coming back from canberra a week ago

A little more Bombala for you:

Then we got to Cann River, popn. 197. I'm not that interested in Cann River and 40 minutes was a little too long to hang out there, especially since we were actually timetabled to spend 40 minutes in Orbost, a place with which I have fond associations. But whatever. 

This is the Cann River Motel which is currently being demolished. I hope you aren't disturbed by this information or imagery. 

coming back from canberra a week ago - bombala installment

Seems like I was last in Bombala 19 years ago. Or maybe I've been there again since then and have forgotten and didn't blog it which doesn't sound like me. Anyway, the main attraction for Bombala as far as I'm concerned (aside from the historical value of a town that was one of the three or four initially slated to be the national capital) is the small coterie of statues representing cartoon characters of the 1930s-40s, mainly Popeye and Ginger Meggs characters with the bonus of a representation of Dobell's painting of Joshua Smith (the implication being I suppose that it is not fine art but a caricature, which was a smooth-brained criticism of the time).

Bombala is a town I like a bit, and I was able to see that the weird little statues are definitely still there, and looking in not terrible shape, though some wag has I suppose pushed one or two over with presumably a stick or something. Can you imagine that boy going to bed at night still chuckling over the kerfuffle that he has caused by pushing a little statue over in the enclosure by the swimming pool. 'They'll never guess it was me,' he says to himself, and then the next day he forgets to not walk around town with the same stick poking everything he sees and giggling.

I had no time to stroll in Bombala but I see the Olympia Theatre is still there and looking good. 

This is it from behind:

coming back from canberra a week ago - 1

So I returned from Canberra via a bus-train arrangement going down what is known as the right-hand part of Australia, a $34 ticket that took up the whole of Friday but offered rich rewards. As you see. More soon.

a week ago in canberra - 5

 

So this was really a brief research-related trip, and I had barely any time to do anything, just two long days in the library, which went really fast and, of course, I only got about 60% done of what I wanted, but that's how these things go. I was very pleased with what I got anyway. 

These are just a couple of pictures I took of the tram works as I was heading to the Jolimont Centre to get the bus back to Melbourne. That was a whole process in itself, as I will relate. 

a week ago in canberra - 4

Leaving the NLA on Thursday evening 15 October at 7:10pm

From the bus:

Just so I could say I'd done it, I took the tram all the way to Gungahlin. I had no reason to go there. I mean I went to Coles and bought some cashews. Then I got the next tram back. 

I can't remember what kind of restaurant this had been, or even if it was in the Sydney or Melbourne building, doesn't matter, just a kind of sad place now. 

This was weird, coming back through ANU campus coming across this statue and someone fully blasting out what I discovered (thanks shazam) 'The Pot' by Tool, absolutely full boar. 

ANU campus at night - very nice

(Once they stopped that fucking racket I mean)

a week ago in canberra - 3

Leaving University House on the morning of Thursday 22nd. 

Building of the second Canberra tramline. Can't wait to see how this ends up. It's going to be great. 

Briefly accidentally ended up in Manuka, noted the death of the Kingston newsagency, this is its corpse. 

This (below) is what I was trying to get to when I accidentally sidetracked to the above - the Salvos near the train station. This bookshelf full of videos is not really telling anyone anything much but you can believe me when I tell you all of these DVDs apart from three vols of Offspring are American movies and tv shows. 

I don't know what these houses (below) are/were but they interested me. 

The brick on the buildings looks mid-late 70s, but the wooden wall inside the doorway looks much older, don't you think?