Friday April 27th

Another early start as I take the Overland from Adelaide to Melbourne. 

Not nearly as much excitement as The Ghan and a much shorter train. However the driver did his best to  makeup for this by much whistle blowing, just like a wild west train! Most of the road crossings outside the big towns do not have gates so some warning is necessary. There has just been a story in the news about someone who was killed by a train whilst jogging and wearing headphones. We started of with the richer land around the Murray basin and soon reached Murray Bridge,

 then on to the state line at the aptly named Bordertown and we were in Victoria. The clocks went forward half an hour!  The scenery changed and there  was much more arable farming as well as countless sheep.Cereals and some vines are the main crops.

  Ararat was founded by the Chinese who came to mine gold in 1857 and there is still a large Chinese community there though since the closing of the mine at the beginning of the 20th century the population is in decline. The home one of the former magnates became a mental institution and now is part of the Melbourne Institute of  TAFE which provides vocational education.

Further down the line at Stawell the old copper mines, abandoned earlier, have now been reopened following the massive rise in metal prices. Stawell is also known as the gateway to the Grampians National Park.

. Our first blimpse of the sea came at Geelong; disappointingly  from the train this looks very industrial but the coastline is apparently beautiful being the beginning of The Great Ocean Road'. 

By the time we pulled into Melnourne it was dark and we were treated to the sight of the illuminated city. By contrast to Adelaide the initial feeling was of size and bustle but my hotel was mercifully nearby and after a walk around following an inactive day, I spent my first night in Melbourne.

Saturday 28th April

Bright and early we presented ourselves to the Neighbours Tour office all looking rather sheepish and embarrassed but nonetheless excited for the morning to begin. 

The first few words of our guide made us worry. She said she had bad news for us but there was something she ought to tell us. She hated doing it but....Of course we all thought she was going to tell us that we couldn't do  the tour for some reason  but then uttered the treasonous words," Neighbours is not real." Whereupon we all collapsed, the ice was broken and the banter began. Our first stop was at Erinsborough High. The first school that they used was a high school near the studios which initially was pleased to supply the background shots and some extras until  the parents began to demand payment and witheld permission, so the venue was changed to a college where the students were over 18.. We then arrived at the studios, and our guide explained some of the practical aspects of producing the programme. We saw most of the outside sets, the bus stop from where everyone runs away and buses appear to go to all corners of Australia,

Grease Monkeys and Kyle's yard and office,the garage where Lucas and Chris work complete with Gay Pride sticker,

and Sonia's nursery,

which did actually look like a real nursery. Our guide showed us how sets were adapted for different purposes, for instance the cottage where Ziek turned up was also the one used for Callum's memories of his grandmother, and now intriguingly is set up as a sort of hippy, Indian establishment.....

We laughed a great deal over the number of amnesia cases, shootings, house fires etc in one small community not completely heartless in the present context!

We then went on to the sets of the Lassiters Complex, discovered how filming was carried out whatever the weather. Neighbours has been blamed for causing all British backpackers to arrive in Australia with only t shirts, shorts and flip flops expecting continuous sunny, dry and warm weather - now that it's autumn I can testify; it's not! I remember from days of filming in Haworth just how many people as well as the actors it takes to take even very short footage.

It was so strange seeing the very familiar sets, the lake was just on one side and behind all this was the set for Eden university. We saw the infamous history wall which cost Kate her job and noticed the former police station had a funeral  parlour sticker on it prompting fears of a death, and also saw one shop rigged out as a Chinese laundry raising speculation that a new family would be coming into the area.  We took so many photos, the community centre, Charlie's, the lake, the university campus and so on but I had to include Harold's,

Lassiters

and the Erinsborough (almost an anagram of Neighbours ) News where Susan, once a high school principal and now editor of the local paper despite suffering form several bouts of amnesia and ms....works.

After lots of photo taking and laughter we piled back into the bus again and set off for Pin Court Close better known as Ramsey Street.  This was my first view of Ramsey Street.

There was no filming on so we had plenty of time to explore. It is a real street with real people living in it so one is expected to respect their property and privacy.

 In return for all the tours and the nuisance of filming they have full time security guards,all the exterior work to house and garden done for them and they are paid an undisclosed sum.

 They have to leave their blinds down when filming and their cars at the end of the road, and if they want to go out or return the filming stops. If they want to make any alterations to the exterior of the house or  garden they have to give six weeks  notice so that it can be written into the script.

In all the time Neighbours has been running only one house has been on the market and that was bought by Brits.

 One house is uninhabited, owned by the production company and is used for all the scenes such as fires and floods' An explanation was given as to how these are all done by special effects but even the most gullible of us didn't think they actually burned houses down!

All too soon it as time for the group photo

and for us to leave, turning right as no one in the programme ever does because it would necessitate employing someone to control the traffic!

After this start to the day the afternoon threatened to be something of an anticlimax,but,after lunch and the internet cafe, I made my way to  Federation Square, a famous site for demonstrations; today it was The Sudan and free elections in Malaysia.

Here I bumped into a girl who lectures in music and dance at Reading Uni who had been on the tour in the morning. She put me onto the free buses and trams which circle the city every fifteen minutes providing a hop on hop off service, so I decided to take the whole tour to give me an overview of Melbourne before deciding what to explore. This proved very useful and interesting, passing all the major attractions such as Flinders Street Station,

 Lygon Street, the heart of the Italian community,the World Heritage listed Royal Exhibition building,

 the harbour, the Shrine of Remembrance

Chinatown  and the sports and arts precincts.  After this I walked back along the river bank taking in the views of the Melbourne skyline.