Fire, Flood, Pestilence

From Doyle's to Buckley's

Returning to the familiar sights of Watson's Bay as we alighted from the bus on that beautiful sunny afternoon, was a very special  moment indeed.

One of the most wonderful aspects of a voyage such as ours was the fact that although we had travelled to many places and had seen and experienced life in a multitude of different cities, towns and remote, far flung locations which we would remember and cherish for evermore, what was also quite wonderful was the increasingly close rapport we had established with Sydney.

Having lived as Sydney Siders from late December to mid January, we got to know it pretty well and because of that, returning to it in between our travels felt as if we were returning to our Antipodean home.

Although there were still many areas of the city that we had not visited or explored, we had become well acquainted with so much of it, that revisiting our favourite haunts every time we returned, rendered it all increasingly familiar.

Seeing the magnificent Watson's Bay coastline again with children playing on the beach as when we first went there in early January was a gratifying moment indeed.

We ordered cold drinks from Doyle's and spotted the table on the terrace right on the beach where we had enjoyed an excellent fish supper whilst viewing the most glorious beachside sunset with Sydney's sparkling CBD in the horizon.

But on that day, while we were enjoying our drinks and reminiscing, the most adorable little puppy came over to where we were sitting, dropped his ball on the ground and looked up at us; he clearly wanted to play..

His owner was at a table on the lawn behind us sharing a large portion of chips with what looked like every possible seagull in the vicinity of that beach.

There must have been at least 30 of them hovering around that table, each squawking as loudly as it could in an attempt to secure more chips than any of the others.

It wasn't surprising that this person's sweet little puppy went looking for new playmates.

Once we ensured that he was safely back with his owner and the seagulls, we boarded the ferry and sailed off towards Circular Quay.

We couldn't help but wonder whether we would ever return to Watson's Bay again or if this, indeed, had been our final viewing of it, but that was too depressing a prospect to dwell upon for too long, so we decided to switch our focus to Buckley's and the fact that we would be there just in time for Happy Hour.

Melbourne Comedy and Arts Festival - CANCELLED 

Although we returned home later than we originally intended, it was still before 10:00 pm.

It was a little early to try and call our insurers in the UK so we packed our bags, cleared away our rubbish, tidied the flat and the balcony and got everything ready for our early departure in the morning.

We then treated ourselves to the remaining Marlborough Chardonnay on our little balcony whilst enjoying that truly magnificent Kirribilli Harbour Bridge view for the last time.

When we calculated that it was 10:00 am in the UK, I tried to call our insurers again.

They hadn't replied to the many emails we had sent every day since we last spoke to them in Rotorua so we were beginning to wonder whether it had all proved too much for them and they decided that they would not respond to us at all.

It didn't help that no one answered the phone that night either and I tried calling them for hours.

Had it been an engaged tone at the other end, we would have put it down to their being inundated with stranded passengers like us, who were as desperate as we were to know what they should do next, so we had to keep trying and wait our turn but as the phone just rang and rang for about 20 minutes at a time and then went dead, we became seriously concerned.

I tried for a couple of hours but in the end I gave up as I knew that no one would answer.

While I was trying to make contact with our insurers, my husband called our daughter in Adelaide to ask how they both were and when they would be setting off for Melbourne.

They were due to fly to Melbourne on Sunday morning but since booking their flights in early March, they had received several emails from the festival organisers urging artists not to travel there at that time as discussions were in progress as to whether the festival would need to be reduced in size or cancelled altogether.

They were safely ensconced in Adelaide with our friends in Glenelg so we strongly advised them to stay there.

Their accommodation in Melbourne had been cancelled and our Melbourne friend who had offered them her spare room earlier that year, was concerned about hosting anyone in her home at that time.

We certainly couldn't blame her for that.

They assured us that they would not fly to Melbourne unless the festival was reduced in size and social distancing measures had been put in place as mentioned in the email they had been sent.

They would also insist on their being provided with safe unshared accommodation for the duration of their stay if the scaled down festival were approved, which the organisers were pushing for and which appeared to be a fair compromise.

They contacted us again the following day to let us know that the festival had actually been cancelled as Melbourne's theatres and cinemas would be closing their doors to the public that weekend and the festival came into that category as a mass gathering event.

