ESSAY
M e l b o u r n e ,
A u s t r a l i a
ROBIN ESROCK gets a feel of Australia’s cultural heartbeat
COLOR ME KOOKY. Lie by the seaside with the iconic Brighton beach boxes in the background. Photo by Richard Shaw
I WAS STARING DEAD INTO THE EYES OF CHOPPER Reid, Australia’s most notorious convicted murderer. Admittedly, he was on the other side of the pub’s window, and the eye contact lasted only a fraction of a second. Nobody could actually confirm it was, in fact, Chopper Reid and not some tattooed, mustached thug who looked like him, but the story nevertheless made a big impression on the Melbournites I met. Shortly after arriving in Melbourne, I understood exactly why Australians often refer to their second largest city as the country’s cultural heartbeat. Here were the freaks, punked-up and pumped-out, dressed in all the colors of the rainbow. Funky graffiti decorated downtown buildings; gothic alleyways housed art stores; rickety trams rattled past my feet. A man wearing nothing but pink underwear wandered into the middle of Flinders Street muttering crazy spells of lunacy. Having experienced Sydney’s beachiness and Perth’s sleepiness, Melbourne had the quirks of variety many people seek Down Under. I met a local named Duck on fashionable Chapel Street, an eclectic mix of foot traffic rambling past us—slackers and sporties, goths and yuppie-moms. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and the city was in full summer bloom. “There are no discernable trademarks in Melbourne,” explains Duck, “but it’s the most livable city in Australia by far.” Indeed, locals refer to Sydney as high gloss with little substance, all beach with no soul. Melbourne and Sydney have been waged in a struggle to be Australia’s premier city for over a century, which is one of the reasons the Sydney Opera House was built—to do one over Melbourne. 46 M A B U H A Y
January 2008
I spent an afternoon using the free-of-charge Circle Tram to explore downtown, and even without a trademark site or golden beach, it was clear that Melbourne was still a beautiful city with a wonderful buzz to it. Later I zipped around in Duck’s metallic blue Mini Cooper convertible, continuing on Fitzroy Street and into the popular neighborhood of St. Kildare. I explored the narrow, distinctly European-like alley boulevards, with pop art galleries, hyper-styled graffiti and hip designer boutiques. With my iPod jamming out popular Melbourne band Cat Empire, I continued along the Princess Walk past the various sport stadiums, the enormous tennis complex that hosts the Australian Open, the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground. This is a city clearly in love with its sports. I finally decided to figure out why everyone I met was so unnerved about my possible chance encounter with the notorious Chopper Reid. I picked up a DVD called Chopper, starring Melbourne’s Eric Bana in the role that made him famous. Chopper apparently killed some guy outside a famous Melbourne pub, and after carving off his own ears in prison (seriously), has since gone on to become one of Australia’s most successful authors. Today, Chopper lives on a farm in Tasmania, breeding chickens, most likely trained to kill. Melbourne, an eclectic, creative and sometimes unusual city, sure knows how to deliver the character. ROBIN ESROCK is the host of Word Travels, seen on the National Geographic and Travel Channel. PAL flies between Manila and Melbourne (via Sydney) five times weekly. Swingaround tour packages are available. For more information, call PAL reservations office (+632 855 8888 and +632 855 7777) or log on to www.philippineairlines.com.