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Paul Daffey is a Melbourne freelance journalist, whose book Local Rites: A year in Grass Roots Football in Victoria and Beyond was published in 2001.
After the dogs and the trots on the pub's TV have been silenced, the musicians arrange themselves around the table. Martin Kelly closes his eyes, plucks his guitar and sings a ballad written at the time when the potato famine was laying waste to Ireland.
Andy Gemmell, who is 54, is in Australia on a long holiday during which he’s going to the cricket and the races and catching up with friends he met through the Compton Arms in Islington, London. The main difference between Andy and other Ashes tourists is that Andy is blind. From 12 December 2006.
Andy Gemmell, who is 54, is in Australia on a long holiday during which he’s going to the cricket and the races and catching up with friends he met through the Compton Arms in Islington, London. The main difference between Andy and other Ashes tourists is that Andy is blind.
Max Muir, who worked on the Victorian Railways all his working life, says many railway employees have hobbies such as fishing or golf—pastimes that can be enjoyed either alone or in groups, and at odd hours if need be. In Muir’s case, he developed the hobby of panning for gold.
Phil is always at the end of the bar with his head in a book or, occasionally, a newspaper. He never tires of reading in company, with a either a vodka and Coke or a Cascade Light just off the page.
Of those who collect books, some might have copies of the 12 novels written by Patrick White. Or the 50 written by Jon Cleary. Few collectors, however, could hope to match Stewart Russell’s collection of books by the late English writer John Creasey, who wrote almost 800 books.
In 1999, after a decade of noting rainfall figures for his fellow retirees, a Bureau of Meteorology representative asked Andy Ultri whether he would be interested in joining the hundreds of volunteers around Australia who record official rainfall figures for the national weather bureau.
Train lovers are usually first lured by steam engines and stations. Enthusiasts at the Model Railway Association pursue their passion in miniature. They are also found in busy railyards around Australia.
Paul Daffey looks at community gardens in Melbourne which provide the plot-holders with much more than vegetables...