Victoria Culture & Language

Melbourne takes its culture as seriously as other cities take business. Coffee is a craft with strong opinions, the laneways carry a street-art scene that is officially tolerated and constantly repainted, and the live music circuit is among the densest anywhere.

Australian Rules football was invented here and the loyalties are tribal, inherited and suburb-based. A winter Saturday at the MCG explains more about the city than any museum.

The migrant inheritance is on the plate and in the street names: Lygon Street Italian, Victoria Street Vietnamese, Oakleigh Greek — none of them curated for visitors.

Aboriginal culture is increasingly visible in public life, with Kulin place names, Welcome to Country and a state treaty process that is further advanced than anywhere else in the country.

English is universal. Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, Mandarin and Arabic are all widely spoken in Melbourne, several of them across three generations.

Kulin languages — Woiwurrung, Boonwurrung and others — are being revived, and appear in dual-named parks and rivers across the state.

Local usage worth knowing: the G is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a parma is a chicken parmigiana at a pub, potato cakes are what the rest of the country calls potato scallops, and a hook turn is a real traffic manoeuvre rather than a joke.