After Most British Adelaide. By Uncle Monty.

After Most British Adelaide.

By Uncle Monty.

-.-

Of the capitals I have now seen at

Victoria, at New South Wales, and

at the Australian Capital Territory,

Adelaide, the capital of South

Australia, is the most British of

them all. Statues of Queen Victoria

and King George V, along with other

statues or memorials of British or

Commonwealth nobility, that echoed

the history and era of Australia's mother-

land of pre- and post-Victorian England.

Adelaide was also the most "Xmasy"

of the Australian cities and towns I

have thus far visited at this Advent.
.-.

Adelaide is still a noble city with its

most British ancestry still intacted

from what I could see and hear as I

scoured the capital to see what else I

could discover and find. I first strolled

down to Tarndanyangga at Rundle Park.

I also found that Adelaide's reputation

as "The City of Churches" stood firmly

so. A mix of old and new churches, of

big and small, and of every Christian

denomination I saw. And, non-

Christian, too. I also saw the

impressive Masonic Headquarters

and visited inside. What I found on

travelling thru the small towns scat-

tered across South Australia was the

unlikely number of active Masonic

Lodges everywhere. Free Masonry

is strong here and for what reasons I

do not know. Perhaps they associate

Free Masonry with being British. I do

hope not, for I think we need to be

free of all the wierd things that such

a negative and strange craft tends

to cook-up in other people's mind.

._.

Four things happened while I was in

Adelaide that I think helped make

my visit of special interest to me.

First, I bumped into a real Buddhist

monk and who I photographed in

his monk attire. We chatted, too.

Then down at the grand Railway

Station I found Kelly M selling her

copies of The Big Issue at AUS$5.00

each on her first day of being an Aussie

Big Issue street vendor. Kelly told me

she was just 19 and had sold six copies

already before I bought her seventh.

She was with three or four of her

friends to give her some support

during her first time selling. She said

she was a homeless student. In Aus-

tralia, The Big Issue also recruits those

who are unemployed and not just the

homeless and the vunerable. I'm

surprised that London's Big Issue

hasn't turned to the unemployed, too.

.-.

Then there is the Aussie 2oo9 Big Issue

calander here that is a hot seller for the

most vendors. Perhaps the Vauxhall Big

Issue gang will follow suit and start pub-

lishing a British Big Issue calander to help

vendors make more money on the streets

as well as helping BI co-founder John Bird

and his galloping gang to make some more

profits, undoubtedly. The Aussie 2oo9 Big

Issue Calander is simply superb, I must say.

.-.

My third encounter at Adelaide was

with Dunga, 39, an Iraqi Kurd, and she

was studying for her Master's degree in

architecture and although she's been

in Australia for 6 years she wants one

day to return to Iraq as an architetect.

Dunga was an educated and Westernize

lady, who was so much fun to chat with.

She said she was a Sunni and even told me

I was quite aware of the various religious

fractions in Iraq that most Europeans

had not idea about.

.-.

While conversing with Dunga, I

also met David age 19. He is a Sudanese

refugee and was on his way to Melbourne

to try to get a job of which he's had little

luck getting in Adelaide, he said. David

told me he's been in Oz for the past 5

years and found many Aussies were

hostile to him as an African refugee.

He seemed to have a very outgoing

disposition and I was hopeful he'd do

okay in Melbourne at least.

.-.

Arriving back today to Melbourne -

where spring ended and summer began

yesterday - I then ventured over to The

Big Issue headquarters on Melbourne's 148

Lonsdale Street, just next door to the Wesley

Uniting Church. When I got there, nice Alice,

one of the BI vendor support staff, told me

they were closed until 2:00pm for lunch.

I said I would return later, which I did.

.-.

In the meantime, I bumped into

Australian Barrister James McQuillan,

Q.C. just a stone's throw from the

Supreme Court of Victoria and much

to my surprise he promptly agreed to

let me photograph him in all his black

Inns of Court robes. James was a fri-

endly fellow and he was originally from

Northern Ireland, he told me. I told

him that Jeanine McQuillan, who

worked for the Royal Masonic Society

in London until she recently retired,

was a dear friend of mine back in Eng-

land. She is also from Northern Ireland.

Maybe they're related?
._.

