Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and largest city of the state of Victoria, and the second largest city in Australia (after Sydney), with a population of 3.8 million in the Melbourne metropolitan area (June 2004) and 69,670 in the City of Melbourne (which covers only the central city area). The city's name is pronounced as either {{IPA|/?mel.b?n/}} or {{IPA|/?mæl.b?n/}}. The city's motto is "Vires acquirit eundo" which means "we gather strength as we go". Melbourne was the capital city of Australia from 1901 until 1927.

Landmarks and tourist information

Melbourne attracts large numbers of tourists, particularly young backpackers. It also hosts a disproportionately large number of spectator sports.

Related Topics:
Tourists - Backpackers

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 has also hosted two Bledisloe Cup rugby matches. 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.
• The Melbourne Observation Deck, located some 237 metres above the city streets on the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers, offers spectacular views of the central business district and beyond. The Rialto Towers is the second tallest building in Melbourne after the newly constructed Eureka Tower.
• 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 of a few such buildings that still exist. The building and gardens was granted World Heritage listing on 2 July 2004. It is 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 building 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.
• 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.

See also: Tall buildings in Melbourne.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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. The online restaurant guide FoodGod is also available, and has reviews of a number of eateries in Melbourne by local residents.

Related Topics:
Restaurant - The Age

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• 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. It was recently rated the 33rd best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine. There are many other good 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. Tram route 112 runs the entire length of the street.
• 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 is serviced by tram route 16 has a wide mix of different cuisines including Indian, Malaysian, Thai and Japanese. The street interects with High Street in Armadale on tram route 6, 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 serviced by tram route 67 that offers a wide range of different restaurant cuisines including Chinese, Malaysian Indian, Thai, and some Middle Eastern cuisines as well.
• Nelson Place faces the water in Williamstown, and is especially popular for lazy weekend breakfasts and lunches. There are restaurants and cafes featuring the usual range of cuisines, and footpath tables outside many of the establishments.

Cafes and nightlife

As one would expect from a city its size, Melbourne contains all manner of pubs, bars, and nightclubs. The CBD contains a wide variety of venues, from the ubiquitous faux-Irish pubs and more traditional Aussie hotels, through some very upmarket wine bars, serious jazz venues on Bennetts Lane, fashionable nightclubs and dance venues (where the Melbourne Shuffle was born), often hidden away down obscure grungy alleys, and massive pickup joints (of which The Metro on Bourke Street is perhaps the biggest).

Related Topics:
Irish - Jazz - Nightclub - Melbourne Shuffle - The Metro

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The restaurant strips, particularly Brunswick Street have their own bars, some of which are the best rock venues in Melbourne. King Street, on the southern side of the CBD, was traditionally a nightclub strip and still hosts several, but many are now exotic dancing venues (a final note on this topic, small brothels are legal in Victoria and are found discreetly dotted throughout the suburbs). Chapel Street, Prahran, is perhaps the trendiest, most upmarket (and most expensive) nightlife strip. Another area of note is St Kilda, background for the TV show The Secret Life Of Us, which is the home of several huge music venues including the famous Esplanade Hotel (known as 'the Espy'), the Prince of Wales, and The Palace. On its beachside setting, it also combines the upmarket with the grungy.

Related Topics:
Bar - King Street - Exotic dancing - Brothels - St Kilda - TV - The Secret Life Of Us - Esplanade Hotel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The recent influx of city-dwellers has given rise to the numerous underground bars and sidewalk cafes in the alleys between Flinders Street - Flinders Lane and Bourke Street - Lonsdale Street. Notable alleys include Block Arcade/Block Place (off Little Collins Street), Degraves Street (off Flinders Lane), and Hardware Lane (between Bourke and Lonsdale Streets).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other prominent cafe strips include:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• St Kilda's Fitzroy Street, Carlisle Street and Acland Street are home to many popular cafes.
• Fitzroy's Brunswick Street
• South Yarra's Chapel Street
• Collingwood's Smith Street
• Richmond's Bridge Road
• Southbank's Southgate and Crown Casino, including the popular "Blue Train" and "Automatic" cafes.

Melbourne also has a vibrant gay community, with gay and gay-friendly bars across the city. It is mostly concentrated on two gay villages - Commercial Rd, South Yarra and Smith St, Collingwood, but there are also gay bars and clubs in St Kilda, Fitzroy, Richmond and Yarraville.

Related Topics:
Gay villages - South Yarra - Collingwood - St Kilda - Fitzroy - Richmond - Yarraville

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 and site of the Eureka Stockade. 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.
• French Island in Western Port Bay
• Gippsland region, home of the Gourmet Deli Tours, the Gippsland Lakes, Wilsons Promontory (with South Point, the most southerly point of the Australian mainland), and many picturesque towns such as Sale, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, and Warragul - one of the richest dairy farming areas in Australia. The ghost town of Walhalla is filled with goldmining memorabilia and can easily fill a day with interesting walks and activities.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See also: .

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~