In memory of Dolly

 Melbourne, Australia, 26th August 2026

By Explore Melbourne

A grave cosmetic error

Josh Cavallo is a nice looking guy. He is a champion soccer/football player, once for our national youth football team.

He has played for many different leagues as a champion player and it seems he is now playing for England's National League North side, Peterborough Sports. 

He identified as being gay in 2021, and it is said he was the first top rated professional player to do so. It probably goes without saying he subsequently suffered a lot of homophobia.

As I mentioned, I think he is nice looking, ok a hot guy, that is until...

he opens his mouth. His teeth are an absolute disaster. What possessed him?

With his to be husband, Leighton.

Repost from 2017 (I forgot about this even after this post)

 

I know nothing

When you have been with your partner for 38 years, you would think there wasn't too much you didn't know about them.

We were watching the English tv show Vera last night. The show is set in and around Newcastle in the north of England, where R hailed from. The scene was set in a pub.

R: I worked in that hotel. It was at the base of the High Level Bridge.

Me: Fascinating dearest. You've worked in so many places, it is a wonder you can remember.

R: Yes, my brother in law to be and me both worked there as we were saving to go to Butlins (a holiday camp of the most ghastly variety, but this is with hindsight) and of course that was where I met Cat Stevens. The hotel has changed........

Me: Stop! Now! What did you just say?

R: About meeting Cat Stevens?

Me: Yes, you've never told me that before?

R: Thought I had. Cat Stevens was Irish (I didn't know that) The pub was owned by an Irishman and he was a friend of Cat and he came to visit him once at the hotel and we were introduced.

Me: How come you have never told me this?

R: I thought I had. He was only semi famous then.

I used to find Cat Stevens so sexy before he became a weird religious Moslem nutter who agreed with murder of those critical of the prophet Mohammed. I am quite perplexed as to why I did not know R had met Cat Stevens.

Exit the Famous Bearded Media Person

That is how I used to refer to fellow resident Derryn Hinch if I mentioned him.

He lived in our building for around as long as I have, some 24 years. He was always friendly and chatty when we engaged in lift conversations, and expressed his condolences when he knew Ray died. 

His publicly aired opinions were strong and often controversial, and I did not always agree with them. Nevertheless, he was a neighbour doing his job as a media person, just as I did my job. I didn't question him about his and he didn't question me about mine. I thought of him as an essentially a decent person. 

He served gaol time, for contempt of court, and one of home detention (he was allowed to leave his apartment to use our pool and gym), perhaps for the same reason, after naming yet to be convicted paedophiles as a warning to the community. 

He travelled the world in his media role, was a radio broadcaster, tv presenter, charity donor of time and money, made fortunes, lost fortunes, owned a winery and was married five times.

As was said at his funeral, he loved media, women and alcohol. He was a huge drinker of wine, I heard a figure of six bottles a day as a minimum, and this caused problems. Here on his balcony late at night he would burn papers in....... I can't remember the name. It was Japanese outdoor thing you could burn stuffs in? Hibachi? The smoke used to annoy his next door neighbour who liked to have her windows open. The then the body corporate became involved in the neighbour dispute and he was warned more than once.

His drinking also led to liver failure and he received a liver transplant about the same time as our late friend's brother in the Austin Hospital, so they got to know each other. The brother of our friend, a non drinker, is still going and I exchange occasional messages with him. His lovely wife now sadly has dementia.

Derryn owned a ground floor apartment but lived in a rented apartment on an upper level. His PA, and general everything who sorted out his life lived in the apartment he owned, and he eventually bought the apartment where he lived.

He was married five times, twice to the same woman, the famous actor Jackie Weaver. His animal activist girlfriend, Lynda Stoner, from the eighties became his last partner. While he lived here  he met and married Chanel. I knew her rather better than I wanted to, as I, she and the building's cleaner were stuck in a lift for an hour or more in 2009 when a bushfire burnt through a major electrical cable in the north of the state and most of Melbourne lost power. She was pleasant, very glam and to use an old fashioned phrase, of a nervous disposition. She recognised a couple of old queens, Ray and myself, as cool guys, and while aloof with most people, she was over the top friendly with us. She owned a private detective agency. 

