Visiting Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition!
28 March 2024 | 9:46 pm

I’ve been fascinated with ocean liners and early twentieth century history since I was in primary school, as I’ve posted again multiple times recently. Clara and I had penciled in a day to wander the Melbourne Museum, but when we heard there was a Titanic exhibit!? Get out of here!

Banners outside the museum for the Titanic exhibition

The banners outside the museum say the exhibit had been extended to the 20th of April, and we soon discovered why. We entered the museum and went to the ticket counter, and were told we were lucky enough to just make their 12:15 viewing. They’ve since completely sold out of their Easter long weekend day tickets, though you can still book evening viewing as of writing. Clearly there’s a wider interest in the history of this liner and its people than I would have thought.

Once we’d signed in through the large RMS Titanic archway to the right of the museum entrance, we were given these cute White Star boarding passes, and a passenger’s details where we could learn more about the people who sailed on this ship in 1912. I thought it was a lovely touch, and a way to humanise what’s often viewed as merely disaster porn (ask me what I think of the Lusitania in the same way).

A selection of artefacts, described below.

The exhibit is arranged into a few different halls, with the first depicting the conception and construction of the ship. You’re shown photos from the huge Harland and Wolff shipyards, portraits of Lord Pirrie and J Bruce Ismay, and deck-by-deck schematics of the liner. But the stars are the recovered artefacts themselves: a set of real hull plate rivets, a deck lamp, gears, a barometer, and a boiler thermometer.

My surprise favourite was the coffee urn setup, which was used to serve the world’s greatest beverage to passengers!

A coffee urn and large, partially reconstructed vessel.

In addition to the artefacts themselves, various rooms and hallways were mocked up to give you a sense of how it would have felt wandering the ship. They were clearly simplified from the originals, but I thought they were executed well! There was a first class hallway, a stateroom, even the distinctive green and white walls of the famed Café Parisian.

An awkward gentleman walking down a mock Grand Staircase

But of course the Grand Staircase stole the show. I’m putting one of my usual awkward expressions here because dozens of people were looking on! But even on this stage you could feel the gravity of the event. There were people who graced these real stairs who never got to know anywhere else, to say nothing of all the third class passengers below decks who didn’t stand a chance.

A selection of third class crocerky with the White Star logo

There were so many more recovered artefacts on show than I could have dreamed of; everything from watches and personal papers, to a literal block of boiler coal. But it was the tableware and cooking vessels that hit the closest to home for me. The exhibit showcased the finery of first class, some of the beautiful second class china, and the pedestrian crockery for third class (above) stamped with the White Star logo to “deter theft”. Maybe it’s the seeming impossibility that so much fragile table wear could survive such a disaster, or the thoughts of people using these in their daily lives without so much a second thought. All of this crashed down and sat at the bottom of the Atlantic for close to a hundred years.

Photo showing one of Titanic's bridge telegraph

At the other end of the scale we had the other piece of Edwardian engineering I was really hoping they’d have: an original bridge telegraph. These were used to send speed instructions to the engine rooms, which would have included that last command for full reverse on the fateful night of the sinking. This one was pictured in the third hall that described the events leading up to the iceberg encounter.

An original luggage tag.

It’s strange, I’ve been reading about ships like Titanic for decades at this stage. Clara and I even got to go see the Queen Mary in Long Beach, which was another childhood dream. But seeing these real items from Titanic added a whole other dimension to my understanding and feelings around it. It was a privilege to see them all.

By Ruben Schade in Melbourne, 2024-03-29.


Visiting Patterson Lakes for first time since 1992
27 March 2024 | 10:26 pm

Today I got to share a bit of my childhood with Clara!

I was born in Sydney, but my family moved to Melbourne before my first birthday, so I remember none of it. My parents intended to live in Melbourne permanently, so they bought a house for the cost of a sandwich in a new development well south of the city called Patterson Lakes. A few years later, and we’d sold up and moved to Singapore. Live comes fast sometimes.

