Suddenly, Will Ye Go Lassie Go...to the church that has hosted some of the most influential weddings of our time!

Whilst everyone else was gearing up for the Royal Wedding in Royal Windsor last week, I was getting ready to do my very own wedding related sightseeing by paying homage to some Neighbours Royalty instead.

The Holy Trinity Church in the suburb of Doncaster was the filming location where Libby and Drew, Lucas and Vanessa, Harold and Madge and most notoriously, Scott and Charlene all tied the knot. Seeing as I'm currently in the midst of my own spiritual pilgrimage, I felt it was only right to include this place of worship as part of it.

Not being one to do things by halves, I decided to actually sit in on one of their services instead of just having a nosy around the church and I'm very glad I did.

I went to the midweek afternoon service and it was filled with the most delightful elderly congregation. Around the other side of the church they have a modern extension which is where the service was held. Unlike more traditional churches this extension had one big glass wall to let in copious amounts of daylight. It also had lots of heat lamps dotted around the place which made it super toasty inside and it was probably the warmest I have ever been whilst sat inside a church.

It was one of the congregation's 99th birthday so we all sang Happy Birthday to her in the middle of the service which I thought was absolutely delightful. The service itself was very friendly, inclusive and upbeat and afterwards I was shown around the older part of the church by the lady who was sat next to me. She proudly told me that the original church was 170 years old!

This is the very same door that Kylie stepped through whilst Angry Anderson was singing his little heart out.

The aisle of dreams...only without Jason Donovan and Guy Pearce standing at the end of it!

After my little tour (I took loads more photos but due to the rubbish camera on my phone they were either too dark or too over exposed), it was insisted that I stay and have tea and birthday cake with everyone else. I got chatting to a lady who told me that she had gone over to Britain when she was young and it took six weeks to get there by boat. However the main topic of conversation was the royal wedding, which I assume was mainly for my benefit as the British guest. I really didn't have the heart to tell them that the only weddings I was interested in were the ones that have happened in their very own church.




If you would like to get in touch or have any suggestions as to where I should visit, please email me at dagsontour@gmail.com or find me on Twitter @fiona_mclean. Equally if you would like to see some of my non Neighbours related travel pics or have a nosy at some photos of the things I sell on Etsy (I knit and sew crazy things) feel free to follow me on Instagram too @mcpoodleshop.

Lost in the Bush

Last week Susan Kennedy and Kirsha Rebecchi got lost in the bush at school camp...this time it's my turn!

The Search for Merch

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Melbourne was to scope out the Bunyip Tours office, the home of the Official Neighbours Tour, to see what kind of Neighbours merchandise they had to offer and I felt hugely underwhelmed with their range.

They had one type of postcard, one type of fridge magnet which had the same image as the one on the postcard and a badge with “I ❤️ Ramsay Street” on it. There was also a little display with Kym Valentine's Arbonne cards (she played Libby Kennedy). I got super excited when I saw an old Erinsborough High backpack two shelves down from the rest of the merchandise but then nearly cried when I was told they weren't actually for sale.

What really did excite me however, was the vast array of beautiful things hanging from their walls. The Scarlet Bar sign, the abstract portrait Helen Daniels painted of Lou Carpenter during his mayoral rein of Erinsborough and my personal favourite, a cast photo featuring Lance and Amy, Billy and Anne and Libby and Drew all dressed in white. All things considering, it was by no means a wasted trip.

nb. If anyone can remember the story behind the last picture below please do let me know. If I had to guess it looks like Sky Mangel floating down the river in the style of Elisa Day so maybe it was painted by her art teacher (I think his name was JP or something???)

Somebody should tell them their sign is out of date.

Why not purchase a magnet or some makeup from Libby Kennedy?

I thought she was teaching in China...it's all lies!

Gutted that these backpacks aren't for sale.

Lance Wilkinson...be still my beating heart!

Mayor Carpenter

The Scarlet Bar sign

I cannot for the life of me remember the backstory to this painting.

I also asked if the Neighbours Night was still a thing (it used to be held in the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in St Kilda and it was a legendary Neighbours quiz night with Dr Karl singing and meet and greats with other cast members) and I was told that they stopped doing them about three years ago.

