Report 22: Australia1

The three week gap between my last lecture and exam date gave us a chance to travel, so we had decided earlier that we might as well see some of Australia, given how close we are. We flew to Sydney on Friday pm, spent 3 nights and 2 days there, then spent a week driving northward to Brisbane and flew home from there.

[Disclaimer: I was supposed to add this to the last report: Susie endorses and contributes to the factual content of these reports, but this in no way implies that she endorses or agrees with the grammar and punctuation. She just shakes her head and mutters about abused and abusive commas.]

Sydney is a beautiful, bustling city (pop. 4 million) with much to see and do. Saturday morning we were taken to breakfast at an oceanfront café by Randy Moles, son of a college friend of Susie’s. Randy is part-owner of a software company that is actually developing software that helps businesses use statistical design of experiments (be still my heart) to improve their businesses. We had a great visit and Randy showed us various parts of the city, including where the rich and famous live and play, (Incidentally, randy is a commonly used Aussie term meaning horny and moles is slang for sluts, so Randy’s name is a source of amusement to his friends; they convinced him to use something more decorous on his mailbox.)

The harbor is spectacular. It’s interesting in itself just to watch the very active system of ferries shuttling among various ports of call. We took a narrated cruise Sat. pm to see the sights (the harbor bridge, opera house, and city skyline) and learn something about the city.

We left the cruise at Darling Harbor, near our hotel, took in part of the weekend’s jazz festival, saw a unicycle/juggling act, stumbled into and quickly exited a very crowded market selling everything to everybody, saw a dyna-max movie on Australian animal-life, and ended the evening with dinner on a boat/restaurant on the harbor. Here’s a picture of the downtown skyline at sunset.

We spent Sunday on a tour bus, hopping on and off at sites of interest. Number one is the opera house. In addition to its striking appearance, it is also quite an engineering feat. After the architect’s winning design was criticized by a noted building engineer (who predicted it couldn’t stand the wind loads), that engineer was hired to help in the design and construction. The design was modified and beefed up and the building is still standing. It was planned for $7million (Aussie$ = .65 US$, now) and 4 years construction; it took 14 years and $100million. (All figures statistical estimates based approximately on what I recall (10 days later) that the guide told us.) This slight overrun was cheerfully financed, they now say, by a lottery. Foyers on either end provide harbor or downtown views. [An interesting sidelight: Someone on our tour asked about the designs that didn’t win the competition. Guide said they mainly looked like (Roswell) space ships squatting by the harbor – space ships being a major interest in the 50s.] There are two major halls, the Concert Hall (seating 2600; pipe organ with 10,500 pipes) and the Opera Theatre (seating 1500, vocalists provide their own pipes), two other drama theatres, and a total of 1000 rooms serving various functions. I’ll have to admit that when we cruised by the day before I was a little disappointed – didn’t look as white as I thought it would – but the close-up tour made it very impressive. It’s a great symbol for the city and the country.

Other stops during the day included The Rocks, a restored harborside area, now with restaurants (we ate Pancakes on the Rocks), shops (bought an Aussie hat), and weekend street market. Also stopped at an early-day prison, and ended the day at a fish market (fish and chips, what else?).

Next: Up-country report.

Cheers.

Rob and Susie

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