That diamond is long gone! I'm back and hopefully writing a bit more now. Atlanta is getting into su...
That diamond is long gone! I'm back and hopefully writing a bit more now. Atlanta is getting into summer so methinks it'll be warm here for the next 5 months or so. After the cold winter I'm ready for it!
Member since:05.09.2003
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There are several cities in Australia which compete to be the nicest, the most comfortable, and the most interesting. As far as I'm concerned, the hands-down winner is my home city of Melbourne. Not that I am in the least bit biased - but 20 years of living in one place tends to give you a certain, intimate connection with it. And Melbourne has a lot to be intimate about, I suppose!
In case you do not know, Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria, the southernmost state in mainland Australia. It is home to approximately 3,500,000 people spread throughout about 6000 square kilometres, making Melbourne one of the largest cities in terms of size. The City itself houses only about 100,000 people, but the suburban sprawl of Melbourne is very extensive. It continues out to Werribee and Sunbury in the west, up to Hurstbridge in the north and out to Belgrave and Lilydale in the east. Get out an atlas! It also follows the mornington peninsula and officially ends near Frankston, even though it is pretty much uninterrupted suburbia all the way down to Point Nepean at the very tip of the Mornington Peninsula.
Several years ago, Melbourne was voted the World's Most Livable City by one of those large tourist operations. And while it is not at the very top now, it still continually appears in the top ten, and for good reason. Melbourne is culturally, aesthetically, economically vibrant and full of a personality unique in Australia. Melbourne was the capital from Federation in 1901 until 1927 when Canberra was built and the squabbling between Melbourne and Sydney over which was to be the capital was put to an end. For a time, especially during the 19th century after the Gold Rush, Melbourne was the largest city in Australia and one of the richest in the world. This time of prosperity has continued on and is reflected in some of the architecture which can still be found.... at least, that which has not be demolished by culturally-unaware architects and town planners.
Examples of this can be found everywhere, especially in the prosperous inner suburbs such as Kew, Camberwell, Malvern and in particular South Yarra and Toorak, which are famed for their wealth. The average house in Toorak will set you back $A750,000, which is well beyond even the average Melbournian, who is not poor. These old houses are magnificent and often enormous. Some, such as Como House and Ripponlea are open to the public and are not residences as such. St Patrick's Cathedral on Albert St in the city is another example, with its huge and imposing spires it cannot be missed. Some of the Victorian architecture is now making way for dodgy apartment complexes and other subdivisions but on the main there are a lot of heritage buildings still in Melbourne, more so than in any other city in Australia. Melbourne is famed for its air of gentility, as opposed to the rather more brusque aura of Sydney. Many of the suburbs are leafy and attractive, even those in more middle-class areas in the outer suburbs.
Some important features and landmarks in Melbourne include the Yarra River, which winds its way north and east through some of Melbourne's more prosperous areas and eventually into the rural Yarra Valley region and beyond to the Central Highlands. The Yarra Bend National park is a very picturesque piece of suburbia, only 10km from the city. The Dandenong Ranges National Park is only about 35km out of the city in an easterly direction, and is well-known for its scenery and quaint villages such as Sassafras and Olinda. Other major waterways include Merri Merri Creek and the Maribyrnong river, which are tributaries of the Yarra and wend their way through different areas of the northern suburbs. Organ Pipes National Park is only about 20km or so northwest of the city and is an interesting introduction to the volcanic origins of the western plains, which are less fertile than the eastern part of Melbourne and beyond.
Other attractions include the long line of beaches which wend their way down the Port Phillip Bay, which is a massive bay about 50km across and 70km from the opening at The Rip up to Melbourne. The more popular beaches are at the bottom of the Mornington Peninsula at places like Sorrento, Rosebud and Rye, as well as the back beaches at Gunnamatta and Point Leo and other. For those who cannot be bothered traveling the distance then Sandringham, Brighton and Mentone as well as others have decent beaches, the most famous of which is of course St Kilda Beach, with its long pier (Station Pier). In the summer these beaches are packed with Melburnians seeking escape from the heat. The climate is temperate, although prone to extremes. In the summer it can reach low 40C, which is rather uncomfortable, and in the winter the daytime maximum is generally around 13 to 15C and as cold as freezing temp, although in the Dandenongs it does dip below zero often and snows occasionally.
Melbourne is known as the Garden City, and as well as the gardens near to the city such as the Botanical Gardens there are many parks and gardens spread throughout the metro area. In the hills, some famous gardens are well patronised, such as the Ralph Hamer Arboretum in Olinda and the Rhododendron Gardens in the same town. Blackburn Lake in Blackburn is popular, as is Banksia Park in Heidelberg on the Yarra and Brimbank Park in Keilor, on the Maribyrnong. There are other small parks and reserves spread all throughout the city.
As in all Australian cities, a proliferation of sporting fields are to be found. During the winter, many local reserves host games of Aussie Rules in the many metropolitan competitions, and in summer many of these same grounds also host cricket games. Melbourne is the most sports-mad city in a nation of sports fanatics, and there are still many large arenas spread around, especially inner-city. Unfortunately, some of these such as Glenferrie Oval, Junction Oval in South Melbourne and Windy Hill in Essendon no longer host major AFL games but they still have the local comps and also AFL reserves games. The have an ambience that some of the newer stadiums, such as Colonial Stadium in the docklands area and also Stadium Australia in Sydney, do not have. The MCG is the heartland of it all, and is found in Richmond only 2 or 3km out of the city.
There is much more stuff I could write about but I think I have enough already. Hopefully what I have written here will prompt many of you to consider Melbourne next time you want to take a holiday. I don't think you would be disappointed.
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Jul 21st, 2004
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