Culture of Melbourne

The Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne's largest war memorial built from money raised by public contributions.

The National Gallery of Victoria

The Princess Theatre

Melbourne is an Australian city known for its culture and society. It has thrice shared top position in a survey by The Economist of the World's Most Livable Cities on the basis of its cultural attributes, climate, cost of living, and social conditions such as crime rates and health care, in 2002, 2004 and 2005. The city celebrates a wide variety of annual cultural events, including Moomba (a celebration of the Yarra River's recreational use), the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Gay and Lesbian Midsumma festival.

Federation Square, with its distinctive architecture, large digital screen and public space, has become one of the city's main hubs, attracting congregations, rallies and public viewing of sports events. It is also home to the city's tourist centre. A traditional meeting spot in Melbourne is "under the clocks" at Flinders Street Station. Many of the city's parades, marches and rallies are conducted in the main thoroughfares of Swanston Street and Bourke Street.

Arts and entertainment

Melbourne has a vibrant arts and cultural scene, hosting the annual Melbourne International Arts Festival as a celebration of its artistic tradition.

Performing Arts

Melbourne is strong in the performing arts. It is home to the Australian Ballet. The National Theatre in St Kilda is the oldest ballet school in Australia. Ballet regularly features at the Victorian Arts Centre and the National Theatre. Melbourne is the second home of Opera Australia after it merged with 'Victoria State Opera' in 1996. The Victorian Opera had its inaugural season in 2006 and operates out of various venues in Melbourne.

The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic was formed in 1853, making it Australia's oldest continuously existing musical organisation and the only orchestra in Australia to be bestowed 'royal' status. The Victoria Orchestra, based in Melbourne was Australia's first professional orchestra and performed during 1888–91. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, first assembled in 1906, is now the city's premier orchestra and tours internationally.

Melbourne has more theatres than any other city in Australia. Live venues include David Marriner's Princess Theatre, Regent Theatre, Forum Theatre, and the Comedy Theatre; the Athenaeum, Her Majesty's Theatre, State Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Palais Theatre and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Several professional theatre companies operate in Melbourne, of which the Melbourne Theatre Company, the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, has the most institutional support of any in Australia. There is also a range of smaller professional theatre companies in Melbourne, including the Malthouse, La Mama in Carlton, the Red Stitch Actors Theatre and Theatreworks in St Kilda and an array of amateur companies that produce a professional standard of musical and straight theatre, such as, The Malvern Theatre Company, CLOC, Catchment Players of Darebin, Altona City Theatre, Windmill Theatre Company and Dandenong Theatre Company.

Melbourne has a large number of buskers (also known as street performers) that perform in the CBD and surroundings. A variety of musical styles and entertainment acts give the CBD a colourful atmosphere. Melbourne's musical buskers cater to a wide variety of tastes, from rock to world music and indigenous Australian traditions. However, not all buskers are musicians. There are also living statues, street artists and jugglers.

Melbourne is known throughout Australia and the world as a centre of comedy. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is one of the three largest stand-up comedy festivals in the world. The city is also home to many of Australia's top rating comedy television shows and several of the country's leading comedians either come from the city or call it home.

Melbourne will also be the host of the 2008 World Latin American Dance Championships. The competition will be housed in the Vodafone Arena and will be held immediately after the Australian Dancesport Championships. The Australian Dancesport championships will commence on the 10th of December and the World Latin Championships will be held on the 14th of December.

Independent Music

Melbourne has one of the most extensive and successful independent music scenes in the world. A variety of factors — including a relative abundance of venues and independent labels, a thriving street press, strong support from community radio (such as PBS, 3RRR, 3CR) and abundance of independent record labels — have made the city an attractive base for artists from around the country. Melbourne's independent music industry has been the subject of two documentary films, Sticky Carpet in 2006 and the DIY film Super8 Diaries Project in 2008. Many local acts regularly self-fund tours around Australia and overseas, primarily to Southeast Asia and New Zealand, but also as far as Europe, North America and Japan. This decade has seen a large amount of indie artists from Melbourne gain international attention including Augie March, Architecture in Helsinki, Grinderman, Gersey, Midnight Juggernauts,Cut Copy and Pets with Pets.

