Melb3000

Yeah, but England much more than most other nations. English people have killed far more of these people than Australians, and a history of it that goes back further. England has aggressively colonised and trashed numerous cultures from around the world, to the extent that it's a major reason why today, Asians, Africans, etc. don't trust white Europeans. White Australians were extremely late on the scene.....

What's Britain's historical record of human rights? Starving and oppressing the Irish and the Scottish, murdering white South Africans and putting them into concentration camps, conquering the Indians and massacring them when they 'stepped out of line', conquering certain African and Asian countries in order to build an 'empire' of white western supremacy running roughshod over the 'noble savages' in the process. Finally, declaring the continent of Australia 'Terra Nullius' despite the indigenous population that had already lived there for tens of thousands of years in order to dump their so called criminals. What did the big bad Aussies do? Restrict non white immigration until the 1960s. It pales in comparison.

The UK has over ten times the population of the state of Victoria but is roughly the same size. Either the cities and larger towns in the UK are many times denser or a much higher percentage of land is urban, or both, how else does this equation work? EDIT: 21% of the land in UK was urbanised in 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_England#Land_use

For natural areas, try the area around the Yarra river going all the way out to the outer eastern suburbs, eg. Herring Island, Studley Park, Warrandyte, the Heidi Museum of Modern Art at Bulleen (a middle suburb by the Yarra) which was once a major artists colony in the 19th century that was responsible for a great deal of Australia's most famous artwork. Dandenong ranges which are right on the eastern fringe of the metro area but contain tall forests, gullies with some pockets of rainforest and lyrebird habitat as well as extensive European style gardens and homes.

First up, corner Flinders and Swanston and around Princes Bridge which is pretty much the hub of Melbourne with the station and Fed Square. Spring street and MacArthur street, a lot of landmarks around this intersection with Parliament House, Old Treasury building, Windsor Hotel and also the Princes Theatre and St Patricks Cathedral not far away. Bourke street mall with Myer and David Jones department stores and also a hub for street music and acts and one of the busiest parts of the city during the day. The sporting precinct just to the south east of the city around Brunton avenue, Batman avenue, etc. Royal Botanic gardens and Government house, Fitzroy gardens and Alexandra gardens which are all not far from the sporting precinct. Royal Park and the Zoo. State Library at the corner of Latrobe and Swanston. The University, especially around the northern boundary with all the residential colleges. Southbank Promenade. Some great Victorian streetscapes around the inner suburbs, especially Carlton, North Melbourne, Smith street Collingwood, Brunswick st Fitzroy, Gertrude street and Nicholson street near the Royal Exhibition building (also home to the Museum), Chapel street Prahran etc. Arts centre and Art Gallery south of Princes Bridge on St.Kilda Road. A tour around Williamstown, St Kilda, Station Pier (where the Tasmania ferry comes in and departs from), and farther out places like Brighton and Elwood will give you a good idea of bayside suburbs and atmosphere.

Melbourne is under the same climate classification zone as England, i.e. the Oceanic zone as per the widely used Koppen Classification system. The main difference between Melbourne (and southern Victoria in general) and England lies in the latitude difference (Melbourne is at the same latitude as Seville, Athens and far northern Iran/southern Turkey), and also the continental influence, i.e. Melbourne is on the southern edge of a vast land mass that extends towards the equator through the tropics, therefore contains some very hot deserts in the inland tropical areas. The net effect of all this is that Melbourne has roughly similar weather to southern England (think cool with a lot of showery changeable weather and frequent rain for a lot of the year) but with somewhat sunnier skies on average, temperatures several degrees higher, especially in winter and the hottest days in spring through autumn are significantly hotter than what you get in England. I would also say that Melbourne experiences higher rainfall rates during the warmer months with severe thunderstorms at times and wilder fluctuation in temperature. Melbourne is also prone to sudden squalls and variation in wind speed throughout the year, especially in spring and summer. Spring is usually very windy with frequent periods of gales when cold fronts come through. Keep in mind that the central Melbourne climate is not necessarily indicative of the entire Melbourne metro area. For example the wettest parts of the Dandenong ranges receive up to 1400mm of rain a year, contain pockets of temperate rainforest and have similar average temps to London thanks to the elevation. Areas to the west of Melbourne on the other hand are bordering on semi arid (in the driest areas around Werribee) due to a rain shadow from the Great Divide and can get extremely hot when the strong northerly winds come through in summer as they are in lee of the mountains and hills of the Great Divide and are under the influence of a Foehn effect on these days. Areas on the Great Divide to the north of Melbourne are also quite wet (700-1400mm a year) and also have similar average temps to southern England, sometimes receive snow down to as low as 400-500m above sea level and can suffer frosts with temps down as low as -7C in winter. Some towns on the ranges near Melbourne rarely get above 10C during the winter months. Overall though there is enough pleasant weather through the year to compensate for the unpleasant stuff.

