MELBOURNE LETTER:The influx of Irish people to Melbourne may not yet be on a par with that in Sydney, but it is fast catching up
MELBOURNE IS beautiful, though it is mostly a man-made beauty; unlike Sydney, which got its good looks from nature and built on that. From Melbourne’s broad, European-like streets to its botanical gardens and several magnificent sports stadiums, it is a striking city.
It has a different feel, a different pace of life to the rest of Australia and the people seem more laid-back and at ease with themselves.
As is often the case with a more carefree environment, “alternative lifestyle” types abound. In four days we saw more comedy haircuts, ridiculous earrings and facial tattoos than you would see in any other Australian city in a year.
But we also saw something I had not seen in a long time; a grand stretch in the evenings. In Sydney, even at the height of summer, it is dark by 8.30. It starts to get dark at 8.25 and five minutes later it is pitch dark. There is no twilight.
Further south and further west, Melbourne gets about an extra 40 minutes of light and at least a hint of twilight. It wasn’t quite like an endless summer night in Dingle, but it was a nice surprise.
The city is rightly renowned for its trams. When cities around the world, including Dublin and Sydney, got rid of their trams in the 1950s to make more room for cars, Melbourne wisely kept its extensive network intact.
Fare dodging is a popular sport though, despite public transport being cheap – $7.60 (€6.18) gets you all-day transport within a roughly 10-kilometre radius of the city centre. Cost cutting saw all the tram conductors fired in the mid-1990s and the drivers do not take fares, so unless you have a pre-paid ticket it is up to you to pay at the onboard ticket machine. One day four ticket inspectors boarded our tram and about a quarter of the passengers suddenly remembered they needed to visit the ticket machine.
Earlier we had met a couple of Irishmen on a tram. One was working in construction while looking for a job in environmental science, while the other was visiting him from Co Clare.
Melbourne has not had the kind of influx of Irish people which has led to Sydney’s Bondi Beach being referred to as Co Bondi, but it is catching up. TV3 is currently shooting a documentary on Irish emigrants to Melbourne, having already finished one in Sydney.
A recent Irish arrival to Melbourne is former Shamrock Rovers assistant manager, and Northern Ireland international, Jim Magilton.
He was installed as manager of A-league side Melbourne Victory until the end of the season in March. The team had not been living up to the second part of its name very often this season, but as soon as Magilton arrived they won a game.
Both Victory and city rivals Melbourne Heart play home matches in AAMI Park, the first purpose-built rectangular sports stadium in a city obsessed with Australian Rules football, which is played on an oval.
Melbourne’s professional rugby and rugby league sides (Rebels and Storm respectively) also use AAMI Park in the winter, while the open pitch next door is used as a training ground by the Demons and Collingwood Australian Rules teams. My daughter and I saw Heart play (they lost for the first time in six games, but it was a great match) and saw the Demons train a couple of days later.
Dubliner Jim Stynes was a pioneer for Irish players in the Australian Football League when he moved to Melbourne. He left home in the mid-1980s aged 18 and had a hugely successful career at the Demons, becoming the only foreign player to win the Brownlow Medal, which is awarded annually to the league’s “fairest and best” player.
He also represented Australia against Ireland in the International Rules series, including playing against his brother Brian.
Since his retirement from the game Jim has continued to be an inspiration to Irish people in Australia. His youth and charity work, as well as his contribution to football, saw him get an Order of Australia medal in 2007.
He has just stepped down as president of the Demons after having a sixth operation to remove tumours from his brain.
The only sour note on our trip to Melbourne came in flying back to Sydney with Jetstar, a Qantas subsidiary whose first CEO was Dubliner Alan Joyce (he now holds the same role with the parent company).
Some of Jetstar’s staff has a customer service ethos which makes Ryanair look like Trans World Airlines in the days when flying was still considered glamorous. It was the first time I had ever flown with Jetstar and, barring a last-plane-out-of- Saigon-type situation, also the last.
