Tête en bas

When you’re discovering a new place, you grab information slowly. Picking up a word somewhere, a name somewhere else. They all stay quietly hidden in your brain, until something happen. It might be an other word, it might be something you see, or something you read… and then, you hear this little “click” that means that everything has finally find its place.

The very first building I spot in Melbourne was the Eureka tower. By far the highest building in the Skyline, but also -according to me- the most interesting… and the most beautiful of all them. I’ve pictured it from every angle, just to enjoy the way it interacts with other building, continuously changing its appearance.

Then, you have Southern Cross Station. An other interesting building, specially for the shape of its undulating roof. At the end of the train lines from Adelaide and Sydney, it’s one of the major station in Melbourne transport network.

You can complete all that with Ballarat, the 3rd inner city by size in Australia (after Canberra and Toowoomba).

I got the missing link when Ned ask me if I’ve ever heard about “James Scobie”. The answer was, obviously, “no”.

The Eureka Stockade, or Eureka Rebellion, was organized in 1854, by gold miners in Eureka Lead, a suburb of Ballarat. The first sparkle was the murder of James Scobie… The Rebellion grew quickly as miners get organized. It ended in a fight with the victoria’s army and police on the 3rd of december, resulting in the deaths of more than 30 peoples (which, by the way, is the most significant conflict in Victoria’s history; Australian colonization was really quiet… as long as you were not aboriginal). Miner were protesting against the expense of the Miner’s Licence and government taxation. Public offered mass support to the “rebels” who were captured and placed on trial in Melbourne, resulting in the very first while mall suffrage for elections for the lower house in the Victorian parliament. Some says that the Eureka Rebellion is the birth of democracy in Australia, while other says it was just a political revolt.

While resentment was rising amongst the miner, they elected a leader, burned there miner’s Licence, and adopt a new flag. The Eureka flag; A blue flag, bearing the Southern Cross. Very similar to the Australian one, but protestor removed the british union jack. In 1893, Banjo Paterson (an australian poet) wrote:

“The English flag may flutter and wave,
where the world wide oceans toss,
but the flag the Australian dies to save,
is the flag of the Southern Cross.”

Banjo Paterson also wrote “Waltzing Matilda”, a widely known bush ballad, often referred as “the unofficial national anthem of Australia”.

A few days ago, I red about this poem, and learnt that “Matilda” was the name of the blanket used by swagman (australian hobo). And that was the reason I decided to taste the Alpha Ale, from the Matilda Brewery, at the Lui Bar, on the 55th floor. Facing… the Eureka tower!

A few days ago, again, I was looking at the clouds reflexion, in a tower. Its name? The Souther Cross tower, of course.