peterSale

We have just returned from a short visit to Sydney and stayed in Goulbourn St near Wentworth Ave. When walking around the CBD during the day and night we noticed three things missing that would be obvious in Melbourne. Beggars, Police and Buskers.

In Melbourne there are beggars on just about every corner in the CBD. We saw none in Sydney. We saw one homeless man in Hyde park at about 10am still in his sleeping bag, but that was all.

Around Flinders Street Station in Melbourne particularly but over the city in general you often see police in pairs or small groups patrolling. Again, we saw none in Sydney, even around Circular Quay.

We saw only 1-2 buskers, in Melbourne on the same length trip you would encounter half a dozen or more.

Is there some reason for these three to be missing? Just curious. Apart from Sydney being perfect?

PS we did even see a tram in Sydney! How long have they been back?

Bokhara2

You must have been looking in the wrong area, Peter. Or perhaps it was Buskers & Beggars Picnic Day when you were here.

There are usually a couple of buskers at Circular Quay and around the weekend markets at The Rocks. I bought a cd from Mimosa, a classical guitar & violin duo a couple of weeks ago in The Rocks. On Friday, the Aboriginal guys were playing their didgeridoos & selling paintings; there was a chap doing a Charlie Chaplin impersonation & another escaping from chains. The latter more elaborate than the late 1700's models in the same area.

We don't see many beggars, occasionally someone sitting near Myers or the QVB with a cardboard sign. The " need money for a train ticket home to Grafton/ Port Macquarie" was popular for a while but seems to have gone out of fashion. I offered to take one young woman to Central & buy her a ticket last year. I was absolutely genuine and would have bought it for her - but she declined and didn't appear pleased with the offer.

I've been bailed up several times in the tunnel between Southbank & the CBD, and had a couole of chaps come into coffee shops in the Southbank precinct asking for change in Melbourne & but only once has anyone asked me directly here.

It's not unusual to see Police walking around but it's not an especially frequent occurrence either, in the central CBD. The cinema area in George street gets a bit attention, as does The Cross and there's a Cop Shop in both of those locations.

We have quite a few closed circuit cameras around the city, so perhaps that's the reason for less visible vigilance up here.

More importantly, did you enjoy your trip & were we good hosts?

peterSale

We had a great time. We were there for two full days and two part days. We went to:-
Sussanah Place; Hyde Park Barracks; Currency Notes Museum; Bridge Pylon; Mint; Botanical Gardens Observatory Night Tour; Ferry Rides and Manly.

Fantastic weather and no hassles at all other than finding somewhere to park our camper van which is 2.5 m. We ended up parking it at Moore Park Golf course.

It is a fantastic city but two to three days at a time is enough for us country bumkins!

Susan7

Maybe also buskers and homeless are more dispersed in Sydney. There's always one two buskers outside my local supermarket, I'm in Balmain (an inner city surburb). There's also three homeless people who are always about, one sleeps outside the cop shop in summer. They don't seem to be disrupted or get moved on.

When I was a student at Sydney Uni (near Glebe), there was a homeless guy who hung out in the library. A librarian told me they let him sleep there sometimes. I doubt that would happen now.

Bokhara2

There's a lady who camps down at Circular Quay too, with a couple of shopping trolleys & lots of bags & suitcases. She's been there for ages and I think the local police & shopkeepers probably keep an eye out for her.

Susan, do you remember the old chap with the red crash helmet who used to be around Wynyard & York street? He liked bananas and I'd often buy us both a couple from the fruit barrow in the alley near The Menzies, when my office was down there. Haven't seen him for years and I guess he's probably passed on by now.

peterSale

Thanks, but you are still only talking of one or two, here and there.

If you know Melbourne - from Flinders to Lonsdale up both Swanston and Elizabeth streets there would be a beggar on every corner and probably one half way as well. The rest of the city they are fewer and further between, but still noticeable.

South bank has buskers but few beggars as does Bourke St Mall.

I don't know about the suburbs, I rarely got to the shopping street in the suburb my family lives in. But having said that, on the few times I have I have not seen any.

Just curious. Maybe there is nothing "official", they might just be given a hard time by the police and/or shop keepers that it is not worth the hassle.

