I lived in Sydney for most of my life, and it's a good starting point for seeing a lot of the East Coast of Australia. Sydney itself has a lot of historical and interesting sites - to mention a few: The Rocks (near Circular Quay, on the harbour) Parramatta (Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta Park) Fort Denison (near the Harbour Bridge) Darling Harbour The Botanical Gardens (and nearby the old library) Taronga Park Zoo the Opera House There are buses in the inner city which take you all around the place, showing you this at this. You can get off the bus anywhere at one of its stops, and explore further, then hop on the next bus that comes and go onto the next spot. Great for tourists, and quite a reasonable cost. You MUST hop on a ferry from Circular Quay (easily accessible on the train system) and take a trip across the harbour to Manly Beach (or the Zoo). There are harbour 'taxis' and tourist mini-cruises and hovercraft, too. From Sydney you can do day-trips to the Central Coast (Gosford), to the Blue Mountains (Katoomba, Jenolan Caves, Hill End), or to the South Coast (Wollongong, Kiama) and lots of other places in between. Take a couple of days and go to central New South Wales for the Open Plains Zoo near Dubbo, or the Observatory at Parkes. From Sydney, fly down to Melbourne and do day-trips from there. Or fly north to Brisbane, take a trip along the river; and from there go down to the Gold Coast or up to the Sunshine Coast. Do day-trips to Toowoomba or the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's place), or the Big Pineapple, Buderim Ginger. Travel further north for a few days to Hervey Bay and do a bit of whale-watching and some of the islands; go right up to the pointy bit on the map to see Townsville and Cairns and some tropical rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef and some beautiful island - some have holiday resorts. Travel west to Mt Isa, Emerald and other mining towns. Really experience the Outback and visit Birdsville! (one of the hottest places in Australia!) Fly up to Darwin, then travel down to the Centre to see Uluru (Ayre's Rock) and other sites of the outback. Fly down to Adelaide,capital of South Australia, the City of Churches, visit Kangaroo Island. Go north again to the desert to see an underground city, Coober Pedy (opal mining). Time permitting, you shouldn't miss going from Melbourne across Tasman Strait to Tasmania, a truly magnificent place for tourists, with stunning scenery. Melbourne is a city of restaurants! Back up to northern Victoria or southern New South Wales and take in our highest mountains and ski resorts. There'll be no snow in summer of course, but the scenery is fabulous. Fly (or take a 4-day train trip) across from Melbourne or Adelaide to Perth, then across to Kalgoorlie (largest gold mining area in the world.) Do some sightseeing tours for the wildflowers. Fly up to Broome and see some pearl-diving. Call in to Exmouth (where there was recently an airbus incident.) My son is in charge of the investigation into that incident, and he said it's a truly beautiful spot for a holiday. Don't forget places like Kakadu, a huge national park, owned and run by native Australians. January is our hottest month of the year, and she can expect flies wherever she goes. It's the Wet Season in the north, so some places might not be accessible, and they'll be stinking hot and humid as well. Perhaps keep those places for a winter (Dry Season) visit! Don't be too concerned about safety. Just take the usual precautions (like not flashing your money around!), and remember than very few people in Australia have guns! Private ownership is forbidden unless you can convince the Powers That Be that you have an excellent excuse for having one. Never, never go into the Outback or bush without having a knowledgeable escort. Take a visit to Cabramatta (known locally as Vietnamatta!) in company. It's just a suburb with a large population of Vietnamese immigrants. It has a bad reputation, and there are some nasty types there, but also some decent people - but it's interesting because it's hard to imagine you're in Australia - most of the shops and street signs etc are in Vietnamese! Interesting. Best seen in daylight hours - perhaps take a taxi ride around the place. Redfern is similar, except that it's an enclave of a large population of Aboriginal residents. Again, take a taxi-ride - it's only a short distance from the inner city. Actually, it is undergoing a sort of transformation, and has a place on the list of Desirable Suburbs to Live. King's Cross - well, it's the red-light district sure enough, but it has some interesting sites (including the local residents and businesses!) - including the Alamein Fountain, some great restaurants, a waxworks museum etc. Find a tour-guide to take you there, and you'll be safe enough. You don't HAVE to enter the naughty shops and theatres!! And yes, avoid dark alleys. Remember that Australia is an entire and very diverse continent - HUGE, the distances are vast - and you could spend a life-time seeing all of it. But I hope I've given Meredith some ideas.

Jan, I wonder if the little darling in the iris bed was the same one who was racing back and forth tearing leaves off the trees in the Japanese Garden at the Hobart Botanic Gardens. Don't you just love those parents who don't do any parenting when it's really needed but suddenly appear out of nowhere to abuse staff or other visitors when those people feel compelled to put an end to the shenanigans. So we limited ourselves to the occasional disapproving glare. A little later I was told off for jumping the queue at the ladies toilets. Honest mistake. I didn't know there was only one cubicle. I don't remember a lock on the outer door which is usually the case with a single cubicle facility, and considering it was in a rather nice-looking new (since our last trip) visitors centre with a cafe, I wouldn't have expected a single cubicle ladies. Lovely gardens but not the relaxing visit I had hoped for on the last day of our holiday. Didn't enjoy being on the Tahune Air Walk with a school group either. We were taking a photo from the cantilevered section when they came bouncing along and we had quite a lengthy wait until they finished bouncing. The teachers were some distance behind and obviously enjoying their own holiday and not the least bit interested in supervising these teenagers. And don't let me get started on the parents who think throwing pebbles at ducks in ponds is a healthy outdoor activity for their children. Shame that places which can be so soothing for the soul can be spoilt by kids who have never been taught to respect, sorry, this is turning into a rant. Dead easy, the Canberra Botanic Gardens are native.

All right, so my postings will probably stop here today. It was a great, sunny but coldish day here in Perth and I've arrived home with four more beautiful climbers: * Genevieve, which belongs in Meilland's Romantica rose class. Beautiful climber, beautiful flower shape, fragrance and foilage; I only wish David Austin had something similar coming up too. * Handel; you know everything about him already. I liked his look, refreshing scent (Iceberg-like, honey with almonds) and I know it's a very vigorous beast. * Climbing Charleston; great looking climber, beautiful dark green foilage with beautifully shaped, large single flowers in yellow and dark red combinations, that change their colour as they mature; subtle and nice honey and apple-like scent, foud in many similar climbers and ramblers. * Leander; I wanted huge English rose and this one fits the shoe perfectly. You know all about it and although I was thinking whether to go for Leander or Cymbeline, I decided to give Cymbeline another spot, which has still to be prepared well. Hope these choices will inspire some of you to give some room for more climbing roses. Climbers are special; they don't take space, but rather make it more beustiful, they add something natural and spiritual to our homes which suddenly become a place worth living in, thinking about and admiring. - Tom

Hi Roselady and Ozmelody, There is indeed a Roses in Oz forum; it's been pretty quiet around there for a while though - maybe you're not the only ones who couldn't find it after the move to Houzz... If you go up to the top of this page, click on Garden Forums (in green writing) and you'll see 'Roses in Oz' in the alphabetical list. (There are other topics that might be of interest under 'Australian Forums' (?) in the same list.) I don't use it much because it seems to me to be mostly about modern roses which don't interest me so much - no reason why that can't change though... Just in case you're not aware of them, there are also loads of really knowledgeable and helpful people on the 'Antique Roses' and 'Roses' forums, many of them gardening in very similar climates, eg in different parts of California. They're both in the alphabetical list, with links between the two. Hope this is of some help. Comtesse :¬)