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Couldn't find it posted up anywhere that my searching could find so might as well hoist the flag. http://www.melbpenshow.com.au

Just took a friend to the airport last night. He was taking a flight to Melbourne, Australia (where he is originally from). Offered to pick up some Australian ink for me while he is there. He'll be there for about 10 days. Any suggestions for brick and mortar stores which might have Australian inks? Appreciate any answers. Thank you...

Hi all, Hope everyone's had a good week! Just wondering if there are any members on here from Melbourne, Australia? If so, does anyone know of any Melbourne-based groups? Cheers in advance, Mike.

Hello all! Greetings from Sydney, Australia. I have been learning and will continue to learn about fountain pens via this lovely community. Everyone is supportive and has very good things to say! Thank you! According to http://www.melbpenshow.com.au/Ant&Art_page.pdf: "Australia has a small ‘pen population’. Fountain pen use in the UK and US equates to one in 25 to 30 of adult population. In Australia, fountain pen use equates to one in 120 of adult population. As a consequence, Australia has the smallest number of specialty pen retailers per capita, in the world. What follows is that Australians are not the modern pen manufacturers’ best friend!" It is nice to know that there is a global community of fountain pen enthusiasts. I'm aiming to get myself to the Melbourne Pen Show. Fingers crossed! This newbie thanks you all!

Hi All,[/size][/font] So yesterday was the Melbourne Pen Show here in Australia. There are very few pen enthusiasts here in Australia (in fact Fountain pens are just about unheard of in general use), so the show tends to be rather small and (sadly) the only Pen Show we have in Australia. This year was my first year going, and I must say I was quite impressed. There was a heap of different retailers, collectors and dealers there, and good deals all around. The amount of pens was simply staggering. We got there first thing (to make sure all the good stuff was still there) and my wallet ended up a lot lighter, but my arms were full of goodies. Walking around the first place we really ended up looking at was at a distributor here in Australia who sells a lot of European notebooks, pencils and pens. The first thing we noticed was the Whitelines notebooks for half price. We grabbed 3 of them for that price. Next thing we saw that he had was the Ogami notebooks with Stone Paper Notebooks. He had one out on display so I had a bit of a writing test with my Lamy 2000. It's nice and smooth paper, but also has some feedback to it. Felt very nice. My Lamy had Visconti Blue in it, and it showed no signs of feathering or bleed-through and drying time was average. I asked him about other fountain pens and inks and he grabbed out a book he had been using. Most inks seemed to work very well on the paper with little show through or bleed through. He had even used a Sharpie to color on a page black and the show through on the opposite page was very minimal. He did say the only ink he had troubles with on the paper was a particular Noodlers ink (seemed to be a pinky colour, not sure which one) which never seems to dry. I was impressed so we bought a couple of the larger hardbacks. My partner also saw the Water Shorty clutch pencils and bought 2. He then decided that since we had purchased so much he would throw in some extra goodies. He gave us 2 Ballpoint adapters for the Worther Shorties (so they can also be used as Ballpoints) and a Platignum Studio (the one with the semi hooded nib and rubber section). I was more than happy! we then kept walking around and the next place that caught my eye was the Visconti dealer. He had all his nice, brand new pens laid out and begging to be handled. Looking through his mix I quickly came across 2 Opera Elements, the Blue and the Black. I already had the Amber so the Blue and Black are just what I needed to complement it (still on the lookout for a red though). The price was outstanding, $250 each. I took a look at the pens and they both had the old Gold nib (not the Palladium). He very quickly offered to switch the nibs to the Palladium for me though. So I decided to get one with the Palladium and 1 with the Gold nib. I was very happy with this, but to sweeten the deal, he also threw in the Green and Blue Visconti inks. We then went around the stalls another few times, but I was content with what I had. In the end we spent around $600 but ended up with 3 Whitelines Notebooks, 2 Ogami notebooks, a Platignum fountain pen, 2 Worther Shorty clutch pencils, 2 Visconti Opera Elements, and 2 bottles of Visconti ink. Was very happy with that haul! Anyone else go yesterday and what did you end up with?? Anyone else go yesterday and what did you end up with??