Yarra River Illuminated Fish

I have just discovered that the illuminated fish are on show until the end of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and can be seen for 10 minutes every hour between 8 pm and 11 pm. They are huge fish and cover 800 meter of the river lining its centre. They are floating on the surface of the river with fountains spraying a long way into the air which are lit up by moving laser lights. Well on a balmy Melbourne evening I can think of no more spectacular show to take in, for free too! They are located between the Princes and Swan Street bridges.Photos coming as soon as I can get to see them for myself and make some good photos. Here they are... For a slide show click here

HM Bark Endeavour - Captain Cook's ship

NEWS 17 May - Wrecks of six British ships found off Rhode Island by researchers with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project say there is a 47% one is the Endeavour. This replica of Cook's ship was open to the public at Melbourne's Docklands today so I took the tour which I found very interesting and am glad I went - even if I have a bruised head. It is considered world wide to be the best replica ship ever made. The tools and materials were very carefully chosen to be as nearly authentic as possible. The construction was carried out in Western Australia at a cost of $14 million dollars even with much volunteer work. It is 109 feet and 3 inches long and 29 feet 2 inches wide. The space between deck and the roof is very low indeed - the best being 4 foot six inches but sometimes so low that some people on this tour took to "walking" on their knees! There is a section below all the other decks which Cook used for food, fuel and water storage. This is now used for modern sailing and safety equipment below decks which makes everything above water level look exactly correct for the time when it was on the first voyage to Australia. It is called a Barque although the spelling on this particular one seems to be "bark" - perhaps this is from an era when spelling was allowed to be vague - "a sailing vessel of three or more masts and whose after mast [ back one] is fore-and-aft rigged". This sounds like double dutch to me.. will investigate... It is a square rigged ship and it would be great to see her under sail! To see below deck required climbing backwards down a very steep set of steps through a small square hole in the deck, while holding tightly to a long knotted rope suspended from above.