Melbourne

For a city of 3.8 million people - only a fraction smaller than Sydney - Melbourne seems quite an understated sort of place. (How often is that true of second cities?) It hasn't got anything quite as stand-out iconic as Sydney Harbour, and Lonely Planet advises that you should be prepared to take some time to appreciate the city's charms. However despite that and the sometimes chilly winter weather, I really warmed to it very quickly.


The definite focal point of the city, self-styled as the city's meeting place, is Federation
Square. Decidedly modern in design and construction, flanked by some fairly way-out but tasteful and very attractive architecture, it always seems to be buzzing. With the beautiful Edwardian Flinders Street station across the road, it's all rather lovely and makes the city a whole lot more human and legible. 

 

Federation Square

The whole city centre benefits hugely from wide streets and buildings large enough to give a big-city feel but not so big as to feel inhuman. This seemed to make appreciating the showpiece colonial era buildings somehow easier than I found it in Sydney. The standout is the large and rather majestic State Parliament of Victoria, built as Australia's federal parliament but downgraded once Canberra had been established as the federal capital.


They say that Melbourne feels much more European than Sydney, and a couple of times wandering around I felt as if I could be in Scandinavia. The city centre bars I went to, courtesy of my Finnish friend turned Melbourne student Kaarina, felt much more like Berlin - one with wooden packing crates for seats and street art-style decor.


The South Bank of the river is rather unusual in being both the city's main cultural hub with several galleries, but also a very businessy area full of suits and skyscrapers. It probably bears some comparison with London's Canary Wharf, and with its modern, sculptured feel it's similarly lovely to stroll around.

 

The river and the South Bank

Like in Sydney, I was really struck by buzzing arty districts such as Carlton and Fitzroy just a shortish walk from the city centre, stuffed full of lovely independent cafes, restaurants, ice cream shops and so on. Melbourne has a real cafe culture without doubt. Thanks to a local friend of Rob's I was introduced to a nice bar/restaurant on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy called Bimbo's Deluxe, that does happy-hour pizzas for just $4 - and memorable dessert pizzas for the same price topped with cream cheese instead of mozzarella, and your choice of fruit or chocolate topping. A great idea that I'm surprised hasn't caught on more widely!


The beach district of St Kilda, a tram ride away from the centre, is nearly as attractive, with a characterful pier (complete with a protected colony of small penguins) and a truly beautiful beachfront. There weren't many people around the beach on a winter midweek afternoon, but I've no doubt that on a summer weekend it would be fantastic, probably in a more understated (and comfor able?) way than Bondi in Sydney. St Kilda also has a particular concentration of mouthwatering cake shops. While many countries seem to do delicious cakes and pastries much better than the UK (another failure of our national cuisine?), in Australia they seem to be everywhere and particularly impressive.


I made a pilgrimage to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). With its capacity of 100,000, it's the second largest cricket ground in the world (the largest is in Kolkata) and well up there amongst the largest sports grounds in the world - used as the main arena for the 1956 Olympic Games and 2006 Commonwealth Games. It's also used through each winter for Australian rules football. I've always been somewhat in awe of it when following the England cricket team's tours of Australia (I follow cricket when I can now, but for many years in my younger days it was much more of a passion), and it was the scene of probably the most miraculous England Test victory in my living memory in December 1998, so it was a real boyish thrill for me to be there. I lapped up the excellent and comprehensive tour of the ground given by a Melbourne Cricket Club volunteer (wearing the stripey club blazer only marginally less ridiculous than the Marylebone Cricket Club one), taking in the changing rooms, honours boards, players' walkway, commentary boxes, Long Room and so on.

Me at the Melbourne Cricket Ground... it's quite big!!

From the very top of the stadium there were pretty good views of the city, and an opportunity to marvel at extraordinarily good urban planning. I'd walked to the ground as it's a very comfortable walk from the city centre (try walking to Wembley Stadium, or the 2012 Olympic Park, from central London!), but there's also a railway station in close proximity which is apparently able to deal with the surging numbers. And just a stone's throw away from the MCG and the station are also the city's rugby/football ground, swimming centre and Rod Laver Arena (home to the Australian Open, one of the world's four major tennis tournaments). Incredibly elegant and practical, and a massive statement about the huge importance of sport in Australian life.


Within the MCG is the National Museum of Sport, with (amongst other displays, but of most interest to me) excellent coverage of the Olympics and of the Australian cricket team. As well as caps and other clothing/equipment of various great cricketers including Donald Bradman, the annoyingly large number of cricketing trophies held by Australia were all on display, including no fewer than four World Cups (that's four more than England have won). I did have a quiet self-satisfied chuckle at the way the trophies were arranged to not acknowledge one considerable gap - the Ashes trophies, which are no doubt safely in England after we won them back from Australia in the last series in 2009. :-)


I'd also thoroughly recommend a visit to the absorbing ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Australia didn't have television until 1956 (that's 20 years later than the UK) - apparently this wasn't so much due to any technological or funding barriers as to politicians stalling out of fear for the effects TV would have on family life and children's development. Well, maybe they had a point...


I was asked several times whether I preferred Melbourne or Sydney. While still in Melbourne I was answering Melbourne; now that I've left and got overall thoughts together, I wouldn't be able to choose between the two. Sydney is definitely more exciting, but Melbourne has easily the more livable feel.


My feeling, both at the time and since I moved on, that I could really live in either Sydney or Melbourne was strong. With minimal cultural barriers and the very favourable climate, it might be realistic (rather than an impractical dream as it is with a certain other city everyone knows I'm very drawn to) - were it not for the fact that you can't get a visa to work in Australia for more than 12 months, unless there is no suitable Australian candidate for your position. With my education and work background, the chances of that are pretty much zero. And even on a 12-month visa the Australian Government expects you to move between short-term positions - likely therefore to be low-wage monkey jobs, which makes it a much less attractive proposition for me. As I aspire (rather vaguely) to go back to university to study for a Masters at some point, possibly doing so overseas would be an option, but a very expensive one alas. Anyway, maybe some research and thought is needed on my part; but I will definitely go back to Australia one way or another (for more than the 12 nights of this visit) sooner rather than later.