There are two types of people in Australia today who use the old fashioned slang terms; -Working class people, especially from remote rural areas -Tossers attempting to dumb themselves down (a common trait in an anti-intellectual country which sadly Australia falls into the category of.) I have barely used an Australian slang term in my life (born and bred Australian). I don't even say G'day or mate, in fact it makes me cringe to hear people say it. Intelligent and educated people very rarely use Australian slang. As for the 'Americanisms' these are becoming disturbingly common. I have even heard people on the news, including politicians and professors using terms such as 'good to go' and 'from the get go'. :embarrassed:

The game of soccer is not popular among ordinary Australians despite what some may try to tell you. The Rugby codes and Australian Rules football dwarf it in popularity. I couldn't tell you where the nearest club to my place is and I'm not far from Melbourne. The extreme lack of depth is a major issue. We have had a handful of good players in recent years and they fluked a relatively good result in the 2006 World Cup. Beyond that there is no one of note who is truly up to international standard. They will be annihilated in the upcoming World Cup, but at the end of the day few in Australia will really care.

The Liberals have always lacked tact when it comes to diplomacy with Indonesia. Howard seriously rubbed them up the wrong way as well. Labour Australian governments tend to have much better relationships with Asian countries' governments. The Libs tend to treat them as overt threats and in a patronising manner, which for a country like Indonesia who were repressed by Dutch colonialism until relatively recently and are fiercely nationalistic as a result, certainly find hard to swallow. The big problem with Indonesia/Australian relations is the disparity between the two cultures. Indonesia is the largest muslim country in the world, they harbor a multitude of terrorists and terror groups who have specific interests against Australians and Australia of which the Bali bombing was a direct result. Australia doesn't trust them and vice versa and that's where the spying comes in. If you've ever been over there, especially to Java, you would find there is a huge amount of resentment and mistrust of Australians among the people in the street. I was over there in 1997 as part of a school trip and was constantly harassed in the street, being asked if I was Australian in a sinister way and members of our group were called, '*@%*$ Aussies' because we refused to buy the fake watches and stuff they were trying to sell. Definitely racially motivated and nationalistic. Australia can never be 'friends' with Indonesia, all the two nations can ever hope for is basic cooperation. It's a little similar to how the USA feels about Cuba and Mexico and vice versa.

I think society is starting to discover that anti depressants aren't all that great to be honest. People I know who have been on them have reported a very uncomfortable feeling akin to a 'zombie' like state unable to feel a normal range of emotions. They have their purpose when it comes to people who are suicidal or completely unable to function and carry out necessary day to day activities, but when it comes to most cases of depression they do nothing to tackle the underlying causes, i.e. the distorted thinking patterns, self defeating attitudes, excessive sensitivity to rejection from others etc. that lead to ultimate feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. The most effective treatments, scientifically proven over more than half a century, are the 'talking' therapies, eg. Cognitive Behavioural therapy and Rational Emotive Behavioural therapy. Psychologists and Psychiatrists that are trained in these therapies are widespread in the community however I can imagine GPs not referring patients to these therapists. It seems a trip to the GP rarely results in an outcome not invoving some sort of drug being prescribed.

Malmsbury botanic gardens in central VIC, last weekend. The town of Malmsbury-

Melbourne is a very different city to what it was 50 years ago. A lot of fantastic buildings and whole streetscapes demolished to make way for modern international style buildings and skyscrapers. It used to be one of the worlds greatest Victorian era cities. Only pockets of noteworthy Victorian architecture remain in the city today, enough to be significant but nothing like it once was. Look up some older pictures of Melbourne to get an idea of what it used to look like... I wouldn't say Melbourne is bland at all, geographically it may be a little but not in terms of the city's atmosphere. It has extremely eclectic architecture from multiple eras (since around 1840), contains some fantastic Victorian era commercial and government buildings, terrace housing and Italianate style mansions in the suburbs and is probably the most horticulturally significant city in Australia on account of its parks and gardens. It also is very well developed in terms of 'cultural' elements, eg. festivals, live music scene, theatre, arts etc. I guess there is nothing much for people traveling from the other side of the world in terms of 'marquee' attractions, but that's not what Melbourne is all about. It's just a really nice place to be around in between all the real hectic tourist stuff.

The early settlers went crazy introducing birds from around the world, mainly Europe, to Australia. Blackbirds, sparrows, starlings, indian mynahs and goldfinches are very common in south eastern Australia. I must admit that the Blackbird song at dawn is magnificent. During spring here it is prominent. Australia has a very diverse range of songbird species. The best of these would have to be the grey shrike thrush, pied butcherbird, magpie, and lyrebird. I find that some of the most magnificent dawn choruses are in the outback areas and semi arid zones of Australia where many of the birds have haunting songs and calls.

The recent 11 days in a row below 20C max in Melbourne was actually the longest stretch this late in the year since December 1963 (or something like that). Further inland in the hills it was even colder. Ballarat had 6 of those days below 15C and four days 13C and below as well as a 0C minimum on the 25th. Overall it was only a little below average across the southern half of the state for maximum temps thanks to some warmer weather in the first half of the month. October is not necessarily a warm month in Melbourne. By December it should be consistently warm with just the odd cool day.

I was up around Cairns in August and it was pretty dry around there and there appeared to be a lot of burnt out vegetation around the place, I'm not sure if they were wildfires or fuel reduction burning. I can imagine it's a very different story in January though. A lot of the most bushfire prone areas in NSW and VIC are actually wet forest with tree ferns and mountain ash and pockets of temperate rainforest with soft leaved species. The main problem is when it dries out in summer and you get the searing winds from the desert about 2000km away (which only happens on the odd day). The eucalypts are full of highly flammable oils, similar to pine oil that combust very readily. There aren't that many eucalypts up in the north eastern tropics which reduces the risk of fires.