Australia Still On My Mind

I love Melbourne. To my mind, it is the most livable city. It is an urban city yet laid back, not similar to the razzle and dazzle of many urban cities. It is clean, green and generally peaceful. Its shops close early at night; its night life is tame compared to even Manila's nightlife. Its architecture is magnificent, typically classical European, specifically French and British inspired. It is a city abundant with fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy products, including meat, of beef and lamb variety. Outside the city, I saw vast green lands on both sides of the highways, cattles and sheep grazing, with only a few vehicles going along or opposite our direction.

I underwent training orientation on the operation of atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) at Varian Techtron's main plant and laboratory at Mulgrave, Victoria, outside Melbourne. Our company bought a unit which will be used to analyze aluminum, zinc, and other elements of our kettle bath of our then newly operated continuous galvanizing line. There were 5 of us and my co-trainees came from Makban (Laguna and Tiwi, Albay) Geothermal Plants and Cebu Water District. All these companies also bought new Varian Techtron units, and our training was part of the package.

I also had the opportunity to visit the Pasminco office (Pasminco was once our suppliers of zinc ingots and a major supplier in the Southeast Asia region) where I had an educational technical discusion with Mr. Mike Ainsley, Pasminco's head of technical services in our region. Pasminco was once the world's biggest zinc producer supplying over ten percent of the global output.

My Pasminco visit was capped by a trip to their zinc smelter plant in Hobart, Tasmania, a small island down south of Melbourne.There I learned that the first exiles from England arrived and settled there before eventually moving to the mainland. And that the famous Tasmanian Devil could not be found in Tasmania. It was in Hobart though where I ate the biggest oysters I had ever seen. Over lunch at a restaurant by the wharf, after engaging a large plateful belatedly knowing it was just an appetizer, I could not have imagined how I managed to still take the main course. Perhaps a bottle of wine each for us with Mike Ainsley proved helpful. Another adventurous sidetrip was a car drive to the island's highest mountain, Mt. Wellington. It was amusing to see the tall pine trees along the curved road becoming smaller and shorter as we went up, ultimately becoming a bonsai up there.

Outside Melbourne, I visited the Furphy Metal Center, a steel fabrication plant specializing in the fabrication of galvanizing kettles. Their company slogan of "Good, Better, Best" was prominently displayed on their plant's walls.l I evaluated their capability to supply us with our requirement; mainly from the technical/quality point of view. I examined their quality records, from mill test certificates of their steel and electrode chemical composition to non-destructive tests, e.g. ultrasonic tests, magnetic particle and dye penetrant tests, etc. I was also able to observe their fabrication process, especially the cold bending process where plates as thick as 50mm(2 inches) are bent and how they were subsequently stress relieved.

There was also this zinc ash recycling plant which i visited within the city itself. It is interesting to note that our zinc wastes, namely, dross and ash, are converted and recycled into high value raw materials for rubber, paint and even pharmaceuticals. At that time, our dross and ash generation were significant in volume and their zinc content still high which made it favorable for this plant. However over the years as we gained experience and knowledge and skill our dross and ash generation were drastically reduced that exporting them to Australia became not feasible.

The last days of my stay in Melbourne was spent with a close friend and fellow Jaycee from Iligan City who settled there 5 years before. We then had a great time roaming Melbourne, from toboggan skiing to mall visits, to boat ride along the Melbourne river and going to the Victoria market for some famous cheese.

The day I left Melbourne, a Saturday, thousands of visitors from nearby New Zealand were roaming the streets, riding the city trams, boozing in sidewalk bars, etc. It was said that almost 30% of New Zealand population descended to Melbourne. They were there for the much awaited rugby match later in the evening between their New Zealand All Blacks team against the Aussies Wallabies team. It was all in the papers. The people in the market were talking about it. It was a great sporting event at that moment.

I took a Sunday midnight trip back to Manila via Qantas Airways. As I approached the check-in and pre-departure areas, I thought the place was noisy, booming, and seemed crowded. I found out that they were the Kiwis who went to see the game and were now going back home. I saw big, wide bodied, tall and seemingly brown skinned (but definitely not white) people. I was told they were from the race of the original natives of their place. The kind, we here in the Philippines and also Australia call aborigines.