After that, I then popped back to the

Coinworks shop to look at more world

coins and medals, but the prices were too

high thu the quality and variety was out-

standing despite finding myself priced

out of the market. British pennies from

1888 to 1908 ranged from AUS$10.00 to

AUS$50.00 each. Such are pretty common

coin dates, with the exception of a few

notable dates or mintmarks, in England

and they can be bought for a quid and less

unless they're in mint or proof condition.

.-.

Whatever, I then returned to The Big

Issue Australia and with its doorbell

broken, we were informed to knock

the front door "loudly." I did so and

after three tries of banging loudly

there came another vendor support

staff called Virgina. She tried to fob

me off by telling me that they didn't

open until 2:00pm even thu it was

now past 2. I asked for Alice, but

she'd already gone downtown to watch

the ongoing 6th World Homeless Cup

at Federation Square. So I was now

stuck with Virginia, who wouldn't let

me inside The Big Issue even if I was

a visitor or not from all the way from

England. She grabbed a couple of back

issues and a red Big Issue cap and

thrust them into my hand. She then

went to shut the door again in my

face until I remonstrated with her

that it was past 2 and that I would

like to interview someone or anybody

from The Big Issue Australia. She

was unmoved and disinterested was

Virginia. She was too busy to spend

any of her time answering whatever

questions I might have about The Big

Issue. Finally, she left opened the

front door and vendors seemingly

appeared from nowhere knowing

themselves it was now past 2 when

they could come to pickup their issues

at $2.50 per copy and they make $2.50

profit when sold. They must buy a

minimum of 5 copies each time. Per-

manent pitches are assigned to regular

vendors, but irregular ones get what-

ever is then left over. There are

about 85 vendors at Melbourne.

.-.
I got to speak to and to photograph

a number of vendors while at

The Big Issue back yard on Lons-

dale. With about 20 coloured plastic

chairs for vendors to sit on, the yard

was rough and crude. I was surpris-

ed, too, to find out how many of the

vendors came from British parents, which

included first generation Aussie Simone

Mole, age 47, who told me her English

dad had disappeared some 45 years ago

and left her family high and dry. He was

from Cambridge, so Simone told me.

She does her vendoring on and off

and enjoys doing it when she does.

To her, "The Big Issue staff are won-

derful." Then British-born vendor

Gordon Pearson, also 47, like Simone,

seemed to be really chuffed by my visit

while Big Issue staffer Virginia was so in-

different to say the least. Gordon has

been a Melbourne street vendor for

almost ten years and loves it ...

.-.

Then I saw "Peachy," 24, with his

left hand all bandaged-up and in his

right hand he held his well-used

skateboard as he arrived to buy his

copies of the latest Christmas edition

that had come out a few days ago.

He's been selling Big Issue for almost

3 years. His bandaged hand had re-

sulted from Peachy having gotten in

a street brawl with some drunken

guyz just days before. I saw Peachy

later hopping on to Tram 59.

.-.

Next was Paul, another vendor, who

I'd met 3 days earlier on Collins

Street, and the only vendor who had

been nasty to me when I asked him to

give me a copy of the 2oo9 Big Issue

calander instead of a back issue he had

sold me. He sneered and complained

about exchanging one for the other.

I told him if he wouldn't give me a

calander, I wanted my money back

after I caught him with several copies

of the Aussie Big Issue calander

when he had first lied to me saying

he only had one calander left ... When

I later emailed Sandra Del Monaco

about the incident, she simply ignored

me by not answering me. So much then

for the stiff staff of Big Issue Australia. I

think I know now why they also failed to

organize the proposed 1st International

Conference on Homelessness. They

simply don't have the skill, aptitude,

or in-put to pull off such a worthy feat.

They seem more interested in making

more profit and money off the backs

of the Aussie homeless folkz than of

achieving something beyond their Big

Issue profits and their commonality of

doing business as usual. Otherwise, the

global problem of homelessness can

just go to hell as far as Big Issue

Australia is concerned. That's how

I feel about it after seeing upclose

something of the Big Issue operation

at Melbourne. I wasn't impressed ...

Should I have been? You bet.

.-.

Cheers, Uncle Monty.

+4th Day of Advent, 2008.

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