Unsurprisingly, Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition at Melbourne Museum has generated an enormous number of enquiries, from folk coming forward with their own stories and artefacts to folk claiming ancestry to crew or passengers. 

Photo: Jo Philo  Source: Museum Victoria

Its also generated some unusual questions too, including:

• can I have my wedding photographs taken on the Grand Staircase?
• how do you make an ice wall?
• what's the music playing in the background?

But I think today's question takes the cake - an email came in to the Discovery Centre inbox: Hi, I was in Melbourne last week and saw the Titanic exhibition. I loved one of the quotes on the wall in the iceberg room and wanted to get one as a tattoo, problem is I can't remember which quote it was and I live in NSW. Is there any chance you could send me a list of those particular quotes?

List sent:

"I hope we get out of this alright.  I have a wife and 5 kiddies at home."

                Robert Wareham, Steward

"We are dressed in our best and prepared to go down like gentlemen."

                Benjamin Guggenheim

"For God’s sake, it’s your last chance.  Go."

                Ida Strauss

"Women and children first’ someone was shouting these last few words over and over again.  They meant my own safety but they also meant the greatest loss I’d ever suffered, the loss of my husband."

                Charlotte Collyer

You'll be pleased to know that the enquirer went with Ida.

I recently lost my wee pet budgie, Smuggler.

Burying him in my courtyard just didn't seem right (particularly as I also have a cat who doesn't mind a bit of a dig in the yard). So I donated my Smuggler to the Museum Victoria ornithology collection.

Collection Manager Wayne did a post-mortem assessment of Smuggler and told me he was a beautiful specimen (I thought so too) in excellent condition. Apart from the fact that he was dead. So to preserve him for future study, Wayne injected him with 10% formalin and put him in a jar of 70% alcohol. I now have a pickled Smuggler and he will be with me at work always.

Smuggler's cage-mate Horus seems to be enjoying bachelorhood. Some would say a little too much. I thought about getting him another playmate, but decided against it in the event that Horus is in fact a homicidal maniac.

In memory of Smuggler - a short but fiesty life and an excellent little budgie.

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

 Usually cats and moderately-sized bodies of water are mortal enemies, however in this case, there is a connection.

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

The delightful Bernie and his wife Lyn came in to the centre a couple of weekends ago with quite a curly one: Bernie used to drive trams across the Princes Bridge during the 70s and remembered an unusual wind-powered fountain that used to stand at the southern end of the bridge that is no longer there. Bernie just wanted to know what it was called. Bernie had done a fair bit of research himself and for the life of him couldn't find out the name of this fountain or any information at all about what had happened to it. It was like it had never existed. Could we? My curiosity was piqued. You can't just completely wipe a fountain from the pages of history. I started to look into it. I found frustratingly little. Then Jo's curiosity was piqued. There must be some mention of it somewhere. She started to look into it. Well...

For at least the next half hour, between the two of us, there was frantic Googling, there was Encyclopedia-of-Melbourne reading, there was phoning of the Arts Centre and getting their people on to it, there was negotiations with the State Library and getting their people on to it, there was investigations into the City of Melbourne about a certain Snowden Gardens in which said fountain may or may not have stood (turned out to be a red herring of sorts), there was essentially a collaborative research project across the main bodies of Arts Victoria, and then finally we (yep, us) stumbled across a history of the construction of the Arts Centre that mentioned the demolition of one 'Southgate Fountain' to make way for the spire.

When the picture finally came up on the screen and we said to Bernie "Is this is?", there was shock, there was disbelief, there was awe, and there was a "Yes". Research win.

Bernie and Lyn waited while I phoned Margaret at the Arts Centre back to let her know too, as promised.

And the cat? Unrelated to the fountain (fortunately for the cat), but did appear on the front of the very nice thank you card we received from Bernie and Lyn for our persistence.

 Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

The latest in the adventures of Leon...

A visitor from Israel was particularly taken with Leon the Chameleon recently. He was leaning against Leon's enclosure, entranced by him.

"He's a chameleon," I offered.

"I know," came the response, as he pointed to his shoulder - and he should know, he's got one tattooed on his arm.

I ran for the camera.

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

After weeks of unseasonally blistering heat, the background of fluffy white clouds behind the Royal Exhibition Building was a welcome sight...

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

... as was the rain that bucketed down from them.

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria

Good job that those big water storage tanks are being installed under the REB western forecourt as the second phase of the archaeological excavation that is happening there at the moment. The tanks will be able to capture up to 900,000 litres of rainwater from the roof of the building to sustain the surrounding fountains and gardens. Have a look at the World Heritage, World Futures blog for more information about the progress of the project.

Meanwhile, a more modest vessel was capturing (or not, judging by the puddles on either side) excess rainwater in the foyer of the Discovery Centre today.

Photo: Meg Lomax  Source: Museum Victoria