Melbourne to Sydney – XPT train – 10.5 hours

We left Melbourne heavily laden and in a rush to meet our 8.30 am train. For some reason, I was stupid enough to think that we could have bundled all our things onto a tram – which it soon became obvious we could not, given that it was also peak commuter time. Instead, we took the first and last taxi in Melbourne and made it to the station just in time.

With the light of our experience of the city, the passing scenery of Melbourne’s suburbs looked quite different to when we arrived; we saw many railside graffiti pieces, for example, which we now recognised the style and understood the context of. We were sad to leave Melbourne just as we had began to really settle in but we knew we were going to have to get used to being on the road again, so we tried our best to re-adjust as the suburbs began to melt into farmland.

Once we passed a town called Albury, the terrain became much more undulating and hilly – lush pastureland perforated with small man-made holes (‘dams’ in local terminology) to collect rainwater for the grazing animals. Because it was still early in the morning, or perhaps because our eyes were now more finely tuned, we glimpsed kangaroos and emus feeding among the long grass of some passing fields.

Further east, the terrain becomes more dry – shrubland and plains with small patches of isolated forest dotting the hilltops. The rocks, where they have been exposed by the elements, are the characteristic bright orange and crimson red that you see in the landscape paintings of local artists – when covered by foliage they appear a lush green or dry yellow.

As we approached Sydney, we passed straight into the path of a brewing storm. A deep mist absorbed the landscape for the next hour, cutting our visibility to only 30 metres or so. As we entered the storm cloud, the temperature in the carriage began to fall and I was wishing that I had packed my jumper in a more accessible place! Just as the rain clouds looked fit to burst, we pulled into Sydney’s Central Station. After yet another fracas with the bags, we ended up very glad that we had chosen a place to stay that was within walking distance of the station.

Sydney

We spent most of our time in Sydney un-packing, de-cluttering and re-packing the bags, leaving some stuff in the hostel box and posting other things home. Fortunately there was also some time in the evening to have a little explore. We found a great Malaysian restaurant (good preparation for Port Klang) where we ate some satay dishes and drank some cham (half coffee-half tea which actually tastes quite good) before heading to Darling Harbour for a walk. This is an unlovely part of the city full of conference centres, chain restaurants and large hotels clustered around the waterfront. Given the temperature, we had almost forgotten that it was only a week to Christmas, until we noticed a giant inflatable Santa climbing the nearby convention centre.

Our overnight train to Brisbane wasn’t scheduled to leave Sydney until 4 p.m., so we had some time the next day to take a quick trip to Manly Beach, a forty-minute ferry ride from Circular Quay. Taking the ferry to Manly gave us a fresh perspective of Sydney – the city’s suburbs appear to be laid out all along the coastline of both sides of the inlet, and many people travel to work by ferry, which I could immediately see the appeal of. The journey couldn’t be more different to the packed crush of the rush-hour commute on the Northern Line. Manly itself is a cosmopolitan seaside suburb, which feels removed enough from the city centre to maintain its own identity. We had a little bite to eat and then it was time to head straight back on the next ferry, to make sure that we didn’t miss the train!

Sydney to Brisbane – XPT train – 11 hours

Ah, the joy of an afternoon train! With our newly lightened bags we took a leisurely stroll into Central Station, quickly grabbing some reading material and a final good coffee before making our way onto the platform. The train left right on time, without much to report at the station except for a lonely Santa with a brown beard. As we passed the suburbs of Sydney for the last time and onto the towns of Hornsby and Fassifern, we felt the humidity rise as we entered an area full of lakes and swampy areas. There were also glimpses of Australian Pelicans flying in formation above the water. I decided that Nick Cave’s rendition of ‘Muddy Water’ would be an apt song to accompany the landscape rolling by, which subequently turned into a marathon listening session as Anna and I shared a pair of headphones, choosing songs that fit our mood and surroundings until long into the night.

At Maitland, we passed a grain depot site (one I was familiar with from my time with the wheat pricing), and also saw a large collection of shipping containers repurposed as storage sheds and offices. A little further on, the train slowed down as we approached an old railway car being renovated by a local rail enthusiasts’ society, and small home plots with burning bonfires that sizzled against the endless stretches of bush. As dusk set in we spotted mobs of kangaroos feasting on rail-side fields, seemingly undeterred by the train. As people began to settle in for the night, I plugged in my headphones and listened to Arcade Fire while the fields rolled on into the descending darkness…

The following morning aboard the train was brief – after a night of little sleep (ironically, a man in our carriage was thrown off the train and arrested at 4am for drunkenly singing ‘Silent Night’ at the top of his voice), we woke up with the rising sun to see the misty pastures of Queensland glowing yellow. We were able to digest a very quick round of raisin toast and a coffee before the train pulled in at Brisbane central at 5.30 am. The toast gave us just enough energy to haul all our bags off the train and get to the nearby YHA Brisbane Central where we would wait it out for the two days we had before our freighter was due to dock in port.

Dandenongs

This is a small mountain range to the east of the city – it’s close enough to get there via public transport and visit in a day, with a commuter train route nearby and regular buses visiting the main points of call, but I recommend carpooling if you can, as some of the good sights aren’t on the bus routes. Our first stop was the Lyrebird walk at Sherbrooke Forest which is next to Grant’s Picnic Ground, a place where people have, wrongly or rightly, been feeding local birds for decades thus allowing people to get closer than normal to wild Rosella Parrots, Galahs, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Kookaburras. The Lyrebird walk is what we came for however and if you are fortunate you may be able to hear one of these famous mimics imitating a mobile phone or a chainsaw (they really are incredible – see this video). Unfortunately luck was not on our side and even after an extensive trek we had to settle with what we thought were the notes of a distant lyrebird call. The trek did however lead us through a forest which echoed with the sounds of eerie Kookaburra laughter – one of those ‘we could only be in Australia’ moments.

Next, some advice: whatever the local information point in the town of Dandenong may tell you, avoid ‘SkyHigh Mount Dandenong‘, which is supposed to be a viewpoint where you can see the whole city of Melbourne and its surrounds from above. Unfortunately, it has been turned into a ridiculous tourist trap, charging sky high car parking fees and encouraging local buses to drop tourists off here, where the “Sky High Mount” is the only restaurant for a long way around. Needless to say, it is overpriced and you can access the view from elsewhere in the Dandenongs with a bit of research.