Technically I did briefly come back here with friends in 2007 when I was studying in Adelaide, but I didn’t have the opportunity to really explore. So for my birthday yesterday we got the Frankston train from Flinders Street Station down to Carrum, then walked down the road to check it out.

Photo from above the station platform showing the stunning blue sky and turqouise water.

Firstly, the new Carrum station is stunning! It’s elevated above the ground as part of the state government’s level crossing removal project, so you get to see a view of the bay that would otherwise be hidden behind houses. The colour of the water and sky on this brisk morning were something else. Australia!

And of course, Clara got a silly photo of me beneath a sign pointing to the main event! You can take a few different buses, but we chose to walk and get some exercise after an especially heavy breakfast of pancakes (cough).

An awkward gentleman posing below a direction sign for Patterson Lakes.

Crossing the bridge into Patterson Lakes immediately sent a rush of nostalgia through my… nostalgia bones. The suburb was built around a series of artificial and natural lakes that are connected to Port Phillip with a small canal. It’s funny to think than two decades later I’d be studying in Mawson Lakes in Adelaide built around a similar concept.

View of one of the Patterson... Lakes from the bridge into the suburb.

The beautiful weather suddenly started to turn, because this is Melbourne! The joke among Australians is that if you don’t like Victorian weather, just wait an hour because it’ll change. We decided to brave it and walk down my childhood streets first.

All the streets around this area were named for fish. This first street branching off Snapper Point Drive was named for Bream, which my childhood self struggled to say for some reason. Brim? The trees had also grown since last time I’d been here; I remember as a kid being able to touch the tops of saplings with my hands, and now they’re well established. We grew up together, isn’t that nice?

Sign on a suburban street saying Bream Bay

I knew that a few things had changed about the suburb already from looking at Street View, including the soulless replacement of the Tucker Bag supermarket for another Safeway, then a Woolworths. The front of the Community Centre had also been repainted from a fetching light pink to a dreary grey, and a weird addition added to the front. I remember “phys ed”, school assemblies, and special events taking place in “The Community Centre”, and being very nervous when it was my turn to present!

View of the refurbished Community Centre.

And what nostalgia trip would be complete without a walk down to my first school? I went to Patterson Lakes Primary right in the throws of the conservative state premier Jeff Kennett’s reign in the 1990s, so half of us were in what the teachers charitably referred to as “portables”, but were really shipping containers with windows. I’m glad to see some more modern buildings among the older brick ones. Investing in education!? What a concept!

An awkward gentleman outside his old primary school.

In addition to our house here being the first place where I used a computer, this school was also where I used my first Apple II! The school “lab” had a bunch of Apple IIe and IIgs machines that were donated by Apple under the principle of hooking them young. They were already on their way out by the time I was in school, but I guess schools weren’t about to throw away stuff that worked. And it only took me three decades to get one of my own!

View of the giant Patterson Lakes marina building.

Coming here made me wonder how my sister’s and my lives would have been different if we didn’t move overseas. At the time I liked being here, but that was because I didn’t know anything else. I can’t stand suburbia now; I’d rather be closer to town, public transport, and amenities than live out in far flung nowhere. I though that was me being weird until I learned about modern urbanism, and realised a lot of people feel the same way.

Still, it’s oddly comforting to know this place still exists. I wonder how it’ll look in another two decades when I come back again?

By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2024-03-28.


Rubber Soul’s album cover
26 March 2024 | 10:50 pm

Notice anything?

Rubber Soul album cover

Their name isn’t on the cover!

I was 15 when I realised they’re called The Beatles because it has the word Beat in it. It also took me reading Wikipedia to realise it was their first album that doesn’t mention their name anywhere on the front.

I’m still coming to terms with this. I must have seen this cover a trillion times over my life.

By Ruben Schade in Melbourne, 2024-03-27.



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