“WHO ARE YOU”

March has gone out with a ROAR of the engines and a ROAR of the crowd.

Before I get to that, a brief dialogue about a small and fairly unknown national park I recently visited. My friend, Dean, and I took a day trip to the Brisbane Ranges National Park. No plane was needed to reach this park as it wasn’t anywhere near Brisbane but was located just west of Melbourne about 90km (56m) outside of town. It was a warm, sunny Sunday morning when we jumped in his car and drove to the hilly patch out in the middle of the Victorian plains.

The hike was a 10km (6.2m) loop trail that starts at the bottom of Anakie Gorge, then climbing to the top of the ridge and continued along the parameter of the park before descending back down to follow the creek again.

When they say gorge here its nothing like the magnificent Columbia River Gorge I know and love from the Pacific Northwest. Here the hills climb about 100m (330’) above the creek bed. I use the term “creek bed” loosely too. It would barely register as even a waterway in most parts of the states. There are pools of water here in there that might constitute a stream in the rainy season but not in March at the end of summer.
My national park book listed this area as having one of the densest populations of Koalas in Victoria. Once we arrived we soon found out that wasn’t the case. In January 2006 there had been a bush fire in the area and the vegetation was just starting to recover the land. The trees trunks, mostly burned, black, soot covered stalks of once beautiful gum and eucalyptus trees were in the early stages of sending out new branches. There was no way any of them could support even a small population of Koalas. It was interesting to see how in just 3 short years Mother Nature was starting to bring back the lush forest greenery that she has cleared out.


Many of the plants in Australia depend on the bush fires to cull foliage and help with germination. One plant in particular the, Grass Tree, will only produce its seed pods after a bush fire. Once a fire has moved through the area, this remarkable plant with a crumbling black trunk and grass blades growing like a fungus out of the top sends up a large phallic like pod into the air. Upon reaching its full height the pores on what sort of resembles a big cat’s tail opens its little chambers and lets hundreds of seeds drop out. Some start to grow right there others are carried away by bird life to begin the germination process else where.


Dean and I had our snacks at a little bench over looking the rolling hills onto the valley before continuing on our loop journey. We saw very little wildlife mainly because the fires had wiped out most of the creatures. We did happen to see tad poles in the of the stream pools, a small lizard here and there and of course the ever present birds of Australia. Nearing the end of our trek in a area densely covered with new growth ground cover we caught a wallaby. They are bigger and leaner than the pademelons of Tasmania, with longer tails. Their coat is a more grayish brown colour. (I can here Phyllis now) What do I know about colours!

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. After changing out of my dusty hiking clothes and into some shorts we took a different drive back to town. Going through the apple and produce farms of Bacchus Marsh. A town my group at work is hoping to do a road widening project through. Then it’s freeway back into town and back to work for another week.

This brings us to the ROAR of the engines part of the blog. Some of you may know that Melbourne has a Formula 1 Grand Prix Race. The trials start on Friday afternoon and take place in Albert Park (See September 12th blog entry “The apartment search goes on”) The noise echoes off the high rise buildings and are not only heard but felt throughout the city as the cars zing around the track. There has been a lot of news reports leading up to this event. The Crown Casino erected special platforms to sell merchandise and have a place to view your favorite driver. There are 2 days of time trails and the big race day on Sunday afternoon. All with a festivities ending with a classic rock band concert. The headliner being that famous British rock band from the 60’s (Yes, I said the 60’s.), THE WHO!

On Saturday afternoon I had some time to kill and walked the 2km from my house to the race area. All I had to do was follow the helicopters and noise of the race cars. I found myself at the southern end of the park near gate 10. It was here I also found that the entire park was fenced off and there was no way to get even a glimpse of the souped up roadsters zooming around in a strangely shaped circle. I purchased my ticket and retreated home to save my energies for the next day.

The race itself started at 5pm. I arrive within the park about 4:00 and wandered around trying to see what I could see. This was my first Formula 1 race and the last time I saw the WHO was in the summer 1989 at Sullivan Stadium outside of Boston. I think the name has changed by now, but it was where the New England Patriots played way back then.





