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.
On my way north through the Solomon Islands and on to Bougainville in Papua New Guinea I flew in to Balalae or Ballalae Island. I spent a couple of nights at nearby Shortland Island before thumbing a boat ride to Bougainville with islanders heading to Buin for the Sat...
The Japanese advance across the Pacific had been turned round at Guadalcanal in the Solomons and the Americans were now advancing north. On 13 April 1943 from his base at Rabaul on the Papua New Guinea island of New Britain, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto set out on a moral...
I’ve just travelled up through the Solomon Islands and across to the troubled Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville. You can find various discussions on travelling this route in Thorn Tree. ◄ I started by flying from Brisbane in Australia to Honiara in the Solomo...
The Yarra River is so tranquil as it flows past my place, close to the centre of Melbourne, Australia’s second biggest city, that it’s hard to believe there are rapids further upstream. I’ve been out on the Yarra – the ‘muddy Yarra’ as it’s usually described – wi...
▲ Lonely Planet guidebooks have been available in Chinese for nearly 6 years now, Maureen and I went to China to help launch them in 2006, you can even read the Lonely Planet Story in Chinese. ▲ The most exciting development, however, was when with our Chinese ...
‘Why do the French make such horrible coffee?’ I used to think when I lived in Paris in 1996. If I’d bothered researching the question I’d quickly have found the answer – bad coffee was French government policy. The French government pushed the cheaper, lower quality ...
▲ Wolfe Creek Crater, Western Australia Every now and then I pick up a ‘got to go there’ book, you read it or look at the pictures and that’s what you immediately think. Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands was a fine example, she claimed she hadn’t been t...
▲ Afghan kite, Australian gum tree Australia Day on 26 January is Australia’s equivalent of the USA's 4th of July or France’s Bastille Day (there isn’t a UK equivalent). I go some- where in the state of Victoria every year as part of the ‘Australia Day Ambassador...
My January spell at Apollo Bay in Victoria, Australia included a couple of days walking along the Great Ocean Walk and some interesting encounters with Aussie critters. Not this one, this rather fine looking pterodactyl model featured in a dinosaur walk at the Otway F...
Back in 2006, right after it opened, I spent two days walking 42km on the Great Ocean Walk along the spectacular Victorian coast in the Otways. Back then I said I’d be back later in the year to finish the rest of the walk, another 60km. . ▲ It didn’t happen in 2...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013