still

So even though every day I tell myself I'm feeling a bit better, I still have to concede that I have a disgusting cough and a whole lot of nauseated feelings that I am really troubled by. I mean I am ultimately going to recover I'm sure but fuckin' hell. Ironically the problem I've had with my left foot for the last, I don't know how long, six months? Possibly more, has actually almost completely rectified as I always knew it would. But that, along with the inflamed nerve in my right leg which was a massive nuisance (and quite disturbing and often very painful with no apparent trigger at all, or remedy) and other illnesses over the past year has meant that 2025 will go down in my memory (or at least in my blog because let's be reasonable when I'm not feeling sick I don't dwell on it) as a year in which I suffered a lot of very minor and irritating aches and pains that never really stopped me doing what I wanted to do (with the possible exception of walking long distances) but did stop me enjoying it as much as I might have. I mean, sure, you don't care and why would you. I mean an ancestor of mine from even a hundred years ago, let alone five hundred, would no doubt say that I should never complain about anything because I've lived a very carefree life compared to almost everyone who's come before, and that is true. But also, those ancestors were surely as ignorant and unpleasant as anyone else, I don't need to care what they would hypothetically think, as if I owed them something. 

Last week I went to see the Taylor Project show about their house in Elmore, and being 'haunted'. It's a good very, very, very local history production. I said to Elizabeth later I think it should be a film and I still think that - it's the kind of thing the ABC could put together for no money (like the ABC ever puts anything together for no money!) and would be a diverting hour on TV better than Spicks and Specks or whatever other rubbish they usually show. 

Here's something else that happened last week, there was major track work on the 57 route which meant that trams stopped for most of October between Peel and Victoria streets, and there was this weird little reverse-your-tram track built for a few weeks. What about that! It's gone now. They've built a new stop between Peel and Victoria which is further away from Peel than it used to be, not sure why but not inherently bothered about it. You can be if you want. 

Here's something else you might enjoy, a couple of graphics from a 1963 (I think) brochure regarding the development of Westernport Bay as an industrial hub. 

Do you get it? 

I bet this mermaid got a lot of stick from the other merms re: allowing them to use her likeness in promotion for a project that was really going to make life in Westernport Bay difficult for a lot of the cohort. 

OK, I'm into the day of feeling marginally sick all day and marking essays, etc. Nothing changes, including, I'm STILL SICK. 

the more i learn, the less i know

Just looking at whatever I can find about islands off the coast of the state of Victoria, I noticed a file regarding a query about sale of 'Brilla Island' in the PROV listings. I didn't know where on earth this Brilla Island was, but I figured this was the way to find out whatever there was to find out about it. I won't go into extensive detail about the people involved (although I did try to find the main correspondent in the newspapers in the 70s and 80s and got nowhere) but the point is a person, I assume a man, who lived in suburban Melbourne, let's say East Bentleigh, wrote asking to buy or lease Brilla Island from the Department of Crown Lands and Survey in late 1971.

They wrote, 'The reason for my interest in this small piece of land is that I have lived in the vicinity of Western Port Bay for the majority of my life. Also having owned land on French Island as well as my parents and brother.

'I am very interested in the conservation of Western Port Bay. We have a boat and do quite a lot of fishing and cruising in Western Port Bay.' 

Answer came back (January the following year, which was fine, because the original letter was in December), no we can't sell or lease this island to you. 

So where is Brilla Island? It's right there, the red bit, at the northern point (more or less) of French Island. 

 The weird bit is when you go looking for that on regular maps because there's only this:

And the weird thing about that is when you try searching for this name anywhere else. Because you won't get that. You'll get this:

To add to the weirdness of the whole, a search on all the newspapers in newspapers.com brings up precisely nothing about Brilla, Barralliar, or Barrallier islands except this snippet from the Sporting Globe in 1939:

And a search on the internet generally for 'Brilla Island' brings up this and this alone - from the Victorian Government Gazette for 25 September 1874, which incidentally is exactly 150 years and one day from the day I'm writing this:

So I guess it's, like, a super obscure island or something, and I guess they, well, they changed its name sometime between 1972 and now. 

I have to get on to Wikipedia and add the snippet about Brilla Island though actually before I do that I'd like to find out more about when and why it was changed. 

Then of course I'll see if I can buy it.