City Love Companions

Australia is a peculiar country and its capital city Canberra, even more so. The whole continent used to be split into independent British colonies. One day they decided they needed a centralized administration and so Australia became a “Commonwealth”. Something like the US with their federal government. What about a capital? Melbourne and Sydney were out of the question. Those two were in a state of constant petty rivalry. Australians decided they’d rather build themselves a brand-new city. Canberra was designed by two architects from Chicago; and what a design it was! They came up with a concept of a garden city built around an artificial lake. I think the blueprint looks like a temple complex, almost alchemical. I suppose you can just go wild if you’re building a capital from sc...

I know this sounds cynical, but I think all Australian cities are pretty much the same. Copy-pasted with their amazing weather, pristine nature, and over-the-top quality of life. Stunning coastline, wine, and even more great weather? Don’t mind me, I’m just a jealous European freezing my balls off in September. I wasn’t joking about the similarities between cities in Australia, though. Colonists arrive, subdue the natives, import convicts for free manual labour, and build settlements. There’s usually a gold rush somewhere in between. The Nightingale portrayed those times in a very grim way. I won’t spoil it, but it’s worth a watch to gain perspective on Australian history. “All’s well that ends well” I suppose and Perth turned out great. It’s known as the capital and th...

People call Brisbane the most boring city in Australia. I don’t think those people know what they’re talking about. Brisbane is far from boring, it’s ordinary. It is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. So be prepared to find stunning parks and urban beaches, great nightlife and art galleries, shopping and extraordinary nature outside of the city. Wildfires have recently been devouring that beautiful fauna and flora all across Queensland and New South Wales. The fire department is struggling to contain this disaster, but there’s only so little you can do against a raging inferno. It’s horror, especially all the photographs of animals. The bright side to this tragedy is that nature will heal and life will regrow. Trying to look at the bigger picture here, but I’m aware that it’s eas...

Melbourne and Sydney have a bit of a rivalry between them. Which one has better food, better wine, a better art scene and attracts more tourists? Or which one is the actual capital of Australia while the much smaller Canberra has been appointed as the official one? I have to say: Melbourne is more up my alley. The city was established in 1835 and became the centre of the Victoria region in 1851. There was one event in time that influenced Melbourne and shaped it into one of the most liveable cities on earth. The Victorian Gold Rush lasted only a couple of years but yielded almost 2,000.000 kg of gold. There’s always trouble where riches are to be had and Melbourne was no exception. The government decided to ship a bunch of convicts from Tasmania to police the miners. Then they decided th...

Sydney is the capital of New South Wales, on the continent of Australia. That’s right; it’s not the capital of Australia, as many people seem to think. “The Land Down Under” is split into states and each has its own centre of administration. I suppose they all need a shelter nearby with the infamous indigenous fauna. We’ve all seen those clips with spiders larger than a human torso, relaxing under a toilet seat. Kangaroos and koala bears; animals considered as “cute” can be a true pain in the ass. Especially koalas, those beasts are vicious. It looks like everything in Australia wants to kill you. But the aboriginal people don’t seem to be all that bothered. Weird, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s some kind of biblical plague; the land itself turning against the colonial invaders...