Saturday July 4, 2009
Melbourne’s best gems
By WONG LI ZA
Don’t zip in and out of Melbourne – take the time to discover what the Australian city has to offer the discerning traveller.
QUITE often, a typical tour package to Melbourne will include the Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island or the Dandenong Ranges in its itinerary. No doubt these are great places to visit but they leave holidaymakers with only one or two days in Melbourne itself.
That is definitely not enough time to explore the myriad attractions of the city.
Spectacular: Night view of Melbourne’s Federation Square, which was built to commemorate 100 years of Australia’s federation. Home to 3.5 million people from more than 200 nations, Melbourne is a true melting pot. In addition to being the fashion capital of Australia, the city has a rich history of culture and arts. A contemporary landmark that reflects this is the development of Federation Square.
Located opposite Flinders Train Station, Fed Square, as it is fondly called, is a food, retail, art, culture and entertainment hub. Built to commemorate 100 years of Australia’s federation in 1901, Fed Square was only completed in Oct 2002, missing the mark by one year. It is made up of 40 businesses and three major galleries, while also housing the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Since its completion, Fed Square has welcomed 50 million tourists. Every year, music, food and wine festivals, concerts, exhibitions and major celebrations are held there.
An architectural work of art, Fed Square boasts buildings with facades made of zinc, sandstone and glass — and all designed in a triangular grid pattern. Zig-zagging tunnels underneath the square, filled with water drawn from the nearby Yarra River, moderate the temperature in the buildings.
The city’s secrets revealed
Walking is one way to explore the city, and a firm advocate of this is Fiona Sweetman. Five years ago, Sweetman founded Hidden Secrets Tours, which organises walking tours to uncover Melbourne’s best kept secrets in fashion, art and retail.
According to Sweetman, a third of her clients are Melbournians who are unaware of what their own city has to offer. Our four-hour Lanes and Arcades Tour began at Flinders Lane. Up a backstreet, we made our first stop at a boutique called Alphaville. A funky streetwear label, it has a predominantly black-and-white collection featuring the faces of actors like River Phoenix and Laura Palmer (from the TV series Twin Peaks).
The mosaic-floored Block Arcade in Melbourne, Australia, built in 1891. A popular shopping area, it is known for its shoes, accessories and jewellery. We proceeded further up the lane, expecting another store when Sweetman pointed out e.g. et al, a jewellery house located on the lower ground floor. Owned by jewellery designers Ali Limb and Emma Goodsir, e.g. et al is Latin for “example; and others” and also incorporates the initials of the owners.
Established in 1998, it houses the work of over 90 independent designers who are either Australian or New Zealand residents. The items of jewellery are usually one-off pieces or in limited edition, and priced from over A$100,000.
“Contemporary jewellery is very popular in Australia and there’s a lot of room for such designers. The idea of the store is a place for small but talented local designers to show off their work,” explained Sweetman.
A crate of fresh strawberries at Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm in Mornington Peninsula, located south of Melbourne. Sunny Ridge is the largest producer of strawberries in Australia. Next, we stopped at Cathedral Arcade in Nicholas Building, located at Swanston and Flinders Street. Built in 1920, the arcade is home to Alice Euphemia, a popular fashion house that also requires that all garments and accessories be manufactured in either Australia or New Zealand.
One of the designers featured was Lucy Folk, known for her food-based jewellery designs. Folk uses foodstuff like macaroni and pretzels, which she dips in gold or silver to create her jewellery.
Talking about food, one must point out that Melbourne is synonymous with café culture. Degraves Street, our next stop, is famous for its espressos and crepes. But that’s not all the street has to offer — one shop, Smitten Kitten, offers handmade lingerie that will not fail to tantalise.
Not too far away from Degraves Street is Centre Place, a vibrant open-air food, pub and café alley. In the day, cafés and restaurants on the ground level bustle; while at night, the pubs located on the first floors come to life.
The last part of our tour took us to mosaic-floored Block Arcade, known for its shoes, accessories and jewellery. Built in 1891, the arcade’s upper level used to house Turkish baths in the old days. What is interesting about the arcade now is that 80% of the outlets are Melbourne-born brands.
One of the oldest stores here is Dafel, which has dealt in dolls and teddy bears since 1962. You can find golly dolls there, which utterly surprised an American tourist passing by.
Sweetman next took us to Melbourne’s oldest shopping area, the Royal Arcade, built in 1870. Make sure you walk about 10m into the arcade, then turn around to look up and admire the Gog and Magog statues, mythical monsters that toll the hour on either side of Gaunt’s Clock.
Juicy Queensland leader prawns grilled with chilli and oregano, served at Donovans restaurant in St Kilda. Culinary delights
Entrepreneur and founder of Koko Black, Shane Hill first bought over a candy store called Sugar located at Royal Arcade in Bourke Street eight years ago. Since he loved chocolate, Hill enrolled in a chocolate confectionery course in Germany. One year later, in Dec 2003, he opened his first Koko Black salon at Royal Arcade after hiring a professional chocolatier from Bruges, Belgium.
