Culture of Melbourne
The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements.
During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades that immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture.
In recent years, Melbourne has produced internationally recognised architectural firms, including Denton Corker Marshall, Fender Katsalidis, Daryl Jackson and Peddle Thorp, as well as local award-winning trendsetters, Edmund & Corrigan, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Wood Marsh.
In the decades following the gold rush, Melbourne was Australia's undisputed literary capital, famously referred to by Henry Kendall as "that wild bleak Bohemia south of the Murray".
[8] During this time, Melbourne-based writers and poets Adam Lindsay Gordon, Marcus Clarke, and Rolf Boldrewood produced classic visions of colonial life and created a nascent national literature.
Melbourne is the setting of many significant novels including Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), George Johnston's My Brother Jack (1964), Helen Garner's Monkey Grip (1977) and Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap (2008).
[10][11][12] Other contemporary writers from Melbourne include Kerry Greenwood, Germaine Greer, Stephanie Alexander, Tony Birch and Barry Dickins.
[16][17][18] Melbourne-born satirist Barry Humphries created his main character, Dame Edna Everage, as a comic version of a suburban homemaker.
Through Everage, Humphries has written and performed cutting odes to Melbourne mores and the middle class suburbs of Moonee Ponds and Highett, among others.
[21] Named the Heidelberg School, and latterly described as Australian Impressionism, the movement's four principle artists were Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder and Frederick McCubbin.
Together they painted en plein air at artists' camps set up around Melbourne's rural suburbs, including Box Hill and Heidelberg, allowing them to capture the unique light, colour and atmosphere of the Australian bush.
Many of the group's most famous works from this period are large-scale sunlit landscapes and pastoral figure subjects, however they also explored Melbourne's urban scenery, local history (including pioneer and bushranger themes), beaches (often along Port Phillip Bay at Mentone, Sandringham and Beaumaris), and did portraits of wealthy Melburnians from their inner-city studios.
Sculptors such as Deborah Halpern have played a large part in enhancing many of the city's public spaces with their iconic and larger-than-life works.
The 1960s gave rise to many performers including Olivia Newton-John, John Farnham, Graeme Bell, and folk group The Seekers.
Successful Melbourne artists include Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Weddings Parties Anything, TISM, Snog, Jet and Something for Kate.
Melbourne's independent music scene flourished in the 1970s and 1980s with strong support from local venues, street press, community radio stations, and numerous record labels.
[34] Led by the Primitive Calculators, the Fitzroy-based Little Band scene gave rise to groups such as Dead Can Dance and Hunters & Collectors.
St Kilda's Crystal Ballroom became the stomping ground for darker, noisier punk groups, including The Moodists, Crime and the City Solution, and Nick Cave's The Birthday Party.
[35] Cave and Birthday Party bandmate Mick Harvey went on to form one of Australia's most acclaimed rock bands, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, whose evolving multinational lineup has included Melbourne musicians JG Thirlwell (known for his project Foetus), Hugo Race, and Dirty Three violinist Warren Ellis.
Many independent artists from Melbourne have become internationally notable and regularly tour abroad, including: The Temper Trap, Cut Copy, Architecture in Helsinki, The Drones, Grinderman, Augie March, New Buffalo, The Cat Empire, Dirty Three, Muscles, The Lucksmiths, Ned Collette, The Crayon Fields, Love of Diagrams, Midnight Juggernauts, Gotye, Courtney Barnett, Alex Lahey, G Flip and The Avalanches amongst others.
Melbourne-based television shows Young Talent Time and Neighbours gave many singers a launching pad to international success.
Melbourne has also produced many talented film and television actors including Cate Blanchett, Guy Pearce, Eric Bana and is home to Geoffrey Rush.
Instead, those architectural aspects that linger are on a far smaller scale: the lacy ironwork that fringes cottages and terrace houses; the unusually broad streets of the central city; the independent cinemas spread across town–the Astor, the Palace, the Sun Theatre–with their gran facades and gently creaking seats."
– Natasha Frost, The New York Times[38]In a country that is often labelled 'sports mad', Melbourne has a reputation among Australians for being the national sporting capital.
[40] Criteria for the award include "the number of annual sports events held, major events held or hosting rights secured between 2006 and 2014, numbers of federations hosted, facilities/venues, transport, accommodation, government support, security, legacy, public sports interest and quality of life.
"[41] A similar study conducted in 2006 by the London-based research and consulting firm ArkSports found Melbourne to be the world's top city for sports events.
The segment featured Melbourne skateboarding and conducted interviews with notable figures such as the Hill brothers (Stephen, Matt and Mike) and Borgy.
Beach Road combines with the Nepean Highway to form a 90-kilometre stretch from Port Melbourne to Sorrento, incorporating the Bayside Trail.
Triathlon dominates the Beach Road area during summer, when hundreds of amateurs and professionals dive into Port Phillip Bay on Sundays.
Strip shopping localities include Toorak Village, known for its exclusiveness, and Bridge Road in Richmond, known for its extensive factory outlets.