A much better alternative is to buy a picnic-style lunch from one of the abundant village bakeries and tea shops and then make the short drive/bus ride south from the Dandenongs to Cardinia Reservoir Park. Here, you can enjoy some beautiful walks along the banks of the reservoir and then head down to the grassy plains where wild kangaroos emerge at dusk to feed. As with most public parks in Australia, there are communal barbeque areas and fuel is even provided!

St. Kilda

St. Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne that is easily accessible via the tram. Traditionally a bohemian part of town (further inland to the east, St. Kilda still retains its edgy side) but as in many other waterfront locations, more affluent patrons are starting to roll in. A favourite mecca for Brits on holiday visas, it slightly resembles seaside towns such as Brighton, with lanes full of interesting boutiques, bars and cafés while also maintaining a chilled seafront vibe. It also comes complete with its own iconic fairground, Luna Park, which was designed and constructed in 1905 by the original creators of Coney Island in New York and houses the longest continually-running vintage wooden rollercoaster in the world.

The main draw for us, however, was to be found out at the end of the pier where a colony of Little Penguins have been breeding on the rocks since at least 1986. The adult penguins swim out during the day to catch fish while the chicks (when there are any) hide under the piles of rocks that make up the seawall at the entrance to the marina. If you arrive half an hour before sunset, it is possible to watch the penguins shuffle across the beach back to their nests. There are now volunteer wardens who turn up at the site at dusk with infrared torches (which the penguins can’t see) in an attempt to stop people using flashes. Apparently there have also been previous incidents where tourists have tried to hug and pose with a penguin, so the wardens’ job is to make sure that this doesn’t happen. Also living amongst the rocks is a protected species of water rat with a white tail tip called the rakali that you might just catch a glimpse of while waiting for the penguins to arrive.

Great Ocean Road

This is a 243 km stretch of road that runs from the south of Geelong, southwest of Melbourne itself, to Warrnambool, following the extensive coastline and running through a stretch of temperate rainforest. Because of the distance, we opted to stay for a couple of nights on the way, but it is common for people to travel the entire length in a day (especially if they’ve gone with a Melbourne tour operator). Again, it’s possible to take public transport but after the experience of our road trips in California, we figured that the journey would be much more interesting if we hired a car. Our plan was to head as far west as we could on the first day, leaving just after lunch on the Friday, explore a little on the Saturday and then take a leisurely drive back east to Melbourne on the Sunday.

Leaving Melbourne just after lunch, our first destination was a small town called Lorne about 50km along the road, where a local café and pizza place had been recommended to us as pit stops. It took us about two hours longer than we had originally planned to get there – the eastern section of the great road may not be as long as the west in terms of distance but because of the winding coastline, the excellent views (each excursion always led to one or two detours) and the road’s precarious bends it does takes quite a long time to pass through. A couple of delicious pizzas gave us the energy to push on, and we arrived at the half-way point of Apollo Bay by sunset, though we were by this stage running late. Thus followed hours of driving through the forest in near darkness, as a distant thunderstorm briefly illuminated the night sky through the trees. As we entered the dense, foresty area, our headlights occasionally picked up an erratic kangaroo or two, hopping alongside or in front of us before disappearing into the darkness. One hopped in front of our car, like a startled deer, for a good five minutes before making its exit over a fence into the trees beyond. We finally reached Port Campbell, a popular backpacker destination where we had booked at a place called ‘flashpackers’ for the night just after 10pm. Arriving late in the evening and with no mobile reception to call ahead for the last two hours, we were lucky to get hold of the owner to let us in after someone called him from the pub for us. He hadn’t thought we were going to turn up but luckily hadn’t given our room away and so we were able to settle in for the night after watching a bit more of the spectacular fork lighting storm still raging offshore.

The following morning we woke to the sounds of boiling water, popping toast and the chatter of people sipping coffee. In a hostel such as this, where food is provided (I think this is the ‘flash’ part), breakfast is a great occasion to talk to fellow travellers – and on a road like this one most of the conversation is inevitably dedicated to peoples’ destinations and experiences along the way. We met a couple of teachers from the U.K. who were driving all the way around Australia and a German who had been working in Melbourne for a while and was taking a weekend excursion.

The following day our first visit was to the nearby Tower Hill Nature Reserve. Situated in an old volcano crater, this is an example of colonial ‘expertise’ gone madly awry. Settlers cleared the area of nearly all its native trees to use it as grazing land and a game reserve where European animals such as rabbits, pheasants and grouse were introduced. The park was mismanaged for nearly a century before it was abandoned until the 1950s – since then, all the European wildlife has perished and the park is now a refuge for a diverse range of Australian wild animals such as Kangaroos, Wallabies, Emus, Koalas and Herons. We took a trek around the old crater’s edge, to see ducks and other marshland birds exploring a lake in the middle. We also bumped into our first Koala here, who greeted us with a terrifying growl through the undergrowth (at first we thought we had sighted the Bunyip!) While they look quite cuddly high up in a tree, when you see one at ground level their claws become more reminiscent of Freddy Krueger than Winnie the Pooh. Thanks to their huge claws, they can move pretty quickly around the trees when they want to, despite spending most of their days in a eucalyptus poison-addled state, which is apparently what makes them docile. Along the way we also spotted some emus rustling in the undergrowth, which looked quite formidable up close, with huge velociraptor-like legs and large claws for digging through the dirt.

A short stop in a tiny bakery, in a suburb that time forgot not far from the official end of the Great Ocean Road, allowed us to refuel ourselves before pressing on. Our next destination was Apollo Bay, another seaside town with a main street lined with small cafés and bars, as well as the smart ‘Eco Beach’ YHA hostel, just a short walk from the sand. This hostel has been purpose-built to use as little energy as possible, making intentional use of the area’s sea winds as opposed to air conditioning, and using the ample sunlight to provide most of the power required for hot showers and some electricity for the communal TV etc. In the evening we strolled down the main street and watched the sunset from a little vegetarian café, while eating chunks of warm home-made bread. After a glass of wine or two, it was easy to drift off back in our hostel room listening to the whispers of the sea breeze and the sound of the ebbing tide carried by the wind.