It genuinely saddens me that the love for this great Australian institution in it's home city is harder to find than I imagined it would be. I honestly thought before I got here that I would find street sellers on every corner selling knock off Neighbours t-shirts to tourists but I haven't even come across any souvenier shops with Ramsay Street related goodies yet.

Thank goodness for the Official Neighbours Tour is all can say, fighting the good fight for all the other people who come here to do their own Ramsay Street pilgrimage. I do plan to go on the tour at some point but I might wait until my boyfriend comes out to visit me in August because I'm sure he will appreciate being reminded of how awesome Neighbours is after months of not being forced to watch it. Until then I will continue my fruitless quest to find merchandise in this barren city.


If you have any suggestions of places to visit, future blog post subjects or know of anywhere else that sells Neighbours merchandise you can email me at dagsontour@gmail.com or find me on Twitter @fiona_mclean. Equally if you would like to see some of my non Neighbours related travel pics or have a nosy at some photos of the things I sell on Etsy (I knit and sew crazy things) then feel free to follow me on Instagram too @mcpoodleshop.

Geelong the Waterfront

The other day I got up relatively early with the intention of going to Colac for the day but due to incredibly bad planning on my part, I realised when I got to Southern Cross station at 9am that I should have taken the 07:23 train as there are only three trains a day that actually go to Colac and I would have had to wait four hours for the next one.

So I made a snap decision to go Geelong instead. Geelong is a coastal town about an hour away from Melbourne and it's where former Father Jack Callahan originated from (before he came out of his coma induced amnesia and remembered he was a priest...and then disgraced himself from the church by impregnating Paige in a shack immediately after she jumped out of a hot air balloon!) Paige and Jack, or John Doe as he was known back then, once took a trip to Geelong in an attempt to get him to remember anything about his identity.

Because it was never my intention to go to there that day I quickly did some last minute research on the train and to my delight, after typing "Paige Smith and John Doe Geelong" into The Search Engine I found there was a real life cafe called John Doe, which obviously I made a beeline to as soon as I left the station.

I do hope Sonya and Toadie bring Nell here regularly for all her fairywear needs.

Seeing as Harold Bishop has a coffee shop named after him in Erinsborough it only seems right that Father Jack has his own coffee shop named after him in Geelong.

The Waterfront 

Once I was armed with a mocha and a chicken wrap I headed straight for the coast. Because I did next to no research about this place before I got there, I was a little bit surprised that it didn't really have a beach other than a thin stretch of sand which housed a few volleyball nets. What it lacked in beach space however, it certainly made up for in palm trees, beautiful green spaces and a masses of brightly coloured and fun bollard sculptures (over 100 of them) all along the waterfront.

Harold and the rest of the Salvation Army band.

Dorothy Burke enjoying a glass of G&T in the sunshine.

This bollard looks the spitting image of my dad circa 2006!

The pier

Botanic Gardens

I walked a hell of a lot in Geelong and whilst I was up near the golf course I heard what sounded like masses of noisy birds coming from a small wooded area in the park a bit further on down the road so I set off to find the aviary.  When I got to the source of the noise I realised that they weren't birds at all but Flying Fox bats and there were hundreds of them dangling from every branch in about 10 different trees all chattering away noisily to each other in the worlds loudest slumber party.

A bit further along a came to the Geelong Botanic Gardens which was a very lovely and peaceful little spot and I was very happy to see they had their own book exchange.

Botanic book exchange, it's good to know Ms Conway is such an inspiration to society. 

This is a dragon tree and it's so dangerous that it has to be tethered to the ground!

I had an absolutely lovely day in Geelong. The coastal walk was so lovely as there were so many gorgeous views and it made a nice change to visit a coastal city without a beach. The city itself was beautiful with loads of stunning architecture, museums and galleries (including the National Wool Museum that I was gutted I didn't have time to go around) and more beautifully maintained parks. I could have easily spent at least another week exploring and I will definitely be back soon.



If you would like to get in touch or have any suggestions as to where I should visit, please email me at dagsontour@gmail.com or find me on Twitter @fiona_mclean. Equally if you would like to see some of my non Neighbours related travel pics or have a nosy at some photos of the things I sell on Etsy (I knit and sew crazy things) then feel free to follow me on Instagram too @mcpoodleshop.