THEBIGGERISSUE.ORG: Homeless Vendors On The Other Side Of The World. By Uncle Monty.

Homeless Vendors On The
Other Side Of The World.
Story By Uncle Monty.
Oz Photos By Alex Albion.
…
Australia’s “Peachy” (shown above) looks and

sounds much like a regular Oz young man with his

well-used skateboard in his hand and his baggy

clothes and his easy fitting green baseball cap.

Plus, his bandaged hand that he got as a result

of a street brawl he says he was in just days

before I first met him. Yet, such belies the

fact that Peachy is actually a homeless lad at

Melbourne among the city’s 85 other Big Issue

vendors. He was among a dozen or so other street

paper vendors that I got to meet, to talk to, and

to photograph during my 18-day Aussie visit

to attend the 6th World Homeless Cup held at

the same city of Melbourne at where Peachy

was, I understand, then born out of wedlock

some 22 years ago. Talking to Peachy was

like talking to the real Homeless

McCoy of Down Under.

Oz Big Issue Vendor Simone Mole, 47.

Aside from Peachy, I also met Oz street vendors
Simone Mole, 47, (seen above) and who I have written
about elsewhere like I also have on Gordon Pearson,
who is also 47. (seen below) . A nice fellow and
oddly rather Dickensian, I thought …
~~~
Oz Street Vendor Gordon Pearson, 47.

~~~
Inside the Federation Square Stadium I
met Tom, I think he said that was his name,
during the match between Russia and Mexico in
the closing days of the 6th World Homeless Cup. It
looked like Tom was cleaning up and more power to
him, is all that I say. He was one of those homeless
vendors on the other side of the world that I got to
happily meet. And, happy was he to be a Oz Big
Issue seller from what I saw of him, too. Along with
the glorious weather for all of the 56 nations part-
icipating in the world cup with Afghanistan finally
winning the 2oo8 Cup and who then immediately
claimed political asylum to stay indefinitely at Oz.

It was something like A to Z with then the Zimbabwe Homeless Team, which I had photographed days earlier, suddenly disappearing completely from their assigned Melbourne lodgings and to then go on the run and allegedly becoming illegal immigrants inside Australia itself. They’ll no doubt blame diabolical Robert Mugabe … Not that I can blame them for that. Mugabe is a living dirty rat of the African world ... They should hang the bastard. Or he should at least be taken alive and put on full trial at The Hague for the out and out crimes he has wrought upon his own people who have suffered all too long under his brutal and vile regime ...

Above: The Zimbabwe Homeless Team.
~~~
Below: Inside Big Issue Australia office with

staffers Greg and Virginia. She, Virginia, showed

little or no interest in this British Big Issue vendor

visiting her country of Oz. She couldn’t have cared

less … While Greg was such a friendly chap ...

~~~

Here below is Mr. James McQuillian, QC.

I bumped into the courtroom barrister on my

way to the Oz Big Issue office. We were just

around the corner from the Victoria Supreme

Court and I impulsively asked him if I could

photograph him. And much to my great surprise,

he promptly agreed. We had a nice chat, too. Such

a gentleman was he. He told me he was originally

from Northern Ireland. Oddly enough, Jeannine

McQuillian of the same last name was one of my

Big Issue friends and customers until she recently

retired from The Royal Masonic Orphan's Society

at London’s Great Queen Street. Jeannine’s family

is also from Northern Ireland. Perhaps then James

and Jeannine are related some where to each

other … I do hope they are …
~~~
Mr. James McQuillian, Q.C.

~~~
Then, I later encountered this cool Federal

Oz cop at the Australia War Memorial.

My big day of kangaroos also included seeing my “new
mates” (pictured below) of the young kangaroo and the
Cassowary Emu sharing food together when I happened
to bump into them and they allowed me to photograph
them really upclose without running away or dodging me.
It was a delightful encounter I must say. Such doesn’t
happen everyday in my fondness to photograph wildlife
whenever I can at where ever I may just be somewhere
in the world. Australia is full of wonderful wildlife.
~~~
Young Kangaroo and Cassowary Emu at Oz.

~~~

Although when I arrived at Melbourne it was
Springtide, and when I left it was then the beginning

of Summertide, The Melbourne Xmas Tree seen

below heralded the shining coming of Christmastide

for all of Australia. A splendid tree, don’t you think?
~~~

The Melbourne Christmas Tree, 2oo8.

~~~
My photo below of St. Kilda, Australia, really doesn't do justice to the lively scene of the front entrance to the Fun Fair I saw while there. I just loved visiting St. Kilda along with later going onto Adelaide for my warm stay at the "Shambani" hobby farm of my dear Welsh friends The Hancocks of Wales. They've retired to Adelaide and I would love to do that, too ...
~~~