Our last day on the Great Ocean Road was spent heading east, for the most part. It was a beautiful sunny morning so we decided drive to Cape Otway which is a great place to spot more koalas clinging to the Eucalyptus trees that line the road. The famous Cape Otway lighthouse lies at the end of the route but we decided to do one of the free coastal hikes instead. We then took a short detour to visit Maits Rest, an area of temperate rainforest which has a short boardwalk trail, weaving through rain-filled gullies and giant redwood-like trees. It is also home to a rare indigenous species of carnivorous snail (so rare that we almost stood on one which was inching its way across the footpath, unaware of the hundreds of tour party feet headed its way). While we were on our way out we passed two large groups of Japanese tourists making their way trepidatiously along the slippery forest board-walk, while carrying iPads, laptops, suitcases and massive telephoto-lens cameras. Luckily, we had moved the snail out of foot crushing reach.

Because we had covered half the distance the day before, we had plenty of time to enjoy the drive home and took a few more breaks at the various beaches along the way, as well as making an obligatory visit to the Twelve Apostles. Our slow, twisty drive back took us through coastline reminiscent of the Jurassic coast in Dorset. Our final stop before heading back to the main road home was the Split Point Lighthouse, just off the path from Aireys Inlet, that was used as the set for Round The Twist, a cheesy 80s kids TV show that we both remembered watching. We weren’t the only ones: while we were walking up the hill we passed a man quietly humming the theme song to himself.

We arrived back in Melbourne as dusk began to settle but were definitely glad that we made time to explore the Great Ocean Road.

Castlemaine (near Bendigo)

In the first few weeks of December, the summer barbeque season kicks off in Victoria, and when we were invited by our friend Helen, along with our other hostel-companion Grace, to accompany her on a trip to the countryside for a BBQ being given by the farm-stay hosts she had lived with and worked for back in October, we jumped at the chance. Helen worked at Karoline and Peter’s home farm in Castlemaine as part of a farm stay through Help Exchange and learned many interesting things which she shared on her blog here.

The train journey was quick but incorporated a brief glimpse of the Dandenongs and some interesting conversations about whether Castlemaine beer does in fact come from Castlemaine (it doesn’t, it’s brewed in Brisbane). After a catching a taxi from the station and following some directions, which involved looking for a turn in road and some clustered letter boxes, we arrived at Karoline and Peter’s gorgeous farm and were greeted by their two dogs. It wasn’t long before Karoline (who was trying to recreate a Scottish dessert that Helen had made while staying there) asked us if we would do her a favour and pick some blackberries and raspberries. We were only too happy to go out into the sunshine to pick (and occasionally feast on) plump, ripe raspberries. These were just the tip of the fruit barrel as the farm also grows figs, cherries, apricots, pears, peaches and even olives. We also witnessed the first sprouts of some of the crops Helen had been responsible for planting while she was there and it looked like they were thriving! The views from the farm were breathtaking and the porch looks out onto endless fields where flocks of Galahs swoop and eagles soar overhead. There is also a small waterhole which is used for swimming and as a water source for some of the house’s bathroom systems.

It wasn’t long before the other guests started to arrive and the food and drink on the table began to mount up. The other guests were all living locally (except for the new Help Exchange volunteer who was from Spain) and many seemed to have either built their own houses or at least been involved in the process somewhere along the way. One of the guests, Chris, was in the process of creating his own bush fire shelter out of an old cargo container which had been partially buried underground. I asked one of the younger guests who lived in Bendigo whether he had any plans to travel or study in another part of Australia and he said, “no, why would I when I already live in such a beautiful part of the world”, and I could see his point. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming and the surroundings so relaxing that I almost wish I could have stayed there forever myself.

As the sun began to set and the wine continued to flow, we decided to take a country walk down the lane to try and spot some Kangaroos. After about 15 minutes we came to a field where we spotted a mob in the distance. Just as we were getting excited, we heard a car drive up and it was Chris who’d heard that we’d gone out looking for kangaroos and had another plan. He drove us a short distance to his house which is in the middle of bushland where kangaroos reliably appear every evening by the watering hole. It wasn’t long before we spotted them, much closer than most of the ones we’d seen so far. They only paused for a second before springing off over nearby fences back into the shelter of the forest, but it was definitely worth the trip. Conscious of having to catch the last train back to Melbourne, we had just enough time for a quick tour of the container fire shelter and it was very impressive. At present it was partly being used as a wine cellar but perhaps wine reserves are exactly what you would need to wait out a bush fire. Chris very kindly drove us back to the farm to say goodbye and then on to the station where we reached the platform with minutes to spare. We got back to Melbourne feeling refreshed and really glad that we’d been given the opportunity to play at the Good Life for the day (if only I could learn to grow crops as successfully as Karoline and Peter)…

Rose Street Artist’s Market, 60 Rose Street (off Brunswick Street), Fitzroy

The market on Rose Street blossoms with life every weekend, packed tightly with stalls bearing the creations of many of North Melbourne’s local artists – mostly small, quirky items to adorn either yourself or the walls and shelves at home.

Our favourite stalls included a t-shirt seller called Mr. Bucket (who likes a little bit of social commentary with his puns), some notebooks made out of old vinyls, jewellery made from beautiful vintage fabrics and a writing set adorned with hand-made stamps.

The food is also artfully prepared at the market’s Kanteen café and the coffee and chocolate laced Portuguese custard tarts make for the perfect stall-browsing break.

CERES Food Market, 8 Lee Street, East Brunswick

The CERES community gardens, a short tram ride out of town, is definitely worth taking a day to visit. Built on an old refuse site, it is a remarkable example of what can be achieved by environmentally sensitive redevelopment projects. For over 20 years it has moulded itself into a community project and education space for proving and sharing knowledge of how to live in harmony with your environment. The park contains, among other things: an impressive installation of solar panels; a fully-functioning eco-house (where you can learn about every aspect of sustainable building and home improvements); a world village (complete with a ger, tipis and mud huts); allotments and crop land; a plant nursery and a fantastic education centre. Importantly, it’s a place which actively encourages the local community to get involved and share in what it has created.

