Why Melbourne is the best place to live in Australia

• The maritime climate means four definite seasons. My favourite season in Melbourne is Autumn, though.
• we dress better (not necessarily me), the cooler weather means, cooler clothes
• CBD streetscape - architecture, arcades, laneways, public spaces like Federation Square, wide streets, easy grid pattern to find your way around
• sense of humour (Melbourne is the home of Barry Humphries), Melbourne Comedy Festival
• live music scene
• trams 
• sporting venues and events - AFL Grand Final, Australian Open, The Melbourne Cup
• best theatre venues - grand old theatres have been restored, not demolished
• restaurants - multicultural mix
• Southbank Arts precinct
• parks and gardens
• fabulous post-Gold Rush Victorian architecture - Treasury Buidling, Parliament House, State Library, Exhibition Buildings
• edgy shopping precincts in inner suburbs - Fitzroy, South Yarra, Richmond, South Melbourne
• Melbourne International Airport (Tullamarine) is the best in the country. Domestic and international terminals are combined. Compare the chaos of connecting from international to domestic terminals in Sydney.
• Melbourne (like Brisbane) is a city where freeways actually go somewhere, not terminate in suburbia like Sydney's M2.

Whatever happened to "ockers"?

It's a term you don't hear a lot now. Remember John Meillon's Wally Stiller character, Ted Bullpit - the urban ocker from Kingswood Country, Crocodile Dundee, Hoges & Strop or the female equivalent - the "You tell 'em love" housewife portrayed hilariously by the late and great Dawn Lake? Shit that's a long sentence - as an ex-teacher, I should be shot.
Ockerism is not about class, whereas the term bogan is. John Singleton (Singo is a Sydney ocker) and John Elliott (Melbourne) cultivated the ocker personae.
I recently watched The Adventures of Barry MacKenzie again. My, how we have changed. Now the Australian media is full of "new age guys" like Adam Hills, Wil Anderson and Charlie Pickering. Which is a good thing. Good role models for the Gen Y.
The satirical sting when out of Sir Les Patterson about a decade ago. No wonder Barry Humphries retired last year.


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