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I really wanted to go to Ramsay Street as all good university leavers do. It is something of a rite of passage that one watches Neighbours while at uni, and, when visiting Australia, must come back clutching a photo of themselves with some member of the Neighbours cast.

I had one of the finest moments of my life so far one day in Newcastle while still at university when I met Shane Connors. My housemates and I had heard through Martin’s Newcastle University Radio contacts that he would be in town. Shane Connors, for those of you who don’tknow, played the part of Joe Scully in Neighbours. Joe Scully was quickly removed from the show amidst some loosely formulated ramblings (on the show) about how he “had to help at the farm in Bendigo” and sooner or later he dissappeared for good, divorcing his wife of many years and leaving a recently born son in the process. How very odd, we thought. Odd indeed. He clearly had not been meant to dissappear so abruptly as the plot lines showed he was there for the duration. So what happened. We all wondered…

Internet searches came up with a myriad of reasons, all of which showed Joe Scully (Shane Connors) in a negative light (a paedophile/alcoholic/on drugs etc etc). This was why we were so excited to get the opportunity to meet the fellow and have a heart-to-heart with him. He told us honestly – after signing the photos we had printed out before meeting him – that he had fallen out with the producers of the show, and that they had invented stories about him (i.e. the paedo/alkie/druggy stuff) and sacked him. He had taken them to court, he told us, so could not go into detail…

I digress a bit, but it was interesting when Vicky told us that she had done a Ramsay Street tour through her backpackers hostel and that this was the question still on everyones lips: “what happened to Joe Scully???” – the party line is still that “he kept turning up drunk to filming.” True or not? Only Shane and those involved know, but such a remark is cheap whether or not it be true, and made me all the more certain that I wanted to visit Ramsay Street alone, without cast members present, as an homage to Joe Scully (Shane Connors).

So alone we went.

Where is Ramsay Street?

The first thing you need to know if you’re trying to find Ramsay Street in Melbourne is that it isn’t actually called Ramsay Street at all in real life. No, it is called ‘Pin Oak Court’. It can be found in the Melways (street map of Melbourne). We did that and cruised down there in the Slavo mobile. And what a joy to behold. Those conifers, Susan’s garden, the late great Joe Scully’s house (where Lynne is currently doing the dirty on her estranged husband with Paul Robinson (Stefan Denis), no less), all of that.

It is surprisingly small though, and it is rather dissapointing that none of the cast actually live there. Furthermore, it is a pretty odd feeling to be walking around taking photos of what are, in reality, people’s houses, and I felt slightly apologetic when one of them came out into his garden…

Be warned, though, that visiting Pin Oak Ct (Ramsay Street) crushes the illusion and leaves one wondering whether Neighbours is worth watching again. I haven’t watched it since around May 2006 due to the Joe Scully debacle, but I certainly couldn’t now.

So I’ll let bygones be bygones and view this final visit as a farewell to childish things. As a chapter in my life completed. It is a coming of age. A watershed. I’ve let Neighbours, Ramsay Street and all the crowd become but a distant, yet loved, memory, and moved onwards in my life.

If I have learned one thing from the show it is this: show some decorum. It will be appreciated. Shane Connors is a decent guy. Those who bad mouth him (whether the stories are true or not) simply show themselves to be charlatans.

Chapter closed.

Visit Ramsay Street though, I highly recommend it – I still just need a pound (or dollar)…