The popular food market (on Wed & Sat 9am-1pm) bursts with an impressive range of local and organic produce (think purple and yellow carrots, potatoes of every size and apricots straight from the market’s trees). People also bring along excess fruit from their gardens and give it away free to shoppers (plums were the fruit of the moment when we visited). There is also an on-site organic grocery store which is open every day and stocks a very comprehensive range of products, covering everything from granola and grains to ecological and refillable washing detergents. Its neighbouring café is also worth a visit, particularly on market day when local bands take to the shady wood-chip stage to entertain the shoppers. Amongst the market stalls is a Turkish bakery which serves great tasting flatbreads at reasonable prices; some eco/fair trade clothing and jewellery stalls and some general bring-and-buy items laid out on picnic rugs. One of the other Ceres highlights is the comprehensive plant nursery where you can find pretty much every seedling and product needed to start your own version of the ‘Good Life’. For a modest fee you can even rent your own chicken (complete with coop) for a few weeks to see if your life would be more fulfilled with a couple of hens and whether the fantasy of fresh eggs for breakfast is really worth cleaning out the coop.

Abbotsford Convent: Summer Night’s Market, 1 St. Heliers Street, Abbotsford

Taking place on Friday evenings throughout summer (kicking off from early December), Abbotsford Convent’s summer night market offers an eclectic mix of food and craft stalls alongside the usual convent drinking holes (Handsome Steve’s, the Convent Bakery etc.) On hazy summer evenings it’s the perfect place to welcome the weekend in, enjoying food and drink from one of the hawker stalls while chilling out to live music on the lawns. At dusk on some nights, there is a special show of the natural kind to behold as hundreds of fruit bats fly overhead from the riverbank towards the fading light on the horizon – a breathtaking spectacle.

Queen Victoria Market and the Night market, 513 Elizabeth Street

Located in the northern part of the suburbs, very close to the CBD, is the infamous Queen Victoria market – the largest in Melbourne if not the whole of Victoria. Operating for over 100 years in a charmingly old-fashioned market complex, the Queen Vic market serves as a main port of call for wholesale fish, fruit and veg sellers as well as housing stalls with all manner of arty trinkets and electrical goods. Look out for the fantastic organic section, a specialist ale shop, a wagon with spices galore and also the bakery section, if only for a sniff of that freshly baked bread aroma. We came on a very hot spring day in an attempt to hone our haggling skills for the next leg of the journey. Although, your best bet for securing the lowest prices is to go near the end of the day as they don’t seem to like haggling much.

On summer evenings from mid-November to February, the ever popular night market comes to town, which sees the outside trading space transform itself into a hawker-style food bazaar. As the evenings get warmer and Christmas holidays loom on the horizon, the mood becomes somewhat celebratory and with such an impressive range of craft and international food stalls, there is always something to smile about. The queues may be lengthy but are usually worth the wait and the choice is immense – you can find anything from a kangaroo, crocodile or emu burger to the ever-popular ‘curled potato on a stick’, best washed down with a cup of chilled sangria. Outside, people cram onto the picnic benches sharing their food or crowd around the gig area where local Melbourne bands take to the stage. After satisfying your appetite, the next warehouse along holds everything you need to detox, including an open-plan massage area. We went in December so many of the craft stalls were Christmas-themed and very busy with shoppers seeking out original gifts (and this being craft central, there were certainly a lot of those on offer). As the warm summer nights set in, there is no better place to while away a Wednesday evening than in the festival atmosphere of the Suzuki Night Market.

Birdman Eating, 238 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

This very popular eatery on Gertrude street takes experimentation to the limit by slicing and dicing iconic and classic dishes to create something new. The springtime had brought a theme of deconstruction into the mix and we tried the de-constructed fish and chips followed by a de-constructed banoffee pie. While the presentation was great, the dishes were at best average (‘de-constructed fish’ meant tiny, tough and overcooked fragments of an unidentifiable fish while the banoffee pie was very heavy on the cream and non-existent on the crumb, which sadly was not an improvement on the original). Still this place is very popular with the locals and its innovative and fun approach to food, combined with its ever evolving menu means that it’s only a matter of time until you discover a culinary gem.

Trippy Taco, 234 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

There is no better place on a warm Spring or Summer’s evening to stop for a takeaway before heading to the park in Fitzroy than Trippy Taco. Nearly always spilling over with crowds of both the sit down and grab n’ dash variety, the food here is both reasonable and delicious, serving a range of filling burritos, tacos and other Mexican staples for around the $1o mark. The best burritos we’ve yet encountered west of Mexico and a fantastic post-pub snack stop off point.

Lentil as Anything, Abbotsford Convent (1 St Heliers St) and St Kilda (41 Blessington St)

Lentil as Anything is one of those operations we came to think of as typically Melbourne. With branches in both Abbotsford Convent and St Kilda, their idea is to serve a range of vegetarian (and vegan) lentil curries on a pay-what-you-want-to, self-service basis. Though this idea is not original in itself, at Lentil your donation is anonymous so if you can’t afford to give much, no-one is going to judge you. We visited the Abbotsford branch and found a great community-centric space (complete with board game cupboard), which feeds and provides culinary training for disadvantaged people. As with Café Gratitude in Berkeley, if you enjoy the food and have the means, you are encouraged, but by no means forced, to pay a little extra so that someone less fortunate is able to eat there – which really wasn’t a big ask given the quality of the food and the fantastically welcoming atmosphere.

Wabi Sabi Salon, 94 Smith St, Fitzroy

Located at the south end of Smith Street, this restaurant shows its authentically Japanese style the moment you walk in. We found inventive sushi dishes and seasonal bento boxes as well as delicious sashimi and soups in a vibrantly decorated environment – the secluded garden section is particularly atmospheric. Visit during the day for some light bites at café prices. The plum wine is so-so but the on-tap Asahi or sake offer an excellent liquid accompaniment.

Little Creatures Dining Hall, 222 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

This is another cavernous converted warehouse operation on Brunswick Street, catering to a somewhat hipster crowd – it has several smaller dining areas adjoining the main, airy, canteen-style dining room. We generally went here during the quieter daytime periods to make use of the free wifi (and home brewed ginger beer) but it also serves a decent range of pub-style offerings, in the form of delicious pies with mash and gravy and apple pie with ice cream. Combine this with a pint of their own-brand ale and it’s a great place to while away a Sunday afternoon in Fitzroy, especially if its raining!

