Croquet at Cairnlea

 A friend is playing croquet for NSW in the Interstate Shield, being played at the Victorian Croquet Centre at Cairnlea.  I thought I should go out there for a squizz.  Looking at the site on Google Earth there didn't look to be a lot of parking on site ...

,,. so I decided to save diesel and go by public transport.  This was a 4 mode saga.

Some interesting sites in the Tottenham area as we rumbled West.  The first was the low number of passengers on the train.
I read an article about the suburb of Tottenham during the week, mainly devoted to their being no dwellings in the area.  I have just confirmed this in Census Tablebuilder!  The silo in this (underexposed) image has an interesting bit of graffiti.
Zooming in the middle 'character is Pam the Bird!  I have no idea what "SC<>RM" means.  I am unsure if 'Uncle Tobys' still operates or if this should be scored as a ghost sign.
A little further down the line another set of silos had a similar decoration plus promotion for 'freeing' various locations.
The nearby Darling Flour Mills has "SROCK" on the silo but a large Pam outline on the adjoining roof.
We have noted in the past that Google Maps doesn't handle walking very well and so it was today.  I got to Ginifer Station in St Albans easily but then it said to to go to St Albans Rd on the Eastern side of the line.  Walked along Furlong Rd and found the/a bus waiting at the first intersection and not willing to let me on!  💩!  Had I been directed to the road on the West I could have caught the bus.  Only 2 km to walk so off I went.

This is the biggest hoarding I have seen for a single basic house, especially with a flag blocking the pavement!
It is indeed quite a basic house but well maintained (and not that pricey).
Here is a view down Furlong Road.
This pagoda is in the middle of a new development just off Furlong Rd at the intersection with Ken Jordan Rd.  Google Lens has failed to give any advice other than it shares features with a Buddhist Temple beside the Maribyrnong River.  However Google per se came up with a link to the An Quang Buddhist Temple which appears to have links to the Vietnamese community.

The number of Buddhist Temples I could find in Western Melbourne led me to explore Census data on religions for Western Melbourne.  I have included two tables: the first is the 'straight' data as delivered by ABS while the second includes some amalgamations of interest to me.  The first is combining "No Religion, (so described)" with "Not stated" which amount to 1/3rd of the population.  The second is combining the 2 'conformist' Anglo religions of Catholic and Anglican ( the latter a mere 3.7%) which together amount to a tad over a quarter of the population, and the third combo is the two 'Indian' religions Hinduism and Sikhism coming in at 11%.  Buddhism is 6th on the as downloaded list.

I got screeched at by a security from the building site nearby and was amused by this sign on the way out.  How would any extra rubbish be identified?
An overview of the lawns at Cairnlea.  I presume this was a site which they could afford.  Almost inaccessible by public transport and a long way from many of the lawns in Melbourne.  Also apparently very noisy during the week from the school next door and the building site around the Pagoda.
I was surprised at the effort mounted to recalibrate the hoops between matches, although some of shots which hit the metalwork did have a fair bit of oomph behind them.
A degree of concentration is involved in this sport at the State level!

I left to try and catch the bus and paused for about 30 seconds to catch a snap of the workers traces outside the building site.
That 30 seconds was nearly crucial, but the bus driver did wait while I jogged towards him!  Here is a record shot from Ginifer Station.
It only took an hour to get home, due to the nifty bus trip rather than a 2km (30 minute) walk.






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