Please do not feed the possums...the Melbourne Museum and around

"Please do not feed the possums.."

A sign said that in Fitzroy gardens today. For sheer novelty value you cant beat possums invading your local park. Its one of those touches which make Australia, well...Australia I suppose.

It ticks all the right boxes - shopping, cafe culture, skscrapers, nightlife, clean streets, good weather in the summer but it needs somethign unique to lift it into the realm of world supercities.

To be frank Melbourne needs some exoticism. It needs something distinctive - it needs something to make the city stand out. Its a very "nice" city but not an outstanding one. I'm not sure I'd travel thousands of miles just to sit it on its own. I dont get that feeling I love I got when wandering the streets of Madrid, Prague or Salvador the first morning. It ticks all the right boxes - shopping, cafe culture, skyscrapers, nightlife, clean streets, good weather in the summer but it needs that something unique to lift it into the league of world superciites. Sydney has the harbour, if not the harbour then the Opera House, if not the Opera House then Bondi. Melbourne needs something that shouts MELBOURNE!. Its not a natural tourist destination.

But then again after seeing Ayers Rock and hiking Kings Canyon was the next destination always going to be a little bit lacking? The lack of food on the trip has made me a little weak and I got tired easily. So after breakfast at the Claremont which was vegemite on toast. Then to catch a train into the CBD to have a look around. Where Melbourne really excels is its infrastructure. A network of trains and trams serve the city cheaply and efficiently I tested it that Monday morning joining the crowds on South Yarraplatform in the cold and rain. There was something familiar about waiting withthe other commuters and how could I not contrast this with 36 degrees at Kata Tjuica a few days ago.

The train took the loop into the CBD and I got off at Flinders Street. Melbourne itself is meant to be a Victorian city, it is but also is overwhelmed by skyscrapers and glass office buildings so the Victorian architure is often absorbed. But where the two happily coexist is at FlindersStreet station/Federation Square. The station is the most memorable building in Melbourne withits dome and canary yellow facade. Across the street is the whippersnapper on its heels - Federation Square. It does give Melbourne a focus. It a metallic puzzle of a square of titanium buildings with weird angles made out of zinc or sandstone. The whole thing glistens in the rain. Perhaps I am wrong - Melbourne does have distinctive attractions.

Then I checked out swanky Collins Street whose attributes are said to resemble Park Lane or Fifth Avenue. This is where Gucci and Chanel hold court giving it a sophisticated air. Gold embossed signs advertised exclusive hotels. At the end were the heavy Victorian buildings the city is famous for and beyond that was the first of the cities parks. Melbourne has many parks - one of the things that give it the moniker "most liveable city in the world". This one is very English, great sweeping lawns broken by palms and cycads. Captain Cooks cottage looked very quaint - looking very at home on a wet Melbourne day.

North onto Victoria Parade is the parkland of Carlton Gardens. The Royal Exhibtion Hall overlooks it and behind it is the Museum of Melbourne. I often find that a city is more accessible through its museums. The hordes of Melbournian schoolkids did not put me off this huge glass and steel building. The selling point was a whole temperate forest on the lower level. Glass celings threw natural light onto soaring trees, natural black earth and gurgling stream beds. There were small beds containing indigenous snakes and spiders.

It was the second level which interested me. Melbourne grew up quickly in the 1840s on the proceeds of the nearby gold rush. It was one of the great success stories of the 19th century - an egalitarian eden at the end of the world. The fifties exhibtion fascinated me as thats when it got the Olympics. There was an exhibtion on Melbourne suburbia. That strange place that threw up Dame Edna Everage. It also had the set from the soap opera "Neighbours" and an attached script. I'm not sure if that was wise as all the pauses and contractions were written in and I thought it was just bad acting.

As a museum I didnt learn all that much about Melbourne and came away a little bit disapointed. i think Melbourne is going to be rewarding but those rewards must be sought for.

And I have four days to do it.