Babka Bakery Café, 358 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

A very popular little bakery, tucked away on the northern end of Brunswick Street near some kooky vintage fashion stores and the Fitzroy garden nursery. Open for lunches only, there is nearly always a wait but if you’re in a hurry head straight for the take away lemon cake, said to be the best in town, and we couldn’t really disagree! Menu items change seasonally and range from hearty stews to delicate salads but it’s the cakes which really make the trek up Brunswick street worth it.

Breizoz Crêperie, 49 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Just around the corner from the 112 tram stop on the corner of Brunswick and Gertrude, this small but charismatic crêperie serves perfectly presented French pancakes until the small hours of the morning. Just around the corner from our place, we ended up stopping there after many an evening for a nice warming chocolate crêpe. Good for a take-away after pub snack or for a lazy weekend brunch accompanied by a good glass of French wine (they also offer French classes too, though we hear there’s a bit of a waiting list for those – perhaps the free after class glasses of wine have something to do with it)…

Red Chilli, 223 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

We were introduced to this unassuming family-run Thai restaurant by our flatmate, who has been visiting it more or less every day since he arrived in Melbourne. The owner, a man called Boon, exudes the calmness of a veteran restaurateur who knows that his food is the real deal. Sometimes the meals can take a while to arrive, but they are well worth the wait and with very reasonable prices, there are few complaints from the large number of regulars. We recommend the lemony Tom Yum soup with prawns, and the Panang or Yellow Thai curry though everything on the menu looks delicious and Boon is always happy to provide a bowl of freshly chopped chilli to anyone who requests it.

On our last day in Melbourne, we tried to create a Boon inspired dish using our leftover ingredients – coconut milk, rice, lemon, lime, ginger and a good handful of coriander from the local Asian market, but it wasn’t a scratch on old Boon’s, perhaps a Malaysian/Thai cooking might help point us in the right direction…

Shanghai Dumpling House, 25 Tattershall Lane, CBD

Located in Melbourne’s Chinatown, we were told early on that this is one of the two dumpling houses of the moment (the other being the Shanghai Dumpling Village on the main street). You will be able to identify both by the long snaking queues out of the door but they are definitely worth the wait. Both have extensive menus, free green tea, a BYO policy and a very fast and graceless service but the hand made dumplings are among the best we’ve tasted. Neither take bookings so either arrive early or enjoy a drink or two in the old shipping container bar (Section next door beforehand.

Sea Salt Cafe, 364 Lygon Street, Carlton

Our favourite stop before or after a film at the Cinema Nova, this small, sustainably aware fish-and-chip shop serves some of the best burgers in town (the grilled tuna with tomato salsa is to die for) but the vegetarian (and non vegetarian) sushi is also pretty good and the chips are pretty tasty too.

Movida, 1 Hosier Lane, CBD

Tucked away down the wonderful, graffiti-clad Hosier Lane lies Movida, a place which is quintessentially Melbourne on the inside and out. This cave-like restaurant, darkened by graffiti scrawled windows, serves some of the best tasting tapas outside of Spain. I try not to eat fish often, but when I do, it is anchovies that I crave (thanks mainly to the delicious anchovy bruschetta’s served at my local Deli in Balham), so when I saw anchovies on toast with smoked tomato sorbet on the menu I had to try it. Served with a glass of Tempranillo, these were heaven on a plate and as tapas go, quite filling too. We returned to Movida several times (sampling and sharing small tapas dishes meant it didn’t have to be expensive) and tried smoked mackerel with maple butter sorbet and pine nuts (a little rich but an interesting taste); chickpea and spinach croquettes; cinnamon sponge with pear sorbet and a Spanish chocolate pot with donuts. Movida has built quite a reputation for itself and we always failed to book a table in advance here but the ad hoc bar seating is good and nearly always filled with interesting characters and conversation (particularly of the theatrical variety).

Rose Street Artists’ Market, Rose Street, Fitzroy

Rose Street Artist’s market is a weekly weekend affair that takes place in the heart of Fitzroy, just off Brunswick Street. Inventive local designers and artists show off their wares, which range from vintage fabric earrings and ceramic pendants to notebooks crafted from old vinyls and the covers of old children’s books.

The brightly-coloured canteen also serves excellent home-cooked food such as chickpea curries, avocado with zesty lemon on toast and portuguese custard tarts with Nutella in an outdoors space surrounded by vintage bikes and print umbrellas. This is home-made craft centric Melbourne at its best, on both the food and design fronts.

The Aegean, 19 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

This was our Greek next-door neighbour which serves decent mediterranean cuisine in a lofty dance hall. A very popular party venue, we could smell the tempting aroma of grilled souvlaki from our balcony most days and could hear the sounds of plates smashing and Greek bouzouki bands well into the night every weekend.

Naked for Satan, 285 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

This legendary Fitzroy establishment is well known for its vodka mixes, 80 cent Pintxos and its fabled naked resident who went by the name of Satan. Whether sheer legend or anchored somewhere in truth, this dark bar (think candles and polished copper) is nearly always packed and the eclectic range of Pinxtos are actually very good. The bar staff circulate with trays so make sure to sit near the kitchen if you want your pick and prefer your tapas hot. When you feel full you simply take up a glass containing all your collected tooth picks and pay – the bill is nearly always a pleasant surprise.

Vegie Bar, 380 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Arrive early (5.30 pm at the latest) or opt for lunch instead of dinner if you want to get a seat at this extremely popular Fitzroy vegetarian affair which doesn’t take bookings. The food is eclectic, nutritious and delicious covering everything from pizza, curries, noodles, broths and burgers to salads.

And some of the worst…

Lord of the Fries (Pun-tastic Fast Food on Elizabeth Street) – Delicious fries, Greasy burgers.

Cumulus Inc. (designer Bistro on Flinders Lane) – Overrated. Overpriced. Over-hyped.

Pepperoni’s (the ‘best pizza slice in town‘ off Elizabeth Street) – Actually the direct opposite of what its name suggests. We ate here out of desperation at 10pm one night and were served chips with unmentionable additions and soggy pizza with burnt topping.

Just before we arrived, the headlines were full of outrage that Melbourne’s last Banksy piece had been destroyed (despite having been protected by the council with a perspex cover) but the city’s street art scene is nothing if not democratic – no piece is sacred and every space is fair game. This is part of the beauty and allure of the street art: it is but temporary, a fleeting gesture which accepts its own mortality. No piece lasts forever and from the moment the artist has left the scene, their work is liable to tagging, enhancement or complete destruction – if not by fellow graffitiers then by the council graffiti removal van which is known for its speedy appearances at certain locations.

