Let the Sunshine in

 I have posted previously about a visit to Costco at Ardeer - possibly read that after this.

Today (21 November) we had quite a tour of the wild west in mind with 4 stops planned.

The first stop at Millers Junction in Altona North was intended to be a visit to the Woolies as it is the only place I know still selling Schlossgold no-alcohol beer.  Got a few 6 packs of that and some Edenvale no-alcohol Sauv blanc ($8.90 a bottle vs $12 at Coles at Prahran).  Then to the plant section of Bunnings (a nice potted Dahlia) and a few things at Aldi - as we had the car and thus avoided a walk to Prahran the next day. 

Next, following Google Maps as satnav, we dodged around an industrial area to get to 6 Law Court in Sunshine West where Mount Zero Olives can be found.  An interesting warehouse staffed by very pleasant people selling olive products among other things.  We purchased some stuff and had interesting chats about where they source their product: in summary, SE Australia!  (In passing the Pink Lake Salt comes from a lake of that name in Dimboola VIC - about 200 km South of the Pink Lake I know in Murray-Sunset NP VIC, and 250 km East of the Pink Lake near the Coorong in SA!)

Then on to the J V Mackay Memorial Gardens on Anderson Road in the guts of Sunshine, which Frances had found by asking Prof Google about "Sunshine Gardens".  It was difficult to find a parking spot nearby - we eventually hooked into a building site - and after interrogating some locals it appeared that the best bets were a shopping centre on the Northern end of this footbridge or the Sunshine Railway Station on the Southern end.  There does look to be some interesting stuff to look at in the town centre.

This is a church on the Anderson Rd side of the gardens.

You want multicultural?  It appears the church is a mixture of Scots, Korean and Vietnamese

A nice sample of Grevillea robusta.

A history of the founder of the Gardens (possibly click this to read it).

Those of a right-wing philosophy will say the material in this poster is typical of what happens with public ownership.  While I have a little empathy with that view (well argued for by Prof Roger Scruton) I also think that it is a function of the individuals involved: dickheads will stuff up anything regardless of their political views.

Indeed it seems that the Gardens were saved by enlightened people both in the community and the folk elected to Brimbank Council.  (There has been a war with some railway engineers described in a wiki, which is - according to some workers I spoke to - ongoing with the line to the airport the latest threat.)

A memorial of unusual and interesting design.

We then headed for Costco.  It was indeed a zoo.  The first problem was a lack of trolleys: some workers turned up with a chain of 12 or so, and frustrated shoppers dived upon like locusts on an irrigated paddock.  The place was bedlam,  Frances was wondering about a supplementary Christmas tree but decided $800 was a little too much - my view was at least one zero too much.  The checkouts very slow, due in the main to the amount of stuff people had.  The woman in front of us (who came from a farm west of Geelong!) had a bill around $800 and it was apparently her second load for the day.  We asked if there a better day and she she said it's usually like this by this time (1230) but much quieter when she had arrived at 1030.  2 lessons from this visit :

1. Get there early; and
2. Grab a trolley in the car park.

Filled up with fuel (30+c/litre cheaper than on our side of the Yarra, but only about 10c less than elsewhere in Sunshine so they are keeping the local bastards honest) and on home.  The traffic on the Westgate Bridge and heading towards the Burnley Tunnel was appalling until the Kingsway exit.