Melbourne April 6, 2003
It's
early autumn down under as we fly into Melbourne. Southwest Australia's
current drought is evident
from the air -- the countryside looks like desert, almost a uniform gray-brown
in all directions. Only the dots that turn out to be grazing sheep and cattle suggest
that it's not totally barren out there, just nibbled-down, brown stubs of grass. People here are
(and have been) praying
for rain.
Melbourne's population of almost 4 million is approaching that of New Zealand and is only a million less than Sydney's. Areas close to downtown are mushrooming. A skyline dominated by cranes erecting high-rise apartments doesn't bode well for already crowded city streets and water restrictions in the suburbs.
Historical photos displayed on downtown buildings picture Melbourne as an already bustling center 150 years ago. Nowadays there's a dissonant blend of architectures downtown: skyscrapers crammed into spaces alongside a few older buildings dating back to the 1860's or earlier. Above is a perspective on one of the striking additions.
The weather's great (drought does
have a positive side) so we mostly wander outdoors, walking along the riverfront
and through the Royal
Botanical Garden, window-shopping downtown and looking for bargains in the
crowded stalls of the large, covered
Queen Victoria Market. Judging from our short 3-day visit, it would appear
that 
Melbourne has a very full events calendar. The free trolley which
circumnavigates the city center is jammed with folks headed for a flower and
garden show. We have to work our way through crowds attending a riverfront
wine-tasting festival to get to Sunday's weekly craft fair. Hundreds pass
slowly through a remarkable large outdoor exhibition of blown-up photographs
representing the best submissions of 15,000 photographers who participated in a
Fujifilm
international competition. With attractions like these, it's no wonder
Melbourne is attracting new residents as well as visitors.
The
Aussies, of course, come in all flavors, from the biker set in the photo above, to
the downtown barker who recites a marvelous three-minute poem exhorting us to
trek down two flights of stairs into a bargain basement store (we do, and it is
full of bargains),
to the three skinny guys on the right who are a bit weirder and more stand-offish
(and more photogenic!) than
most.
The colorfully-clad buggy driver (below) is engrossed in his newspaper as he waits for his next passengers. He was either soaking up the front-page coverage on Australian coalition troops in the Iraq war, or deciding which pony to bet on in the afternoon races.
However,
three days in the big city are enough for us. We prefer touring in
the countryside ("it's the golf courses, stupid") so we'll escape south
tomorrow to the Mornington Peninsula and then
head west on the famous Great Ocean
Road.