MELBOURNE - AUSTRALIA |
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Melbourne is the capital and largest
city of the state of Victoria, and the second largest city in
Australia, with a population of 3,366,542 (census 2001).
The locals are known as 'Melburnians'. Interestingly, this word is
derived from the Latin name of Melbourne, and contains no letter
'o'. The city's motto is the Latin "Vires acquirit eundo" which
means "we gather strength as we go". |
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Culture and sport
While having a large and vibrant arts and cultural life (notably including
the yearly Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Melbourne
International Film Festival), Melbourne is perhaps best known as one of the
most sports-obsessed cities in the world. Melbourne is home to nine of the
sixteen teams in the Australian Football League, whose five Melbourne games
per week attract an average 35,000 people per game. Melbourne hosts the
Australian Open tennis, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments; the
Melbourne Cup - the most prestigious handicap horse race in the world; the
hugely popular 'Boxing Day' cricket test match held each year from 26-30
December at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (a massive arena that can hold up
to 100,000 spectators); the Australian Grand Prix Formula One championship.
In 2003 it also co-hosted the Rugby Union World Cup, including many pool
matches as well as a quarter final - all of which were played at the Telstra
Dome. Melbourne has also broken new ground in the major events industry
being the first city outside the United States to host the World Police and
Fire Games 1995), and the President's Cup golf tournament (1999); and the
first city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the World Cup Polo
Championship (2001). The newest major sporting event to be brought to the
city will be the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Melbourne was the only city in the Southern Hemisphere in which the Three
Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) performed on
their world tour in 1997, and the only city in the world to host the Kiss
Symphony, a combined performance of the rock band KISS and the Melbourne
Symphony Orchestra in 2003.
Landmarks and tourist information
Melbourne attracts large numbers of tourists, particularly young backpackers.
It also hosts a disproportionately large number of spectator sports.
Popular sites and events include:
The Melbourne Cricket Ground, known as "the MCG" or simply "the G". From
April to September, there are typically one or two Australian rules football
matches there per week; the game can be spectacular, it is unique to
Australia, relatively inexpensive to attend, and is safe and enjoyable for
all, including children. It also hosts the occasional Bledisloe Cup rugby
match. During the summer, cricket matches are played there - the most
important being the Boxing Day test match between Christmas and New Year's
Eve, and several one-day international games in January and February which
are perhaps more enjoyable for the casual spectator. The MCG is currently
being renovated in preparation for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and will have
a maximum capacity of 103,000.
Melbourne Park, home of the Australian Open tennis tournament, one of the
four Grand Slam tournaments (held in January each year).
The Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre is located in Southbank and
was built in the 1990s as a replacement for the Royal Exhibition Building.
It has hosted thousands of conventions and exhibitions since its opening.
The Melbourne Museum is located on the north-eastern fringe of the CBD, next
to the Royal Exhibition Building. To many Melburnians, the most significant
exhibit is the preserved body of Phar Lap, the famous racehorse of the
Depression era. For those who cannot visit the nearby forested ranges, the
Forest Gallery is a living internal facsimile. Technically-inclined visitors
may be more interested in CSIRAC, the fifth electronic computer built and
the only one of its generation to survive intact. The Museum complex is also
home to Melbourne's IMAX cinema.
The Royal Exhibition Building located in the Carlton Gardens was built in
the 1880s for the World's Fair and is only one a few such buildings that
still exist. The building was granted World Heritage listing on 2 July 2004,
the first building in Australia to be granted this status. The building also
held the first sitting of the Australian Parliament on 9 May 1901.
Subsequent federal parliamentary sittings were then moved to the Victorian
Parliament buidings located in Spring Street and the Victorian government
moved to the Exhibition Building.
The State Library of Victoria on Swanston Street, with its massive Domed
Reading Room and statue-filled front lawn.
The curiously-named National Gallery of Victoria (not to be confused with
the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra), has recently been renovated,
and is the largest art collection in Australia. The gallery is split over
two sites, the Australian collection at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia
at Federation Square (notably featuring key works from the Heidelberg School),
and the NGV International collection housed in the recently renovated St.
Kilda Road building.
Rialto Towers, the tallest reinforced concrete structure in the Southern
Hemisphere, gives an excellent view of the city from the observation deck on
the 55th floor.
The Victorian Arts Centre at Southgate (on the southern banks of the Yarra
River is a Melbourne landmark with its enormous skyward spire. It hosts
Opera Australia's Melbourne season, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the
Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian Ballet Company, Chunky Move (one
of Australia's best-known contemporary dance companies), and other touring
productions. The centre consists of two separate buildings: the State
Theatre; and Hamer Hall (this was recently re-named in honour of the late
former premier Sir Rupert Hamer; it was previously known as the Melbourne
Concert Hall). The acoustics of the Centre are often favourably compared
with those of its interstate rival, the opera theatre in the Sydney Opera
House. There are also typically several musicals playing in theatres around
the CBD, mostly several years after their production on Broadway or the West
End, but usually of good quality and at quite reasonable cost.
Crown Casino, a short walk along the Yarra River from the Arts Centre, is a
truly gargantuan gambling palace, also containing restaurants, upmarket
boutiques, several nightclubs, two hotel towers, a cinema complex, and
regular floorshows. Very much Las Vegas in miniature, it is either loved or
hated by residents and tourists.
Docklands, Melbourne's newest precinct and largest infrastructure
development to date, is also becoming a major attraction, with many
restaurants there having won awards and recognition, even though they have
only been open since January 2003. The Docklands area opens up the
waterfront to the CBD (also nearly doubling its size) and will attract
millions of visitors every year.
