A South African view of Melbourne www.thestar.co.za 

By Jacques van der Westhuyzen  July 03 2005

Melbourne - Melburnians have developed a highly unusual traffic manoeuvre that allows cars driving in the left-hand lane to turn right at certain intersections in the city. It's called a hook turn.
When you enter the intersection you stay as far left as possible, indicating right. Opposite the street you are entering, you wait until the traffic is clear, and then turn right.
Why am I telling you this first after a recent trip to Melbourne, Australia's southern city that will host next year's Commonwealth Games? It's a trivial piece of information, but possibly the best illustration of how orderly, courteous and disciplined the Australians are.

Imagine pulling off a hook turn in Johannesburg's CBD. It isn't going to happen and, if it does, the road accident rate will soar through an already high roof.
After spending five days in Melbourne and the state of Victoria, it's easy to see why Australia so appeals to South Africans and why it so successfully hosts cricket and rugby world cups, Olympic Games and now the Commonwealth Games. There's order; laws are obeyed; it's clean; and there is no crime. Well, very little of it anyway.
Melbourne is everything you could want from a big city, but it's not nearly as busy, chaotic or rushed as, say, Johannesburg. It's rather quiet and uneventful and doesn't even seem to realise it's the nation's second largest metropolis.
In the five days that we (a small tour party from South Africa) were there, not once did I see a traffic jam or an accident, and only once did I hear sirens. They were screeching from an ambulance, not a police car. And that was in the heart of the CBD.
The magnificent Sofitel Hotel between Collins and Flinders streets offers breathtaking views of the city, with rooms starting from the 36th floor. We walked the streets by day and night, backpacks over our shoulders, cameras and cellphones in our hands, and not once did we feel crime was lurking around the next corner. That's life in Melbourne.
It's a beautiful city: the streets are lined with trees, pavements are wide enough for people to walk freely, and there are no hawkers, beggars or vagrants. While many people in the suburbs own cars, most city dwellers, living in CBD apartments, get around by taxi, train and the city's state-of-the-art tram system. Many also use bicycles and they are rarely even locked with a chain when left unattended day or night.

Melburnians seem to be extremely well disciplined. They don't exceed the speed limit (110km on freeways), they don't drive in the right-hand lane unless they're overtaking and most don't seem interested in things materialistic.
The houses (minus high walls and razor-wire) are neat but far from lavish. Our tour guide informed us that Australians are far more interested in enjoying their lives - supporting the vast array of sporting and cultural events - than in spending their hard-earned money on housing - or cars, for that matter.
From March till September, Saturday afternoons are spent at the MCG or Telstra Dome supporting Australian Rules football teams (Footy is a religion: that's just the way it is.)
Also fascinating are the many restaurants, bars and coffee shops in every street of the CBD. You will not walk more than 50 metres without finding one that catches your fancy. Melbourne boasts more than 3 000 restaurants and, if you add bars and bistros, the number jumps to 4 500. They're busy at all times of the day.
What a pleasure to leave your office at 5pm, walk around the corner to your localâ have a beer or a meal and then walk a few more blocks to your apartment. Forget about spending hours in rush-hour traffic, tensing up and getting home in a tizz.

Melbourne is a modern city, with a population of just over 3,5-million, and capital of Victoria, the state where 4,5-million of Australia's 20-million people live.
It is an exciting city, but somehow manages to maintain an air of quiet grace and charm. The history is a mix of Aboriginal and European, a mixture that first fused when white settlement began in the 1830s.
The architecture is a blend of the old (Flinders Street Station is magnificent) and the new (Federation Square, directly opposite the station) but, no matter where you go, you will find something that's jaw-droppingly attractive. There is so much to see, so much to do in Melbourne and Victoria, that to do it justice is almost impossible, but I'll do my best.
Melbourne prides itself on sports, shopping, dining and excellence in the arts. It is the sports capital of Australia - host to the Australian Grand Prix, the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, the MCG, Telstra Dome and plenty more.
It has everything a city needs to host an event as big as the Commonwealth Games. All the Games' main venues are within walking distance of the CBD or 10 minutes at most by train or tram.

