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Guide slaps 'city of cardigans'
September 24, 2006 12:00am
THE new Lonely Planet travellers' guide to Melbourne accuses its inhabitants of being racist and obsessed with money and sport.
Melbourne also has a dig at many city highlights and things Melburnians take for granted, including the Boxing Day Test, CBD hook turns at tramlines, meat pies, Moomba and the Yarra River.
And in a fashion gibe, the guide describes Melbourne as "a city of cardigan carriers".
Simone Egger, who worked in Melbourne bars and restaurants for a decade, is the main author of the $33.95 guide that will be available in more than 30 countries next month.
"Racism, as a symptom of fear, does exist. It's not helped by the media focusing on negative aspects of Islam," she writes.
Egger attacks Melburnians' alleged materialism: "The one common guiding lifestyle influence is money. It's a consumer society geared towards the pursuit and exhibition of relative wealth."
On the city's sporting traditions, she says: "Cynics snicker that sport is the sum of Melbourne's culture, though they're hard to hear above all that . . . air punching".
On meat pies: "If it's cold in the middle and so hot at the edge it brands your mouth with a burning insignia of questionable meat, you're sharing in a precious part of Australian cultural history."
On Moomba: "Trucks clumsily transformed by papier-mache into floats . . . while there are now more fast food vans than floats, this daggy festival is worth a look, if only for the birdman rally."
On the Yarra: "A brown river."
On the the Boxing Day Test: "The game moves at a slow pace. There are definite down times provoking the occasional seagull count."
In a section headed "Dining with Melbourne's mobsters", Egger writes: "In the culinary capital that is Melbourne, the food's to die for."
St Kilda is described as "seamy" and Fitzroy "has a Mediterranean bent, but mostly it's just bent".
When contacted, Egger said: "It's part of being Australian not to take yourself too seriously and to acknowledge your faults."
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Years ago as a backpacker I found the lonely planet guides were a great source of facts regarding the places I visit. Sounds like they're now full of leftie value judgements. I hope that foreigners aren't disappointed not to see any overt racism duing their stay. Though I will always applaud anyone whio brings those southern upstarts down a peg or two....
Posted by: Dave of Sydney 12:49pm today
Of course we all carry cardigans, who knows in ten minutes it might be winter. or spring or summer, we come prepared, just like the Londoners carry a brolly and a raincoat. She got one thing right, we like good food- take Macca's or HJ's or KFC or a dim sim or three from the local fish and chip shop. Our cafes have been taken over by foreign cuisine, there's French, Italian. Thai, Vietnamese,Greek, Lesbian, Turkish, Mexican, so many that its hard to find a cafe that prepares the traditional steak and onions with an egg or two. I can't think of any place I'd rather be. Melbourne Be In It.
Posted by: Bill Willis of Victoria 11:24am September 24, 2006
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