Slowly but surely Australia's response to Covid-19 was beginning to remind us of New Zealand's.

For theatres, cinemas, arts festivals and mass sporting events, including the notorious F1, to cancel all bookings for the foreseeable future, meant that Melbourne was taking the battle against covid very seriously indeed.

Our daughter and her partner would now not be working in Melbourne for the following month after all and it was increasingly likely that their tour of SE Asia and China would also need to be cancelled due to border closures that were unlikely to re-open before July, so they needed to give some serious thought to the predicament they now found themselves in just as we did ours.

We talked about their joining us in Sydney when we returned from Canberra so at least we would all be together as they could stay with our daughter's partner's relatives in North Sydney but they were not sure about that.

They had considered returning to the UK but the few flights still available were extortionately expensive so they didn't feel that was an option for them at that time.

We agreed to stay in regular contact with each other and not decide on anything too drastic without letting each other know.

At least we knew they were safe and sound with our friends in Glenelg.

Thursday 12 March 2020

Arrival in Canberra 

We left our Kirribilli Airbnb flat that morning at 6:20 am to start our voyage to Canberra.

Our metro journey over the Harbour bridge at 6:45 am was very beautiful.

The Opera House appeared to be shrouded in a smoky blue haze and the morning sky above it was a transparent pale blue with nuances of pink seeping through the thin layers of white clouds in the distance barely visible to the naked eye.

We were in Central Station a few minutes later and not long after that we were sitting in our spacious first class window seats ready for our mini break in Canberra, Australia's Capital Territory.

We had found social distancing quite difficult since returning to Sydney two days previously.

It was physically impossible at the airport and public transport was as busy and as crowded as it had ever been.

Our walks in Kirribilli, North Bondi and Watson's Bay were quite solitary but whenever we took public transport or found ourselves in busy central locations, we were inevitably surrounded by other tourists, school children, commuters, mothers and their babies and in the evening lots and lots of young adults in bars, restaurants and street cafés.

That morning had been different though; undoubtedly more down to the early hour of our departure than social distancing but the streets, the metro, Central Station and even our train were beautifully isolated; not completely empty but certainly less crowded than we had experienced before.

More people joined the train from other stations we stopped at en route but our section of the carriage remained quite empty apart from us and another couple two seats ahead of us.

The train journey to Canberra was very pleasant indeed; as we were in a first class carriage, there was a lot of space between the seats which was ideal for social distancing.

There was a little café at one end of the carriage serving coffee, tea and a good selection of breakfast and lunch items.

We really didn't expect that but it was a lovely surprise.

The country areas we travelled through en route were lovely; between us we spotted cockatoos, parrots, kookaburras and a mob of kangaroos hopping over a hill and across a field in the distance; it really was quite a lovely sight.

It was actually at that point after the kangaroos eventually faded into the horizon that we realised how slowly that train was going.

I had grown accustomed to the high speed Pendolino train in the UK in recent years, as my work commitments from 2017 meant that I needed to travel by train regularly from London to Manchester; that train to Canberra travelled at half that speed or less; the journey took just over four hours; we discovered later that driving from Sydney to Canberra would just take two hours, even with the 60 mph speed limit.

But that did not deter us from thoroughly enjoying every part of that gentle train journey, even though I did have to catch up on work for virtually the entire journey, the spectacular scenery and interesting wildlife visible from our window was much appreciated.

As we rolled into Goulburn several hours after leaving Sydney and spotted all the charred trees in the distance, we thought of the house sit we missed on that beautiful farm there in January due to wildfires.

Indeed it wasn't even possible to travel to Canberra at that time as fires surrounded woodland around the entire city for weeks on end.

We were just pleased to hear that our cancelled house sit hosts and their animals had been evacuated in time and the only losses they incurred were several out-houses and a barn.

Not long after leaving Goulburn we arrived in Canberra.

Considering this was the official capital of Australia, we couldn't believe what a remote back water region the station is located in.

We were expecting to roll into the Canberra equivalent of Flinders Street or Central Station but we found ourselves in the sort of station that you would expect to find in a small town or village location; very small with no buses, trains or trams to be seen anywhere.

There wasn't even a taxi ramp there so how this could function as the political hub of Australia was a mystery to us.

