MELBOURNE — PART 1

Melbourne By Bike

We did an interesting 4-hour, 20-mile bike tour around Melbourne with a company called Melbourne By Bike, and our guide Peter was outstanding, though he couldn’t do anything about the relentless heat. The good news was that 90 degrees in Melbourne is not as bad as in Cairns because the humidity is much lower. Still …

Yarra River Bridge in CBD

At every stop, Peter peppered us with facts, figures, and funny anecdotes about Melbourne.

Docklands Purple Aprartment Highrise

We started our ride down by the recently renovated Docklands area, where purple and pink residential high rises lined the splendid harbor along with the three-letter banks: ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Bank), CBA (Commonwealth Bank of Australia), and NAB (National Australia Bank), who rule the roost.

Chinese Apartment Highrises

Since the first gold strike in the late 1800s, the big banks have always been there to fuel Melbourne’s perpetual Boom & Bust cycles. When mining is flush, Melbourne builds, and when the markets crash, the building stops until the good times return. According to Peter, the specter of a big bust is looming due to massive debt and the implosion of the U.S. economy.

Bolte Bridge Over Victoria Harbour

Rising above Docklands stands the magnificent Bolte Bridge. The twin cantilever bridge crosses the Yarra River and Victoria Harbour like a sky gate. The 8-lane behemoth is the longest bridge in Australia, and features two 460-feet high silver towers on either side of the road at the midpoint of the bridge’s span. The towers change colors at night and are Melbourne’s most recognisable landmark.

Docklands is also noted for Marvel Stadium—the name changes every couple of years—and Disney currently gets to hang their shingle. It is Melbourne Victory’s home soccer stadium and also hosts rugby and live concerts. The stadium seats 53,000 and is Melbourne’s second-biggest arena.

“Cow Up A Tree”

Right across from the stadium on the Harbour Esplanade stands artist John Kelly’s whimsical “Cow Up A Tree” statue, commemorating the cows that were found stranded high in the trees after the terrible flooding in Gippsland in 2021. The base of the tree looks like the hoof of a cow.

Downtown Offices and Predestrian Bridge

Since COVID, the downtown offices have lost over 3,000 workers. As a result, the office buildings are slowly turning into residential, and Thursdays are now the happening night because people work remotely, and Friday is no big deal.

Webb Pedestrian Bridge

Our next stop was the Webb Bridge, an iconic pedestrian crossing designed to resemble a fish weir. It was designed by Denton Corker Marshall, an international architecture firm, along with famous Australian artist Robert Owen. The shape of the bridge pays tribute to the Aboriginal history of the land and is modeled on a traditional Koorie fishing trap, used to catch eels.

Humming Condos

Along the shoreline behind the bridge stands the architectural embarrassment known as the “Humming Condos,” which buzz loudly when the winds blow out of the Southwest (the prevailing wind). A lot of owners sold when they found this out. And new buyers have been hard to find.

Melbourne is a sports-crazy town. The city is divided into different districts, and there’s a standalone Sports District. There are 21 different professional franchises in Melbourne:

Football Clubs (10)

Cricket (3)

Soccer (3)

Rugby (1)

Netball (2) (indistinguishable from basketball and the most popular women’s team participation sport in Australia)

Basketball (2)

Attendance at sporting events will range anywhere between 35,000-80,000.

Rod Laver Arena

The Australian Open, the first of the tennis Grand Slams played each January at Melbourne Park, put Melbourne on the world sporting map, and the 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena, where the finals are played, is a sporting treasure. The 2025 Australian Open saw a record-breaking 1,218,831 fans attend over three weeks of competition. And when they aren’t hosting the Open, anyone can book a tennis court at one of the tennis stadiums because they are owned by the city and are essentially city park facilities.

Formula 1 Comes To Town

In March, the Formula 1 Grand Prix zooms into town. They run the race around beautiful Albert Park on the second Sunday, but there are festivities the entire week leading up to the race. Hotel rooms and meals double in price. ($500 for a room, easy). A hostel was charging $300 AD! We were there for the buildup, and the whole town went sexy car crazy. This year, it poured rain and still drew 270,000 spectators.

Formula 1 Race in the Rain

So, Melbourne takes a backseat to no other city in the world when it comes to hosting major sporting events. It’s in their DNA.

Center Court at Rod Laver Arena

Melbourne’s rich sporting history goes back to when it hosted the Summer Olympics in 1956. Russia had just invaded Hungary, and the water polo match between the two became infamously known as the “Duel in the Pool” as blood turned the pool red and Hungary prevailed against their hated Soviet enemy.

Commemorative Stamp From the ’56 Olympics

Cricket is #1 in Melbourne. No one I asked could explain the rules, how it’s possible to score so many points, or why it takes so bloody long to play. Nonetheless, the Melbourne Cricket Club owns the largest stadium in town, seating 100,000, and Taylor Swift performed there in 2024 to sellout crowds for four nights straight.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground during the 2010 AFL Grand Final

Australia versus India is the biggest sports draw of the year and takes place on Boxing Day. Melbourne comes to a halt on the day after Christmas while everyone watches the illustrious international match. It’s their Super Bowl held on a national holiday.

Happy Gamblers at the Crowne Casino

Gambling walks hand-in-hand with sports and has become a major public policy problem in Australia, affecting the health and well-being of individuals and families in a range of ways. Estimates suggest that Australians lose approximately $25 billion on legal forms of gambling each year, representing the largest per capita losses in the world. According to the latest government studies, three in four (73%) Australians aged 18 and over reported spending money on one or more gambling products in the past 12 months. Lotteries/'”scratchies” were the product with the highest participation (64%), followed by race betting (horse, greyhound, and/or harness racing (39%), sports betting (34%), and poker machines/ “pokies” (33%).

Shuttle Chopper Outside the Casino

The luxurious Crowne Casino on the Yarra River anchors many businesses that bottom-feed off the gambling money. Crowne employs 4,000 people and, unlike most casinos, it’s open to the public, even to those who don’t want to spend a penny. People come in just to cool off when it’s hot. Many, if not most, of the patrons are Asian, and according to legend, one Asian player once lost a billion on one bet but ended up ahead at the end of the weekend. Little red helicopters sit on landing pads across the river from the casino and will shuttle you around the city for $5,000. Apparently, the gamblers don’t like to waste any time between gambling. Chop! Chop!

Gold-Trimmed Skytowers

First impressions are always what stay with you. Inna and I agreed that there really are no American cities that rival Melbourne, excluding New York City, of course, which can’t be beat. Boston has its stately historic architecture, and San Francisco used to be a treasure until the homeless trashed it to death. Vegas is—well, amusement park architecture. Miami has a sparkling stretch down by the turquoise water. But Melbourne is expansive and has a special style and grace that will turn your head, with its glossy pink and purple sky towers and gold-trimmed highrises with their spacy connecting sky bridges. The futuristic buildings look almost fluid, and the new age apartment complexes are covered in lush vegetation. The cities of the U.S. simply lack such innovation and imagination.

Downtown Highrises

I wonder why that is?

Fluid-Shaped Highrise

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