Melbourne Undressed

With Melbourne in lockdown, like most places around the world, the city continues to breath, albeit at a slower pace. What would be interesting to see is the impact this recent enforced hibernation has had on its beating heart. Being able to see the city at its most vulnerable, has been a fascinating journey. Without the people, it seems to me that it is like any other big city in the world. This brings the question; What would Melbourne be without the food culture, the festivals, the arts and the sport?

Photo by Luki Soeradinata_iPhone XS [Womens T20 World Cup Final]

Driving through the empty city made myself question why people made it so special. It felt like it had no soul. The city normally is a popular destination for many a travelling influencer. With the cafes and restaurants shut, how is Instagram’s community of food loving consumers going to survive without its regular images of fancy plates of shiny food? How were the sports loving community of football supporters going to share their involvement and passion with their clubs win from the weekend?

It was that quiet that I had plenty of time to study and develop the Anchor.fm Podcast and the Blog project. The Live Work Digital project would be about anything to do with living and working the digital lifestyle.

When my family or friends visit me in Melbourne, from interstate or overseas the first questions I get asked is:

1. What places they should visit first.
2. The second set of questions would revolve around where the best restaurants are for some good fancy dining.
3. Thirdly, I would then get asked, where they could get the best coffee going around?

From there, I would help plot out their itinerary for the week or days ahead and I would suggest what, when and where to visit. Some of the times, I would be with them exploring the city, traversing back and forth through the day and other times I would just leave them with their own devices to explore on their own. I am sure that back in the day, I would have just told people to bring a lot of change (for the trams) and thrown them a Melways (Map Book of yesteryear) so that they wouldn’t get lost.

I first moved to Melbourne in 1991, the day after my twenty first birthday, from a small town in Central Victoria called Bendigo. It was the first time I had moved out of home. I remembered it as being one of the most exciting times of my life. My memories of Melbourne were of my new found freedom (and the partying) and the memory that I thought the city itself seemed a pretty drab and boring affair. My view was that It was just a concrete jungle that didn’t have much life attached to it. It had Australian Rules football as its main thing, some outlet shopping in Richmond and Chapel Streets and then there was the Lygon Street restaurant district. This pretty much covered my memory of the Melbourne experience.

Another distinct memory of Melbourne for me was the site where Federation Square now stood. On this site were two buildings which were part of the State Gas and Fuel Corporation which had been empty for quite some time. An interesting fact for this location was that it was originally the site of Melbourne’s first morgue. There was much public debate as to what was to become of the site and eventually Jeff Kennett, the Premier at the time, announced that it was earmarked to be a place to celebrate Victoria’s culture and lifestyle. So was born the space we now call Federation Square. The year was 1994. I left the State for career and adventure around the same time.

Fast forward 12 years, as life would have it, I returned to Melbourne. This was still the era before social media and influencers. I had visited Melbourne regularly throughout the time I was away, but now living back in the city there was a realisation that this butterfly had transformed itself to be a truly international and cosmopolitan city. Everything revolved around Federation Square and this new public space. The building was bold and much different to the architecture of any other building in the city. There was plenty of debate about the design and the worth of such a building, but it was here that may have been the turning point of the evolution of a city into the arts and cultural hub that it thinks it is.

Melbourne had developed a new urban cosmopolitan image which evolved to be much more than a concrete jungle.

The architecture and designs of the buildings post Federation Square was bold and edgy. These new buildings signalled a new evolution for the city. It seemed like someone had looked her up and down and thought maybe a makeover was in order. Along with the growth was the increased numbers of people that were now living within the CBD. What has transpired through this time is a new cultural revolution of a way of life and of how the city sees itself. Laneways that were dirty and smelly, and that were only useful for rubbish storage, were transformed into areas where people now wined and dined throughout the week.

Photo by Luki Soeradinata_iPhone XS

Local coffee roasters positioned themselves in alley ways and coffee started to become a thing. Every nook and corner uncovered little treasures of what was defining Melbourne as an Arts and Cultural stopover for travellers from afar. In the summer rooftop bars appeared opening up a whole new kind of cool.

In reality, most of the places I suggest for friends these days are already on their list of things to see and do. My suggestions are generally a confirmation of what they have already read and seen on their various social media and review platforms. I am sure Facebook and Instagram were major reasons for the demise of the postcard. Review sites like Tripadvisor and Zomato have a lot of information on places experiences and restaurants. There were many times, that my visiting friends already had a list of the places they wanted to eat at and quite often these were places I hadn’t even known about or visited. This is the age we live in.

Australia has always been a favourite place for a holiday because of its sunny disposition, countless beaches and great open roads to explore. In 2019 alone, there were 9.5 million people that arrived in Australia from overseas. Out of this approximately 47% of people travelled here for a holiday. This also equates to 2.5 million of them coming to Melbourne.

With the numbers of people visiting here, Melbourne has a reputation for being the place with the best food and coffee in the country. Bolstered with the numbers of students that come to study here from Asia and South East Asia, its reputation continues to grow as the destination place to be. This is backed with the figures that Melbourne’s population is fast catching up to Sydney and will soon be the most populous city in Australia.

Melbourne, the city has a certain strut about town feel partly because in recent time it has been known as one of the most liveable cities in the world. Winning the title six years in a row and coming second the past couple of years is quite the achievement. Being a Victorian most of my life, I am like most locals and we actually don’t actually care how they come up with these statistics. We just care that we are mainly above Sydney on this list. Yes it is true that Sydney is a glorious and picturesque part of the world and has some amazing views and beaches to check out. Victorians like to think that all of that sums up the people who live there. It screams out ‘look at me!’ but the city doesn’t have much other substance behind it.

It’s all very superficial and as much as it is a fun place to visit, there is not much more to like about it. There, I have said it. Now that is out of the way, I can move on and discuss what makes Melbourne tick.

I describe Melbourne as the city that offers something for everyone.

Hipsters, vegans, bogans, foodies, coffee aficionados, beer and wine lovers. The cycle of events and festivals through the year has made the city a glorious place to explore and discover. All of it has helped dress and shape the culture of old Melbourne Town.

It starts with the Tennis in January nestled in with the summers domestic and international cricket. At the end of the summer with barely 2 weeks break the Formula one Grand Prix is run and won which also leads into the International Comedy Festival. Australian Rules Football starts, and the town is a buzz for the next 6 months with crazy rabid sports fans. In the middle of this, there is the world-renowned Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and the countless musicals and stage shows which run through the season. This culminates in the AFL Grand Final and the start of the Spring Racing Carnival. The Melbourne Cup provides another international highlight at this time and before we know it the start of the cricket season has already started again. Before long it is Christmas and then New Year.

Photo by Luki Soeradinata_iPhone XS

Melbourne is a coming of cultures and this connected digital world of today is continuously shaping it and its identity. There is a reason why at any given day through the week you will randomly see scores of people waiting in line to go into a café that looks so indiscreet that you wouldn’t know there was anything there. I guarantee that if you searched the name of the place, there would be an endless Instagram hashtag thread of that particular location. The world has definitely changed, and Melbourne is moving along with the tides of the future. The discount outlet shopping places have now moved on from Richmond and Prahran, and Lygon Street is still there, but it is no longer the one destination hotspot for dining.

The choice and the experiences of this city is so vast that I continuously find new places that I didn’t know existed. As it awakens from its enforced hibernation, the time has come to awaken and get dressed up again.

Melbourne, It is time to party, it’s time to shine. Bring on the Coffee and Bagels!

Photo by Luki Soeradinata_iPhone XS