Melbourne, Victoria: Ancestors and night photography

Full photo album for Melbourne 2017.

I flew into Melbourne on the morning of Friday 15 September, picked up a hire car and headed to Lakes Entrance. After 4 hours (including a stop for food) I met Juelo and Val. It is so strange to meet family for the first time. Juelo and my mother are second cousins. We got to know each other and explored family history together.

After a few hours I hit the road again, travelling to my father’s home to meet his partner and catch up.

Saturday morning I headed to Melbourne and booked into the hotel that was to be my base for the next couple of days, then headed off to the Genealogical Society of Victoria (GSV). An hour into my search I hit gold: a record of Thomas Bennett that lists his date of birth and the parish in Jamaica where he was born. I wondered if it was worth staying on: what are the chances of finding anything else significant?

I did find a naturalisation form that Antonio Albress had applied for in 1896. Trying to read the name of the ship he emigrated on and the year was unclear, but I was able to look at shipping books, find what looked like the correct ship but the years didn’t match. Searching the shipping records becomes hard because we don’t know:

• When he changed his name – was it after arrival?
• Was he in first class (would be listed) or steerage (which would not) or crew (where we may find records)?
• Was he really on this ship?
• Which year did he really arrive?

Considering many of the folk who came from Cape Verde jumped ship and changed their name, it would seem that when he applied for naturalisation he likely wouldn’t give information that may give away he shouldn’t be in the country. So the naturalisation papers may be fine for some information, but may not be accurate.

The original plan was to go to Melbourne for a workshop, but it was cancelled a couple of weeks before. As I had booked everything I decided to shift some of the purpose of the trip.

Staying at the GSV until closing, I headed back to the hotel, got room service and chilled out, taking photos out the window of the room. The view was towards Spencer Street Station. Taking long videos as the sun set was fun, especially later when editing the footage, increasing the speed so 1.5 hours zips past in minutes.

Sunday I headed out for a photo walk around the Docklands. I had left Melbourne before this area was redeveloped and this was the first time I had see it, aside from glimpses while driving around the ring road. I walked to the Ron Barassi Senior Park under the Bolte Bridge before heading back to the hotel. I managed to cover approx. 7km in a morning of wanderings and photography.

I headed south, out of the city to my aunt’s place to catch up with her. I last saw her a couple of years before when in Melbourne for a business trip. In the evening I headed out to meet up with Sammy from Aperture Tours for a 3 hour night photography course/tour. Sammy went over many aspects of photography: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, composition etc. to get an idea of what I know about photography and my camera. A lot of the stuff I knew from using my old film SLR, but as I don’t use my DSLR on a regular basis, I forget where some of the functions are. And I’ve rarely taken night photography, so this was new to me.

We wandered around Southbank, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne (watching the wire ‘witches hat’ change colours), St Paul’s Cathedral, along Swanston Street up to Collins St. and played around with getting blurring from vehicles, including trams with slower exposures. I had a great time and it was nice to not feel rushed while taking photos, which often happens with non-photography people. I normally don’t go out at night when I’m travelling for safety reasons. Wandering around with a camera on a tripod on my own is definitely not something I’d do.

I got back to the hotel around 10pm and messed around trying to get a photo out of a hallway window that looked down the Yarra towards Southbank. Eventually realising I had to use my coat like the black cloth over the old bellows cameras to block out the light in the hall to get a slow exposure of the view. Nifty!

Monday morning I checked out of the hotel and wandered into the city, first breakfast in one of the arcades before heading towards the State Library of Victoria to see if I could find records of my ancestors. I was able to locate the will of Antonio Albress. After a couple of hours there I returned to GSV for more research before heading back to the car to drive to the airport. I flew back to Adelaide after an eventful weekend.