Rye – down under

A few years ago we were lucky enough to have the chance to go to Australia and as our trip included being in Sydney for Christmas and new year we were able to witness the spectacular fireworks under Sydney bridge where we met up with friends from Northiam who were also there, visiting family.

Part of our trip involved travelling the Great Ocean Road in a hired camper van which became home for the next two weeks. A week after we had travelled along the coast the devastating bush fires destroyed many of the properties we had passed only a week earlier.

One of our planned destinations was Rye in Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsular, approximately 39 miles south west of Melbourne’s central business district where we picked up the camper van. At that time we lived in Rye (UK) and were curious to see how “the other Rye” looked in comparison to home.

Surprisingly, there are many similarities between the two: for example in 2021 the population in Rye, UK was thought to be around 9,041 and in Rye, Australia at the same time was 9,423. I have put our Rye’s equivalents in brackets and it’s surprising how similar the two towns are, despite being on opposite sides of the world.

Rye’s beach, on the eastern side of Port Phillip is popular with swimmers, fishermen, yachtsmen, and kite surfers (their equivalent of Camber sands). Their ocean beach (which is not patrolled) is also popular with surfers and divers. Rye is in the traditional country of the Boonwurrung or Bunurong people of the Kulin nation.

The Australian Rye has a Lions Club (as we do) and a Community Action Group (REACT here) which operates a community website to promote the town (Rye News here). In 2010 the Rotary Club merged with the Rosebud Rotary Club. These organisations are heavily involved within the local community. Rye also has an historical society which operates from the Old School House in Collingwood Street. Rye’s summer carnival (arts and jazz festivals here) is located beside the pier car park. The town is extremely popular during vacation periods and has a varied selection of eating establishments (sounds familiar).

The town has an Australian rules football team competing in the Mornington Peninsular Nepean Football League. Golfers play at the course of the Moonah Links or at the Dunes Golf Links on Browns Road (the equivalent of Rye Golf Club at Camber).

When it opened in 2004, Rye Skatepark was the first cradle skate bowl built in the Southern Hemisphere and it remains ever popular with skateboarders today.

Rye Pier (Rye Harbour) is a popular recreational scuba diving shore dive site inside Port Phillip with seahorses, stingrays, spider crabs, squid, scallops and octopuses and Australian fur seals. The wreck of the wooden sailing ketch Eivion lies 115 metres to the east of Rye Pier. The shipwreck remains of the wooden schooner Barbara lie 240 metres to the west of Rye Pier.

Rye Pier is also the location of an annual giant spider crab mass aggregation. In late May-June great spider crabs migrate along through the area.

The Rye fire brigade is located just behind the bowls club and has three appliances: a pumper – used for structure fires; a tanker – used for grass and scrub fires; and a salvage – used as a support for both pumper and tanker. The fire brigade is volunteer-based (same here) and responds to calls in the Rye and surrounding areas.

We arrived in Rye and parked up. On the main strip was the Rye Hotel (see photo above) and further along was another building, similar to the George in our Rye, advertised as Cabaret Cathedral. It also had scaffolding on it which thankfully is no longer on the George. Further still, we came across Rye Lions Park which bore many similarities to the Salts where, of course, our own Rye Cricket Club is located.

One major difference in the two countries was of course the weather: even in December in Australia the weather was very similar to what we are experiencing here now but at that time, in the UK, the winter had well and truly set in.

Whilst our Rye is unique in so many ways, despite travelling to the other side of the world, there is another Rye with so many similarities you’d think it’s our twin town.

Image Credits: Sue Forman .