Mass Music industry

Melbourne's lively rock and pop music scene has fostered many internationally renowned artists and musicians. The 1960s gave rise to many performers including Olivia Newton-John, John Farnham, Graeme Bell, and folk group The Seekers. The 1970s and 1980s saw many acts getting their first big breaks on Melbourne's Countdown, including Nick Cave the Little River Band and Crowded House who later wrote a song about the city of Melbourne called Four Seasons In One Day. Successful Melbourne artists include Hunters & Collectors, Nick Cave, Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Weddings Parties Anything, TISM, Dead Can Dance, Snog, Jet and Something for Kate. Melbourne is also the home of rock "guru" Ian "Molly" Meldrum.

More recent notable Melbourne acts include Jet, Rogue Traders, Taxiride, The Cat Empire, Missy Higgins, Madison Avenue, Anthony Callea and The Living End. Melbourne television shows Young Talent Time and Neighbours gave many singers a launching pad to international success. Local talents to come from these shows include Kylie Minogue, Dannii Minogue, Tina Arena, Jamie Redfern and Jason Donovan.

Visual arts

The Heidelberg school in Melbourne, largely the work of Melbourne-based artists was the first significant art movement in Australia, beginning in the late 1880s. Many of its most significant works are held in the National Gallery of Victoria, one of Australia's premier collections of visual art. The strong art community culminated in significant artist colonies such as Heidelberg and Montsalvat. Melbourne is home to a large array of public artworks, statues and sculptures. Sculptors such as Deborah Halpern and Bruce Armstrong have played a large part in enhancing many of the city's public spaces with their iconic and larger-than-life works. In more modern times, the city has become well known for stencil graffiti, public art that thrives in the city's numerous laneways.

The city is home to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, an organisation dedicated to the moving image in all its forms, from film to animation to video games and television. The city has major film festivals including the Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Melbourne Underground Film Festival and Melbourne International Animation Festival, featuring several of the city's major cinemas. The Central City Studios in Melbourne Docklands, constructed in 2005, has seen the production of several big budget films.

Melbourne is also known for fashion. The city, once a leader in the textile industry, retains a small manufacturing base, but has diversified into the more creative areas of the fashion industry. The Melbourne Fashion Festival is an annual event held in the city. The Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, Logies and Brownlow Medal dinner are among the biggest annual red carpet events in the country.

Melbourne has some of the best street art in the world (see Melbourne street art). With many international visitors coming to see and participate in the street art culture. Many suburbs of Melbourne now protect large areas of what was previously thought of as vandalism. International artists such as Banksy place work in Melbourne.

Architecture

The Royal Exhibition Building from the main avenue of the Carlton Gardens

Melbourne has a wide variety of architectural design. Australia's oldest architectural firm, and one of the world's oldest, Bates Smart, is from Melbourne. The city is home to the first building in Australia to be listed on the World Heritage Register, the Royal Exhibition Building. Melbourne has also been home to some of Australia's most prolific architects including Joseph Reed, William Wardell, John James Clark, Charles D'Ebro, Charles Webb, William Pitt, Nahum Barnet, Harry Tompkins Harry Norris, Sir Roy Grounds, Robin Boyd and Frederick Romberg. In recent years, Melbourne has produced some of Australia's best current architectural firms, including international firms Denton Corker Marshall, Fender Katsalidis, Daryl Jackson and Peddle Thorp as well as local award winning trendsetters Edmund & Corrigan, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Wood Marsh.

Media

Main article: Melbourne media

Melbourne has two major daily newspapers, Rupert Murdoch's Herald Sun and the Fairfax owned The Age, as well as the free afternoon tabloid mX which is published by Murdoch. A national newspaper, The Australian has a Victorian issue and is also published by Murdoch. Several weekly magazines are published by Murdochs' News Corp. As News Corp holds over 50 million shares in Fairfax, there is no daily newspaper in Melbourne free of Rupert Murdoch's media empire. There are three commercial television networks: Seven, Nine and Ten; and three public: the ABC, SBS and a community channel, C31. Australia's largest community newspaper group - Leader Newspapers - publishes 33 local papers each week covering Melbourne's suburbs.

