After the relaxed security on the practice days, inspections and searches have become more thorough, although they still carry an endearing local touch. Nothing in this sphere is more fun than watching the teams arrive escorted by police in their Ambassador cars. If Volkswagen made a sedan in the 1950s, it would looked like these charming, almost vintage, white vehicles.

With a whirring red siren on the roof, they cruise through the traffic as the lead and rear parts of the envoy, reminding me of slow-motion car-chases in black-and-white movies. The players sit in the centre of the procession in their modern buses and watch the policemen shaking their arms and beeping their piercing horns to create a clear path. I’m not sure if it makes the teams feel safer (they probably wish they were in their own swanky four-wheel drives), but the parade creates some Australian smiles.