They did not live together though. She lived in another apartment, and her parents moved into yet another apartment. Although Derryn once drove around in a Rolls Royce, while he lived here he owned a huge converted to right hand drive black American Cadillac. The carpark in a large building behind the Highrise used to have a car wash facility and Derryn used to have the staff there come and collect his car, clean it thoroughly, and return his car. One staff smashed up his car, and it was off the road for months as parts were hard to obtain. He stopped driving many years ago.

His physical deterioration was quite rapid, and rather sad to see. There was nothing wrong with his mind and he continued to write up until the day before he died in his sleep.

Up until about three years ago, he used the Italian restaurant opposite as his office in the afternoon. With his laptop, he would dine, work, socialise and drink moderately for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The restaurant closed, and so he would be seen less often going out.

After numerous falls and leg infections, he died in his sleep. 

Yesterday he was honoured with a State Funeral, and it was broadcast around the nation by commercial television. At two hours, it was a long watch and I skipped through the music as I watched in a little delay. I seldom praise commercial media, but Channel 9 made it a terrific coverage, without ads. 

My eyes wetted up when Jackie Weaver spoke via video, and his very emotional PA spoke, who obviously I know from lift encounters. Also mentioned and was a pall bearer who was the local resident who organised my repainting and recarpeting two years ago. In the last year or so he put in a huge effort to look after Derryn and his PA.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that he formed his own political party and became a politician in Victoria's upper house, as a member of the the Legislative Council.

Nor did I mention he published 14 books.

Nor that in the early noughties when he was reported in the media, he was described as living in an exclusive St Kilda Road apartment building, which quite amused us and fellow residents who live in the cheap seats of St Kilda Road, but it wasn't always.    

Eras end, and so has another. Vale the Human Headline, the Mouth from the South and Beast from the East, Derryn.

I can't stop ranting

Tommy Robinson, not his real name, is a far right activist in the UK. I remember lunching at a pub in Whitehall as a protest march passed by, with buses diverted, which I think is quite common in Whitehall. It seemed to be a protest about a certain Tommy Robinson being gaoled. I had no idea who he was. 

More than a decade later, I now know about his far right politics and he has served five prison sentences, for assault, threats, harassment, fraud and contempt of court. He became a bankrupt after racking up a lot of gambling debts. He was sentenced to a community service order of 150 hours, and a three year ban from attending football (soccer) matches.

In August 2025, Robinson shared a video on Twitter of a black man and his brother playing with his white granddaughters in a park in North Yorkshire, falsely accusing them of paedophilia, which resulted in the family being racially abused with false paedophilia accusations. Labour MP for Redcar Anna Turley had to write a reference letter of good behaviour after the victim was suspended by his management. Turley stated that there was "no place for hate in our town" and said she was "heartbroken" for the family "who've been targeted and abused because of Tommy Robinson's poisonous lies"

Nice dude hey. No! A nasty piece of work. He's maybe as bad as #47!

Not my business? It is when an Australian became involved, one popular morning tv host, Karl Stefanovic. 

In a vodcast, Stefanovic became Robinson's best mate and not at all interviewing him in a normal journalistic questioning manner, and ignored Robinson's past. It was all very lovey dovey. From other areas, it seems Stefanovic has become hard right, even though his father, a Serbian, was an immigrant to Australia. 

Stefanovic has been sacked from his television gig and for many of us, is a disgraced person. Public figures may softly indicate where their politics lie, but if they follow extremism, they will accordingly 

be judged. 

A memory

This is written more for myself than for you. Clarity of thought and memories came through.

There were two Melbourne DJs I really liked in the 1980s who played at the clubs. They really knew how to work a turntable, playing the stereotypical music gay men liked. One was Andrew Collins, who is still around, Andrew on the left in this pic.

The other, who I had the privilege of being introduced to once, was Guy Uppiah. 

It was sad to learn Guy died a couple of years ago. 

Later edit: A question was asked in the comments about what is 'gay music'. There is a subjective list compiled by the magazine Rolling Stone. There are many more songs that could be there. The only one I know in the 2000s is by the Scissor Sisters. Check it out here.

My Doc

Dr Beng Eu has been my doctor for nigh on  thirty years. Always have a doctor younger than you was the mantra, and I did. But as I haven't aged at all, I've noticed he has. He was a pretty hot and sexy guy when he was younger.

One should not think about one's doctor in any kind of sexual manner, but still... 