Over 12 days next March a record 4 500 athletes will enter Melbourne for the four-yearly event to compete in some of the world's finest sports arenas and stadiums.
The famous Melbourne Cricket Ground - used for footy in winter - will host the opening and closing ceremonies and stage the athletics events from March 19-25.
It will take 100 000 people by the time the Games are to be staged and is unquestionably one of Melbourne's greatest assets. The MCG also served as the main arena for the 1956 Olympics.
The Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre will host the swimming, diving and synchronised swimming, squash and table tennis. Telstra Dome, with its retractable roof, will host the rugby Sevens; the Melbourne Exhibition Centre badminton, boxing and weightlifting; and Melbourne Park basketball, cycling, gymnastics (at the Rod Laver Arena) and netball.
Hockey and netball will be played at the State Hockey and Netball Centre. St Kilda, the famous beachfront suburb, will host the triathlon. All the venues are world-class, although the MCG and Aquatic Centre are being renovated. The full programme for the Games, including ticket prices, is already available.
More than 1 500 volunteers will assist Games organisers, making the event 30 percent bigger than the Aussie tennis Open, the Grand Prix, the Melbourne Cup horse race and the footy grand final combined.
Holders of tickets to the Games will be allowed to ride on all public transport free of charge during the 12-day event. Planning and people: they know how to do it.
If you want to know why Australians excel at sport, perhaps the following explanation by the man chairing the Games, Ron Walker, will reveal a clue or two: "Our school system is paranoid about teaching kids to get outside and play sport. The kids are told from a young age that sitting indoors is no good, it's not healthy and it doesn't bring success."
Victoria's school holidays next March have been altered to allow the children to support the Games.

If you do make it across the Indian Ocean, know you'll get only the best from a city that strives for the best. It's no surprise that Melbourne rates among the top 10 cities in the world to live in.
Thanks to Tourism Victoria, not only did we experience Melbourne but we took a road trip to the heart of the gold-rush era of the 1850s. Today just an hour from Melbourne, Ballarat grew from a goldminer's town into an influential city, rightly dubbed the Gateway to the Goldfields.
A must visit is Sovereign Hill, a "town" that depicts Ballarat's first 10 years after the discovery of gold in 1851. The streets are bustling with people dressed in period costume, the diggings are alive with miners panning for real gold and you can even take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Sovereign Hill depicts life as it was in the 1850s: it's very much like our own Gold Reef City.
Also on our itinerary was Warrnambool, a coastal town about three hours' drive from Melbourne where you can visit the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum and watch a spectacular night-time sound-and-laser show called Shipwrecked, which captures the tragedy, drama and excitement of sailing the high seas.
If you're lucky you'll also be able to view the southern right whales that have made the city's Logan's Beach their nursery. Then of course there's the Great Ocean Road which stretches from Melbourne to Warrnambool, a coastline featuring unique rock-stack formations protruding from the sea. The most famous grouping is the Twelve Apostles at Port Campbell. It really is a magnificent sight.
A little inland is the Otway treetop walk, a 600-metre walkway 25 metres above the ground that takes visitors deep into the rainforests. A trip to Australia wouldn't be complete without a visit to one of the wildlife parks and at the Ballarat Wildlife Park we saw koalas, wombats, Tasmanian devils, goannas, giant tortoises, wallabies, kangaroos and emus.

