Fw: Fri.8.1.21 daily digest
  Roderick Smith

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Subject: Fri.8.1.21 daily digest


Roderick.


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Fri.8.1.21 Metro Twitter
Bridge Road renewal works, 11pm Sunday 3 January to 5am Saturday 16 January
Craigieburn line: Glenroy level-crossing-removal works. Glenroy Rd closed at the level crossing to 28 Feb. Buses replace trains on sections of the line until 22.00 on Sat 16 Jan.
5.54 Werribee, Boom gates are down on Old Geelong Road near Hoppers… 
- 11.23 & 12.25 Major delays  between Werribee and Laverton (a track-equipment fault near Hoppers Crossing). 
- 20.18 Citybound trains run direct Laverton — Newport. Outbound trains run via Altona. Passengers travelling to Westona, Altona & Seaholme, change at Newport.
- Where is the fault located?
- Been issues at Hoppers for most of the day. One imagines there still are.
- Lucky it hasn’t resulted in a line suspension.
0.01 Sunbury line: Major delays (police near Tottenham). Trains will be held at available platforms.
- 0.06 clearing.
Buses replace trains Richmond/Caulfield - Glen Waverley from 0.55 Sat 9 Jan until the last train of Sun 10 Jan (works). Take a Pakenham [or Frankston?] train to Caulfield for express buses (which do not operate during Night Network hours).
Lilydale/Belgrave lines: Buses replace trains Parliament - Camberwell from 1.10 Sat 9 Jan until the last train of Sun 10 Jan (maintenance works). Buses run to/from Richmond during Night Network hours. [resulting in waits of 59 min?]

COVID-19 IN AUSTRALIA  24 New cases (Jan 8)    303 Active cases    25810 Recovered    909 Deaths

Victoria closes border to Greater Brisbane due to mutant COVID-19 strain. Noel Towell, Rachael Dexter and Sumeyya Ilanbey January 8, 2021. 52 comments
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/more-border-confusion-as-victorians-arrive-from-locked-down-brisbane-to-nothing-20210108-p56ss5.html>

Camera mecca shuts for good after 105 years of trade on one site Carolyn Webb January 8, 2021 40 comments [mainly laments and nostalgia; open access]
It's been a Melbourne landmark for more than 100 years, and a focal point for lovers of photography, but now the shutters have come down for good on Michaels camera store in Melbourne's CBD.
It's survived knocks such as the rapid decline in the use of film and the introduction of smartphones, but is now going solely online. It closed its doors for the last time on Friday evening after COVID-19 struck the final blow.
Peter Michael of Michaels camera store which is closing on Friday. CREDIT:SIMON SCHLUTER
Owner Peter Michael said customer numbers were 80 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels, and the store, on the corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale streets, couldn't hang on.
Mr Michael said the pause placed on the return of office workers to the CBD this week showed the end of the pandemic was uncertain.
"It's costing a fair bit to stay open. I'm going backwards at the moment," he said
The store began as a gun and pawn shop.
He felt "very emotional" and it was "extremely difficult", but he had decided to operate online from now on.
The business was opened in 1916 as a gun and pawn shop by Mr Michael's great-grandfather Emanuel Michael. It became a pharmacy in 1925 that also sold photography equipment.
Mr Michael, 62, worked as a child for his father, Alan, counting pills, cleaning and delivering goods.
It was also a chemists and then branched out into photography.
He sold his first big camera, a Minolta SRT 101, for $250 in 1971. He was 13
During and after World War II, the pharmacy was known for selling contraceptives, including a thriving mail order business.
An elderly woman told Mr Michael that she had worked there in the 1950s but never told her friends, such was the taboo around such matters.
From 1976, Michaels solely focused on photography, but its attitude stayed the same: "You care about the customer, you know about the product," Mr Michael said.
It is hoped the store's camera collection will be donated to an institution. CREDIT:NICOLE EMANUEL
Elton John once bought a Polaroid camera at Michaels. Lionel Richie, Bette Midler and John Farnham have all been customers.
Theft was a constant. Recently, a man walked out without paying for four $200 cameras. He was arrested across the road.
Mr Michael would like to donate his museum of 10,000 items, which he believes is the largest private camera collection in the world, to an institution such as the Melbourne Museum, as "a lasting tribute to our family and our place in Melbourne".
Pieces include a metal "birdie" of the kind that early photographers whistled into, while their head was under the cloth camera shade, to signify to photo subjects to look at the camera, or "watch the birdie".
Peter Michael's grandfather, Harold Michael, with a customer. Alan Michael is in the background.
There are two telephoto lenses that were damaged in the 1986 bombing of the Turkish consulate in South Yarra, and a sleek 1928 green ladies' pocket-sized vanity camera that includes a powder compact, lipstick and mirror.
Customer Adrian Roy, 65, of Glen Waverley, said he felt "shock and dismay" at the store closing.
A keen photographer, Mr Roy has has been coming to Michaels for more than 30 years, often just to look at museum exhibits, such as photos taken using Leica cameras.
Mr Roy said, of the closure: "You’ve got to follow business realities, I know, and this COVID business has slammed everybody, tragically. It's unfortunate."
Michaels is still trading online at michaels.com.au
RELATED ARTICLE New angle: Chris Macheras, creator of the Old Vintage Melbourne Instagram site. History buff’s vintage Melbourne Instagram site is a hit
<www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/camera-mecca-shuts-for-good-after-105-years-of-trade-on-one-site-20210108-p56ski.html>

Fri.8.1.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Letters:
* Energy supply failure Herald Sun reports a national scandal over the failure to secure a reliable energy supply for Australia (Editorial, 6/1) and this is underscored when major energy company AGL offers a payback to users that switch off their airconditioners during hot days at peak usage times. The tragedy for Victoria is when we faced a major energy supply crisis in 1949 due to interrupted supplies of black coal from the Lithgow mines, gas was switched off to households in Melbourne and we suffered brownout conditions in the middle of that winter. It was decided back then Victoria would never again be put in the position of being captive to interests outside our state so we ramped up our capabilities. We developed the use of brown coal as an energy source for power stations and then later switched off producer gas production from coal in favour of natural gas to guarantee a reliable supply of gas and electricity. While many would like to see the closure of coal-fired power stations in this state, surely there must be some sensible transition while alternatives that do not put us under such vulnerability are developed. It is high time the present state government comes to its senses and acts in the interests of all Victorians — as promised at the last election.


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