We asked about buses but apparently to get to the nearest stop at that time of day, we would have needed to walk to the end of the road the station was on, turn left then walk a few hundred metres uphill with all our luggage in tow.

But how and where we would buy bus tickets was anyone's guess.

Our daughter had warned us about travelling in Canberra; they were there in early December and they found travelling from one area of the city extremely difficult indeed.

They explained that Canberra is not so much a big city but more a collection of suburbs linked together by American style highways.

They strongly advised us to hire a car whilst in Canberra; we took that advice but as there were no hire car outlets at the station, we had to pick our car up from another area of Canberra called Fyshwick which did not look so far away on the map but clearly not easy to access without adequate public transport provision.

We called the hire car office to explain that we had arrived but could not work out how to leave the station; the person I spoke to clearly found that amusing but she also sympathised and sent a courtesy taxi to collect us soon after our call.

We arrived a few minutes later, picked up our sky blue Hyundai Kona from the very kind person waiting outside for us with our keys and documentation, then set off on a completely different experience of city tourism.

Masks, Sanitizer and Latex Gloves

Once we had deposited our luggage in our new high rise apartment in Civic, we returned to tourist mode and decided to see what Canberra had to offer.

We spent almost two hours walking around our new neighbourhood, admiring the sculptures in Civic Square which was right on our doorstep.

Our plan for that afternoon had originally been to walk to Canberra's famous war memorial from our flat, then proceed to the High Court of Australia but we soon realised that in the limited time we had available in Canberra, walking to those places from where we were staying would probably not be a sensible option.

I suppose we naively assumed that as we were located in the town centre then everywhere would be accessible on foot as it had been in other cities we had visited.

We also spent a couple of hours getting to know our local neighbourhood which was lovely and also extremely useful.

Whilst on that walk, we stumbled upon a large chemist on the corner plot of a vast shopping centre adjacent to our apartment block.

We arrived there at the very moment that it received a substantial batch of hand sanitizer, masks and latex gloves.

At that time the media was focusing on hygiene and hand washing as the key to curbing the spread of COVID-19 and if you didn't have access to soap and water then sanitizer would be the next best thing.

As for face masks, up until that point, the advice had been not to wear them as they did not necessarily help, but attitudes were gradually beginning to change.

More and more people were wearing them every day and some airlines including Vietnam Air, made it compulsory to wear masks on their flights.

So we felt we needed to stock up on these items prior to our journey home, though everywhere we had tried in Auckland and Sydney since Monday of that week were invariably out of stock of any of those products and we had checked in every chemist we passed in both those cities on the off-chance that we might get lucky at least with one if not all three, but sadly no luck at all anywhere.

The pharmacist in the little chemist in Bondi, which we had been to on several occasions was visibly disappointed when he could not assist us with this so he sent us to another shop a few doors away which he described as "selling a little bit of everything" and so may be able to help us.

That shop really was somewhat of an Aladdin's cave; selling odds and ends of all sorts from carpets to electrical goods to fabric and even sandwiches and soft drinks.

But sadly the shop assistant couldn't help us at all with sanitizer or gloves though when it came to face masks, she furtively took two out of a box under her till and said we could have them for $25 each; we were outraged at the bare faced exploitation, so we declined but when she offered us four for $25 we reluctantly agreed as we didn't want to be without masks on our journey back.

So on that day in Canberra when we we were able to buy a pack of 25 for just $15 we didn't hesitate at all and bought two packs of masks as well as multiple containers of sanitizer in various sizes and a large box of latex gloves.

We would certainly need it for our journey home on the 20th but we were also pleased to have some for our remaining 11 days in Australia.

As it turned out it all proved very useful in the UK as well as we arrived after it had locked down and most places in our area of Surrey were either closed or out of stock of everything.

Fortunately for us our Canberra stash lasted well; in actual fact we are still using the masks and gloves now over a year later and we also have three bottles of that excellent hospital grade sanitizer left.

We were lucky that day in Canberra.

Within minutes of our selecting what we needed and putting it in our hand basket, it was all gone; the manager assured those who didn't manage to secure anything that another batch would arrive at 9:00 am the following morning and another at 2:30 pm the following afternoon so we didn't feel too bad buying as much as we did though we did wonder if the two people in our queue who had about 20 packs of masks each in their trolleys would be selling them on to desperate travellers at a similar extortionate rate as the four we had purchased in Bondi.