Restaurants
Melbourne's restaurants are numerous, and are generally of reasonable
quality and good value. Below are some of the major restaurant strips,
however there are many other restaurants not in these locations which offer
similar or better-quality food and usually at lower cost. The Age newspaper
produces two "Good Restaurant" guides - one for low-cost eating and another
for more elaborate restaurants.
Chinatown, on Little Bourke Street and now spreading out onto Russell Street
in the CBD, offers numerous restaurants, mainly but not exclusively offering
Cantonese cuisine, at the lower end offering Hong Kong-style noodle
restaurants up to the Flower Drum, renowned for its Peking Duck and
generally regarded as Melbourne's best restaurant. There are many other
restaurants throughout the CBD.
Lygon Street, in the inner-northern suburb of Carlton, offers a selection of
mainly Italian-influenced food. To some extent a tourist strip, the quality
is variable with some restaurants with decent reputations and others avoided
by locals. Students from the nearby University of Melbourne know the
better-value places; tourists may consider following their lead. Accessible
from Bus Routes 20x (201, 203 and 207), which leave the City via Lonsdale
and Russell Streets. Alternately, take any Swanston Street tram and walk one
block east from the University.
Brunswick Street in inner-suburban Fitzroy used to be a grungy hotbed of
students, musicians, actors and the like, and still retains some remnant of
that edginess with the presence of several live music venues, all manner of
eclectic stores, accompanied by restaurants and cafes, many of which serve
varied and contemporary menus (though prices have crept up with the growing
gentrification of the area). Brunswick Street went through a growth phase
and rapidly became a casual place to eat. The rise in number and income
level of people living within walking and hearing distance are changing the
feel somewhat.
Chapel Street, south of the city is a popular destination for fashionable
clothes shopping, eating and entertainment. The long street contains
commercial areas providing goods and services for local residents. This
variety makes the street arguably more interesting than Lygon and Brunswick
Streets which have a higher proportion of eating establishments. Accessible
from Tram Routes 78 and 79, which do not enter the CBD, but can be accessed
from the rail network at East Richmond, South Yarra and Windsor, and many
intersecting Tram routes. Chapel Street intersects with Toorak Road, itself
offering entertainment, food and shops. Toorak Road is served by Tram Route
8, which leaves the city via Swanston Street.
Glenferrie Road, east of the city in inner suburban Malvern has a wide mix
of different cuisines including Indian, Malaysian, Thai and Japanese. The
street interects with High Street in Armadale, which also has a mix of
antique shops, cafes and restaurants.
Glenhuntly Road, south east of the city in inner suburban Elsternwick is a
busy strip that offers a wide range of different restaurant cuisines
including Chinese, Malaysian Indian and Thai.
Close to Melbourne
There are a variety of interesting things to see outside Melbourne proper
but still within a day trip of Melbourne:
The Yarra valley region, producer of high-quality wine and with beautiful
rainforest scenery nearby.
The Surf Coast near Geelong, with excellent surf beaches and the spectacular
views of the Great Ocean Road (Voted the world's best road trip in 2003).
Ballarat, a small city once the centre of the gold rush. A requisite for any
history buff's itinerary.
Bendigo.
Phillip Island, home of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, also has one
of the few easily-accessible colonies of little penguins.
Gippsland region, home of the Gourmet Deli Tours, the Gippsland Lakes,
Wilsons Promontory (the most southerly point of the Australian mainland),
and many picturesque towns such as Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, and Warragul-
centre of one of the richest dairy farming districts in Australia. The ghost
town of Walhalla is filled with goldmining memorabilia and can easily fill a
day with interesting walks and activities.
Melbourne in culture
Melbourne was strongly associated with the establishment of Australia's
visual arts. The Heidelberg School, arguably the first distinctly Australian
art movement (in the Western canon, at least), was largely the work of
Melbourne-based artists, and many of its most significant works hang in the
National Gallery of Victoria.
Melbourne has been the setting for many novels, television dramas, and
films. Perhaps the best-known internationally is Nevil Shute's novel On the
Beach. In 1959, it was made into a film starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner
and directed by Stanley Kramer. The film depicted the denizens of Melbourne
quietly slipping off into eternity as the last victims of a global nuclear
holocaust. Filmed on location in and around Melbourne (a huge novelty for
Melbourne at the time), it is perhaps best remembered for a comment Ms.
Gardner never made - describing Melbourne as 'the perfect place to make a
film about the end of the world', commenting on the dreary conservatism of
Melbourne in the late 1950s. The purported quote was invented by journalist
Neil Jillett. Similar filming was undertaken when a 2000 television movie
remake was produced.
In recent years, many more films have been made in Melbourne. Some of the
more famous include Mad Max, Romper Stomper, featuring a young Russell Crowe
as a terrifying skin-head; Jackie Chan's Mr. Nice Guy and The Castle.
Perhaps better known to a contemporary audience is the daily soap opera
Neighbours, which presents a whitewashed microcosm of suburban Australian
life. Other contemporary television shows set in Melbourne include Stingers
(a police drama), The Secret Life of Us, and MDA.
Singer Paul Kelly has written several well-known songs about aspects of the
city close to the heart of many Melburnians, notably "Leaps and Bounds" and
"Saint Kilda to Kings Cross".
Although not set in Melbourne, the film Queen of the Damned was filmed in
and around the city. |
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