Melbourne's Trams

Melbourne’s first form of public transport from the suburbs into the city centre, and vice versa, were the railways; they had started in 1854. This was quite impres­s­ive since Londoner Robert Hoddle had only arrived in the Port Phillip settlement in March 1837 and was appointed senior surveyor for the new town.

Another serious public transport system started up in 1885 when the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Company grabbed a 30-year monopoly franchise for Melbourne’s new cable tram network. The first non-horse service ran from Spencer St/Flinders St in the centre of town, out to Haw­th­orn Bridge. It was a simple mechanism. The grip man/driver would grab one of the levers connected to the cable which in turn pulled the tram along the tram lines. When he want­ed to stop the tram, he’d let go of the grip on the cable and applied the brake.

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First cable tram, 1885

The network grew quickly and within six years of the first cable tram being on the road, 1891, the cable tramway network consisted of spoke lines running from the city out into all inner suburbs. However, as the population moved further away from the centre of town, it became clear that the cable tram system became could not reach further and further out, without any limit.

In 1906, the first electric trams were being built, not to replace cable cars but to extend the ends of cable tram lines to more distant suburbs. They “topped up” the cable car system. The initial monopoly ended in 1916 and, appropriately, the cable network was taken over by the State government. The newly formed Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board was now fully responsible. Almost immediately the MMTB started converting the old cable tram lines and the most famous of the new electric trams was the W class. From 1923 on, the W class was truly an Australian design, with compartments at either end closed by sliding doors and an open space in the middle. It was green, quiet, clean and wonderful.

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Melbourne's archetypal green tram

The final cable tram bowed out in 1940, only a year after World War 2 broke out. In time the entire population was serviced by tram lines that all started in town and extended as far as the outer suburbs. When most other cities in the world ripped out their trams and substituted smelly, smoke-filled buses, Melbourne kept her elegant, green ladies that were able to glide graciously through the tree-lined streets without petrol.

Of course Melbourne bloggers are very proud of their trams. I recom­mend you read “Review: Time-line history of Melbourne's Government Cable and Electric Trams and Buses” in melbourne on transit: April 2006.  And the beaut High Riser blog. Even foreigners unfavourably compare their own tram system to Melbourne's eg Poneke who wrote Bumblebee trams roll proudly through Melbourne while Wellington bumbles timidly on.

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Today Melbourne's trams are still petrol-free, but they are no longer green and are alas both ultra-streamlined and privatised. It feels like our city was taken over by foreign trams. In any case, there are other important public transport issues to be considered, as discussed by Hailing From Georgia blog in Guidelines for Effective Mass-Transit, discuss. However my favourite place to take overseas visitors is still a 3-hour tour in the splendidly refurbished 1927 Colonial Tramcar Restaurant.

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Colonial Tramcar Restaurant

Boscombe beach pods, Bournemouth

I had been fascinated by the popularity of beach huts in Australia and Britain, and wrote up a history of the humble huts with a sense of nostalgia. It seemed inevitable that the huts, so hugely popular after WW1, would never increase in number and could well decrease.

Overstrand Building, with pods to both sides of the central facilities

Now an alternative has been brought to my attention. Retro-style beach pods offering panoramic views across Bournemouth's artificial surf reef appeared for the first time in the BBC News in April 2009. 400+ people registered interest in buying the lovely pods within the Boscombe Overstrand complex. Boscombe Blog was of course very excited about the new lease of life for the area. Half of the pods will be sold on a 25-year lease, with the remaining pods will be reserved for casual hire from the council.

Pod interior

Proleno Blog noted that Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway were commissioned by Bournemouth Borough Council to revive the dilapidated 1958 Overstrand building and Grade II listed Boscombe Pier of 1889. Not surprisingly, seaside regeneration was always one of the favourite goals of the Hemingways. You can see that the centre of the Overstrand will be the public areas: shops, restaurant and surf school. On each wing, to the left and right, stretch the rows of pods.

A single beach pod will cost a fortune (£90,000) but unlike the old beach huts, will have mains electricity, hot and cold running water, kitchen units and French doors leading onto a small private balcony overlooking the beach, but no fridges. To prevent people sleeping overnight in the pods, power will be switched off at night. Each pod has one wall that is a piece of retro, coastal art in its own right.

Boscombe has indeed reinvented the beach hut.

My Dream Home II : water frontage

Childhood in Australia was very often spent on the beach, partic­ul­arly during the long summer holidays each December, January and into February. If families had enough money (in the 1950s and 60s), they rented a holiday house as close to the sand as possible. If families were short of cash, they took the children to a tent or caravan holiday site for a fortnight. Families tended to go back to the same beach resort, year after year after year. For Melbourne families, that would have been Rosebud, Dromana, Frankston, Anglesea, Ocean Grove or Torquay.

Dartmouth real estate ad.

But these were simple holidays. Children used to be marched off to the communal shower blocks every evening, in their dressing gowns and carrying their toiletries in a bag. The need to be near the ocean faded, as Australia became more sophisticated. By the 1970s, we were staying in motels! And not necessarily in Rosebud every year!

Now, decades later, I am coming back to the idea of beach-frontage once again.
A close friend of mine died at 53, hit on his motor cycle by a bus coming in the opposite direction. Everyone has lost grandparents, aunts, uncles, even parents and although it is very sad, it seems “natural” to lose the older generations. Losing a peer was devastating. He was healthy, fit, worked hard in business, had a fine wife and children, and was looking forward to spending more quality leisure time in the near future.

This death made me reassess my own priorities in life. I decided that living in a house that faced the ocean would be peaceful, healthy and fun to share with family and friends. I still dream of sitting out on the veranda after work, watching the sun go down over the water, with perhaps a glass of vodka and orange juice in hand.

It must be a popular dream – there is a blog called 43Things whose most popular post was to live by the ocean. My favourite was Welcome to My Beach Cottage Fantasy in the Beach Cottage Love blog, but dream home, beach moments, sundry thoughts blog is also intriguing.

Devon real estate ad.

However there are two main problems to be negotiated. Firstly ocean frontage costs an absolute fortune. And secondly, because the block of land is likely to be small, I would have to give up my dream of being self-sufficient in fruit, vegetables and herbs.