Friday, November 30, 2012

A Finnigan Friday

On High Street Northcote in the northern suburbs of Melbourne is one of those old time bike shops that have a historical background.
There's lots of upmarket new bike shops that are glitzy and have the most modern state of the art carbon fibre frames.
Back in the very early days the riders rode heavy steel bikes with single gears - the riders were gladiators of the road. I love this history, the riders, the bikes and the races of that time.

The Austral Wheel Race is a track race that like the Warrnambool Road Race has a history of over 100 years. In 1898, Tom Finnigan won the Austral - Alf Middleton was second and so was I in the early 80s - That's commonly known as the 1st loser.

Alf was actually the winner in 1894 so he was far from being a 1st loser.

Back to the Friday story - Thursday I was driving past the old Finnigan Bike Shop. All over Northcote, there is lots of graffiti but this graffiti is wall art in my mind. It visualises a moment in history when Tom Finnigan won the Austral Wheel Race.






I know graffiti doesn't last in time but I hope this one does. I remember Sue and I walked across the Pont de Gard near Nime in the south of France where graffiti still exists from the 1700s.

The Austral Wheel Race is the oldest continual track race in the world.

6 comments:

  1. I guess there is supposed to be photos here but nothing shows up on my screen....... Have a good weekend. Diane

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    1. Thanks for telling me - I'll try again

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    2. PS - Geeeez your quick Diane - off to bed. Goodnight.

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    3. Oh I agree I hope that graffiti lasts for ever, that is very special. Bonne nuit. Diane

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  2. A very artistic piece of graffiti, and one that should be saved for posterity.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Vera - maybe I should call it a mural, street art but not grafitti.

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