Melbourne: Not just liveable, but visitable too
Mornington Beach
Every year The Economist magazine computes a Liveability Index, ranking 140 cities using criteria such as infrastructure, culture, healthcare, education, environment, and stability.
This year, as it has done for the past seven years, Australia’s south-eastern city of Melbourne took the top spot in The Economist’s list of the world’s most liveable cities!
Interestingly, it is said that there are more Sri Lankans living in Melbourne than any other city (with of course the exception of Colombo) in the world!According to current estimates, over 150,000 Australians of Sri Lankan origin are currently domiciled here – plus about 5,000 Sri Lankan students in Melbourne’s universities and schools.
So what can you do on a visit to Melbourne – apart from visiting the many Sri Lankan friends and relations now living here?
Sporting capital of Australia
Australians are very keen on their sport – playing as well as watching. A visit to the hallowed Melbourne Cricket Ground (http://www.mcg.org.au/) - usually referred to by its acronym ‘The MCG’ or even simply as “The G” – is a must for any cricket fan who decides to pay a visit to this city.
If you are visiting at the beginning of the Australian summer in December, try to witness one of Melbourne’s important traditions: the Boxing Day Test Match – which is all about Cricket and has nothing to do with Boxing!
Governor’s House
The name comes from the fact that in Australia, as in England, the day after Christmas is known as “Boxing Day” – because this was traditionally the day people put the leftovers of their Christmas meals into boxes to be distributed to the poor. Boxing Day here is a public holiday, and every year in Melbourne the Australian national cricket team plays a Test match against a visiting team, commencing on the day after Christmas and going on for a full five days. This year’s Boxing Day Test will be played against Australia’s arch-rival England as part of the Ashes Series. With England having lost the first two games badly in the five test series, the Melbourne game will be watched with great interest to see if The Poms (as folk from England are dismissively known here) can salvage their pride..
Even if there is no cricket going on when you are visiting, make it a point to see the National Sports Museum located at the MCG – home to Australia’s finest collection of sporting memorabilia.
If tennis is your passion, visit Melbourne in January when the Australian Open tournament is on and experience the great atmosphere here by going to watch the tennis. Sit in the company of enthusiastic Aussies at the Rod Laver or Hisense arena to watch famous players like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer or the Williams sisters, Sloane Stevens and Garbine Muguruza in action.
Shopping and sights in the city centre
Entrance to Melbourne’s Chinatown
Melbourne’s city centre is easy to explore on foot. It is built on a grid plan with all major roads in the central business district being either north-south or east-west. If you like shopping, try the big department stores like Myers or David Jones. The Melbourne Museum on Nicholson Street has some magnificent exhibits, including a section devoted to Australia’s indigenous Aboriginal people. Next to the main museum is the magnificent Royal Exhibition Building – Australia’s first building to be granted UNESCO World Heritage status.
If instead of strolling through the city centre (even though it is a pleasant walk) you want to sit back and have a look at the city sights, hop on to one of the City Circle trams and enjoy a grandstand tour of the heart of the city. Another great idea is to take a boat ride on the Yarra
River that flows through Melbourne. It is often called the “upside down river” by the locals because the surface looks so muddy!
A city of migrants
This is a city with a huge migrant population. Not only Sri Lankans but also folk from Greece, Italy, China, Malaysia, Vietnam and a host of other countries now call Melbourne home. The annual Chinese New year celebrations here are as colourful and as noisy as in any mainland Chinese city!
This multicultural population ensures that Melbourne has a variety of cosmopolitan restaurants serving all types of delicious food.
If good wine appeals to you, just an hour’s drive from the city centre are famous wine growing areas like the Yarra Valley, the Mornington Peninsula and Nagambie Lakes – where you can not only sample some of the best wines in the world, but also have a superb meal in a winery restaurant.
| Day trips from Melbourne | |
| Close to Melbourne and easy to visit are:·The old city of Ballarat (famous for its role in Victoria’s gold rush),·Healesville Sanctuary (a nature reserve with koalas, cockatoos, kangaroos and other strange antipodean creatures in their natural habitat),·Phillip Island (scene of the Evening Penguin Parade, when hundreds of tiny penguin come out of the ocean at the end of the day and waddle up the beach to their nests on the island) and ·The Great Ocean Road extending along the southern coast from Melbourne to Adelaide. A drive along this provides some beautiful views – including the peculiar rock formations that have intriguingly been called the Twelve Apostles! Now that SriLankan Airlines has started direct daily flights from Colombo to Melbourne, consider a visit. This is not only a liveable city but also a very visitable city – with plenty in it for everyone to see, experience and enjoy.
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