We enjoyed a 3 hour walking tour of Melbourne on our 2nd day. The city is clearly the café capital of Australia which you see as you wander the streets, and the famous lanes and alleyways.
Melbourne’s street art varies from high quality paintings to basic graffiti. Permits are required except that some alleyways are open to anybody. In that case, the street art may last a few hours or months depending upon the next artist.
Music is also a big part of the Melbourne scene. Musicians on the street are common – the difference in Melbourne is that the musicians must audition for the opportunity – if they are good enough for a citizen panel, they are issued a permit. We heard some fantastic music while walking along Collins Street, Melbourne’s traditional main street.
The gold boom of the mid-1800’s brought tremendous wealth to the state of Victoria. Interestingly, gold was discovered just 1 week after Melbourne and the state of Victoria became separated from Sydney. Had that separation not occurred when it did, the gold wealth would have been concentrated in Sydney. At the peak of the gold boom, Melbourne was the 2nd richest city in the world (behind London). A great building boom occurred subsequently when the children of the gold minors spent their inheritance wildly. Many of the buildings of the late 1800’s are absolutely stunning.
Another unique feature of Melbourne is the “loop turn”. If you want to turn right (remember they drive on the left), you pull over in the left in the middle of the intersection. When you can, you hang a right across the traffic lanes into the left lane of the perpendicular street. Quite an interesting experience to watch.
We also visited Queen Victoria’s (aka the Queen Vic) Market which is the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere (17 acres). You can buy tools, clothes, groceries, souvenirs, etc. It was pretty typical of most such markets.
