By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
Melbourne has a new subway line – the Metro Tunnel – running through five new stations and currently having a soft opening, before the schedule launches full tilt on 1 February 2026. The new Parkville Station will probably be the most useful new station, since it’s at the University of Melbourne which badly needed a handy Metro station.
▲ The Town Hall Station
The two new central city stations might look slightly redundant since the Town Hall Station is only a couple of hundred metres from Flinders St Station and the State Library Station is right beside the Melbourne Central Station. In fact you might find it easier to enter the State Library Station from Melbourne Central rather than from its own entrance. The Metro Tunnel line, however, runs in a different direction than the other lines through Flinders St and Melbourne Central.
Unfortunately to use the new line you still need the horrible old Myki Card. Transport Victoria have announced that they are introducing ‘tap and go’ technology to Melbourne. Tomorrow? No, they are testing it in 2026 and at some point in the future you’ll actually be able to use it. But didn’t they start testing it in 2023 at some stations? Well yes they did, but clearly three years of testing wasn’t enough, there’s more testing to be rolled out in 2026
◄ My hated Myki Card
Hasn’t anybody asked them about this before? Well yes, for one person I asked Transport Victoria why we couldn’t use contactless cards in Melbourne when London introduced the technology in 2014. So that’s 10 years ago.
And I did get an answer, ‘we’re working on it and hope to introduce it soon.’ Which in Melbourne seems to be in 10 years time. So for over 10 years I’ve been able to use my Australian ANZ credit card to pay for public transport in London, England. But not in Melbourne, Australia. Absurd isn’t it?
Once upon a time Melbourne was a regular ‘most liveable city in the world’ title holder. How could you be a ‘most liveable city’ and at the same time operate the world’s most-visitor-unfriendly-travel-card? I suggested that in 2013 and 13 years later my opinion hasn’t changed. Never mind, the new Metro Tunnel Line reportedly took lots of lessons from London’s very popular Elizabeth Line. In London I often use the Elizabeth Line even if it means travelling a bit further because it’s so fast and convenient. Perhaps Melbourne can also learn from London how to get rid of the Myki Card.
▲ The Elizabeth Line at Bond St.in London
Since it opened in 2022 the Elizabeth Line quickly became the busiest railway line in the UK although technically it’s not part of the London Underground network. It runs out to Heathrow Airport – but so does the Piccadilly Line – and even further to Reading. It’s popular and has won architectural awards as well as being so busy. Check my August 2024 posting about riding the London Tube.
My final overseas travel in 2019 took me to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan – west side of the Caspian Sea, north of Iran, south of Russia. A three hour flight from Dubai, the jumping off point for almost anywhere in the world these days. ▲ Baku certainly has archi...
Earlier this year it felt like I was doing a ‘European clean up,’ going to the countries which had somehow evaded me – Slovakia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Moldova – but that still left one very interesting Mediterranean island: Cyprus. So on my way back to Australia from ...
After the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, Dirk Hartog and Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago my fourth and final Western Australia island visit was Rottnest. This is all for a forthcoming book from the National Library of Australia to be titled Australia’s Islands. ...
My third Western Australia island excursion for my forthcoming National Library of Australia book Australia’s Islands took me to the town of Esperance and out into the Recherche Archipelago. That very French name came from Bruni D’Entrecasteaux who encountered the isl...
My research travels for my forthcoming book Australia’s Islands took me to the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off the west coast of Australia and then further north to Dirk Hartog Island. This remote sandy island stretches 80km north-south, but often not more than 10km w...
I’ve got a new book – On Travel – just out from Melbourne University Press and selling for all of A$14.99. The ‘on something’ series are a handy little collection of essays on interesting topics ranging from Patriotism (Paul Daley), via Lust & Longing (Blanche ...
I’m working on Australia’s Islands, a book to be published by the National Library of Australia in late 2019. My island explorations recently took me to the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, about 60km offshore from Geraldton, which in turn is 400km north of Perth. There are ...
◄ Baron Munchausen at Benderry Back in July I made a brief (ie 24 hour) visit to Tranistria – that curious sliver of a nation sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine and recognized by nobody in the world except for Vladimir Putin and his friends. In my Transnistria ...
The film Jirga recently took me back to Afghanistan and now Wajib takes me on a quick return trip to Nazareth, the Palestinian centre in Israel. A wajib is an obligation, not an absolute necessity, that’s a fard, but something you should do. Like deliver invitations f...
Benjamin Gilmour, a very enterprising Australian filmmaker, has just released Jirga, a film not just set in Afghanistan, but actually made there. Mike Wheeler, an Australian soldier stationed in Afghanistan, took part in a raid on a village in the Kandahar area of ...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013