As with most things ‘Melbourne’, you have to catch them while you can. I first became drawn to the street art scene in particular when I came across a stall at the Rose Street Artists’ Market selling photographic cards of Melbourne street art. One pictured a graffiti paste-up of the head and shoulders of a small girl (whose paper torso had been torn away) against a white backdrop, with the words ‘Be Free’ stencilled to the side. I was enchanted by the image and when I asked the photographer where she took it, she said that the work was sadly long gone, having lasted no more than a few weeks. At home I decided to conduct some research of my own by typing ‘Be Free’ and ‘Melbourne graffiti’ into Google, which surfaced a few links to Flickr images of other inventive works by the artist, all of which featured the same gothic, Doc-Marten-boot-wearing character in Alice in Wonderland esque scenarios, many of which incorporated flying decks of cards. When I tracked down the dates, they were all taken 10 months ago or more and further digging resulted in my discovering that these artworks, too, were all long gone – not exactly surprising in a city prone to regular torrential downpours. Finally, I came across the site of a German blogger, who had written a piece about whether the girl in the artist’s paste-up was in fact ageing and whether it was at all auto-biographical, but more importantly he had posted an link to a Facebook page entitled ‘Be Free‘. For some reason, I hadn’t even thought to look there, but there it was, the artist’s own page with up-to-date ‘wall’ postings, images and location hints to her latest pieces. I wrote down as many clues as I could in my notebook and the next day set off, to track down as many artworks as I could find.

Luckily it was a clear, warm day when I started my search in Fitzroy, a favourite location for many a graffiti artist. Following clues pointed me to a ‘Grizzly Lane’ on Brunswick Street (which Google Maps had earlier suggested did not exist), however, using the markers I had written down earlier, I finally located a dark alleyway with the slogan ‘KNITTING KILLS’ scrawled above its entranceway and some plastic crates near the end. This turned out to be a ‘bring your own food’ coffee shop operating out of a garage called the Grizzly Café, so I now knew I was on the right track and a little more searching led me to the paint splashed spot:

Several other nearby locations also had recent visits from Be Free and a walk up and down Rose Street uncovered more multicoloured rain pieces. My favourite, painted directly onto the back of someone’s shed in a lane off Rose Street, depicts the little girl crouching under an umbrella, sheltering from the bright, streaky rain.

The CBD had yet more remnants of Be Free artwork (to be found on Degraves Street and Hosier, Higson and ACDC Lanes); my friend Helen, who is still in Melbourne, pointed me in the direction of the Degraves piece and continues to find more in Northcote and surrounding suburbs. I have since heard that pieces by Be Free and her friend Suki are being discovered as far away as Adelaide and Brisbane. The arts community here is refreshingly innovative, resurfacing in new ways when it has been clamped down, while standing by and promoting each other’s work in the face of judgement, something which I think most people respond to. The inhabitants of Melbourne seem proud of its graffiti and quite rightly so. If a piece is genuinely creative and offers up inspiration or witty social comment in some form or other, it will (on the whole) be left alone until it’s deemed to have had its moment. There are pieces at the end of Degraves Street, for example, which have been there for half a year now.

I soon started to spend any free time I had, exploring back streets, side streets, alleyways and lanes for more artwork. There was much to discover but some of the pieces which appealed to me the most shared one thing in common: they were all created beside or above rubbish bins. Not much will get me to stick around creaking bins of overflowing restaurant scraps, but these pieces did.

The creative output in Melbourne doesn’t end with its street walls, but extends to its telephone wires (shoefitti) and its bike racks and sign posts (yarn bombing). Yarn Bombing is not Melbourne-centric, but it is alive and well here as I found out when Grace, Helen and I went on a yarn trail around Brunswick and Fitzroy one very humid day. It didn’t take long before we came across our first, and then second and third (either on, or between, Lygon Street and Sydney Road). Helen later discovered that there are Yarn Bombing café meet-ups, inventively titled ‘Stitch and Bitch’, where you can swap techniques whilst sharing your latest project ideas. Yarn Bombers make it their mission to bring some colour and life to the drab steel surfaces which are found all around towns and cities and many tag their work with sew-on labels (using pseudonyms of course). Recent triumphs have involved yarn bombing one of Melbourne’s larger bridges with flowers, knitted bees and butterflies and a November challenge saw one particular Yarn Bomber target a different city spot for every day of the month. One of these locations was just down my road in Fitzroy and was embraced by most people, but it clearly annoyed some – the two sides engaged in a battle of pulling the knitting up and down the pole (I personally preferred the days when it was up). Some of these crafty activities can be traced back to shops in arty places such as the Nicholson Building in the CBD (full of vintage fabric and craft shops, art galleries and a great poetry bookshop) and Cottage Industry in Fitzroy, who have crocheted lace cozies for the tree outside their shop.

There is something joyous about these pieces, not just in the creating of them but in the discovering of them too. It evokes the sort of childlike excitement you feel when you have the freedom to discover and create for yourself, without caring what anyone else thinks. This attitude summed Melbourne up for me, it is ultimately a warm city which seems to invite you to join in, rather than putting up walls you must struggle to break down.

St. Ali’s, 12/18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne

It may sound clichéd, but St Ali’s is something of a Melbourne institution. Like many a popular coffee joint, it is located in a converted warehouse building, which blends in remarkably well down a side lane with no obvious exterior signage to tell you that you’ve found it (a common theme in Melbourne, as it turns out). Those up on their game know to look for the distinctive graffiti by Melbourne artist ‘Be Free’ which adorns its walls, both inside and out, and were commissioned by the owner, who is a particular fan of her work. They roast their own coffee and take their reputation as coffee connoisseurs very seriously – see here.

Our ‘long macchiato’ was served in a brightly coloured cup with a signature heart in its foam and the coffee itself was top notch. Their quirky brunch menu isn’t bad either, including combinations such as banana bread with blood plums and honey ricotta, local sourdough vegemite soldiers and very local fruit loaf with labna and honey.

If you can’t get to Australia and are in the UK, we were told by the barista that a branch has just been opened in the East End of London using the same design/great coffee in an airy warehouse recipe.