Melbourne's commercial radio industry is dominated by the DMG Radio Australia, Austereo and Southern Cross Broadcasting networks – all Melbourne-based. DMG Radio Australia stations include Nova 100 and Vega fm, Austereo stations include FOX FM and Triple M. 3AW is consistently the city's highest-rating commercial radio station. Melbourne also boasts a number of community radio stations, of which the best known are SYN FM, 3RRR, 3PBS and Joy Melbourne, the first Australian full-time gay and lesbian radio station. Public broadcasters include 774 ABC Melbourne.

Sport

See also: Sport in Victoria

A view of the MCG's Great Southern Stand during the 1998 Boxing Day cricket Test match

The "Big Men Fly". Australian rules Football at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In a country that is often labelled 'sports mad', Melbourne has a reputation among Australians for being the national sporting capital.

The city hosts many major sporting events including the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival (featuring the 'race that stops the nation', the Melbourne Cup), the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, the Australian round of the MotoGP, the Australian Open Tennis Championship and the AFL Grand Final. Melbourne hosted the first Olympic Games in the southern hemisphere in 1956, as well as the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Melbourne also played host to the 12th FINA World Aquatics Championships in 2007. In 2008 the city will host its first Asia Pacific Outgames which are set to take place between January 30 and February 3.

Melbourne is where Australian rules football originated — the most popular sport in Australia by attendance and viewership. The city is home to nine of the sixteen teams that constitute the Australian Football League (AFL), whose five Melbourne games per week attract an average 35,000 people per game. The AFL Grand Final, one of the biggest sporting events in Australia, is played on the last Saturday of September at the world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), The city also is home to nine out of the thirteen teams of the professional state wide Victorian Football League.

The city is also represented by professional teams in Rugby Union (the Melbourne Rebels playing in the Australian Rugby Championship), Rugby League (the Melbourne Storm playing in the national rugby league competition), Soccer (the Melbourne Victory playing in the A-League, the national soccer competition and two for Netball (the Melbourne Phoenix and the Melbourne Kestrels who play in Commonwealth Bank Trophy).

Including the MCG, Melbourne is home to over 29 stadiums with a capacity of over 10,000 people. Some venues, such as the Albert Park Formula One track and the Calder Raceway, have large capacities but only temporary structures, while there are numerous suburban horse racing tracks and Australian Rules ovals. In 2000 construction was completed on the Docklands Stadium, capable of seating up to 56,000 people. The stadium was the first in the world to host cricket and football matches under a roof. Telstra has since bought the naming rights to the stadium, now called Telstra Dome.

The city also has large State Cycling, Hockey, Baseball/Softball and Netball centres, and an Ice centre (National Ice Sports Centre, hosting the Australian Olympic Winter Institute) is being constructed in Melbourne Docklands.

The city has hosted several major international sporting events. Annually, Melbourne hosts the Australian Open tennis tournament, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments and the AAMI Classic; the famous Melbourne Cup horse race; the 'Boxing Day' cricket test match held each year from 26 December to 30 December at the Melbourne Cricket Ground; and the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. The Wallabies, Australia's national rugby union team, and the Socceroos usually play at least one game annually in Melbourne. Since 1999, the city has been the biennial host of the International Rules series involving the Australian national team and the Irish national team. The city hosted the 2002 and 2005 Australian Football International Cup.

Since the 1956 Summer Olympics were held in Melbourne, the city has hosted numerous sporting events which rotate host cities. Melbourne co-hosted the 2003 Rugby World Cup, including many pool matches as well as a quarter final – all of which were played at the Telstra Dome; hosted the 2002 World Masters Games; broke new ground as the first city outside the United States to host the World Police and Fire Games in 1995, and the Presidents Cup golf tournament in 1999; and was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the World Polo Championship in 2001. The city has hosted FIFA World Cup qualifiers in both 1997 and 2001. Most recently, the 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne. Seventy-one Commonwealth nations competed in the Games.

