MELBOURNE

The capital of Victoria and Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne is frequently thought of more as an ideal place to live than a great place to visit. This is half true; as Melburnians themselves are likely to tell you, there are countless reasons why this metropolis deserves the oft-touted designation as the World's Most Liveable City it earned in 1990. But Melbourne's bad rap as a travel destination stems from its lack of a singular, Kodak-moment icon like the Sydney Opera House or Ayers Rock. Instead, the city is a sleek and stylish cosmopolitan collage of sights and sounds. Both ultramodern skyscrapers and ornate neogothic edifices line its wide streets, and the rumble of the green-and-gold trams tliat run down them is penetrated now and then by the roar of a hundred thousand sports nuts at the MCG. You might spend one hour window-shop-ping at Southbank's chic boutiques, and the next comparing ripe fruits amid the bus¬tling clamor of the Queen Victoria Market. Students enjoying late-night caffeine sessions in smoky Fitzroy cafes coexist with clubhoppers raging till 6am in South Yarra and Prahran. Sprawling over 6200 square kilometers of urban space and home to over three million denizens, Melbourne needs to be savored, not just seen.

It all began rather inauspiciously in 1825, when John Batman sailed a skiff up the Yarra, got stuck on a sandbank, and uttered the understatement of the century: that he had found the "place for a village." Then named Batmania, the diminutive burg had its phenomenal growth spurt at the onset of the Victorian fiold Rush three decades later, i "Marvelous Melbourne" celebrated its comingof-age in 1880 by hosting the World Exhi¬bition, which attracted over a million people. When the Victorian economy crashed in the 1890s following a series of bank failures, Melbourne's infrastructure collapsed, and its fetid open sewers earned it die nickname "Marvelous Smellbourne." By the early part of the 20th century, though, things were up and running again, and Melbourne posed a legitimate challenge to Sydney for the honor of being named Australia's capital. While the Canberra compromise ultimately deprived both metropoli of this status, Melbourne was more than happy to serve as temporary home to the government until the Parlia¬ment House was completed. The city's 20th-century apex was the 1956 Olympic Games, which brought Melbourne's love for sport to an international audience.

The subsequent years have seen even more population growth, with a stronger inter¬national flavor than ever before; most of the recent immigrants hail from China, South-east Asia, Italy, and Greece (Melbourne has the world's third-largest Greek population after Athens and Thessaloniki). Today, Melbourne's various neighborhoods—the fre netic Central City, alternafunky Fitzroy, ltalianatc Carlton, mellow, seaside St. Kilda, anc more—invite exploration and lie within minutes of each other via tram. The weather is temperate, though beware frequent rainstorms; most of the time, it's great for beach-going or walking along the Yarra at night with the reflection of the banana-yellow Flinders St Station shimmering on the water. With picturesque waterfronts, numerous parks, famous sporting events, and a world-class cultural scene, Melbourne invites visi¬tors to relax and enjoy all the attractions of a large city with none of the hype.

MELBOURNE HIGHLIGHTS

• Footy at the MCG, the epitome of Melbourne's sports obsession
• Fitzroy's stylish, inventive, and popular Vegie Bar
• Spooky night tours bring to life Old Melbourne Gaol's grim past
• The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia's premier art collection
• The hourly Waltzing Matilda display in Melbourne Central's glass atrium—a moment of national sentiment within a temple to consumerism
• Vendors hawking tremendous bargains on food and Australiana in the massive, labyrinthine rows of stalls at the Queen Victoria Market (see p. 508).
• The Art Deco elegance and huge screen at Astor Cinema, St. Kilda
• The Moomba Festival: 11 days of raw, unbridled pandemonium
• Cycling the scenic waterfront of the Yarra River and Port Philip Bay

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