Green: the Garden City
Another name for Melbourne is the Garden City. Fifty percent of the city
is occupied by green space and it would hardly be an exaggeration to say
that the whole city is one great park. Not many parks in the world have
been allowed by the British royal family to use the word “royal” in
their name, but Mebourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens is one of them.
The Fitzroy Gardens are famous for a path made of 10,000 tiles. Each individually
decorated by local residents. From Flagstaff Garden located on the top of
a hill with outstanding views you can watch the ships coming and going through
Melbourne Harbor, and at the Carlton Gardens buildings erected for the 1880
Melbourne World’s Fair are still preserved. Each of these parks provides
a refreshing place of rest for the visitor to Melbourne.
Blue: the Great Ocean Road
The Great Ocean Road is called “great” with good reason. This
magnificent coastal highway rolls on for no less than 214km of unimaginably
beautiful scenery, including such landmarks as Bells Beach, the setting
for the wonderful surfing scenes in the film Point Break starring Keanu
Reeves. The road also passes by Apollo Bay with its many cafes and magnificent
views of the sea, and Loch Ard Gorge, where the blue sea forms a fantastic
scene between two rugged cliffs. But most famous of all is the Twelve Apostles,
a group of rock pillars towering 70m above the waves. Originally there were
twelve of these columns, but sadly, with the passing of time , several of
them have collapsed from erosion.
Architecture: Old and New
Before Canberra became the capital of Australia, Melbourne took that role. As
a result, quaint old government buildings survive intact in various parts
of the city, and thanks to excellent city planning in the early days, these
19th-century buildings were able to be preserved very well. A sense
of history lives on in such structures as St. Patrick’s Cathedral,
Australia’s largest Gothic building. Melbourne’s St. Paul’s
Cathedral, Australia’s largest building. Melbourne’s St.
Paul’s Cathedral is another masterpiece of 19th-century architecture
and Parliament House is an imposing building in the Greek style. But
alongside these historic buildings stand ultra-modern structures such as
the Victoria Arts Centre with its 115m steel tower shaped like a ballerina
and the Crown Entertainment Complex. The old meets the new without
the slightest conflict in Melbourne.
A little piece of Europe
At the mention of Australia, the first thing that springs to mind
maybe Sydney and it’s Opera House. But Melbourne is quite
the equal of Sydney for its impressive city scenes, dazzling natural beauty,
its striking buildings and its diverse sporting events.
 The growth of Melbourne began with the gold rush in the 1850s. The
area had first been explored by Europeans in 1803, but it was not until
a century later, when gold was discovered in the nearby Ballarat area, that
settlers began to pour in, and Melbourne grew rapidly by absorbing this
new population. Although the city’s history is not very long,
its original look is still very well preserved. A cruise on the Yarra
River that runs through the city is a great way to begin exploring this
beautiful city.
In downtown Melbourne every
alley is packed with European-style outdoors cafes filling the
air with the rich aroma if coffee, while ancient churches and modern buildings
stand together in perfect harmony. At the very center is Flinders Street
Station, built in 1854. With its round, steeple-shaped roof, the station
is always bustling with activity. Opposite the station is the real
heart of Melbourne, federation Square, surrounded by such buildings as the
Victoria State National Gallery and the Australian Racing Museum.
The city streets are laid out
neatly like a checker board, and you will often see tourists wandering
around the city with a pack on their back and a map in their hand. The places
that are most crowded with young people are the shopping arcades dotted
around the city. Among the more popular spots are Flinders Lane, known
as the headquarters of Melbourne’s fashion industry, where art galleries
cluster together and boutique offer the latest fashions. Block Place
is also well provided with outdoor cafes, restaurants, and bars. Block
Arcade is considered the most fashionable shopping centre in Melbourne. The
Royal Arcade, with its impressive brand-name goods, are also the talk of
the town.
 From the Melbourne Rialto Towers,
you can see not only the whole city of Melbourne but the outskirts stretching
out into the distance. But there is another place that will make your
time in Melbourne unforgettable: the Crown Entertainment Complex, where
you can enjoy Australia’s largest casino, and in front of it, twelve
tall columns from which great flames shoot out every night. The flames
are so strong that you can feel the heat from where you stand at base of
the columns, and they light up the Melbourne night with dazzling brightness.
Nature’s marvelous moments
Although there is never enough time to see the whole city of Melbourne,
there are also a great many things to see outside the cit as
well. Place
that can be reached half a day from Melbourne are packed with natural
marvels that would be hard to match anywhere else. The Great Ocean
Road is celebrated as the most beautiful coastal road in the world, a
place that everyone should try to visit during one’s lifetime. Built
by carving into the cliffs, the road runs alongside a sea only thought
existed in TV commercials.
At Dandenong Village, you can
ride a steam train called Puffing Billy through lush pine forests. The
train first ran through this remote area in the early 1900, but later it
began to lose money and was closed down. Through the efforts of hundreds
of volunteers who wanted to preserve the village, the railway was restored,
and today it is the most popular steam train in arrive at the pretty little
Belgrave Station, an elderly driver with a kind smile gets off to have his
picture taken with tourists in front of the red steam engine.
 A glass of wine in a winery
rich with the scent of grapes makes an unforgettable romantic experience. Located
a little to the east of Melbourne, the Yarra Valley is Australia’s
finest wine producing area, and as most of the wineries also have restaurants,
you can enjoy your wine with a tasty dinner while surveying the broad landscape
of the vineyard through windows that take up the entire wall.
On Phillip Island at sunset,
you can watch the world’s smallest penguins parading across the beach,
while at Ballarat Wildlife Park, you can pet and feed the koalas
and kangaroos. These
are some of the joys of nature that can only be experienced in
Australia.
A city of festival
 Melbourne is not just a green city where you can be at one with
nature; it is also a city bursting with energy and vitality. As
one of the four tennis championships in the Grand Slam, the Australian
Open attracts top players from around the world. The Foster’s
Australian Grand Prix is the world’s largest motor race, while the
Melbourne Cup horse race is broadcast live to thirty countries worldwide. The
Australian football league Final Series is also held in Melbourne, and
each season the whole cit erupts into a festival mood.
Don’t let the well-preserved
old buildings of downtown Melbourne deceive you into thinking that
because it’s old it must be boring. In the Docklands area,
lying south of Melbourne toward Victoria Harbor, the Docklands development
project is now in full swing, creating a new downtown area for Melbourne. A
product of Melbourne’s will to give the Docklands new life as an advanced
digital cit, the project is scheduled for completion in 2020, and
diverse facilities and international businesses are pouring in one after
another.
Dazzling ocean and fragrant
woods, wild unspoiled nature and European-style streets that as
if they have been transferred intact to the southern hemisphere: all these
coexist without conflict in Melbourne. If you are tired of the daily grind,
the richness and energy of Melbourne will bring you a new lease o life. |