Beside him being my GP (general practitioner doctor) he is a bit of a high achiever, with him being an early part owner of the practice, Prahran Market Clinic. While most of the clinic's patients are LBTQ... what ever else, straight people and conventional families also visit the clinic.

https://academicmedicaleducation.com/people/beng-eu-mbbs 

While I used to have to pay a fee, with our government paying about half the cost, now as an old age pensioner, I am no longer pay anything to see my doctor.

He is not afraid of the media.

He was quoted in our local electric newspaper about peptides here just this week, about two thirds down the page. I'll just paste it in.

Dr Beng Eu, a general practitioner and co-director of Prahran Market Clinic, said there had been a sharp increase in patients using experimental peptides for muscle building, skin care or biohacking. These products can be swallowed, injected or rubbed into the skin.

The doctor, who has been studying the rise of peptide use and is pushing for tighter regulations, said many of the substances had not even been tested on humans.

“It’s quite dodgy because they’re relying on studies which have been undertaken on rats,” he said. “There is no real safety data.”

Then there was the time when one of his patients died, but didn't. I can't find the YouTube clip now, but Beng's practice was informed one of its patients had died, Beng was surprised to see the dead person made an appointment to see him, and turned up, alive and well. There was some media coverage. 

Menfolk of a certain age, listen to what Beng has to say about prostate issues on our gay tv channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HHeFnXB3GA&list=PLspznn4QfUteeR8GIT79uwp9bKbm27uB2

The Grand Pricks finale

In memory of her late Ricardo, Ingrid will have been glued to the screen watching the Australian Grand Prix, as Rick did. No, Ingrid?

As I type just before 9pm, fireworks have gone off so that's the end the Grand Prix and the most awful invasion of inner Melbourne.

Sadly Australia's Oscar Piastri bumped into a wall before reaching the start line and a wheel fell off. He's not a bad looking dude.

No worries mate. Next time.

Disability

Today is International Day of People with a Disability. This piece by my friend James O'Brien is well worth a read.

The Victorian State Library also published an interesting read, showing a photo of a woman from olden times who could sew with her feet. In the post, I really liked seeing the very obvious joy de vivre of the two people in wheelchairs, the photo taken by the marvellous but late Rennie Ellis. 

Monday Mural

It was time for Phyliss to learn reverse parallel parking. His first attempt was a fail, and that was my fault as I failed to initially see the trailer behind the SUV. Pull out and try again. I gave no advice and he parked perfectly. Yeah, well, anyone can fluke a perfect parallel park. We moved on and jesus, he made a second perfect parallel park. I could not believe it. I think I was happier than he was for his achievement.

I rarely parallel park, and you do become rusty. The ladies who shop and lunch in High Street Armadale are experts at parallel parking their large black Beemers and Mercs.

Anyway, this is supposed to be about murals and as usual, I join with Sami and others. What can I find today. I took this photo in July 2024 and this is a street we/I often walked along and I had not noticed the mural painted in 2023. It's rather marvellous, even if it doesn't correctly represent the heavily built up area. Route 78 was the last tram route to see the old W class trams running in regular service, not so long ago really. It is now served by the more modern A class trams, which are quite old too now, dating back to the 20th century. 

This is a bit interesting, not so much for the artists name, but in the top right are the words 'Poof Doo..'. Poof Doof is a gay venue in Chapel Street with an overall name of Chasers. If you don't know, poof is slang for gay, and doof is the loud heavy backbeat normally heard in young people's dance clubs, and sometimes coming out of car windows. 

About three weeks, the international artist Katy Perry performed at sold out concerts in Melbourne. I know nothing about her, not even her nationality, but no matter. One evening after performing, she turned up at Poof Doof and opened the bar for an hour to all the queens at the venue. Phyllis was very jealous. 

The most successful female stars have always created a strong gay base, going back to Audrey Hepburn, Piaf and of course, July Garland, or even earlier. Later think Cher, Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, Madonna, the stars of my era, and a whole lot more since. 

Just the one, too many

One should not be so cruel but sometimes people deserve a dose of cruelty, such as Sydney celebrity socialite Vanessa Jacobs Fennell.

It us alleged she had a few too many drinkies, and was doing blockies in Bellevue Hill, one of Sydney's prestigious eastern suburbs, in her black Range Rover, sporting at least two shredded tyres. 

