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Michael Craven and Margret`s Australian tour.

In February 2014 the wife and I had to make a trip to Australia to visit relatives. It was a hastily planned trip combining visiting relatives and a holiday. Various problems confronted the trip with an up and coming installation and the urgency of the time scale to visit down under. Normally we think of holidays in summer which would be the norm. You plan a trip, usually to the continent or closer to home and you expect reasonable weather during the summer months. With a trip to Australia the opposite applies, especially to Melbourne. As they have their summer during our winter it is important to go during the winter months as that is when the weather is good. It has often been said about Melbourne that you can experience all four seasons in a day. This is true during every season.

Even at the height of summer the temperature can drop to thirteen degrees from the mid-thirties within minutes. Or in winter it can be the opposite. This is all due to the position and size of the continent. To the north is hot desert to the south the cold southern ocean. Melbourne is twix the two. On my previous trips to Melbourne I promised myself a trip to Grand Lodge Victoria.

In 1969 the United Grand Lodge of Victoria built a concert hall in East Melbourne. The Hall was renamed in 1993 from the Dallas Brooks Hall to the Dallas Brooks Centre and is still a major events venue in Melbourne. Dallas Brooks was Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria from 1951–1963. He was Victoria’s longest serving Masonic Grand Master, and he is the only governor of any Australian state initiated to the craft while serving as governor. Brooks had expressed a desire to become a freemason while in England but he had also stated that he preferred to become initiated in Australia. He met with the Grand Master of Victoria and notified him. He was initiated in the Clarke Lodge No. 98 on 6 February 1950 and was passed and raised within two months. He became Worshipful Master of the Lodge only five months after his initiation and he was elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Victoria the following year. Brooks was appointed Governor of Victoria by Premier Thomas Hollway and served between 1949 and 1963.During his term as Governor of Victoria he acted as Administrator of the Commonwealth three times. Brooks served the state for over 13 years, becoming Victoria’s longest-serving governor. After his term ended in 1963, he chose to remain in Australia in retirement. He built a house in Frankston and died there three years later.The Melbourne suburb of Dallas was named after Sir Dallas, as well as Dallas Brooks Drive in Kings Domain. The official residence of the Governor of Victoria, Government House, is located on the corner of Birdwood Avenue and Dallas Brooks Drive.

Arriving in Melbourne Parliament station we took a gentle stroll past the Catholic cathedral and into Fitzroy Gardens walking parallel to Albert Street until we reached The Rivers of God Fountain situated opposite The Dallas Brooks Centre. To the left of a spacious lobby was a corridor leading to the library. I enquired if there were any tours of the building. After explaining who I was and the reason for my visit I was told that there were no official tours but the man at the counter said he would happily show me around.

Knut Tveitnes P.G.Std.B. (CRAFT P.M. – MARK P.M –H.R.A.C: Z – 18° – 30° – K.T. – K.T.P. – A.M.D. – R.C.C. – ROSc – R.S.M.)is a man who enjoys his masonry and now works in the library at Grand Lodge. Knut it turns out was a former sea captain working around Scandinavia before emigrating to Australia and looked in fine fettle for a man of his age. We toured around the various temples within the building, all of them were looked very similar in décor and none of them were particularly large but they all had their own pipe organ and familiar modern furnishings including a box for 3rd degree ceremonies. The various dining halls had dividers to accommodate the largest or smallest of lodge meetings and outside functions like weddings and birthday parties.

The large Auditorium is used for a wide variety of functions ranging from Grand Lodge ceremonies, seminars and meetings to concerts and theatrical productions. It seats 2000 people over 3 levels – Stalls, Lounge and Gallery and is equipped with full staging, lighting and sound facilities, removable front row seating on Stalls level, versatile stage with extension capability, back stage areas and dressing rooms, choir facility for up to 140 (standing)and houses the famous pipe organ originally from the Lyceum Theatre in London.

It has a rich history with past performances with an impressive line-up on international and local talent including: Diana Ross, Sky Hooks, Kylie Minogue, Billy Joel, Peggy Lee, Jose Feliciano, IFBB Bodybuilding Championships.

Knut concluded the tour back at the library where we met Lance McGregor who was desperately trying to preserve relics and artefacts from current and defunct lodges throughout Victoria. We were discussing lodge nights and the use of music in the ceremonies. It turns out that in Victoria Lodges every ceremony is done to a set piece of music as well as the words. Lance managed to find me a book of masonic music used in Victoria which has the music for orchestra and a simpler version for less accomplished musicians. An invite to Most Worshipful Brother Robert (Bob) Kenneth Jones inauguration as Grand Master was offered but unfortunately as with a trip to Phillip Island for the Superbikes we had made arrangements to visit friends down the Great Ocean Road so I had to decline, even after the offer of a suit and apron. Many thanks to Knut and Lance for making this a special visit.