Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

It’s that time again, the weather has finally started getting warmer and Christmas (being Christmas, New Year and summer holidays all bundled up into one) is just around the corner. Having had a cool wet spring in Melbourne it hasn’t felt at all like Christmas but now the sun has broken through, the tomatoes are gasping on their vines, and the air is as dry as a Swedish sauna. Yep, it’s silly season on the Mornington Peninsula.

In Melbourne, Christmas usually starts cranking up around Melbourne Cup weekend. Give me a moment while I explain that. The Melbourne Cup is always run on the first Tuesday of November. Except for the year 1944 when it was run on a Saturday, the day that Woody’s brother was born. No, it wasn’t changed in honour of a racing journalist’s son, it was the war. But the bouncing baby was named after the horse that came second. Peter, and thankfully not the winner Sirius. Thus, the first Tuesday of November is always a holiday. Now you can’t go to work on a Monday when the next day is a holiday so most folks, take sickies, jiggle their annual leave days, or anything else that is owing to them and give themselves a long weekend. I once worked for a New Zealand company who always declared a holiday on the Monday, how sensible of them. But it was probably because the running of the Melbourne Cup not only ‘stops the nation’ as they say, but it also stops our Kiwi cousins.

Back to the story, having the 4-day break of the Melbourne Cup weekend is a good chance for those with holiday homes, shacks and blocks, on the coast to scoot down and tidy things up, check that the fridges still work and have a beer. From then until Christmas there is a steady stream of trailers with mowers and gardening gear, old vans that only get used in summer and heaven knows what else they’ve purchased from Aldi’s centre aisle heading for the coast. Roads and highways that were once a breeze become clogged with traffic and the word is ‘they’re here’.

From Anthony’s Nose to Sorrento, tents, campers and caravans create canvas mansions under the coastal banksia and ti-tree on a bed of sand mere steps from the water’s edge. This is the council managed campground where everyone has a favourite spot. Summer neighbours re acquaint and love matches develop. It isn’t unusual for campers to marry nor is it unusual to spend a lifetime of summers on the one campsite. I’ll bet there are a lot of ashes scattered on those beaches in the off season.

At this point I probably should mention that Silly Season will continue on until the end of the Easter school holidays. Once more everything is packed up and towed back home to be stowed for another year. Homes tucked amongst the ti-tree will become quiet and we’ll drive past commenting sagely “Holiday Home”.

Welcome to all those who are returning for another year to enjoy our little patch of sand, be it calm ripples or pounding surf and please ‘spend up big’ on our wonderful pleasures and produce.