forget him and were able to meet him in the city.

So, this is our uniform! Not quite as stylish as we hoped it would be. In fact, I think we all felt as though we were wearing our father/grandfather's jacket that did not fit quite right. I am certain this would have been my sentiment had either my father or grandfather ever worn a jacket. All the same, it took some time before I was able to look at one of my other team members without cracking up. We definitely felt like a school children in our uniforms. Our large rotary badges served as beacons throughout the day resulting in non-Rotary individuals approaching us to ask where we were from and what we were doing, as well as random Rotarian's who recognized the emblem and engaged us in conversation. Matt seemed to draw these people out, which I attribute to his good natured hello's and g'day's he said to everyone we passed or looked at us. He is a true Southerner!

We started out at Parliment, which is the state level of government. Following a group of school kids we were able to listen to Andrew Elsbury, a Liberal member of parliament answer questions about the Australian government. This was followed by a lovely tea with The Honorable Bruce Atkinson MLC who is the current President of the Legislative Council of Victoria (the equivalent to the Speaker of the House for our state government...I think). Both were seemingly very open and willing to talk about their views on different topics related to the government in Victoria.

We did a walking tour of downtown and were able to see some of the amazing street art. Melbourne is known for the professional artists who put up graffiti. There seems to be quite a few inexperienced artists as well throughout the city. Graffiti is everywhere and while I have been told they try to keep it cleaned up it is hard to keep up with it because it is so prevalent here. I'm not sure how quickly we get it cleaned up in Dallas, but in Garland it is gone within a few days.

We ate lunch at the RACV club, of which one of the Rotarians is a member. It seems to be a cross between AAA and an exclusive country club in the States. We had an amazing lunch there followed by a tour of the various perks of being a member including the fitness center, the Billiards room, and the lovely dining hall. Below is a picture of Ann pretending to be a professional pool player.

We also had a chance to visit St. Paul Cathedral. This is the primary Anglican cathedral, with Saint Patricks being the primary Catholic cathedral in the city. They were setting up flowers and decorating for the funeral of one of the prominent footy ball (Australian Football) players who recently died of cancer. There is going to be a televised broadcast of the funeral and most of downtown is going to be blocked off for all the onlookers. Apparently he was Catholic and should have had services at the Catholic cathedral, but they church would not let him play the music he wanted and have the type of service he wanted so he is having services at the Anglican cathedral instead.

We saw the oldest pub in the city, Mitre Tavern, although my host family insists there is at least one older pub. This pub is supposedly haunted by a ghost and has extremely small windows due to the fact that it is based on English architecture which was taxed on the size of their windows.

We finished up at the City Council of Melbourne and were able to spend time with Brian Shanahan, a member of Melbourne City Council. He gave us a tour and then we had afternoon tea together and he was open to answering any and all questions we posed. Of importance to certain members of our team... how to become an Australian citizen through marriage. Overall, he was a good sport and gave us all gifts, a nice leather planner/business card holder with the City of Melbourne logo imprinted, for visiting. One of the world's largest pipe organs is housed here and is rented out for concerts. Rooms throughout are rented out for various functions such as weddings. It was odd to see people setting up for the Comedy Festival in some of the rooms since our City Hall's always seem so official.

I'm posting photo albums on Facebook, so you should be able to see more if you click on this link: State Parliment and City of Melbourne Photos.