The Great Ocean Road meanders from Torquay to Warrnambool, along the wild Bass Strait Coast with Tasmania and the Great Southern Ocean beyond.
Boolaroo astronomy expert Col Maybury said it was in this scenic area that British schoolmaster James Lister Cuthbertson, at age 29, wrote a poem titled The Australian Sunrise in 1880.
Cuthbertson taught at nearby Geelong Grammar School.
Col said the poem "stands out to poets and astronomers".
Here it is, chapter and verse:
The Morning Star paled slowly, the Cross [Southern Cross] hung low to the sea,
And down the shadowy reaches the tide came swirling free,
The lustrous purple blackness of the soft Australian night, waned in the grey awakening that heralded the light;
Still in the dying darkness, still in the forest dim, the pearly dew of the dawning clung to each giant limb,
Till the sun came up from ocean, red with the cold sea mist, and smote on the limestone ridges, and the shining tree-tops kissed.
Then the fiery Scorpion [the constellation Scorpio] vanished, the magpie's note was heard,
And the wind in the she-oak wavered and the honeysuckles stirred;
The airy golden vapour rose from the river breast, the kingfisher came darting out of his crannied nest,
And the bullrushes and reed-beds put off their sallow grey,
And burnt with cloudy crimson at the dawning of the day.
Col believes the "morning star" that "paled slowly" is Venus.
"As the rising sun shone above the horizon, it dimmed the brilliance of Venus."
He said Venus - the morning star - was a "similar rocky planet to Earth".
"Because the orbit of Venus is inside the orbit of Earth, a wonderful dance of the planets takes place constantly," he said.
"Venus orbits the sun every 243 days and in a backward path. Venus as the morning star is visible for 263 days, then 50 days absent, then 263 days as the evening star, then eight days absent. All told, an interaction with Earth of just on 584 days, which then repeats.
"The absent days are those where Venus is shielded by the sun and not visible to us here on Earth. So in the coming dawn, he probably observed that Venus paled."
Col said the Southern Cross "moves 30 degrees clockwise each month".
"As in the poem, the Cross hangs low to the sea at the June solstice, the shortest day of the year and beginning of winter."
He added that the constellation Scorpius vanishes as it "dives into the west", chasing the bright red star Antares, the rival of Mars, becoming "hidden behind the land".
Return to Sender
Alf, of Elermore Vale, received a letter in the mail that was addressed to Upper Kedron in Queensland.
It had Alf's name and address on a sticker on the back. Only problem was, Alf didn't send the letter.
Curiosity got the better of him, so he opened the letter. It contained $20 and a message to a girl from her grandmother.
Alf had no idea why the letter didn't reach the address in the first place.
As for the sticker, it must have come off one of his letters at the post office and become attached to the letter in question.
Alf took the resealed letter back to the post office, hoping that this time it reaches its intended recipient.