We were surprised that the pharmacy didn't limit purchases to a maximum of 2 or 3 boxes per person; it would have certainly been fairer.

We may have missed out on a proper viewing of the War Memorial that afternoon but we were well stocked with masks, gloves and sanitizer.

The High Court of Australia

https://www.hcourt.gov.au/about/visiting-the-high-court

After dropping our new purchases off home, we decided to start our tour of Canberra with a trip to the High Court of Australia rather than the war memorial as we were keen to see one of the afternoon cases and time was pressing on.

"The Australian High Court building is one of Canberra's major tourist attractions and is situated in the Parliamentary Zone of Parkes on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin between the National Science and Technology Centre (Questacon) and the National Gallery of Australia".

"The building is a unique structure, 40 metres tall and constructed mainly of concrete and glass; it has four main elements: a large public hall, three courtrooms, an administrative wing, and Justices' chambers".

"Public visitors may view the Great Hall, which includes an educational display and video area, and often features exhibitions or performances by cultural organisations".

"The three courtrooms, which are the focus of the building's activities, can also be viewed when not in use".

"Court Guides are on hand to introduce visitors to the history, role and operation of the High Court and its building".

"If the Court is sitting, visitors are welcome to watch proceedings".

This is certainly what we were hoping to do.

As a retired solicitor my husband was very keen to see how this all worked in Australia.

There was a very high profile case being heard on the afternoon we were there; it was the second sitting of the emotive Cardinal Pell appeal trial.

We were amazed we were permitted into the public gallery area of such a high profile trial.

This article published abc.net.au after the first day of this appeal hearing on 10 March 2021 by High Court reporters Elizabeth Byrne and Sarah Farnsworth explains what we sat in on that extraordinary afternoon which was the second and final day of this hearing.

George Pell's appeal hearing at the High Court in Canberra 

"As the first day of George Pell's appeal hearing closes in Canberra, all eyes — in Australia and overseas — are on the High Court as it decides the future of the former advisor to the Pope and most senior Catholic to be convicted of child sex offences".

"78-year-old Pell is serving a maximum six years in jail after a jury found him guilty of sexual offences against two choirboys in the late 1990s when he was Archbishop of Melbourne".

"On Wednesday, the High Court took an interest in what is essentially a technicality: should the court of appeal have watched the videotaped evidence given by the victim at trial".

"Justice Virginia Bell questioned why the full bench had not been invited to watch the same evidence."

"Why are we being taken to selected portions of the transcript?" Justice Bell asked."

"And why aren't we getting the whole transcript?"

"Pell's lawyers make 'reasonable doubt' argument and are hoping to convince the High Court that the jury made a mistake and his conviction should be quashed".

"They argued on Wednesday that the prosecution did not reach the bar of proving "reasonable doubt", particularly when it came to the five to six minute window in which the abuse is said to have occurred".

"Beginning his case, Bret Walker SC took to his feet with the long-running argument that Pell could never have committed the abuse in the midst of a "hive of activity" after a Solemn Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral."

"These are not deserted premises, these are not areas where nothing is going on," Mr Walker argued."

"He said there was a "sheer unlikelihood" that events would have aligned to ensure a five minute hiatus of activity for Pell to have been alone with the choirboys".

"Mr Walker also argued that the judges who believed the victim's evidence as truthful did not properly consider testimony by other witnesses that suggested it was "unlikely" if not "improbable" that Pell was alone with him and his friend".

"Taking issue with the Court of Appeal's reasoning for upholding the guilty verdicts, Mr Walker argued reasonable doubt can co-exist with belief in the victim's testimony."

"Belief in a complaint does not eliminate the possibility of co-existent reasonable doubt as to guilt," Mr Walker submitted".

"The people we believe may be wrong — either lying ... or simply wrong"

"But lawyers for the prosecution have told the High Court that Pell's case is "weak" and glosses over evidence that supports the victim known as 'A'."

"Outside court on Wednesday morning, the lawyer acting for the father of one of the victims, who has since died, said her client was feeling apprehensive about the day's challenge"

"He's understandably quite anxious and unsettled by this," Lisa Flynn said."

"However, he also remains very hopeful and also confident that the High Court will agree with the Court of Appeal majority and that the convictions against George Pell will be upheld."

