The Clock on the Silo Says 8 Degrees

As former residents of the Great Southern City Firegazer and I hold this famous local landmark in high regard. This is "the clock on the silo". Or the BTR Nylex sign. It lives on Punt Road next to Hoddle Bridge which connects Richmond with South Yarra.





Not long after relocating to Melbourne in 1996 we were driving up Punt Road after an AFL game at the MCG while listening to Paul Kelly's song Leaps and Bounds:

I'm high on the hill
Looking over the bridge
To the M.C.G.
And way up
on high
The clock on the silo
Says eleven degrees

As these lyrics blasted through the car sound system we looked up and saw that, like the song, the clock on the silo said eleven degrees... So Leaps and Bounds became our "Melbourne Song". Still is.

We are now Sydney-siders visiting our former town. So today as we drove along Alexandra Avenue we looked up at the silo and played Leaps and Bounds (loudly).

Only this time the clock on the silo said eight degrees. Brrr.