Politics parks and pints

 
 Today we covered a lot of ground in and around Melbourne, it’s a difficult choice when it comes to picking what my favorite was but ranking in the top was our morning for sure. We walked about a kilometer to the Department of Primary Industries for the state of Victoria  and listened to the director of animal health and welfare talk about the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) that the country has in place. I had heard of electronic tracking and identification but never to the impressive extent that Australia has taken it. Cattle are required to have either the ear tag or bolus if they ever move properties/owners. These devices emit a frequency containing a large amount of information about that specific animal and information can be added to the data base as well. I found the structure and design of the system to be very interesting and am curious as to why the US hasn’t moved to a similar system because of all of the benefits. This system record 10,000 movement records a day for cattle and was only put into place in 2002.

Tony Britt, the director of animal health and welfare

     

Shrine of Remembrance

 
After lunch we spent the afternoon seeing various sights in the down town area including St. Patricks Cathedral, Cooks cabin & gardens, The Shrine of Remembrance, and various other sites that a popular within the local people. My personal favorite out of these had to have been the shrine of remembrance. The sheer volume and architecture of the shrine alone was impressive let alone the meaning of the shrine it’s self. It is to commemorate Australians that had taken part in both world wars and had many interesting stories and art effects to boast. 

St. Patricks Cathedral

  Lastly we went to the Carlton United Brewery (CUB) and were able to see behind the scenes of production of some of Australia's largest prides. It was very impressive how efficient the company is and the volume of production they have per day. Standing on the deck and watching as 1,000 stubbies were bottled a minute was mind blowing. Of course the visit was completed with complimentary tasting and were were able to use our newly gained knowledge about beer production to understand what caused the taste difference between types of beer. 

As another day comes to a close it’s hard to believe that I have been gone for four days now, well three for me actually since I skipped May 22nd altogether. None the less I’m very excited to see what a new city and tomorrow  have in store for me. 

Some of the samples at CUB