"The High Court won't be looking at every piece of evidence in the case, that was the jury's job over a number of weeks".

"The High Court will really be looking at the evidence as a whole, and looking at specific legal points in terms of the appeal over the next two days."

How did the case get to the High Court?

"Pell's case is extraordinary because of who is involved and what is at stake".

"But, on another level, it is a standard historical sexual abuse case based on the word of a victim against that of a person of authority, years after the events".

"The case revolves around sexual offences against two choirboys who snuck away from the post-mass procession and were caught by Pell swigging altar wine in the priest's sacristy".

"This was then followed by a second offence in a momentary encounter with Pell's accuser weeks later."

"A complication in the Pell case was that the second boy had died before the matter was reported to police in 2015 and, when asked in 2001 by his mother, he had denied ever suffering abuse".

"Pell's lawyer Robert Richter said he was so "angry and upset" by the result he could not go on, leaving the subsequent appeals to barristers Mr Walker and Ruth Shann".

"The first, in the Victorian Court of Appeal, found in a two-to-one decision that 'A' was a witness of truth and it was open to the jury to find Pell guilty beyond reasonable doubt".

"It is this decision and the manner in which it was made that was the focus of the High Court challenge on Tuesday"

"It is also familiar territory for the court."

High Court to examine the use of the 'M Test'

"At the heart of the submissions put to the court so far is something called the "M Test", from the 1994 High Court case M v the Queen".

"It requires appeal courts to make an independent assessment of the evidence, and then to decide whether it was open to the jury to arrive at its verdict beyond reasonable doubt".

"It is meant to protect jury decisions, except in situations where there has been a mistake".

"Just how the Victorian Court of Appeal carried out that task is what is at issue in the High Court in Canberra".

"The case, put forward by Pell's lawyers in the trial, the appeal and now the High Court, relies heavily on so-called "solid obstacles" to conviction."

"Witnesses involved in church activities at the time gave evidence that raised a series of questions about whether the crime was possible, and whether Pell would have had an opportunity to commit the offences"

"The evidence ranged from the centuries-old tradition of never leaving an Archbishop alone while robed, to whether Pell could have even committed the offences while being robed; and whether the scene of the crime, the Priest's Sacristy, would have been vacant for the five or six minutes the offending was said to have taken place."

"A great deal was also made of how Pell would spend time on the church steps after mass, talking to worshipers".

"His lawyers said that all of this evidence about the practices and routines at St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne effectively provided Pell with an alibi, and showed a lack of opportunity".

"But two of the judges on appeal, Chief Justices Anne Ferguson and president Chris Maxwell, disagreed, saying they were not convinced."

"No witness could say with certainty that these routines and practices were never departed from," they said in their decision".

"Pell's lawyers now argue that the Court of Appeal did not apply the M Test correctly, by treating each issue in isolation".

"The point is that the majority did not independently weigh the combined effect of the evidence," Pell's lawyers said in their submission."

"They preferred the dissenting opinion of Justice Mark Weinberg, who found there were compounding improbabilities established by the evidence".

"A major thrust in the case put forward by Pell's lawyers is that the appeal ruling reversed the onus of proof and required Pell to establish actual innocence".

"They have also accused the appeal judges of basing their decision on belief in 'A' alone."

"Not surprisingly, in its written submissions to the High Court the prosecution has refuted that".

"The majority did not reason on the basis of 'belief' in A," they said."

"Rather they 'reviewed the whole of the evidence' and made an assessment of A's credibility and reliability."

"The prosecution said the account by 'A' was supported by evidence, including his account of the offence happening in the priest's sacristy."

"The sacristy was being renovated at the time — a detail not many other witnesses could recall."

"One of the curious things in the case was that the Victorian Court of Appeal did not stick to the transcripts, as would normally happen."

"The three judges watched videos of the victim and several other witnesses giving their evidence, in the same way the jury would have."

"They also visited the cathedral".

"The court asked for extra submissions on whether the M Test allows such a thing, or restricts appeal courts to the transcripts".

"On Wednesday and Thursday, which is the day we were there, the High Court heard the arguments from both sides".

We expected a decision to be months away but on Tuesday April 7, 2020, the High Court in a unanimous decision upheld Cardinal Pell's appeal and quashed his convictions on all five charges.