A River Runs Through It – The Skyline and the Yarra Southbank

The city sits at the north end of Port Phillip Bay, which is huge, so when I look out from buildings and see it, I can’t distinguish that it isn’t the ocean per se. They say it takes about an hour and a half drive to get from Melbourne, at the north end, to the southern tips of the bay. Not a Great Lake, but maybe bigger than a Lake St. Clair (North of Detroit, between Lake Erie and Lake Huron).

The City sits along the Yarra River, which flows out into the bay. Formerly a polluted industrial river that smelled so bad the mayor of Melbourne threatened to move out of his house nearby, it has been part of a huge cleanup project, not quite complete. It winds around the city and beyond, so it’s hard to say that things are north, south, east or west of the river in certain areas, but generally, the downtown (known as the central business district, or CBD), is north and a little west of the river. The Docklands, where I live, is at the southwest corner of the CBD, so I can walk to the Yarra in a couple minutes, and the Waterfront is a stone’s throw away.

From the Docklands, the River runs east-northeast, creating the southern border of the CBD (which is pretty much a rectangle, longer east and west than north and south). More recently, the skyline has advanced across the river, so it almost looks like two fortresses facing each other in battle, Lord of the Rings style, with huge central towers yielding to lower outposts, sloping into the lowest levels right before the River. Everything here is a competition, I think. There are more stadiums than I know what to do with. I’ll cover that in the future.



Because Melbourne is in constant competition with Sydney (though Sydney would never know it), architects and developers are always trying to outdo the Opera House, so all of the architecture is eclectic and interesting. Add to that the more historical, Victorian architecture, and you have a blend of more classical and modern architecture. And somehow, it works.

I’m not sure what it is, but just on the north side of the river, in the CBD, there is this old, ruddy Victorian building that runs about three blocks uninterrupted, and is about three to five stories high, with an old clock tower. Behind it sits taller, modern buildings, and an old Catholic church’s steeples. From the Southbank, we could see this, across the river, with bridges that are also some starved artist’s legacy, while trams darted back and forth across from the CBD through the Southbank, to the great beyond.



Usually, when I take a picture, I try to make it look as good as possible, which can sometimes lead to an impression that a place or thing is better than it is in reality (okay, I’m a novice, so this doesn’t always work). With Melbourne, I had trouble capturing some of the views we saw. We took a walk along the Southbank of the Yarra (it’s a shopping strip, similar to the idea behind Riverwalk Crossing, but much more integrated with the city, and not unusual in its architecture compared to the city). Think Chicago, where the river runs through the city, but with more parks, and the competing skylines. Strips of trails with palm trees and whatever maple/oak/willow equivalents they have here (I’m not a botanist), and through them you can see the river and the skyline. It was compelling.

Further south are the botanical gardens and other walks. I could only see them from afar, because we had to turn back around to head back to Federation Square, the tourist center of the city, and back to the Docklands for dinner.