If you’re closer to Melbourne’s CBD, however, the infamous Brother Baba Budan coffee house, which is more centrally located on Little Bourke Street, is also part of the St Ali’s gang. Again, don’t look for any visible exterior signs, instead search for a tiny room packed to the seams with people standing, coffee cups in hand, below a ceiling strewn with chairs.

L’Atelier de Monsieur Truffe, 351 Lygon Street, East Brunswick

This coffee-house/chocolatier/popular brunch spot can be found in the northern suburb of East Brunswick. Again, don’t bother looking for a sign as there isn’t one, instead seek out the big red door. Monsieur Truffe’s is situated in another warehouse-style building, but this time the chunky wooden tables and benches skirt around large glass screens, which segregate the Truffe testing laboratory, complete with its own micro-roastery, large grinders and all manner of distillery equipment.

The coffee was served in large cups without handles (almost like a Breton cider bowl) and came topped with an attractive leaf design and a perfectly frothy top. The brunch menu also offered some interesting concoctions, from hotcakes (which our friend Helen opted for) with a berry compote to nectarines baked in a paper bag, accompanied by a ricotta and pistachio cheesecake which we had. The added bonus at the end were the rows and rows of chocolate offerings which ranged from brown paper bags filled to the brim with chocolate buttons to large slabs of dark, milk and white covering every cocoa percentage (up to 99%) and bean variety you could ever dream of.

Manchester Press, 8 Rankins Lane, CBD

The yearling Manchester Press can be found nestled at the end of Rankins Lane (just off Little Bourke Street), looking pretty with seed boxes on its window sills and bikes lining its brick walls. Inside is another quirky ex-warehouse operation with shabby-chic school furniture, and a fashion/tailoring edge to its decor with measuring tapes detailing the tables and fashion sketches lining its walls (Captains of Industry, a tailor come coffee shop come gentleman’s hang out is just one Laneway along so perhaps MP’s design choice is a nod to C of I’s success). You may not be able to get your shoes shined or your hair cut at Manchester Press but it is the place to go for good bagels and great coffee. In typical Melbourne style, it also has its own signature blend (8-oz) which is roasted in Brisbane.

The open bagels are impressively filled and the (long) mac we ordered was smooth and delicious. We’ve since heard from a friend that Manchester Press also has some of the best foam art in town with Picasso style nudes known to grace the froth on occasion. Sadly we weren’t in luck on the foam art front this time but MP definitely gets the prize for taking the ‘art of coffee’ to a whole new level on the taste front alone.

1000 £ Bend, 361 Little Lonsdale St, CBD

Another resident of Little Bourke Street, this laid-back informal meeting place is popular with after-workers and university students alike. It’s a ramshackle collection of mismatched furniture, comfy sofas and armchairs, cobbled together with board games, fish tanks, magazines and chalkboards. Upstairs there is a cinema screening an interesting mix of independent films and at the back, (and accessible by walking out of the cafe and down the adjacent laneway), is a gallery space which is also available for rent, complete with its own red carpet that trails a few metres down the cobbled lane making those who stumble upon it, feel truly special.

De Clieu, 187 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Part of the increasingly smart Gertrude Street set, ‘De Clieu’ adds some French-style chic to the first suburb of Melbourne. It’s part of the Seven Seeds outfit, which is itself a popular and much written-about coffee house hidden in one of the maze of streets which form the Carlton university district.

‘De Clieu’ is a congregation hub, packed to the rafters most days with a vibrant clientele consisting of groups of friends with bikes, dogs and babies in tow. The coffee was good, the flag stone shop cool and the leafy village street atmosphere pleasant.

Erskine River Tea House, Lorne

Located a reasonable drive to the southwest of Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road, the Erskine River Tea House in Lorne is definitely worth a visit for its charming, laid-back ‘Sunday afternoon in the country’ feel, aided by delicious home-made scones and an impressive selection of tea and coffee. Our drinks were served in vintage mismatching teacups and saucers and the staff were friendly and relaxed. It’s a very short walk to the beach, river creek or waterfall if you feel the need to walk off some calories afterwards.

The Convent Bakery, Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers St

The Abbotsford Convent is a wonderful creative enclave that provides space for many small art projects, galleries, presses and organisations alongside some great little eateries and bars (such as the infamous Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment on the first floor of the main building). For coffee, however, you need look no further than the front gate where the Convent Bakery is located. Their freshly-ground coffee and enticing range of cakes make for the perfect break in between explorations around the maze of convent buildings and their beautiful gardens.

The Cafe at Ceres, 8 Lee St, East Brunswick

Organic teas, coffees and pastries are the order of the day at the bustling CERES café. Set amongst the market stalls, organic shop and chicken (or chook) pen of Melbourne’s premier environmental community centre, this earthy café feels a world away from its city neighbours. Its pastries are sweet and crumbly and its organic tea and coffee selection – best enjoyed while relaxing on one of the generous wooden benches under the grape vine – isn’t bad either. On market days there is usually a band playing to entertain resting shoppers, though the chicken escapees do a good job of that too.

More…

If you’re keen to read more about Melbourne’s café scene, our friend Helen Caldwell has also been writing about her discoveries…

Amongst this abundance of independent enterprise is a very healthy independent bookshop scene, with sometimes as many as three being found along a stretch of the same street. Having visited a fair number of these (Paperback bookshop, Readings, Brunswick Street bookshop, Books for Cook, the Travel bookshop, Collected Works and Searchers), I was amazed to find that there was almost no discounting and they were nearly always full of browsers. A new release paperback is commonly priced at $29.95 which equates to about £20, but people still buy them. I asked whether Amazon was seen as a threat and apparently it doesn’t have a distribution base or even a website in Australia but it will ship for free from the UK if you can wait a couple of weeks for the book to arrive, although this does mean that if a book has been released in Australia first you’ll have to wait until its UK release to have it shipped. Amazon’s relative sluggishness here has served the bookshops well and although increasing rents are a problem for some of the smaller ones, the general tendency to support local enterprise seems to tide them over for the time being.