In July 2006, the Rugby League State of Origin, often considered the flagship event of Australian rugby league, was played at the Telstra Dome. The Rugby League State of Origin has been held several times before in Melbourne (most recently in 1997), and has attracted over 87,000 spectators at the MCG, even though Victoria is not actually one of the states involved. In 2006, the Kangaroos, Australia's national rugby league team, played a Tri-nations test at the Telstra Dome, the first rugby league test in the city for 14 years. In December 2006, the 100th cricket test was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as part of The Ashes series attracting a sell-out crowd with as many as 40,000 English.

The Victorian government recently won the right to host the Bledisloe Cup rugby union Test in 2007 and 2011 at the MCG. The Australian Football International Cup returns in 2008 to celebrate 150 years of Australian rules football, as well as a much anticipated return to the AFL State of Origin series.

In 2006, a report by London-based research and consulting firm ArkSports named Melbourne as the best city in the world in which to hold a sporting event, lending some weight to the city's claim of being the 'Sporting Capital of the World'. Out of twenty of the world's top sports cities, Melbourne ranked top for public interest in events, facilities, and number of major events hosted, and was first overall.

The tennis arena of Rod Laver was converted in to the Susie O'Neill pool for the 2007 Swimming World Championships.

Recreation and leisure

Apart from the culture of attending sports events, Melburnians participate in a wide range of recreational and leisure activities.

Australian rules football, cricket and netball are the most popular participation team sports in Melbourne.

Cycling in Melbourne is a popular pastime, as one can tell from the bevy of cyclists and paths that lie all throughout the city, as well as a spectator sport. Melbourne's flat terrain and extensive off-road paths in green wedges are conducive to riding. Beach Road combines with the Nepean Highway to form a 90-kilometre stretch from Port Melbourne to Sorrento, incorporating the Bayside Trail. It is the city's most popular training route and attracts cyclists from around the world. Thousands of commuters cycle the roads, bike lanes and bike paths daily. Bicycle Victoria's annual events, Around the Bay in a Day and Ride to Work Day, attract tens of thousands of Melburnians. Other events such as the Herald Sun Tour begin and end in the Melbourne area and there are many local cycling events of varying grades all year round.

Triathlon dominates the Beach Road area during summer, when hundreds of amateurs and professionals dive into Port Phillip Bay on Sundays.

Watersports are a big recreational activity in Melbourne. Rowing on the Yarra River is also popular with universities and schools, and there are many boat-sheds along the river. the Yarra is home to the Head of the River, first raced in 1868 and Australia's oldest. The Oarsome Foursome are also from Melbourne. On Port Phillip Bay, boating is popular, as is jetskiing, kitesurfing and windsurfing on St Kilda Beach.

Port Phillip's many beaches are home to a wide range of recreational activities

Parks and gardens

Main article: Melbourne parks and gardens

Melbourne is noted for its parks and gardens, with a ring of parks providing a green lung for the city centre. Perhaps the most notable is the Royal Botanic Gardens. Other notable gardens have been established on outskirts of Melbourne. In particular the Dandenong Ranges has the National Rhododendron Gardens, and several other public gardens. Residential gardening is a popular pastime in Melbourne, and Australia's Open Garden Scheme started in the city.

Entertainment

The Royal Arcade, just one of the arcades, lanes and malls that make Melbourne a shopping magnet for both locals and tourists.

Melbourne's restaurants are numerous and present a diverse range of cuisines. The city has a reputation as a culinary capital, celebrated by the annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. As well as the famous "Little Italy" of Lygon Street in Carlton, other favourite inner city dining locations for Melburnians include Fitzroy Street St Kilda, Brunswick Street Fitzroy, Victoria St Collingwood, the CBD, and the Docklands and Southbank precincts. Melbourne has many outstanding restaurants, some of which have been globally recognised for their excellence. In 2006, Jamie Oliver selected Melbourne as the location for "Fifteen Melbourne", the Australian restaurant for his reality television show Jamie's Kitchen Australia.

