Melbourne

The Myer 2011 Christmas Parade in Brisbane

Here in Australia the closest you will get to John Lewis or Debenhams is a store called Myer. We also have a store called David Jones, but today I’m talking about Myer because they went to the trouble of putting on a Christmas parade here in Brisbane. Apparently, they’ve been doing this kind of parade [...]

Melbourne: Now the World’s Most Liveable City

14 September 2011 Australia's Places

It was only in March of this year that I was reporting the latest Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rankings. At the time, there were very few changes, although Melbourne had slipped into second position from being third the previous two years. Image courtesy of vermininc You can see how all Australian cities fared in [...]

Melbourne Moves Into Second Place…

14 March 2011 Australia's Places

The latest results for the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability Poll 2011 are out, how exciting is that? Well, not at all really. Why? Because, by and large, there’s very little change from last year’s Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability Poll. So, maybe I don’t need to write a post today at all, all I need do [...]

Global Warming? More Like Global Wetting!

8 March 2010 Australian Climate

As they say, “When it rains, it pours”. I have no intention of turning this blog into The Weather Channel, (as I said last winter) but over this last week or so the talk here has been all about the weather. I’ve already mentioned the towns that have been flooded in south-west Queensland, but following [...]

Australia: Far Too Dangerous and Way Too Livable

12 February 2010 Australia's Places

I feel such a fool. All the effort I have put into my category Australia’s Bad Things, with 46 post so far and probably more than 30,000 words and now I discover how I could have covered it all so much quicker. A couple of comedians managed to condense it into just over a minute! [...]

Take a Ride Along The Great Ocean Road

2 February 2009 Australia's Places

When we left Melbourne it was 35°c. We drove for six hours and when we got out at the end of our journey, it was 17°c. In old English, that’s a drop from about 95°f down to 62°f. We were heading for Warrnambool, which is pretty much at the end of the Great Ocean Road. [...]

Taken For a Ride in Melbourne

30 January 2009 Australia's Places

After staying up until 3 o’clock in the morning watching Premiere league football (I will NOT call it soccer! the Aussies picked the wrong horse with that) I was a little bleary eyed behind the wheel the following morning. After about an hour driving, my eyelids said “No”. So I swapped seats with the wife. [...]

The Journey from Sydney to Melbourne

29 January 2009 Australia's Places

With Sydney now in our rear view mirror, we were heading for Melbourne. The quickest way to get there would be to cut across land along the M31, driving past Canberra and dropping down to Melbourne. But how could I desert the M1 after all those good times? Besides, it would only add an extra [...]