In Hamilton, they can spell your name! UPDATED

 I was really surprised at how Scottish Hamilton seems to be. I have already mentioned the names of other towns in the area.  Here are some others.

Look what they sell as souvenirs - pictures of Highland Cattle! And border collies!

Arglyle Shop.  Our McLellans were from Argyll.. 

 And I don't have a pic of the Argyle Arms Hotel.

And they even have McDonalds! Scottish, no doubt.

We went to the Hamilton History Center in the afternoon.  I asked this question - and they thought that it was by word of mouth among Scottish immigrants.  They thought the Hentys were responsible for encouraging people to settle in Victoria.

Their receipt was made out to Kay McLellan!  And no hesitation over the spelling.  There is no other way to spell McLellan in Hamilton!

The Manor House

Another building that featured in the McLellan story in Hamilton is The Manor House.  It is at 4 Dryden Street, and is currently for sale.   Here

It was built in 1862 .  John and then Donald (brothers of  Nicol) also lived there.  At the Hamilton History Centre, we read that Donald actually owed it.

My pics below. It  is a lovely house. We didn't try to go in - I am sure it has changed a lot since 1862!

 

 

Boram Boram Cemetery and Malcolm McLellan

The entrance to Boram Boram Cemetery

 

And the cemetery map is below.  The Presbyterians feature strongly.

The grave we were looking for was to the left.

 

Kin Mun found it.  We had been warned it was broken

The top. Malcolm was the brother of Nicol and Donald and was born in Scotland.  I later found he as not married.  It was Nicol and Donald who erected this memorial stone.

 This is the bottom part.

 

 

 

Hamilton College - and family stuff

 This is Hamilton College.

The money shot! The original building - Hamilton and Western Districts College, founded in 1871.  Our grandfather was there in 1885.

And new logo.  In 1962, it amalgamated with Alexandra College, founded in 1872. It was then known as Hamilton College until formally being named Hamilton and Alexandra College.

It has a sister college in China.

The satellite dish is post 1871.

Tomorrow we go to Penshurst to look for a grave of our grandfather's uncle.  A very helpful person from the local cemetery trust told me where to go, and that the headstone was sbroken.  We have strict instructions to wear old shoes and not to get bogged.

Folks here are very friendly and ready for a chat.  And if you have a Scottish surname, you will feel right at home!  On the way, there were Scottish names everywhere - Streatham, Dunkeld, the Trossachs, even the Grampians.  The downside is that the Presbyterian section of the Hamilton Cemetery is very big!..yes, I found a couple of graves to look for there.

Floods

We had begun to wonder about these floods.  Tonight we had a tiny glimpse of them...

Water from the lake ran over a weir.  It overflowed and flooded the road below it.  It was a regular thing as permanent gates were installed for this purpose.  But one local told us that today they were cutting the road substantially further away.

Two ducks managed to hold their own in the torrent.

And further up the Grange Burn, we saw a pedestrian walkway closed.  This time we saw a duck being washed away.  I hope he was ok.

On the way to Hamilton

 We left Melbourne and it looked like this...

As we went along, you could see what industry thrived in this area.

Footscray

 We met up with my niece and nephew for dinner.  We took the opportunity to have a look at another part of Melbourne,  It is very Vietnamese, with occasional Italian, Ethiopian, Chinese, and Filipino.

General street scenes in Footscray

 

The Vietnamese know about things French!

And the Italians have been here too!

And the vegans get a look in.

 

Food:

Avacado ice cream.  Interesting - haven't tried it.

Dinner tonight.

 

And a bit of Vinglish - or just a missing letter.

 

Sunday in Melbourne

.

I went off to the National Gallery of Victoria this morning, while KM and BL visited respective friends. 

I recognised this painting when I saw it

 

but I had no idea of the story behind it.  Nazi stolen art comes to Melbourne - and it wasn't a Van Gogh after all.

 Tonight, we returned to Donovans for dinner.  The last time we were there, it was with Yvonne.  They did not have KM's bouillibaisse, so he had the next best thing...

 BL and I had barramundi.

And dessert is always fun!  The waiter divided a bombe alaska into three for us.

 

 

More Melbourne

 Our weather luck ran out - slightly - on Saturday.

But it fined up later in the day.  This was on our way back from visiting a patchwork mega-store and catching up with friends in Templestowe.  It was also a lovely view of Melbourne city.

We had Japanese food for dinner.  Our 37th floor unit is an easy walk to a local food centre.

Japanese meat balls - or "albondigas" in Spain.