Back in Melbourne must-sees include Federation Square (the cultural hot spot), the Melbourne Observation Deck (atop the Rialto Towers offering 360° views of the city from 253 metres above ground), the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant (the first of its kind in the world), the Old Melbourne Gaol (where the infamous outlaw Ned Kelly spent his last days) and Queen Victoria Market (sprawling over seven hectares, it is the largest open-air market in the southern hemisphere).
For diners, Melbourne dishes up the world on a platter - Thai, Chinese, French, Spanish, Greek, Vietnamese, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican and even South African.
I'll be honest: I was on a sponsored trip so eating out was a pleasure. Australia is not cheap. A beer will set you back A$7 (about R40), a pie A$4 (about R20) and a ticket to Saturday-afternoon football A$20 (about R100).
So why visit Melbourne? Well, as Ian McDougal, Victoria's international marketing manager, put it: "There are only six noteworthy things to come out of Sydney. The six afternoon flights to Melbourne."
It's a fascinating place to visit, but could I live there? Perhaps.

The people love their sport and support it more fervently than I've never experienced before: they're friendly (bar the security men at the airports), helpful and orderly.
But they also seem to be lacking in the personality department, and are perhaps a bit boring, living sheltered lives, cut off from what's outside Australia. Who can blame them? They have a stable economy and everything one wants and expects from a country - safety and security.
Public schooling is either free or very affordable and basic medical aid is free. Their cities are wonderful and their lifestyle is laid-back and comfortable. Many will say there are too many rules, laws are enforced too strictly (there are police officers in plainclothes all over the place fining motorists, jay-walkers and litterbugs) -but isn't that what we all strive for - order and peace?
Save up, visit Victoria (I promise you'll love it) and decide for yourself whether Australia - where so many South Africans have settled - is the place for you. It's a unique country with its own plant and animal life - and crazy hook turns. My lasting memory is one of no crime and no grime.

On my return it dawned on me how different the lifestyle is in a First World country. While Australians appear to be living each day to the full, South Africans are embroiled in a daily battle for survival.

• Jacques van der Westhuyzen is a sports writer for Independent Newspapers. He visited Melbourne courtesy of Tourism Victoria.
  
  Fact file
  
• Melbourne was founded in 1835 by John Batman, who signed a treaty with the local Aborigines to purchase 243 000 hectares of land
  
  
• Immigrants from all over the world, including Europe, the Middle East and Asia, have created a multicultural community
  
  
• Famous Melburnians include Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave, Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Eric Bana
  
  
• English is the official language but Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic and Vietnamese are widely spoken
  
  
• Melbourne's tramway system is the largest outside Europe and the fourth largest in the world. There are 30 individual routes serviced by 498 trams
  
  
• More than one in four Victorians were born overseas
  
  
• Australia is the sixth largest country in the world - about the same size as the 48 mainland states of the US - but has the lowest population density in the world - barely two people per square kilometre
  
  
• There are more kangaroos in Australia than at the time of European settlement. Estimates suggest around 40 million
  
  
• The world's longest continuous fence, known as the "dingo fence"â runs for 5 531km through central Queensland. It is 1,8m tall and designed to keep sheep safe from Australia's native dog
  
  If you go ...
  Budget guide (average cost of certain goods and services, at about R5 to A$1)
  
• Bus sightseeing tour: A$55-A$65 half day
  
• Theatre ticket: A$40 and up
  
• Concert ticket: A$45 and up
  
• Ticket to a movie: A$15
  
• Entrance to a museum or art gallery: free to A$15
  
• Ticket to a sporting event: A$20 and up
  
• Accommodation per day (single): A$350-A$450 (5 stars), A$70-A$95 (3 stars)
  
  Visa: You need a visa to visit Australia. A business visa costs about R600.
  
  Accommodation: Melbourne has accommodation options for every budget and level of luxury and a comprehensive transport system for commuting around the city. Useful websites: visitvictoria.com and visitmelbourne.com
  
  Climate: The climate is similar to Cape Town, so always take something warm with you.
  
  Commonwealth Games: For South Africans wanting to attend the Commonwealth Games (March 15-26 next year), contact Seekers Travel (Gill Hurford) at Shop G22, Fourways Crossing, William Nicol Drive, or phone
  011-790- 0454. E-mail: reess@trtretail.co.za
  
  
  
  This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on July 01, 2005                   Close this Window