What’s So Great About Melbourne?

The Economist’s Intelligence Unit conducts a liveability survey  of cities around the world every year, and for the fourth time this year, Melbourne was crowned as the Most Liveable City. When I read the news, what struck me first was the question about what is it that makes a place ‘liveable’ in the first place?

So I investigated the parameters that were used in the survey, and this is what it says: “The survey rated cities out of 100 in the areas of healthcare, education, stability, culture and environment and infrastructure. Melbourne received an overall score of 97.5 out of 100, scoring a perfect rating for healthcare, education and infrastructure.”

In terms of healthcare, all Australians are covered by Medicare, a public health insurance scheme, while almost half also have private health insurance. As someone who spent most of her childhood in and out of hospitals, I know how valuable this is.

Australian education is well known world over, although it did get a notorious tint to it a few years ago with the attacks on Indian students. Nevertheless, the education itself isn’t something to be scorned at.

As for environment and infrastructure… while  was researching for this post, I came across this photo of a birds eye view of Melbourne, and let me tell you, I was blown away.  The city is divided into neat little blocks and straight roads, with residential blocks a little away from the downtown area, and it all looks like a child’s delightful little building blocks scene! I know that my fellow Indians would understand the novelty of this, and it’s no wonder that the survey takers gave Melbourne a perfect score for its environment and infrastructure.

But wait…

Isn’t this all becoming a little too theoretical? You could always go read Wikipedia for all this, couldn’t you?

Besides all of the above obvious features, what would make someone fall in love with Melbourne? Well, I went sniffing, and here are little tidbits of all that I found:

Mailbox 141

How would you like to view art in a mailbox (aka ‘post box’)? Because that’s exactly what Mailbox 141 is! Located at 141 Flinders Lane, Mailbox 141 is a space that encourages new artistic experimentation and work which been specially created for the strip of restored mailboxes at the entrance foyer of 141 Flinders Lane.

A row of re-purposed mailboxes for artwork. (Source)

Melbourne’s smallest art gallery at 141, Flinders Lane. (Source)

Besides the novelty of the experience, that’s bound to be a central attraction, the displays are changed every once in a while, you you can keep visiting over and over again.

The Lift

Located next to 707, Collins Street, this lift sounds like something right out of The Chronicles of Narnia. You get on the lift at Collins Street, and when you get off, you’re at Village Street Docklands, below. Here are photos of Collins Street and the Docklands to give you a better picture of how awesome this lift truly is:

The Lift ↓

Takes you from ↓

Little Collins Street (Source)

to ↓

The Docklands (Source)

How cool is that?!

Central Deborah Gold Mines

The Australian Gold Rushes began in 1851, and went on up till sometime around the early 1900s. It was during the gold rush in the 1900s that the Central Deborah Gold Mines were created. The mines operated from 1939-1954 during which time almost a ton of gold was extracted from the ground. It was only in 1971 that the mines were opened for public viewing, and in 2011, the Nine Levels of Darkness tour was launched, where visitors could explore Level 9 of the mine, 228 meters underground!

Nine Levels of Darkness – The Central Deborah Gold Mines (Source)

Squeaky Beach

Like the name suggests, the rounded grains of sand on Squeaky Beach, well, squeak when you walk on them! You can experience walking on sand with all your senses now 😉 It’s also a great place to spot wombats, which frequent the rock formations at the north end of the beach.

(source)

Street Art

“Melbourne is known as one of the world’s great street art capitals for its unique expressions of art on approved outdoor locations. Street art includes stencils, paste-ups and murals and does not include graffiti or tagging which is illegal.” There are street art tours done by artists themselves, where you get to visit significant street art spaces and get an overview of the Melbourne street art scene.

This is honestly my favourite of all the attractions in Melbourne! It’s so great that such artistic contributions by residents are encouraged by the city, all in an effort towards making their home a more beautiful place. On a sidenote, it’s also great that no one takes advantage of it and resorts to graffiti.

(source)

(source)

And that’s all folks! But like I said earlier, this is just a little tidbit of what Melbourne has to offer. Check out more of them here! And if you want to have a glimpse of what travelling in Melbourne would look like, check out the video below. You can find more of them on Youtube.

So tell me, which of these places would you want to visit in Melbourne and why? The best answer will win a gift voucher worth Rs. 500/-. The contest ends on 4th Jan 2015.

This post is written as part on a Indiblogger contest courtesy Tourism Victoria.