She side swiped four cars, one seriously, parked outside The Grumpy Baker. And wow, it was added to the story that one of the damaged cars was a Tesla. I can see the price of used Teslas plummeting, regardless of this incident.

She was breathalysed, with a positive reading but was refusing to go to the police station. She was arrested and then tried go the biffo with the police, so she was also charged assaulting a police officer. Into the slammer she went, but was bailed later that night.

I expect when hit by the cold harsh light of the day the following morning, what she will be most upset about the news reports is her unflattering photo in the media. Photo by Rhett Wyman

The famous

McEwans was a dominant hardware store in greater Melbourne. The late partner of my Port Melbourne friend was an heir to the empire, hence said friend is also quite wealthy. 

McEwans had a multi level hardware store in the city, in Bourke Street, just a little west of Elizabeth Street. 

At its street front, it had a walk of fame, that is hand prints of celebrities. At the Melbourne Town Hall City  Gallery, there was an exhibition of the pavers where famous people planted their hands or feet in wet concrete. Some have deteriorated but I am so glad the pavers have been kept.

Cyd Charris and Tony Martin. Surely not the local comedian Tony Martin. Perhaps Kirk could enlighten me on another Tony Martin. 

Sid James. 

Harry Seacombe.

Michael Cole.

Sarah Vaugne.

Jose Feliciano.  

Terry Thomas. 

Derek Nimmo.

John Inman. 

Robyn Annear, I simply adore. As well as curating the exhibition, perhaps not too hard, she is an author, who has written several historical books about Melbourne, her best known, A City Lost and Found, featuring the destruction of many famous Melbourne buildings. Also, the great podcasts, "Nothing on TV". 

Too long

I stole a couple of photos online, but surely it is ok if I credit them and say how good they are. 

The first was from JayCee I think around Christmas time. This was her accommodation somewhere I have forgotten. I remember I looked at the hotel website, and wow, in more ways than one.

And this lighthouse photo was by Frogdancer. I changed the photo name to FDancerKrools. I now have no idea of what krools meant. Canada perhaps? It's a very fine lighthouse. 

I may as well continue with photos that have hung around for too long. These two are from Shorpy.com

The American male yoof of the 1950s? Mine is blond. Not sure about yours. 

I believe this is funny man Jack Benny and his wife climbing down the steps of a train. One of his wives, perhaps. They look so elegant. Five seconds of comprehensive research tells me Mary Livingstone was his only wife. 

 

State Library 2 - Rennie Ellis

I published a post about Hazara refugees featured in photos at the State Library. I was actually there to see a much more fun exhibition, the photos taken by the marvellous photographer Rennie Ellis, 1940-2003 . If he ever took a photo without a human in the photo, I've not seen it. 

My expectations were low. What would the exhibition be like? Enlarged photos pinned to a wall? Oh no, it was so much more, with photos projected or on screens in a large size. It was just brilliant and well done to the curators.

I took lots of photos and I will remark on those who I knew of in the photos. 

Albert Park Beach. We often visited and I still do.

Probably Keferd Road Pier. The runner used to be seen all over Melbourne's inner southern suburbs, always topless. 

Like they need darker skin.

Tea for two. Do Aussies remember those ubiquitous mugs?

There were quite a number of photos from more than one Melbourne Cup, a horse race, and a public holiday for Melburnians. 

If you can't look glam, you can look interesting. 

Celebrity hair dresser the late Lillian Frank.

The year the carpark flooded, where the wealthy used to picnic from the backs of their cars, and champagne of course dahling. 

Sporting matches, Rennie could be there.

Music guru, tv presenter, Ian (Molly) Meldrum. 

Lillian Frank again. She lived her last years around half a kilometre from us.

The very naughty and sadly late artist Mirka Mora. 

Our Local Bearded Media Resident and now former politician with his then wife and the very popular singer, Johnny Farnham. 

Rennie got close to many famous performers. Sadly Tina Turner is history.

Jagger.

Molly Meldrum again.

Keith Richards.

I don't think Rennie was gay but he did like to photograph large gay events.

Protests for women's rights. 

I don't remember these anti Portugal demos. I guess they were about central Africa.

Anti nuclear protests.

Protests about the sacking of our elected Labor government by the Queen's representative, the Governor General.

Mr, All Prick and Ribs, Mick Jagger, again.