After leaving Tasmania for a month long visit I extended my trip three days in Melbourne.  Melbourne is a huge cosmopolitan city just across Bass Strait on mainland Australia.  Melbourne was quite intimidating with so many people, high rises; so many things to do and know idea were to start.  Lodging was expensive everywhere so I booked a room at the Victoria for $85 a night.  The room was quite depressing with a width of a queen sized bed and a tiny 14 inch TV.  After getting a feel for public transportation I had a blast and was able to get free transport to 8 regions of the city for free!

I visited the Melbourne Museum which highlighted the evolution of man, psychology of man and all of the above.  I’m not much of a museum person and it was ok.  Went to Queen Victory Market, huge, had to be the size of 4 football fields, clothing, souvenirs, and plentiful seafood and produce of all kinds.  Went to the Australian sports museum located at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds) a sports stadium that sits 100k people for cricket and Australian rules football or “footie”.  Amazing facility and the museum gives a great history on cricket, a game that looks about as boring to watch as baseball.  Still really cool! I have to say though; footie really grew on me as I was able to watch a game at the MCG.  It’s a cross between soccer and rugby; don’t see much resemblance to American Football.  Also went to a rugby game at the water front Ethad Stadiam.  This has got to be the coolest sports venue I’ve ever seen.  You could literally park your Yacht at its door steps or just take public transport for the rest of us. 

During my visit I also went to the Napoleon Exhibit, this was just a great history lesson and grew my appreciation for that era.  It was especially cool to see the uniform and furniture on display.  Also visited the St Paul’s Cathedral which is about four times the size of St. Helena Cathedral.  This was such a spiritual visit for me, it’s always nice to see such a traditional, grand and beautiful church. I was also able to squeeze in visits to the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, Doc Lands shopping center, China town (great nightlife and food) and more.  Melbourne is amazing but make sure to get a map of the public transportation or else… … Special thanks to Isaac Lowrie for showing me around!

 

Visited Elphinstone weighing systems and logging trailers. Nick and I had the privilege to get a personalized tour from the President, Graeme Elphinstone.  Graeme was on the GSE team to Montana about a year ago and I originally met in at our manufacturing plant.  After arriving in Tasmania I was not scheduled to have a vocational visit with Graeme.  After meeting him again at Rotary District Conference in Hobart we made it a point to find time to take an impromptu trip to Triabunna to see his manufacturing plant.  It was an absolute delight to see a light manufacturing firm that confronts similar everyday challenges.  The slow economy and political climate in Tasmania has reduced the lumber industry to a halt causing trailer sales to be negatively affected.  Graeme showed us some of the new innovative trailer products they are developing and strategy to bring them to the marketplace.  I was also able to chat on how he deals with competitors that often copy ideas.  Interestingly Graeme welcomes competitors and will often share designs with them as they try to copy ideas.  His philosophy is if they are copying me “they might as well do it bloody right”.  A past competitor was copying his design and producing at lower costs.  Graeme knowing there is no way the competitor could produce and still make a profit educated the competitor by inviting him to his plant to prove that point.  After Graeme educated the competitor the competitor raised his prices; Elphinstone was able to compete in price once again.  At the end of the day Graeme knows he can make trailers better than any other outfit and can support the parts business that goes with it.  Without getting too long winded I hope this gives you an idea on how great this visit was for me. 

Thank again Graeme!   

Made it home safely but not done writing posts as I want to share some of the remaining experiences I had but didn't have time to post them on the trip.  This is a pic of the Montana GSE team leaving Tassie in the early AM with our plane in the back ground.

Final Presentation

It's hard to believe that we presented on Montana for the last time tonight at the combined meeting of West Tamar and George Town Rotary Clubs.  We met in the Bass & Flinders Centre, in the shadow of the replica Norfolk that was used to commemorate the 200th anniversary of their circumnavigation of Tasmania.  We have enjoyed our stay so much and only have a few days left before leaving Tassie.

Tomorrow, we are off to Kings Meadows and are looking forward to what they have on the agenda for us, as we have loved what our pasts hosts have prepared for us.  For those Rotary Clubs and employers back home that made this trip possible, thank you for helping us along to have this amazing experience.  We vote that the GSE program be funded in perpetuity.

Had another amazing visit that the CAT manufacturing plant.  Visited with engineers from the hydraulic, structural, electrical, quality departments all with similar challenges in refining the end vehicle to meet customer needs.  The assembly and fabrication areas of the plant were also very similar but on a larger scale to our small manufacturing firm.  I was able to get some great ideas on how to manage many different assemblies and organize then into small mobile carts called hogs.  Finally, I was able to see how that manage production goals such as labor hours estimated vs actual.  Keeping note of these type of performance goals give a down and dirty view of how the company is performing in key areas to ensure profitability.  The CAT plant in Tasmania produces about 500 vehicles a year at an average sale of 1.5 million.  Competitive advantage for this plant is mainly due to its central location to mining locations in Tasmania but is facing viability challenges with countries such as Thailand showing potential to produce the vehicles more economically.  

"VKT from D17"

Constable Sarah Gray picked me up at 0830 hrs and within 5 minutes we had our first bit of business with a speeding motorcycle. Sarah threw a ticket book in my lap and informed me I was filling out the citation. I knew then it was going to be a great day. Afterwards I got showed around the station and was immediately issued my own ballistic vest and a police radio. The duty sergeant gave Gray instructions to make sure he heard my voice on the radio. Pretty sure they just wanted to hear my accent. "VKT from D17" was the radio traffic I had to get used to saying as Sarah made me talk to dispatch as we handled our calls. 9 years in the police service and I felt like it was my first day on the job again. We had a wide variety of duties as I observed the investigations from simple theft to disturbances between neighbors. I had the opportunity to observe a traffic checkpoint and finished they day with assisting the Criminal Investigations unit (CIB) as they conducted a raid on several subjects suspected of trafficking weapons. Thank you sooo much to Sarah and Bobby Gray who helped arrange my day!!

Location:Devonport Police, Tasmania

Cradle National Park was a great day for our group.  I personally have a love for National Parks and had some Cradle pics as my computer background image for months before coming out to Tassie.

I also love wildlife and was particularly keen on seeing a wombat and even keener to have seen a platypus!  For the sake of the group, I didn't spend hours watching them but I could have.

We Montanans love our outdoor activities- thanks to our hosts around Tasmania for showing us your wilder side.