Ee by gum!

There's a corner of Fitzroy Gardens in Melbourne that is forever Yorkshire: a cottage, built in 1755 in Great Ayton, England, was taken apart, brick by brick, and shipped across to Victoria in 1933 at the expense of one Sir Russell Grimwade. It can now claim to be the oldest building in Oz. Even the ivy growing up its walls, and its hawthorn hedge came from cuttings from the cottage's original garden. And why is it here? The clue is in its name: Cooks' Cottage.

It belonged to Captain James Cook's parents, James and Grace, though built and lived in by the couple some years after their famous son had left home. When it came up for sale in the 1930s the woman owner didn't want it to be bought by Americans, who apparently planned to demolish it and sell bits as relics. At first she insisted the cottage must remain in England, but when Sir Russell offered £800, more than double the highest offer she had received, she changed 'England' for 'Empire' and accepted his generous offer.

We had a look inside where it has been furnished to fit the period and has a cottage garden such as it would have had back in the day in Yorkshire. An addition, though, is a statue of Captain James Cook.

My Extra is a complete contrast - from past to present: I was simply fascinated to see these youngsters hand-painting an advertisement on a building-barrier in the middle of the city. Something I've never seen before, at home or abroad. (The whole city , incidentally, seems to be a building site at present, with cranes everywhere - mechanical, not bird-life!) Oh, and we had a few minutes' rain, over which there's been much rejoicing - the first drops since before Christmas - but much more is needed.