Maybe you have better drop in centres and there is somewhere for them to go. I know they exist as there was a photo exhibition on homeless at the State library.

Thanks.

Susan7

I don't think they get moved on, because they seem to have distinct territories. The inner city area of Sydney is so much bigger than Melbourne that I tend to think dispersal is more the issue. Melbourne is compact and the city is the magnet, I'm always struck by the way people seem to pour into Melbourne on the weekend.

There are good drop-in centres, but they are non-drinking. I think they are used when it rains, there's always a crowd round the one in Surry Hills then.

I don't get to that part of town much Bokhara, so don't remember that man.

lavandula

I remember the man with the crash helmet - he used to push a barrow, and I was told by my father that he was, or had been, a knife grinder, and that was why he pushed the barrow - his equipment. But that is going back into antiquity now.

I see homeless people from the Eastern Suburbs Line regularly. There is a men's home in Woolloomooloo and the overflow, the people who don't get into the home at night, often sleep rough under the overpasses in that suburb. I also came across many of them at the back of the State Library, with cardboard boxes to keep out the cold. I am not sure if people still congregate there as I haven't seen them of late. There are also sometimes people around the Kings Cross Tunnel, which is not that far from Woolloomooloo. In recent years some of them clean windscreens on William St. Not always so safe, as once one got quite narky with me when I refused!! But real beggars I don't see very often, even if I see plenty of people sleeping rough.

Lavandula

Bokhara2

The Station (82 Erskine street ) www.thestationltd.org is always grateful for towels. And pribably bedding/blankets etc.

It's an inner city shelter/drop in place for homeless people who would otherwise probably slip through the cracks.

When I had offices in the CBD, we always took our towels there when we updated at home. Such an easy thing to do and it means such a lot to people, who could be us.

I take them to Manly for the Women's Refuge now.

Thanks for starting this thread Peter. It's also reminded me that I need to chase up the Street Library people, to see if they can take some books now.

MissGreen

In Sydney the beggars have their own location, usually a street corner, and the same person is there every time I visit. They are always holding up a sign about how they need medication or something else. I work in the welfare industry and there is plenty of help for those willing to help themselves.

I do love the guy in the mall who has his mobile shoe shine stand out the front of Myers and he does his job to try and make money. I admire how hard he is trying.

ThulaMama

Just a comment on police in Australia. They seem few and far between in comparison to the USA where we lived for two decades. There is a constant presence in America; on any trip anywhere, be it to the supermarket or a soccer game you'd always see patrol cars and/or uniformed officers. Here we can have days and days go by without seeing any.

It was a bit disconcerting when we first returned to Australia.

I do wish they'd patrol the freeways more. We felt much safer driving in the USA that we do here.

michelhuebeli

ThulaMama, funny how we can feel differently about the same thing - in the US I always have the opposite reaction when I see a uniformed cop everywhere, even at a symphony concert standing in the lobby of the concert hall. What the heck is a cop doing here?

But then, Americans drive constantly 5 to 15 miles (not km/h!) over the speed limit and when I stick to the speed limit or a couple miles over, I'm the only one - they tailgate dangerously and pass me left and right, but there's hardly ever a cop or state patrol or whatever. And of course no overhead cameras to catch tailgating like in parts of Europe, or catch speedsters, so the lawlessness prevails...

And how can you feel safe in a country that has many times more shootings than any civilized nation anywhere? Seven times the intentional homicide rate of Switzerland where every able-bodied male has one or two military weapons at home?

Bokhara2

There may be more Police on the freeways,Roads & streets than you know, ThulaMama. We have a lot of unmarked cars cruising around, as well as the Highway & other badged Police vehicles. If you're not breaking the law, you'd never know they were there.

The two hoons in the hotted up HSV on the F3 yesterday thought the Moonie Moonie Bridge would be a good raceway - until the boys in the blue WRX slapped the light on their roof & pedal to the metal. '

Twas pretty to see.
And as far as I could tell, accomplished without the shouting, aggression & waving of guns that seems to be The American Way. No thanks!

Last thing I want to see is Police bristling with guns on every street corner, entry to shops & theatres.

Of course, in a country that allows every Tom, Dick & Lunatic to have an arsenal of automatic firearms, one might want armed Police everywhere.

That, I would find disquieting.