Today, there are seven salons in Melbourne and Canberra, and five Sugar outlets in Melbourne.
“The experience of chocolate is more than buying a box from a store,’’ said Hill, 36. “We pay attention to every detail to offer a great chocolate experience, not just in the quality of our chocolates but also our service.”
His three best-sellers are caramelised coconut with almond praline and white chocolate, caramelised hazelnut chocolate with dark or milk chocolate, and traditional Belgian truffle.
Another unique culinary experience is to have a meal on board the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. The first travelling tramcar restaurant in the world, it commenced operations in 1983 after each restaurant tram was specially rebuilt and furnished. Since then, the restaurant has won four National Tourism Awards and nine Victorian Tourism Awards.
The glossy red trams take you around the city as you dine on steak or chicken, savour its famous sticky date pudding and down Australian wines or other alcoholic beverages.
Meanwhile, the beachside suburb of Saint Kilda is famous for its expensive homes, music venues, restaurants and cafe lifestyle. Upon arrival, you will see the seasoned Luna Park fun fair, a landmark that has become an institution in Melbourne.
On Sundays, the Esplanade Market is a great place to pick up bric-a-brac, ethnic craft, art pieces, souvenirs or affordable jewellery. Set up since 1970, it is a “makers’ market” where over 150 artists display and sell their work.
If you miss Malaysian food, try Chinta Ria’s char kway teow on Acland Street. Generously topped with mid-sized prawns, the dish can be very spicy if you ask for sambal belacan.
Acland Street is also famous for the best bakeries in Melbourne, tempting you with logs of nougat, huge cupcakes and French vanilla custard, to name a few.
We went back to St Kilda another night for dinner at Donovans, a cosy place located right next to the beach front.
The food and wine were divine. Our starter of fresh oysters was amazingly juicy and tender, while my main, the Queensland Leader Prawns grilled with chilli and oregano, was equally fresh and succulent. The hot chocolate souffle and Three Sweet Things for Coffee were just irresistible.
A word of caution, though. In St Kilda, as we were walking to the bus stop after dinner, some troublemakers in a car threw an egg at us but missed. A few minutes later, another unpleasant incident happened. At least we had a good dinner.
Countryside escape
TO ESCAPE the busy city for a day or two, you can take a one-hour drive out to Mornington Peninsula, located south of Melbourne.
The Peninsula landscape consists of lush countryside, calming coastline, vineyards and tree-flanked avenues. Our first stop was Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm, the largest producer of strawberries in Australia and the third most visited place in Victoria.
Soon after arriving, we eagerly strolled out to the farm to fill up our punnets with fresh, sweet strawberries. Last year, the farm produced eight million punnets of strawberries or 4mil kg. It is known for its trademark strawberry variety Majestic, which as its name suggests, is larger than average.
Run by a third-generation Italian family, the business first began in 1964. Apart from strawberries, the farm grows raspberries, blueberries and cherries, and makes over 30 flavours of award-winning ice-cream on site. It also produces jams, chutneys and sparkling wines.
Shane Hill, founder and owner of the Koko Black chain of chocolate salons. Later, we made our way to Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens. Spread over 10ha, the area is home to Australia’s oldest and largest hedge maze (constructed with cypress plants).
Over 3m high and 2m thick, the maze takes a whole month to trim. Have a run around the maze before you check out the lavender garden, which has over 3,000 plants flowering all year round. Visitors can also see how lavender oil is produced.
Also in the gardens is a lovely, circular rose maze with over 1,200 bushes and 200 different varieties of roses. Due to its scenic surroundings, Ashcombe has become a popular location for wedding photography.
Another highly recommended place to visit and have lunch is the Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove, a sprawling 12ha estate. Its vineyard is planted primarily with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grape varieties and the wines are rated highly. Montalto also produces a variety of olive oil and olive products from the 1,500 trees bordering the property.
Dining at the award-winning Montalto Restaurant is a wonderful experience. You can choose à la carte indoors, a more casual setting in the Piazza and Garden Cafe, or a catered picnic at selected locations on the estate. All the options are in full view of the rolling vineyard.
We were treated to sumptuous scallops with French beans, seafood souffle and risotto with cauliflower for entrées. For my main, the Highland pork cutlet was tender and topped with two types of sauces.
In Melbourne, the Koko Black salon can be found at the Royal Arcade. Montalto’s owners, John and Wendy Mitchell, also have a passion for the arts. Avid collectors of sculptures, the Mitchells decided in 2003 to promote sculptural artists by conceiving the Montalto Sculpture Prize.
The prize money of A$20,000 (RM56,600) is footed by Montalto every year and the winning creation is placed at the estate.
Our last stop was the Peninsula Hot Springs, which offers public plunge pools and private indoor and outdoor pools. We had a quick dip in one of its private, open air thermal pools before heading to a villa to enjoy a short but relaxing massage based on Australian aboriginal styles and techniques.
The writer’s trip was possible courtesy of AirAsiaX and Tourism Victoria.
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