4 March 2012 - Sundowner Rockbank Caravan Park, Victoria

Today we were not to be deterred by the weather; in fact it looked like it might turn out to be quite obliging. After breakfast we set up the awning and our outdoor furniture once more with full confidence that the storms had passed. We then set off for Sunshine and were just in time to catch the 10.02 train into the city centre, even after an altercation with the ticket seller, giving us the wrong tickets despite much repetition. We had to accept these because the train was right there and sought to correct the situation at the main station, where again the man behind the grill, failed to satisfy, entering the payment source incorrectly. It would appear that those given the job of selling rail tickets are not hugely intelligent, at least today, and according to Chris. Fortunately those working in the kiosks on other days have been immensely and intelligently helpful. A short walk and a tram ride and we were back up at the Melbourne Museum ready to finish what we had started a few days ago.

This really is an excellent museum and has exhibits such as we have never seen before. The Body & Mind gallery has exhibits of real body parts and clear and concise explanations of anatomical, biological and medical matters; all a bit much for me who errs on the squeamish. The section on “Mind” captured my attention for the rest of the morning explaining the workings of the brain, the ailments of the same and the history of so-called cures.

At lunchtime, we sat outside in the museum’s courtyard in the sun, watching the many families who had decided to spend their day as we were, then resumed our exploration.

The Science & Life Gallery is really excellent and unlike many stuffed animals and birds we have seen in other museums, about which I have been less than complimentary, these were of the highest standard and the use of modern technology makes this a wonderful resource, covering all facets of science and life (of everything but human, but including also the geological life of the planet.)

Interestingly there is a display consisting of a series of globes starting as a ball of molten matter, then all water, then ice and so on. The second to last is the world as we know it and the last is the world as it might be in another 10 million years or so. Curator’s licence, you may say? All I can say is that I am glad that we, our children or even our great great grandchildren will not be around.

There is also an excellent section within the same gallery on bugs. Well, how could there not be in this great continent of bugs? I have visited many museums and viewed great cabinets of bugs of all types, all mounted on pins, but none that ever caught my attention as these did. There are exhibits of ant nests with live ants busy finding their way through mazes, there are flesh eating beetles cleaning carcasses in a more delicate manner than could be done otherwise, for future exhibition, and the list could go on forever. There are live tarantulas and clear exhibits of red backs and funnel web spiders so that no one can be left in any doubt as to their identity. Everything is explained simply but not in a patronising manner, and I tried to absorb the many fascinating facts, including some of the following:

• There are 30 million insect species on the planet.
• At any one time, it is estimated that there are one quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) insects alive on the planet.
• For every human, there are 150 million insects.
• There could be as many as 30 million insects still not known to man.
• Australia has 2,000 species of crickets.
• And has 400 native dung beetles, all of who could not cope with or were interested in the processing the dung of the cattle introduced to Australia in the 19^th century. The solution was to import a further fifty six species of dung beetles from all around the world; twenty of which happily settled into Australia working at the task set them.
• There are 1500 species of native bees.

I was not hugely surprised by these facts; they simply served to confirm that we have been hugely outnumbered on the road as we have travelled about away from the urban areas. There was one positive point that I found greatly consoling; there are fortunately enough bugs that live off other bugs and while their numbers remain in balance, we humans should not be unduly inconvenienced.

We walked all the way back to Flinders Station, down through the lanes crowded with Sunday city goers, families in from the suburbs, tourists, students and workers glad to be dressed in their Sunday dress be it casual or haute couture, and all the hoi polloi of Melbourne. We paused from time to time to sample the entertainment on offer from the many buskers. Finally when we reached the station, we found ourselves to be just in time to catch the train back west.

Despite the threatening clouds gathering to the north, there has been no rain all day. The news on the television however is not good; the floods here have claimed their first victim and there are still further evacuation orders being issued. It seems that most of the roads we are planning to travel when we leave here in just over a week are closed; we may have to review our travel plans.