As I made my way around the grounds I found myself at the starting line just about 10 minutes before the race began. I worked my way into the crowd to get as close as possible to the fence line. It was here where I captured the first video of the day. I managed to snap a few more pictures of the grand stands and the massive crowds the came out for this spectacle. Most of the people were dressed in their favourite teams highly sponsored gear. Just before the race started an Australian F-16 made a few laps above the track and then a Qantas plane flew over head. Both of these magnificent machine flying much closer to the ground than I had seen before. It was at this point I decided I’d better put in the ear plugs I picked up on my way in.

Once the race was under way I wandered the pedestrian pathways, people watching and looking at the vintage race cars on display. There were very few places for a late arrival, like myself, to sit. So I just kept walking. Mom and Bill will be disappointed to know that I only caught short glimpses of the race itself. At several points along my wanders I found myself near the track and did catch the cars zip by but then it was 2 or 3 minutes before they made their way back and, as I often do, I got bored and wandered off snapping pictures at opportune moments. At some point along the way the race finished. The big clue for me was all the people starting to move around and then it dawned on me things had gone quiet. There was no more need for the ear plugs. As I started to make my way toward the concert venue I noticed hundreds of people walking out on to the race track. I followed the masses and realized we were all headed to the winners circle. Once there the crowds thickened to fill in every gap between the safety barriers. People climbed the fencing to get a better view of who ever it was that won the race. I‘ve been told it was Jenson Button a Brit that took the checker flag. I have to admit that was kind of cool to stand on the race track along with the cheering fans and TV cameras. Someone near me found a piece of tire rubber and was all excited about the little memento. It didn’t take me long to wander off again and I made my way to the convert venue.

When I first entered the park I found my way to the concert ticket booth and obtained my wrist band. This allowed me to just walk into the fenced area for the concert without having to wait in line later. I’m not sure who the opening band was, a co-worker just mentioned she thought they we “Jet”. I didn’t really care for them. They we’re very punk/heavy metal like in sound and I’m a much more classic rock, smooth jazz kind of person these days.

Just after sunset, right on schedule at 8pm THE WHO came out on stage, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend first. They are the only 2 of the original 4 band members still alive. Keith Moon and John Entwistle passed away some years ago now. This band started performing in 1964. 4 years before I was even born and have played off and on for more than 4 decades now. While they have aged and were not the energetic guitar smashing band of the 60’s they did not disappoint. The opening number was “My Generation” and they did all the classics like Baba O’Reilly, Behind Blue Eyes and the now famous CSI theme song WHO ARE YOU! WHO WHO.

The crowd was made up of many types of people. Just in front of me were 3 generations of one family. Grandpa being in his 60’s, Dad near my age and 2 teenage boys. All seem to know the words but Dad and Grandpa seemed to be reliving days gone by, much like myself. I stood in a crowd of maybe 10,000 people, maybe more. it was hard to tell. My space directly in front of the stage was good. I was able to see the band clearly and the music kept us all singing and dancing along through out the evening. I've attached several videos of the concert for your enjoyment. The old proverb says a picture is worth a 1000 words. So video's much be worth 10,000!

Some other things I've been up to are, attending the movies at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the ever present sax/band practice. I have found a new instructor that I really like. So I have gotten back into practicing more. The band has a concert with the gay youth chorus at the end of May and I hope to be able to play 2 or 3 songs entirely instead of just pieces of them.

I get my Australian driver's license on April 7th and am starting to look a used camper van to purchase.

I'm enjoying the slightly cooler weather. It's April 1st which equates to October 1st for you and it's almost 90 today. The mornings are much cooler and you can smell Autumn in the air at times. We change our clocks this Sunday so soon I'll be 17 hours ahead of the west coast of North America. There's still a little more than 12 hours of sunlight here.

I having a feeling there's someone I should wish a happy birthday to but I'm not sure who? You know who you are and I wish you well. Marian's is coming up but I'll make another blog update before her big day.

I have a camping trip planned for the 4 day Easter weekend here. So look for that blog update in late April.