Skyline of Melbourne, home to many migrants from round the world

What to Enjoy in Melbourne

By Rebecca Santaera and Alberta Miculan

For six years in a row, Melbourne Australia has been ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the “most liveable city” in the world. It’s no surprise therefore that last year almost 100,000 people moved to Melbourne and more than 8 million visited this invigorating metropolis at the bottom of Down Unda. Australian migration agency Migration Ways is proud to have assisted many tourists, students, partners, employees, and migrants obtain Australian visas so they can come to Melbourne. Let’s take a selective look at just a sample of the great attractions that the Mighty M has to offer you.

Melbourne is Australia’s smorgasbord

This capital of the state of Victoria has more than 5,000 restaurants and cafes, making it per capita the highest number in the world. This truly multicultural city has a vast assortment of cuisines and dining experiences on offer, from the world famous “Little Italy” of Lygon Street to your local beach fish and chip shop to countless pubs with a tasty array of “pub grub.”

Many of Melbourne’s pubs were built in the 1880s-90s, when Melbourne was the richest city in the world. Victoria has almost 1,100 pubs and bars, with downtown Melbourne alone (the 3000 postcode) having 67. Ranging from working class havens to posh low light establishments, these pubs and bars offer an incredible range of lager and ale and tasty tucker.

Everything from traditional British pub delights like bangers and mash and shepherd’s pie to all things Mexican and Asian. Tempting Greater Melbourne foodie districts include the Spanish eateries of Johnston Street, the Indian nosh houses of Dandenong, the Turkish and Lebanese food joints on Sydney Rd, the Vietnamese cafes of Victoria Street in Richmond, and Chinatown at Little Bourke Street. Melbourne is one of the food capitals of the world with something seductive for every palate.

Brunetti – An Italian Style Cafe in Carlton, Melbourne

Melbourne offers a polyglot of cultural experiences

A quarter of the city’s 4.35 million population was born overseas. Melbourne is well-known as having the largest Greek population in the world, outside of Greece itself. But as a migrant magnet for many years, Melbourne is now home to 140 cultures. It has, just to name a few, vibrant Jewish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and South American communities. Italians make up Melbourne’s second largest ethnic group (the first being Anglo-Celtic), while the city is also home to the largest Indian population in Australia. More recently, migrants have come from Somalia and Sudan.

Melbourne also offers a plethora of arts based cultural experiences, from traditional Irish music at pubs to a host of museums and music happenings. Check out Melbourne local history at the Melbourne Museum, hands-on science at Scienceworks, and Australia’s envious sport history at the National Sport Museum. Melbourne has bounteous top notch music on offer, including the latest Broadway musicals, the respected Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and three opera companies. The city’s clubs, pubs, and basements ring with live jazz, Latin, and country music, and all styles of rock, earning Melbourne the title of Australia’s music capital.

Collins St: The Block Arcade

Melbourne boasts copious leisure areas and activities

Melbourne brims with parks, gardens, beaches and even has its own river (the Yarra) flowing down its centre. Don’t miss the Royal Botanical Gardens and its 50,000 plants and the 169 hectares of Royal Park with its timbers, grasslands, and sport fields. The city also claims picturesque downtown laneways bursting with European-styled cafes with tables on the footpaths. Enjoy the buskers or peruse the street art of Hosier Lane. Stroll the elegant Royal and Block Arcades of yesteryears, then feast more on Victorian period wonders at the Royal Exhibition Building and the grand Collins Street. This city has everything, even 50 vinyl record stores for the retro or hip inclined.

Melbourne is infected with sports madness

Often called the sports capital of Australia, Melbourne boasts world class soccer, cricket, cycling and many other sports, particularly its homegrown religion, Australian Rules football.

Of course, Melbourne is the home of the Australian Open Tennis Championship every January and the Grand Prix each March. It houses “The G” (the Melbourne Cricket Ground or MCG), whose 100,000-seating capacity makes it the largest stadium in the country. Did we mention the Melbourne Cup, the 6-million- dollar horse race that stops a nation and has itsown public holiday? Nuff said. Don your hat, splash on your sun cream and get out there!

Eureka Tower Melbourne

Melbourne is an architectural feast

Founded in 1835 and now covering 9,990 square kilometres, Melbourne exhibits architecture from almost all its history. From classic Victorian era bluestone buildings, to 1930s art deco cinemas, to contemporary skyscrapers. Downtown flaunts the modern Eureka Tower, “the second-tallest residential building in the world,” and the Rialto Towers glass skyscraper. Visit the imposing Shrine of Remembrance, the funky (okay weird) ACMI building and FederationSquare, and the regal St. Paul’s Cathedral. Art Deco buildings abound, but don’t miss the Manchester Unity Building on the corner of Swanston and Collins. For the industrial-minded, check out the incredible Coops Shot Tower, now the core of Melbourne Central shopping centre. The classic elegance of the Williamstown waterfront and its main streets of eateries and shops are also a must see.

State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

Melbourne offers work and study

Australia has not had an economic recession in 25 years and in 2015-2016 Melbourne’s economy grew 4.4 percent. One immense growth industry in Australia and Melbourne has been education services. Melbourne, for example, has nine universities, with Melbourne University currently ranked the best in the country. Melbourne “Uni” hosts 12,000 international students from 130 countries and each year more than 500,000 visitors study in the city. After the U.S., Australia is the second most popular destination in the world for international students, with Chinese and Indians being the two most numerous nationalities studying here.

If you are contemplating visiting Australia, do come to our premier cultural city to eat, stare, and cheer. And remember that Migration Ways is here to advise and help you obtain your visa to visit, live, work or study in The Mighty M. We’ll even speak American, Spanish, and Italian to help you. Viaggia sereno nelle nostre mani!

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Rebecca Santaera and Alberta Miculan are the owners and directors of Migration Ways, one of Melbourne’s leading migration agencies. Between them, Rebecca and Alberta have more than 30 years of experience working in the migration field. Learn more about their service via https://migrationways.com.au/ , +61 3 9994 2707, and   Ask our expert migration specialists about working visas for Australia.

Contact Migration Ways and book a consultation with one of our registered migration specialists.

Read this helpful information for living in Australia and Melbourne.