This guide has reviews of accommodation, restaurants, pubs and clubs, excursions to the Great Ocean Road, the Yarra Valley and the gold-rush town of Ballarat. It spans cafe culture, comedy venues, record labels, department stores and public toilets.
Introduction
Australia's second-largest city and capital of the State of Victoria, Melbourne prides itself on being a place that knows how to live well. Although it lags behind Sydney in terms of population and prestige, its less brazen charms offer a quality of life which other Australian cities find difficult to match. Magnificent landscaped gardens and parklands have made the city one of the greenest in the world, while beneath the skyscrapers of the arresting Central Business District an understorey of elegant Victorian-era facades presents Melbourne on an agreeably human scale. This is a cosmopolitan and sophisticated city - one that is undeniably a good place to live, and enjoyable to visit too. Residents and visitors alike can take pleasure in its interesting and affordable cuisine; in the revitalized city-centre laneways and arcades which now house some of Australia's coolest cafs and bars; in its successful mix of ethnically diverse people; and in its leading role in Australian cultural and sporting life.
There's a staid and even boorish side to Melbourne too, as you might expect from a city that had - in comparison to Sydney's incontrovertibly brutal origins - relatively genteel beginnings, when the discovery of gold bought sudden wealth to the infant settlement. Reminders of the old conservatism linger on in the city's uniform layout and relentless suburbanization, and in the way that locals like bragging about inconsequential things like the possibility of having the world's tallest building (the on-again, off-again Grollo Tower) or fussing over nothing, such as when visiting American comedian Jerry Seinfeld remarked that Melbourne was "the anus of the world". That the city has been able to shake off the cultural cringe which haunted it for years is largely the result of the postwar immigration which, since 1945, has brought the world to Melbourne, shaking up the city's Anglo-Celtic mindset for good. Whole villages have arrived from Lebanon, Turkey and Greece (and, more recently, from Vietnam and China), and it is these new immigrants who have enriched and energized Melbourne's formerly inward-looking and parochial character.
Over the last decade, Melbourne has also undergone an amazing economic transformation in a huge variety of fields - multimedia, architectural design, fashion, food, drinking and gambling among them - partly thanks to a forward-thinking state government which has spent billions of dollars on infrastructure and major sporting and cultural events. Development has come at a cost - older city and suburban buildings have been demolished, eroding Melbourne's past, and wealth is now more unevenly distributed, with increasing numbers of homeless people and drug addicts on the streets - but despite these growing pains, Melbourne today is a city humming with vigour, and looking forward to a confident and prosperous new millennium.
Outside Melbourne and easily accessible by public transport or car are a host of rewarding day-trips. Nearby on the coast is Phillip Island, with its famous Little Penguins, and the beach resorts of the Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas. Inland on the city's doorstep, the scenic Dandenong Ranges and the prestigious wineries of the Yarra Valley present convenient escapes from the pace of city life, while slightly further afield the salubrious spa towns of Daylesford and Hepburn Springs and the grandiose architecture of the former goldmining town of Ballarat offer reminders of the area's nineteenth-century heritage. Heading westwards along the coast, the magnificent Great Ocean Road winds 300km through some of Australia's most spectacular coastal scenery.
When to visit
Melbourne's climate is variable, being warm to hot in summer (Dec-Feb), mild in autumn (March-May), cold and damp in winter (June-Aug), and cool in spring (Sept-Nov). The warmest months are generally January and February, which are often dry and prone to barbaric hot spells when temperatures can climb into the forties. The coldest months are June and July, when frosts sometimes occur during the night, while October is the wettest. A feature of Melbourne's climate is its changeability, particularly during spring and summer - dramatic falls in temperature sometimes occur within a few minutes, both intriguing and infuriating locals, who describe the atmospheric transformations as "four seasons in one day".
