Each week we post a gem from Gumtree – the online buy, sell, swap site – that is odd, unusual or just plain different. Most items are/were for sale in South-West Victoria or not far beyond.
This week, a lesson in why it is always worth checking the auto correct spelling on your Gumtree app.
What should have read: “Deep Fryer. In box. Hardly used. $15.”
Instead said this:
[box] Deep Tryer in Bedroom. Hardly Used. $15.[/box]
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] R [/dropcap]egional universities are vital to the small communities they serve, in terms of providing quality education, but especially for the continued economic development of those regions.
They educate local people, mostly young people (and in so doing help keep them in the towns they know) and provide many jobs.
Students have to work hard (there is a huge drop off rate in the first year) and most try to balance study with part-time paid work, often difficult to secure in regional areas. Indeed, trying to encourage young people to stay and study in Warrnambool was a key topic in the recent election for Wannon.
Most students struggle financially during this time, so it seems unbelievable that a regional university would choose to make going to university any harder.
Deakin University’s Warrnambool campus, despite being on the outskirts of town, charges students the same fee to park their cars ($6 a day or by the hour rates) as students at its Melbourne and Geelong-based campuses. To make matters worse, it provides a solitary ticket machine at the Warrnambool campus which leads to long snaking queues of cars (backing up to the railway station 500m away) at peak times.
[box] There is little argument in city campuses charging for parking, as there is limited space and the public transport system is usually close at hand: there are viable and cheap options for students who do not want to pay.[/box]
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] T [/dropcap]he Warrnambool campus offers free parking of a sort (when it is not raining)! It allows students and staff to park for free around the edge of its football field. It is currently closed because of wet grounds, causing another spike of complaints and a return to long lineups for the single ticket machine.
You might ask, why don’t students just use the train service? After all, it is cheaper and better for the environment.
The $1.15m train station, built in 2006, is only useful it you want to turn up to the campus at 5.35am or 5.20pm (from west to east). Practically useless. A bus service is scheduled to arrive at the campus from its W’bool rounds at 8.45am, but our contacts say it is often late and therefore students are reluctant to take the risk.
[box] It’s important to know that not all regional universities charge their students for the ‘privilege’ of parking a car to attend lectures or study.[/box]
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #8F9F59;”] M [/dropcap]onash University in Gippsland, where I recently worked, did not charge students a cent to park at its regional campus in Churchill,despite there also being a bus service to the campus. Staff and students at that regional campus were provided with free and plentiful parking.
Parking has been an ongoing issue at the Deakin campus for two years. There have been protests since 2011 about the university’s money grab.
In 2011 the Vice Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander said in an email to staff that she knew the pay to park arrangements would “upset some students and staff but subsidising car parks was costing the university’s core business”.
“I trust that you will take some time to consider these new arrangements in the light of the need to reduce Deakin’s carbon footprint, to release more funds for Deakin’s teaching and research activities, and to keep pace with other institutions who are also working hard to reduce the demand for on-site car parking,” she wrote.
[box] She said the changes also aimed to reduce demand for parking on campuses and encourage staff and students to adopt “sustainable transport alternatives” like public transport.[/box]
Clearly, that position has not changed, even though the VC would now know of the poor public transport options for the Warrnambool campus. We are not the first to call for the university to act and support it regional staff and students, and do away with its pay-to-park farce.
EXERCISE IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS that sounds really great, until you have to do it.
If only getting fit – and staying that way – was as easy as buying all of the right gear. Unfortunately having the best jogging shoes and sexiest running top is only the start: you still have to use them.
Which is why this week’s book choice by Warrnambool Books really appeals to us.
This is what Michaelie Clark, from Warrnambool Books, has to say about her selection:
Hot on the (jogger-shod) heels of the UK tour of Lazy Runner comes the release of Lazy Loser, the second book by local-born author and health & fitness guru, Marie Bean.
Confronting weight-loss myths and diet fads head-on, Lazy Loser offers sustainable and practical strategies and advice for implementing simple, effective and enjoyable changes to lifestyle and mindset.
Lazy Loser examines Australia’s food, exercise and body image mentality to evaluate where the real problems lie; it breaks the population into ‘temptation categories’ and then suggests realistic approaches to overcoming weight issues long-term.
Best of all, this is done in Marie Bean’s entertaining and down-to-earth style: “There is no magic bullet to weight-loss. I wish there was and it came coated in chocolate, but alas, there is not.”
(No chocolate-coated solution? Damn – Carol)
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] O [/dropcap]ne of the many great things about the wonderfully named Pickled Pelican in Portland is that you can try it at any time of the day.
With opening hours from 8am to 10pm (Tues-Sun), it is a great spot for breakfast, morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea or a casual dinner, and it seems to draw a steady crowd for each one.