The health of the independents could also have something to do with the fact that average wages are significantly higher than the UK equivalent and the global recession has had less of an effect here – therefore low cost isn’t so much of a decision driving factor for most people. When applying for general temp roles, I was told that I’d be paid a minimum of $23 per hour (£15) – short-term skilled work such as that of a software developer or English language teacher could see you earning around $50+ an hour. Temping in Australia is therefore a lucrative business and they take their job very seriously (to sign up you must first apply with your CV and if you are accepted you are invited in for a round of tests). This all takes time and just as we began to worry that we would soon be over budget, Alex landed a job at the Australian Wheat Board and I was offered a couple of office temp roles. Ideally, I would have preferred to work for a local business in Fitzroy but the fact that we were only here temporarily, for a few months at most, meant that this wasn’t really an option (local shops tend to value their staff and once trained, hope that they’ll stay on for a while).

With jobs now worked out, life started to develop a bit more of a routine, for example going to the Cinema Nova (the ‘Clapham Picturehouse’ of Melboune) in Carlton on Mondays for cheap film nights and visiting late night food fairs on other evenings. One of the great things about this type of work was that it didn’t consume our lives the way our high-stress jobs in London had and we still found the energy to explore in the evenings and at lunch times.

It was a good thing that we were enjoying life here, as in late October we received an email to say that our cargo ship had been cancelled and as far as the agent could tell there were no alternative routes between Australia and Singapore available. The email ended with an apology alongside the statement ‘that’s freighter travel for you’, which luckily we had been prepared for. There was nothing to do but wait it out to see if anything else surfaced but luckily we didn’t have to wait long as a week later Globoship got in touch to say that there was a sailing available on the ‘AS Carelia‘, which would be leaving Brisbane on December 18th for Port Klang in Malaysia (an hour by train away from Kuala Lumpur) with stops in Auckland and Tauranga in New Zealand. Instead of the 10-day voyage from Adelaide to Singapore, this one would take 19 days and was also more expensive. We said we’d think about it and get back to them but the agents replied to say that as we’d been ‘good sports’ about the cancellation they would give us a discount on the Carelia sailing which swayed the vote to a yes. Providing that this one didn’t also cancel on us, we would now be leaving Melbourne sooner than we originally planned, in mid-December, and would have to travel to Brisbane first so any routine we thought we’d been settling into wasn’t going to last for long (for better or worse). It also meant that we’d now have to make the most of exploring as much of Melbourne and its countryside as we could in the month or so we had left…

We decided to take the tram back to the hostel and while faffing around with Australian coins, trying to work out if we had enough for the fare, we met our first fellow London resident who had just moved to Melbourne on a work transfer (the city is a big magnet for people from the UK looking for new horizons). As he was just beginning to explore the city too, we swapped numbers and accommodation tips.

Back at the hostel, we focussed our attention on starting the flat hunt as, like everything else in Australia, even hostel accommodation can quickly eat up a travel budget. Luckily there were others in the hostel in the same situation and it was comforting to be able to share tips and information over a cup of tea in between searches. Inspired by our visit to Fitzroy, we decided to use that as a base and searched for accommodation in its radius, including the suburbs of Carlton, North Fitzroy, Brunswick and Northcote. Gumtree was luckily full of ads, so we replied to half a dozen. The next day a few people had gotten back to us, some saying they were looking for a long-term tenant, others a single flatmate, but a more promising response said that although the room they’d advertised on Gumtree had gone, they had another which had just become free on Brunswick Street, just minutes from the cafés and pubs on Gertrude. Feeling it might be a little too good to be true, we went to view it the next day and were pleasantly surprised to find that the room was in our price range and not half bad. The set-up was slightly kooky – the room was above a dentist’s surgery, in an outside annex next to one other tenant with a shared balcony. The kitchen was next door and a toilet and shower room was downstairs (which we were told is also used by the surgery’s patients). The location was perfect, the monthly rent reasonable and the landlord was friendly and flexible on the lease so we took it. We hadn’t expected to sort something out so quickly, but were pleased to be able to go straight back to the hostel (who are used to this sort of thing) and cancel our remaining stay. We moved into our new room the following day and looked forward to exploring Melbourne from a more permanent base.

At the station we had just enough time to grab a quick coffee before boarding the train (we were told that, unlike America’s Amtrak, trains here tend to leave on time and the doors shut promptly at 30 seconds prior to departure). We made it on with five minutes to spare and the train was pretty full but clean and comfortable and we rather looked forward to relaxing for the next 11 hours. The Melbourne-Sydney/Sydney-Melbourne trains are nearly always full, thanks in part to the very reasonable ticket prices, which are kept deliberately low as part of some sort of ‘visit Sydney’ promotion. It seems to have worked, as several of our fellow passengers, who usually fly the distance, admitted that they have begun to take the train instead to save time and money. The hours travelled may be longer but the cutting out of airport time and transfers, in combination with the more relaxed atmosphere, mean that they actually get more work done on the train.

It didn’t take long before we had left the city and its surrounding suburbs behind and were passing green and rocky farmland, complete with wind farms, cows, sheep and horses. It could almost have been England (especially when it was announced that Devonshire Cream Teas were now being served), except for the surprising skinniness of the cows and the passing blurs of Cockatoos and Galahs. The countryside continued to whizz by, in between brief stops at quaint country stations such as Cootamundra, Wagga Wagga and Henty. Being late Spring, the Yarrow was in full flower, turning the fields a brilliant yellow and giving the landscape a dusting of the idyllic.

The view wasn’t holding the attention of all the other passengers however – especially not the two young children on the seat in front of us who were heading back to Melbourne after visiting their Grandma near Sydney. For them, fun was to be found in flipping the seat rest covers over from their seat to ours and clambering over and under the seat-backs to join us so that we could play dinosaurs. As the friendship grew, so too did the games and Alex left the train covered in dinosaur and train stickers while I was taught how to ‘bake’ on a pink Nintendo DS. We also became friendly with the guy sitting adjacent to us who took over the entertainment duties when we got tired – by the end of the trip he had become known as ‘Duckie Man’, which was shouted by the kids through the carriage very loudly, in case there was anyone who might not have yet heard yet. In return for giving their mum some time to read her book, she gave us some very good tips to get us started in Melbourne (plus some helpful contact numbers) and before long, the city itself was on the horizon and we were slowly snaking around to meet it.

After waving goodbye to the kids, who also gave us a parting present of some of the best shiny heart stickers in their collection, we dragged our bags out of Southern Cross station to the very conveniently located Melbourne Central YHA and looked forward to a shower and bed, falling asleep to the ‘ding’ of the tram bells going by.