In March 1997 I returned to Australia after living overseas for 38 years. I didn't keep
a diary at the time, but I'm gradually writing down what I can remember of the experience.
Don't be mislead by the present tense: all of these entries were written years later.
Landed at Tullamarine at the crack of dawn, and out to find my uncle Max waiting for me.
Dad soon came along, and we set off to Mount Waverley, passing by where we lived in Carlton
and stopping at the ANZ Bank on the corner of Grattan and Lygon Streets. After spending so
much time in Texas, I had forgotten how green Melbourne is.
We're planning to drive to Adelaide next week in the expectation that we might find
somewhere to live there, so we needed a car. Max was very helpful and took me down to a
large car sales yard in Ringwood. I wasn't too sure whether to buy or hire a car, but it
seems that the cheap car hire people won't let you leave the state, so that was a
non-starter. Instead, looked for a cheap car which could ultimately serve as our second car
when we're settled. Boy, are cars expensive here! There's hardly anything under $5000. On
the other hand, after years in Germany I had forgotten how open and friendly people are in
Australia. Finally found a Nissan Prairie 7 seater for $4,500. Being Saturday we couldn't
pick it up immediately, and Monday's a public holiday, so it looks like being Tuesday.
Mick and Diane along for dinner in the evening. Much fun had by all.
Woke up in the middle of the night with an incredible cramp, and stumbled out of bed,
forgetting where I was, and nearly fell through the window. When I got up in the morning,
discovered that I had knocked over and damaged the bedside lamp and knocked my mobile phone
onto the ground, where the display had fractured. Damn.
Out to the airport to pick up Yvonne and Yana,
who had arrived from Germany after a gruelling two day trip including hours in Jakarta
airport. Later to Ringwood, where I was able to pick the car up after all.
Into town with Dad today, who had to go to visit his lawyers somewhere in the west of the
city. Spent a bit of time walking round the King St/Collins St area, and then decided to
head back via Kew and Richmond. It's been decades since I've been here, but the memories
gradually came back.
Driving down Dandenong Road went across a crossing where the traffic lights had
failed—just flashing orange showing. Most of the other cars went through, and, half
asleep, I didn't see the car coming from my right. Was unable to avoid a crash, and the car
was a writeoff. That's the shortest I've ever had a car, and what with the damage to my
phone the other day, things could be going better.
Back to Ringwood to look for another car, and found a 1985 Mitsubishi Nimbus with 230,000 km
on the clock. This is to be our second car; we'll buy a “first” car when we're
settled and have more time to choose.
Then to Mount Waverley to
open a bank account. I chose ANZ because they
were a Tandem customer,
and as if to make that point they gave me a little digital number generator from Atalla, a
Tandem subsidiary: it generated a pseudo-random number every 30 seconds, and I could use
this as response to an online challenge to prove that I was in possession of the device.
Still, I suppose it's better than nothing.
Also off to find a new mobile phone, and found one
in Box Hill near the station. It makes
sense to buy the same model (Nokia 2112) so that I can at least use the batteries I had for
the old one. On the positive side, I now have an Australian phone number, so it should be
cheaper.
My father had some business to do near Flowerdale today, so off to take a look around the
countryside. My mother's family, the Collins, had owned the pub in Flowerdale from the 1930s
until at least the 1960s, and the pub was run by publicans with the unlikely
names Tom Collins and John
Collins. It's in other hands now, but so we took a look around. It's changed a lot since I
was last there, which can't have been later than 1978, but which was more likely to have
been in 1958. Now it's not just a boozer, but also a restaurant.
On to Broadford, where we had lunch—Yvonne made her first
acquaintance with a pub mixed grill, leaving her less than happy. Back to Melbourne and to
Tandem in St. Kilda Road, where I met Sophie Mouzakis, who's been sending me around Asia for
the last year or so.
Today was my parents' final divorce hearing. Off with my father and Max to the court
in Dandenong, where I saw my mother for
the first time in over 6 years. She took one look at Max and me and said “What are they
doing here? Get them out”. Mark Blackley, Dad's lawyer, explained to me that I had a
perfect right to be there, but that based on previous experience that he was afraid that she
might “throw a wobbly”, and that it might be better if I were to leave. So I went outside
and waited until the session was over, with “success” in the sense that they are now legally
divorced—after 52 years of marriage. Max stayed inside, and my mother didn't complain any
further.
Today Yvonne, Yana and I set off to South
Australia with intent to find somewhere to live there, accompanied by my father. Set off
none too early, and first past our old house in Grattan Street, then off
to Bendigo at my father's request. Had
lunch there, and for no good reason looked for John Cullen, an old friend of my father. The
chances of him being alive were minimal—he was 104 years old last time we saw him, 11½ years
ago, so he would have been 115. We didn't find any trace of him.
It was pretty clear that we wouldn't be
in Adelaide by nightfall, so decided to
head for Murray
Bridge instead; I had a certain interest in South Australian country towns, and Murray
Bridge sounded like a good place to look at.
Got there round dusk and found an old-fashioned little hotel to stay in, then out for dinner
nearby. Yana ordered a
steak—“Scotch
Fillet”, a name that should be prohibited because of its inaccuracy. Far from
being a fillet, it's a rib eye steak, and for some reason this one was particularly tough,
something that Yana seems to suffer from particularly.
Called up Jo Brock at breakfast and asked for a suggestion about where to stay in the
Adelaide area. She recommended a bed and breakfast in Basket Range, so called up there and
got some rather strange directions which appeared to include the registration number of
their Percheron stallion, but proved to be a RAPID number, a shortened grid
reference. Headed up there, through some particularly hilly country, and found quite a nice
place, run by Sue and John Babi, originally from Hungary. We'll be staying for a week or
two.
Met up with Jo Brock today, who lives on a surprisingly hilly slope somewhere in the North
of the Adelaide Hills. Drove around the Hills (mainly) looking at the countryside and
potential places to live. Jo said that there were basically three, two in the lowlands
(round Gawler and round McLaren Vale) and in the Hills round Echunga and Meadows. There were
also a number of houses for sale in the area. Very tired back home.
Twelfth wedding anniversary today. In honour of the event, Sue cooked dinner and John
introduced us to his favourite vintage, “Château Cardboard”, wine in a bag,
which flowed freely. Yvonne christened it “Château Carton”.
It seems that the “Château Cardboard” didn't agree
with Yvonne—or maybe it was the “champagne” that
went with it—and she spent the morning at home nursing her head. My father and I off
again to investigate the terrain, ending up going down through Echunga and Kangarilla to
McLaren Flat. Took another look at a house for sale a few kilometres south of Echunga,
which Yvonne had said looked interesting, but the house was tiny.
This was, in fact, Wantadilla. Looking up the drive before
the extension was built, it did indeed look small.
During this week we drove around looking at houses in the Mount Barker and Echunga areas. I
don't recall the dates. At a guess, we first saw Wantadilla on the 27th, neatly matching
“life by thirds” article that I wrote on 25 June 2021.
By the end of the week, we still hadn't really come up with anything we really liked,
though Yvonne was tending towards Wantadilla.
While driving around the area, got a call from Sophie Mouzakis: she wanted me to go to Hong
Kong and Korea, the week after next. That's about as much notice as I ever got.
