Month: August 2014

Feral Fruit Trees Melbourne

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Recently I heard about Feral Fruit Trees Melbourne, a local blog that plots the location of fruit trees growing in (or overhanging) public spaces in this city. The blog includes a Google map to which punters can add public fruit trees they’ve spotted around Melbourne. The blog advocates exercising restraint in your fruit-picking endeavours — don’t pick more than you need — and in the case of picking fruit from a privately owned tree that’s overhanging a public area, do the right thing and ask the owner if possible. There seems to be increasing momentum around the sustainable food movement lately, and this is just one more illustration of the fact.

Melbourne: World’s most liveable city … again

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Well, well, news just in has Melbourne once again at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Survey. It’s the fourth year running our town has claimed top spot, with three other Australian cities making the cut, too. This comes on the back of the (perhaps slightly less prestigious) ranking by Conde Nast Traveller, whose survey declared Melbourne to be the world’s friendliest city, tied with Aukland. Apparently we have a ‘wonderful sense of humour’ and we are ‘one of the classiest cities in the world’ to boot. Take that, LondonParisMilanNewYork! You did good, Melbourne; you did good.  

Melbourne Writers Festival 2014

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As we inch towards spring, we also approach another major event on Melbourne’s calendar: the annual Melbourne Writers Festival. This year brings a number of big names to Melbourne, including Booker-of-Bookers winner Salman Rushdie; astronaut, writer and social media phenomenon Chris (‘Good morning, Earth’) Hadfield; and Australian author Helen Garner (delivering the opening night address). There will be discussions, workshops, book launches, exhibitions and more happening over the festival’s ten days, with a bunch of free events in the mix. Check out the full programme here. MWF events often sell out fast, so if you’re keen on a particular event it’s a good idea to book early. I always get a bit huffy at the absurd cost of some of these events (if you want to see Rushdie do his thing you’ll have to fork out $130) — there’s no doubt these prices exclude an enormous section of the community. But most events are reasonably priced at around $22 (full) / $19 (concession). Ladies and gentlemen, the countdown is on. You’re in a City of …

International Cup 2014

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On Saturday I happened to be in the CBD when hundreds of uniformed sportspeople began streaming into Federation Square. There were teams from South Africa, Ireland, Sweden, USA, Tonga, Finland… the list goes on. As it turns out, 10 August was the kick-off of ‘IC14’, or the International Cup 2014. The sport? AFL. Having never been particularly interested in Melbourne’s home-grown sporting obsession, I had no idea that Australian rules football had gone global. Eighteen countries are represented in the cup, with eighteen men’s teams and seven women’s teams slugging it out in the mud over the coming weeks. I may not be a footy head, but I’m a culture junkie through and through. Footy just got a whole lot more interesting. You can catch games at the McAlister, Ransford and Western Ovals in Royal Park, Parkville during August, with the grand finals taking place at the MCG on 23 August. There is also a community round on 16 August, which will be played in various outer Melbourne suburbs and regional towns across Victoria. View the …