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Spot penguins, go rowing or check out vintage markets
, the capital city of Victoria – Australia’s smallest state – is often deemed to be the cultural centre of this vast continent. It is also widely regarded as one of the best foodie hubs ofHaving recently overtaken Sydney in terms of population, Melbourne is also the location of choice for many young people migrating from other parts of Australia as well as those coming from overseas.
The high cost of renting or buying houses/apartments in Sydney puts many people off trying to settle there, so Sydney’s loss is Melbourne’s gain. I’m here to catch up with family – both Australian and Irish – and experience this city that I first visited more than four decades ago.
Walking through the city centre streets or wandering through the cool inner ring of northern suburbs – Collingwood, Fitzroy and Carlton – one is constantly reminded of the multicultural nature of this city. But what’s most pleasing is how at home everyone looks while travelling on the interconnected public transport network of buses, trams or local trains.
Not surprisingly, Melbourne was designated the world’s most liveable city for seven consecutive years in the 2010s. Higher fares set to squeeze air travel growthAs a visitor, Melbourne is easy to navigate. Its grid-style city centre streets are bordered by open green spaces – Flagstaff Gardens, Carlton Gardens, Fitzroy Gardens and the banks of the river Yarra to the south.
Hopping on the number 35 tram – dubbed the tourist tram – at Flinders Street Station to travel for free around the inner city blocks is a nice way to orient yourself. Melbourne, Australia- February 14, 2013: Pedestrians and cylers at the iconic Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, Australia The cultural offerings in the city centre range from the Museum of Immigration to the Museum of Chinese Australian History to the National Gallery of Victoria, with international and national galleries in separate locations.
There’s also a very cool Science Gallery building, next to the University of Melbourne, a sister gallery of the now-closed Science Gallery in Dublin. Must stops on a short visit to Melbourne include the National Gallery of Victoria – the NGV International at 180 St Kilda’s Road and the Ian Potter Centre NGV Australia at the architectural mishmash that is Federation Square.
A visit to the Old Treasury Building, with its well -laid-out visual and textual narrative history of Melbourne, is a good place to start. The National Gallery of Victoria . Photograph: Kim Landy/Getty Every Australian city has its dark colonial past that recent generations of Australians are only now slowly coming to terms with.
First explored by the British in the 1830s, the parklike grasslands along the mouth of the river Yarra had been inhabited by Aboriginal farmers for hundreds of generations. The arrival of European settlers had a devastating impact on the Wurundjeri or Woiwurrung people of the Kulin Nation – many of whom died in the Anglican missionary reserve they were placed in three kilometres from the settlement.
It would take almost 200 years before the traditional owners of these lands would again be given a say in the management of the Yarra catchment, following the Yarra River Protection Act in 2017. Melbourne – named after the British prime minister William Lamb, aka Lord Melbourne, a mentor to Queen Victoria – quickly grew from a village to a town to a city within 20 years of the arrival of the first European settlers.
Due to the discovery of vast quantities of gold nearby in the 1850s and 1860s, Melbourne became the largest and richest city in Australia at that time. By 1880 it had gained the moniker Marvellous Melbourne, as electric street lights, public transport, a sewage system, telegraph/telephone lines and cable trams heralded its golden age. And during 1901-1927, before Canberra was officially designated the federal capital, Melbourne was the effective capital of Australia.
In the early 20th century, Melbourne suffered from high unemployment, and its inner working-class suburbs fell into decline. It is these same suburbs – Collingwood, Fitzroy, Carlton and Richmond – with their Victorian terraces, warehouses and repurposed office and factory buildings, that are some of the liveliest and hippest parts of Melbourne today. Catch a bus north of the city centre to take a walk through Yarra Bend Park.
Take a cycle or a boat trip along the river to be transported into Australian bushland, the Aboriginal cultural landscape known as Country.
“Caring for Country” or “Connection to Country” are terms used to describe activities and beliefs linked to traditional lands of indigenous groups in Australia. Flying fox bats at a release facility in the Yarra Bend Park. Photograph: Christina Simons/The New York Times Yarra Bend Park is Melbourne’s largest park. You can hire small rowing boats and canoes at Studley Park Boathouse to paddle upstream.
There are also free guided walks led by trained volunteers (food market will connect you with the neighbourhood. The former Sisters of the Good Shepard institution was one of the largest Catholic complexes built in Australia in the early 1900s. Now owned by a secular not-for-profit foundation, it has artist studios, cafes and restaurants and gardens with a partially restored former Magdalene laundry used for art and community events.
Those keen to visit the city’s coastline can take a bus or train ride to St Kilda in the south of Melbourne. The coastal suburb is a bit tatty now but a walk along the seafront to spot the penguins in the evening is a popular pursuit. Mornington Peninsula, which juts into the sea south of the city, is an option for a day trip. It has everything from coastal walks to vineyards, hot springs to charming seaside towns.
Although there are trains to Frankston and onward buses along the coastline, you’ll need to hire a car if you want to venture inland. For anyone keen to further explore the cultural communities in Melbourne, I’d recommend Exclusive! Dispatches From the Paris End, a recent compilation of writings from Cameron Hurst, Sally Olds and Oscar Schwartz.
The 19 essays originally appeared in their online newsletter, The Paris End, which refers to a 1950s name for the more elegant buildings, wide streetscape and cafe culture of the eastern end of Melbourne’s city centre. Here you can read about everything from art fairs to stand-up comedy venues, courtrooms to Lacanian psychoanalysts.
The long form arts journalism is proof, if proof were needed, that Melbourne views itself as the intellectual capital of this vast country, whose population clings on to its coastline as our world gets hotter and hotter. Irish children and European Disability CardsDeath and survival on the world’s deadliest migration route: ‘Most of them go mad before they die’ Van Morrison at Electric Picnic: Not quite an old snuggly blanket, but when he’s this good he’s wonderful A Wicklow woman in Marbella: ‘I would make friends in the summer and they would then go home.
But I found my tribe’My daughter’s classmates have left for a grind school and she is desperate to join themMonday set to be dry and sunny but more autumnal weather on wayProvincial matters come to a heady end as Munster get the job done once moreChampionship is enduring a crisis of competitiveness, but hurling is not in need of saving
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