Melbourne Australian |
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Melbourne Australian |
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| Tourist | Other Details | Tips |
| Melbourne
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Melbourne
was meticulously planned. It began as a barely legal, speculative settlement
that broke away from New South Wales, and was fortunate to be blessed with
farsighted founders who envisioned a great 19th century city with an abundance
of parks and wide roads and boulevards.
 Fifteen years after the arrival of the first settlers in Sydney, in 1802 landowners from England established themselves 435 miles (700 km) further south at Phillips Bay, where Melbourne later developed. But tilling of the land did not go as well as anticipated and it was difficult to engender any enthusiasm for field work in the curly-haired, dark-skinned aboriginal people, so many farmers went on to try their luck in the interior of the continent. It was not until 1835 that cattle breeders made their homes in the fertile Melbourne region and soon brought hordes of further settlers in their wake. Around 1850 a real race of strong men started when gold was discovered in the area. This was the start of the unstoppable ascent of the city of Melbourne. Today the former gold-digger city has around three and a half million inhabitants and in its older districts is reminiscent of the Victorian and Edwardian architectural style of London in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, even if no-frills new tower blocks are gradually stepping into the foreground.  Diverse cultural influences Other cultures also left their mark on Melbourne. Incomers from the Middle Kingdom enriched the city with a colorful Chinese quarter and the "See Yup loss House" temple of 1856. The Little Italy area with its many pizza bakeries, ice-cream parlors and pasta shops offers a Mediterranean way of life. Melbourne's Richmond area has such a large Greek Population that it is regarded as the third large Greek city, after Athens and Thessaloniki. Here too Is Little Saigon, Richmond Street, dominated by Vietnamese shops, restaurants and sub cultural pubs. It is these strong ethnic influences that give Melbourne its liveli¬ness and its endearing character. The city center with its pedestrian precincts and shopping arcades, its large squares and numerous green areas is the showplace of a thriving urban culture. Entertainment for all In City Square refreshing decorative fountains splash, acrobats and mime artists perform and a colorful ethnic mix enjoys itself in tavernas and outdoor restaurants. Young people, in particular, are attracted by the free entertainment, the rock concerts, dance and theater performances taking place in the open-air with free entry. Adding to the charm of the city are the trams, threatened with extinction in western Europe, though not so much the smart modern ones as the old rattling ones with their hard wooden seats, constant draught and - in most cases - green paint. When visiting Melbourne, the pop star Elton John fell so much in love with a hundred-year-old tram that he bought it on the spot, shipped it to San Francisco and had it installed there in the garden of his house. Works by Australian painters, including Aborigines and members of a group known as the Heidelberg School are exhibited in the Victorian Arts Center. Among the museum treasures of the city are veteran airplanes, the stuffed miracle racehorse Phar Lap and the sailing ship Polly Woodside built in Belfast, Ireland, in 1885. Each year in March Melbourne celebrates its popular Moomba Festival with street processions, compe¬titions, theater and music. The word "Moomba" originates from the language of the Aborigines and means "come and have fun!" The native in- habitants have virtually disappeared from the streets of the city, though. The diseases and liquor of the white people have decimated their numbers. The Aborigines came to Aus¬tralia about 40,000 years ago on rafts or over long submerged land bridges and were the real lords of the continent 
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