All of the other bits and bobs I write about.
The Others
Flemington’s forgotten neighbour: Ascot Racecourse
With Melbourne in the middle of Spring Racing season, tomorrow thousands of people will be flocking to Flemington Racecourse for a day at the Melbourne Cup. Located on the banks of the Maribyrnong River to the north-west of the CBD, the course has been used horse racing since 1840. However a short distance to the north there was once another racecourse, which has been all but forgotten by Melburnians.

Fast food chains of Melbourne, circa 1982
Today in Australia you can find a fast food on almost every street corner, from small family operated Chinese takeaways and pizza shops, through to massive multinational chains. It might be hard to imagine not having a big fast food joint down the road from you, but these advertisements in the 1982-83 Gregory’s Melbourne Street Directory, 14th edition show how few locations they once had.

RACV Board elections: does anyone care?
If you are one of 2 million Victorians who are RACV members then you would have received one of these packages in the mail a few weeks ago: the paperwork for this year’s board elections. If you can’t find it then you’ve probably thrown it in the bin, just like the majority of RACV members.

Short history of the Queenscliff-Sorrento ferry
For visitors to the towns of Queenscliff and Sorrento on the shores of Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, the car ferry that links the two is a familiar sight, and there is no better reason to look at the history of it than today: the 24th anniversary of the first sailing of the service.

I’m a bigger Architecture in Helsinki fan than you
On the Saturday night just gone I saw Architecture in Helsinki live at Melbourne’s Forum Theatre – not to be confused with [the design of buildings located in the capital city of Finland], Architecture in Helsinki is a Australian indie pop band. When I first saw them play live in 2005 the crowd was a lot smaller…