Dance music is a thriving part of the Melbourne scene; the city is considered the nation's dance music capital. Dance parties take place most of the year, the city frequently attracting some of the world's best DJs. Some of the biggest nightclubs in the world are found in Melbourne, including the Melbourne Metro Nightclub (2500 capacity) and QBH (2100 capacity). Melbourne is the birthplace of the Melbourne Shuffle, a style of dance that has been exported to South East Asia and continues to evolve to date.

Shopping

Shopping or "retail therapy" has been a big part of Melbourne's way of life since the late 19th century, when "doing the Block" was a sign of prestige. Today, the city is home to some of Australia's best shopping strips, such as the famous Chapel Street which stretches many blocks through South Yarra and Prahran, while heritage arcades such as the Block and the Royal Arcade and the CBD's myriad lanes. The large Chadstone Shopping Centre markets itself as the "Fashion Capital". Strip shopping localities include Toorak Village, known for its exclusiveness, and Bridge Road in Richmond, known for its extensive factory outlets. Also there are major shopping centres throughout metropolitan Melbourne such as Westfield Airport West, Westfield Southland, Westfield Doncaster, and Knox City Shopping Centre.

Melbourne is also home to the Queen Victoria Market. This market contains both indoor and outdoor sections.

Influence on culture and media

Old Victorian architecture meets new architecture in Melbourne

See also: List of songs about Melbourne and List of movies filmed in Melbourne

Melbourne has been the setting for many novels, television dramas, and films. Fergus Hume's international best-seller Mystery of a Hansom Cab was set in Gold Rush era Melbourne. Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory tells the story of Melbourne businessman John West (based on the real-life John Wren) and is set in a thinly-disguised Collingwood, then a working-class suburb of Melbourne. Perhaps the best-known novel internationally is Nevil Shute's novel On the Beach. In 1959, it was made into a film directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Anthony Perkins. The film depicted the denizens of Melbourne quietly slipping off into eternity as the last victims of a global nuclear holocaust. Filmed on location in and around Melbourne, it is perhaps best remembered for a comment Ava Gardner never made, describing Melbourne as "the perfect place to make a film about the end of the world". The purported quote was invented by journalist Neil Jillett. Similar filming was undertaken when a 2000 television movie remake was produced.

The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was filmed in Melbourne in 1906. Some of the more famous Australian films include Mad Max and The Castle. Melbourne has also produced many talented film and television actors including Cate Blanchett, Guy Pearce, Eric Bana and is home to Geoffrey Rush.

Australian audiences saw Melbourne portrayed in the 1960s–70s Crawford Productions police television drama series Homicide and Division 4. Perhaps better known to a contemporary audience is the soap opera Neighbours, which presents a microcosm of suburban Australian life. Other contemporary television shows set in Melbourne include Stingers (an undercover police drama staring Peter Phelps), The Secret Life of Us, Kath and Kim, Prisoner (known as Prisoner: Cell Block H for US and UK broadcasts), Halifax FP, and MDA.

Singer Paul Kelly has written several well-known songs about aspects of the city close to the heart of many Melburnians, notably "Leaps And Bounds" and "From St Kilda To King's Cross", while Skyhooks also wrote some more tongue-in-cheek songs about Melbourne. "Balwyn Calling", "Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)" and "Toorak Cowboy" are examples. Melbourne-originated indie-rock band The Living End wrote the song "West End Riot" about differences between eastern and western suburbs in Melbourne's inner city. Melbourne has produced many popular international vocalists and singers, including 1900s soprano Dame Nellie Melba, who took her name from her native city, who in turn had a suburb in Australia's capital city Canberra named after it (see Melba, Australian Capital Territory).

Melbourne-born satirist Barry Humphries created his main character Dame Edna Everage as a comic version of a suburban homemaker. Through her, Humphries has written and performed cutting odes to Melbourne mores and the middle class suburbs of Moonee Ponds and Highett, among others.

Carols by Candlelight, first held in 1938, is a Christmas Eve tradition that originated in Melbourne, held annually at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

See also

• Culture of Australia
• Melbourne
• Melbourne media
• List of songs about Melbourne
• List of movies filmed in Melbourne
• Melbourne parks and gardens
• Sport in Victoria
• Melbourne street art
• Melbourne Performing Art Venues

External links

• That's Me!bourne - Melbourne tourism website