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Melbourne News and events

What was yesterday?

Yesterday was the 5th of April.

It was Easter Monday, a public holiday in Victoria.

Most businesses were closed. When it comes to the shops, it looked like a Sunday: most smaller ones closed, most bigger ones open. (Not like Good Friday and Easter Sunday when everything’s closed.)

Schools were all closed, but they’re in the middle of school holidays anyway. Universities seemed to be closed.

The roads were generally quieter than a weekday. But as far as the reversible lane in Queens Road was concerned, it was a weekday, as in the morning it was operating city-bound. (Outside weekday mornings, it always operates outbound.)

Would a weekday parking restriction count on a weekday public holiday? I don’t know. Anybody know?

As far as the trains were concerned, it was a Saturday, with a Saturday timetable running, but without the two late-night after-midnight trains on each line. V/Line trains and coaches also ran to a Saturday timetable.

As far as the trams were concerned, it was a Saturday but with trams starting an hour earlier than the usual Saturday timetable. On a lot of public holidays they run a Sunday timetable but with trams starting at weekday times. I’m not sure why they don’t just fix the Sunday timetable so the trams regularly start a bit earlier.

Buses? All over the shop. Some routes ran Saturday timetables, some Sunday timetables.

If you travelled with a Metcard, it was a weekday. They don’t do public holidays. If you travelled on trains with a Myki, it knew it was a public holiday and should have charged a maximum of $3 for the day. (There you go, there’s an actual tangible benefit from it.) V/Line charged off-peak fares.

On TV, it appeared to be a normal Monday. Radio seemed a bit different — ABC 774 was doing its holiday thing of networking all the ABC Local Radio stations around the country together, with a host in some far-flung town broadcasting to the nation.

And me? I spent a fair bit of time at home, spending time with loved ones, and relaxing, so to me, it was closest to a Sunday.

By Daniel Bowen

Transport blogger / campaigner and spokesperson for the Public Transport Users Association / professional geek.
Bunurong land, Melbourne, Australia.
Opinions on this blog are all mine.

15 replies on “What was yesterday?”

I know that in Sydney parking restrictions are enforced on public holidays as if they were normal weekdays; presumably Melbourne is the same.

I was in the city for a while on Monday and it was incredibly busy, felt almost like a weekday. Made up for Friday when absolutely nothing was open, anywhere.

I still can’t get over the fact that even my local pool is open on Xmas morning, but it’s not open on Good Friday.

With remote control possible and I should think generally enabled for Vic Roads traffic lights, why does the reversible lane in Queens Road not adapt to a public holiday? Why do peak time no right turns still operate?

Public holiday parking restrictions apply as for a Sunday. I wondered about this for a long time until I confirmed it.

Tram Myki machines were showing daylight saving time until at least today, but then we are not supposed to use them, still, it is odd. Aren’t they remote controlled too? Waste of money running a Saturday service on Easter Monday. A Sunday service would be adequate. Very few people around early and very few late and in between the service matches a Saturday service.

I took the family camping at Lorne over easter, and we took food expecting everything to be closed – Interestingly everything was open! Does the ‘Everything is closed on Good Friday’ only apply to metro melbourne?

I actually got all my shopping done on Wednesday because I knew most shops would be closed on a Friday. So I get spend the long weekend at home with the family and kids. Good times =D

And if you work at a newspaper Easter Monday was a regular working day – although quite a few people were taking long weekends.
Lorne stores were probably open because they know it’s one of the big, profitable weekends for them. Money will always win out in the end. :-/

Daniel, from the City of Melbourne website:

Parking on public holidays
Some parking restrictions are different on public holidays.

For parking signs that state days of the week (including loading zones and no stopping signs), parking and time restrictions on the signs do not apply and you do not need to pay the parking fee if the parking spot is metered.

For parking signs that do not state days of the week (including loading zones and no stopping signs), you must observe parking and time restrictions and pay the parking fee if the parking spot is metered.

Days specified as public holidays are:

Easter Monday

Trains ran to a Sunday timetable on Good Friday. May I assume that with a Sunday level of ‘service’ we could also use a Sunday Saver Metcard? Actually if I’d been using the trains that day I would have worked on an assumption that the ticket heavies weren’t working that day.

And yet one can’t use an off-peak saver Metcard on a public holiday because of the weekend timetable.

Some small businesses have staff that dont celebrate Christmas or Easter so they still open on Christmas New Years Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I went to Epping Shopping Centre on Holy Thursday and I saw the fish shop with a long waiting line. It was because on Good Friday Catholics cant have meat except fish. On Holy Saturday it was crowded too. In the supermarkets there were only a few fish left. We took the last squid rings from Coles for only $9 and we all had squid rings.

“ABC 774 was doing its holiday thing of networking all the ABC Local Radio stations around the country together, with a host in some far-flung town broadcasting to the nation.”

Wot, like Sydney ? LOL

What I heard did not appear to be from Sydney. On holidays they seem to share it out amongst the big cities. The talkback/text number quoted usually gives it away as it includes the local frequency; if it includes 774, it’s Melbourne, 702 Sydney, 612 Brisbane, etc.

Philip, not just Catholics. It’s a general Christian tradition not to eat meat on Good Friday. I’m Anglican and I don’t. Growing up my family weren’t religious, but we always had fish, as my mum also did growing up. It was more of a cultural tradition for them.

Here in Australia Good Friday almost seems like Christmas with everything closed. In the US Good Friday is just another weekday which seems strange to me as people in the US tend to be much more religious and churchgoing than Australians. There is no Easter Monday in the US either. I suppose that it is convenient to celebrate Good Friday and Easter Monday to get a 4 day weekend.

Does anyone else find the holiday surcharge demanded at some restaurants during holidays irksome like I do? Most places do have a sign explaining the surcharge but one time a few years ago I found out about the extra charge while I was paying the bill after I had already eaten and I was pretty annoyed by this. I suppose it is to cover higher wages on these days but I would not charge it if I owned a business. If business owners don’t like having to pay their employees extra they should just close on these days.

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