For most British visitors to Melbourne for the first time, the city feels instantly familiar. It’s everything you’d imagine: Aesop hand-washing, avocado on toast (big news; giant pretzels have overtaken sourdough as the staple of brunch), third-wave coffee culture, and a predominantly white population. Except, of course, that Australia has recently become a predominantly white country and places like Melbourne weren’t always cities.
There has been much debate in recent years about exactly whose country this is, and a movement to recognize the status of First Nations and Torres Straits Islander peoples.
Optics suggest change. In Sydney, the first gallery you encounter at the shiny new Sydney Modern Project is devoted to masterpieces and works by up-and-coming First Nations artists. In Melbourne, the country’s most liberal urban centre, tens of thousands of people march through the streets waving Aboriginal flags on Australia Day on January 26; Many Gen Z and Millennial natives are renaming this day as Invasion Day. Emotions may run high at times.
This year, a statue of Captain Cook was toppled over and its pedestal destroyed in the city. The incident comes just three months after a referendum failed to give the green light to an advisory body that would have given Indigenous Australians a permanent voice in parliament; However, many people on both sides agree that this is a fabricated proposal and campaign.
Many travelers only imagine Red Center, Uluru and the Outback when they think of First Nations culture, but the five original clans that made up the Kulin Nation lived in Naarm (Melbourne) and today’s city is full of surprises and the First National. culture. Today, many restaurants and hotels acknowledge, through plaques and websites, that they operate on lands belonging to a particular tribe, and that state sovereignty has – arguably – never been ceded on these lands.
Eating
If you do nothing else in Melbourne, go and eat things that are almost impossible to find on other continents. Many of the materials have been Aboriginal staples for centuries. At the highest level you’ll find Attica (00 61 3 9530 0111; attica.com.au) in Melbourne. Chef Ben Shewry took over here in 2015 and it’s constantly changing, always surprising. Right now, you’ll find a menu of barbecue saltwater crocodile ribs (“The chef recommends it to you with your fingers,” the waiter says when he arrives), reed dhal, emu liver toast, and green ants in your ice cream.
Attica is a four-hour, budget-busting AU$260 experience. For a taste of casual but equally extraordinary First Nations food, head to Big Esso (00 61 3 9121 0510; mabumabu.com.au) in Federation Square – the Torres Strait Islands equivalent of Nigella, founded by national treasure Nornie Bero and founder of Mabu Mabu cafe and grocery store. This is a bustling, bright pink restaurant on the land of the Wurundjeri People, serving charred emu and wild boar with native lemongrass and pig blood. An evening here will be as much fun as it is educational, and will cost around AU$80 per person with cocktails. (While you’re there, stop by the Koorie Heritage Trust, a wonderful, free-admission institution that showcases the work of modern First Nation artists.)
In the 1970s, the Builders Arms Hotel (00 61 3 9417 7700; buildersarmshotel.com.au), a swanky gastro pub now owned by restaurateur Andrew McConnell, was the only place serving Aboriginal customers in today’s trendy Fitzroy. McConnell and his team are proud of the building’s place in the history of the region and are working with the Yalinguth organization to keep the stories of the past alive at the Builders Arms to shape a new kind of all-inclusive future.
The latest First Nations kitchen opening in the city is Pawa in the Arts Center (pawacatering.com.au), which serves lilly pili croissants, strawberry gummies and kangaroo meat pies, as well as cocktails made using the kitchen’s own distilled Taka Gin.
Shopping
Australian Vogue constantly celebrates the work of First Nations designers, but they are often difficult to come by. Gammin Threads’ graphic print t-shirts are available at the aforementioned Big Esso, where sweatshirts retail for AU$99; Haus of Dizzy’s pop-art jewelry is stocked in several boutiques around the city.
Head to Ngali (00 61 3 9686 4550; ngali.com.au), meaning “we”, in Docklands for a super-chic store full of silk dresses (AU$395) patterned with works curated by Wiradjuri founder Denni Francisco . , then head to Brunswick to Dress The Gaps (00 61 413 344 590; Clothingthegaps.com.au). The store is so boldly painted in the black, red and yellow colors of the Aboriginal flag (as are the clothes inside) that it’s almost an art installation in itself.
When you enter, an assistant greets you and asks if you have been in before. NO? “Okay, so almost all sportswear is ‘ally friendly’, but the ‘Sovereign’ range of clothing over there is for ‘mafia only’.” (This means it is only for members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.)
Culture
One of the most fascinating experiences you’ll have in Melbourne is a First Nations guide tour of the Botanical Gardens. Overlooking the gardens in Melbourne, stay at United Places (from AU$650 per night, 00 61 3 9866 6467; Unitedplaces.com.au) at the boutique hotel, where a basket of breakfast is delivered to your room each morning. It’s one of the most modern and luxurious hotels in the city, with polished concrete and a simple magazine-style interior, with a Scott Pickett open-fire grill restaurant on the lower level.
After breakfast, sign up for the Botanical tour ($40), where a guide will tell you the history of the tribes that once lived around Naarm and show you the plants that can be found each day, while recreating a time before tower blocks. Basic staples, from stems that taste like peas to herbs that act as bandages to tender leaves that predate Andrex by centuries.
Head to the Melbourne Museum and Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Center (00 61 13 11 02; Museumsvictoria.com.au/bunjilaka), which has a permanent interactive exhibition about Koorie culture open daily ($15). As well as an extensive display of artwork and some great storytelling, there are also seasonal exhibitions; Through April 21, you can view Unfinished Business, a series of photographic portraits of individuals living with disabilities across the country.
You’ll already be at Big Esso for lunch and a visit to its neighbour, the Koorie Heritage Trust (00 61 8662 6313; koorieheritagetrust.com.au), but make sure you’ve booked one of the regular guided Birrarung Wilam (River Camp) walks. ($33), organized by the latter, covers sacred sites along the river and in surrounding neighborhoods, illuminating what the city was like when it was entirely Kulin Nation.
You should definitely make time for Melbourne, for the 90-minute drive north and a night’s stay at the vineyards of The Mitchelton (00 61 3 5736 2222; mitchelton.com.au; from $644 per night), the most luxurious lodge of its kind . close to the city. From the view to the basement door tastings, swimming pool and restaurant, everything is dreamy.
But the real reason to come is because it’s home to the largest First Nations art gallery in the country. It was nearly destroyed by the 2022 floods and many masterpieces were lost, but is now back up and running with a new, ever-changing and best-selling exhibition. This is not an over-the-top souvenir shop; Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri’s nearly minimalist, monochromatic work is in the collection of pundit and comedian Steve Martin and sells for tens of thousands of dollars.
Fundamentals
Mark C. O’Flaherty was a guest of Visit Victoria and Visit Melbourne.