Its location helps, as it is the first, most interesting café you come to when driving into Portland from the east. The double-storeyed, whitewashed, restored old building is a great example of the city’s heritage architecture which is so vastly under-rated compared to Port Fairy.
Last week was my second visit to the Pickled Pelican. The first was for coffee and cake and both were fantastic. A sign of how seriously a café takes its coffee is how much it invests in a coffee machine and the Pickled Pelican has gone for a top of the range Ruggero that is so sexy, it is worthy of its own Facebook photos: and why not?
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] T [/dropcap]here is an excellent selection of cakes and biscuits, including a delicious lemon curd tart ($6) and the tempting chocolate pistachio Vienna biscuit ($3.50) that was proving a hit with the 11am coffee crowd.
Four-legged patrons are also not forgotten, with the Pickled Pelican offering a puppycino – yes – for dogs that is made up of puppy milk, liver slivers and a dog biscuit. (You never told me about those! – Barney, the bluestonemagazine cocker spaniel).
For lunch last week I tried the vegetarian toasted Turkish bread sandwich ($13.90) because it promised field mushrooms, which I love. It was soft, moist and very filling. My fellow diners were keen on the soup of the day which was a creamed mushroom with a generous serving of toast ($14) that looked equally as delicious.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] C [/dropcap]hef and manager Katy Sullivan has worked hard to create something classy and different for Portland and if the diverse clientele is anything to go by, she has succeeded. Local public servants appear to favour it as a place for a working lunch, with nooks and crannies both upstairs and downstairs for a quiet meeting.
The breakfast bar at the front of the café, meanwhile, draws backpackers, older couples and people just popping in for a quick coffee … but the morning sun pouring in through the tall windows makes it hard to leave.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #A02F2F;”] K[/dropcap]aty has also introduced themed dinner nights that have proven really popular among those hankering to try different cuisines such as French, Moroccan, Thai, Mexican and Indian. Other nights there is tappas and live music.
Next time, I hope to be able to get across to Portland one evening to try the Pickled Pelican after dark because I have a sense it would be jumping.
All our reviews are independent: we pay for what we try.
[box] Pickled Pelican, 137 Percy St, Portland. Ph: (03) 5521 1641.[/box]
Other cafe stories you might enjoy:
Homestyle cakes a recipe for success
Cafe Bagdad pops up in Penshurst
Rocksalt rocks on in Port Fairy
Silver serves coffee gold at Slitti, Port Fairy
Two Tarts a treat in Warrnambool
By Carol Altmann
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] T [/dropcap]ravelling from Warrnambool to Adelaide, it is easy to bypass Heywood because it takes that extra bit of time and effort to detour into the main street: but it is worth it.
Heywood has less than 1400 people, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in character, such as that found at the Heywood bakery.
The Heywood bakery, like many small town bakeries, offers old-fashioned service, homemade scones and good coffee with the sort of enthusiasm and cheerfulness that makes you think they are living in the best place in the world, and maybe they are.
The bakery is right in the main street, Edgar St, which crosses the picturesque Fitzroy River and has a sweet little picnic area right on the riverbanks. Across from the bakery is the historic former Heywood primary school, now used as the town library, which has been restored and looks gorgeous.
When it comes to history, however, it is hard to beat the building which houses Heywood Horse and Country, also in the main street.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #DDCE8D;”] T [/dropcap]he original bluestone building dates back to at least 1854, which is when Heywood became a town, and was operated as a general store by a Mr Avery.
In 1862, the business was bought by Heywood pioneer and merchant Harris Rosenbloom, who emigrated from Poland in 1857 and died a very wealthy man in 1887.
The Harris Rosenbloom rags-to-riches story has fascinated the current owner of the building, Fred Wilson (from Kaz’s Googs, Bluestone Magazine 2/11), who has set about recreating and restoring as much of the original building as possible since taking it over from Foodworks.
The southern wall is the original bluestone that has been sandblasted and restored, while Fred built a new bluestone wall at the rear to recreate the Rosenbloom façade.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t touch the front due to building regulations, so I have made a replica at the back,” he said.
Harris Rosenbloom went on to make his fortune through sawmilling and, in addition to his shop, owned two sawmills that employed 40 men. When he died, he had an estate worth more than £20,000, at a time when the weekly wage was £2.
Many of the goods he sold in his store are, in their modern equivalent, sold by Heywood Horse and Country today: hats, bridles, horse feed, boots and buckles.
Denise Farrugia opened the business earlier this year and, like Fred, appreciates the deep history of the building.
“It is wonderful what Fred has managed to do. This was a condemned building at one point,” she said.