Melbourne vs. Sydney
It seems that ever since the 1993 International Olympic Committee announced that Sydney were to host the 2000 Olympic Games, the Melbourne vs. Sydney debate has been rampant. Every few months our newspapers and online forums create headline-grabbing stories and encourage debate on which city is better and why.
In 1993 I was nine years old.
Can we all move on?
My Sunday Age this week ran a header that screamed ‘The Verdict – Sydney’s coffee is better’. Today I opened the Herald Sun to read about Melbourne’s elite restaurants being rejected by Gourmet Traveller’s annual awards in favour of Sydney establishments. Readers were encouraged the join the debate online.
I’ve gotta say, I’m a little over it, and I’m a lot bored.
Comparing Melbourne to Sydney is like comparing New York to Los Angeles – one city is renowned for its grittiness, its laneways and secret hideaways, its love of black and its incredible culture, and the other is renowned for its sunshine, its beaches, its laidback lifestyle, bronzed bodies and sexiness. I’m not suggesting that both elements don’t exist in both cities; I’m just merely repeating well-associated features of both. The point I’m trying to make? That people should stop comparing Melbourne to Sydney or vice versa – both cities are so different that no comparison can be drawn. It’d be like, as the old saying goes, comparing chalk to cheese. Black to white. Bert to Ernie.
I love Melbourne. Partly due to the fact that it is my hometown, but also because I honestly believe and know it is one of the best, most liveable cities in the entire world. I love Melbourne’s parks and gardens. I love the multiculturalism. I love Federation Square. I love that every week there is a festival, or five, ready and awaiting participation in. I love the beaches. I love the Dandenongs. I love the people. I love the shopping. And the food. And the weather. And the live music scene. And so much more.
Do I love Sydney? Not with the same passion as Melbourne, and not with the same familiarity, but I do. I love the North Shore. I love the seafood. I love the inner city areas and the arts scene. I love the Paddington Markets. I love the sun. I love the Blue Mountains. I love the vibe. I love looking out the window of the aeroplane when I’m getting ready to touchdown at Sydney Airport and seeing the amazing landscape, the clear blue waters, and that big, huge skyline that creates a city full of opportunity and hope. I love the food. And so much more.
I care not for which city is ranked in what position on some chart. I care not for which city houses the most creativity, or has the best restaurants, or the best views. What I care for is the lifestyle. And both cities have one that I’m happy to embrace.
I suspect that I’m not alone in my complete exhaustion from this trivial non-issue and debate. Is it possible for us to move on? To get over it? To stop polluting our newspapers with polls and reports? To realise that, as great as both cities are, there is also quite a lot more of Australia, and quite a few more cities to discover.
I believe that, much like Bert and Ernie, Melbourne and Sydney can’t exist without the other. Both cities offer similarities, but also vast differences, and that’s what makes the entire debate a farce. What continues to fuel newspaper headlines is the idea that, in some way, Melbourne and Sydney are actually alike. But they are not. And the sooner we realise that each city – complex in it’s own right, flawed in it’s own right, but incredibly wonderful too – is entirely independent of the other, the sooner we can all move on and appreciate what each city has to offer, without ripping and dissecting the heart out of it.
Now, who is up for a new debate? I say Hobart vs. Darwin. Get your claws out people…
Photo credits
reinn on Flickr
krossbow on Flickr
I think the following just about sums up the Melbourne vs. Sydney debate. YOU know your from Melbourne if… You pretend the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry doesn’t exist. Which it doesn’t. Because Sydney doesn’t care. And that really shits you.
(Taken from a Catherine Deveny’s column in The Age)
I too read Catherine’s recent article and had a chuckle, but she’s wrong. Sydney does care. Melbourne does care. And what I’m hoping is that we all get to that point – where the rivalry doesn’t exist and doesn’t matter. And where no one cares.
I’m with you Sandi (except for the preference for Melbourne, obviously!). I have my reasons for loving Sydney more but I don’t subscribe to the “I’m right, you’re wrong” mentality. It’s just a matter of taste so why not celebrate the diversity?
And I vote for Darwin over Hobart
I’m glad there is someone out there that doesn’t.
I can’t name the amount of Sydney friends I have itching to move to Melbourne, but I also can’t name the amount I have making the move to Sydney. Why? Because they want to. Because they like the city.
You’re right – it’s all a matter of taste, lifestyle and preference. But as a friend said to me earlier today, “how lucky are we to have two brilliant, diverse cities in the one country?” Very lucky, I’d say.
Melbourne cares enough to actually have a monument to Sydney-Melbourne rivalry. See:
http://www.whitehat.com.au/Melbourne/Buildings/7Monuments.asp
That’s hilarious. Very obscure ‘monument’. I can’t help but wonder how many people actually know of its existence?
At least 10,000. That’s how many subscribe to the weekly White Hat newsletter where this monument was listed. It’s very Melbourne and great fun, so Sydmney people wouldn’t understand it. It took me several months reading of it after arriving from Brisbane to hook into the Melbourne style.