MELBOURNE: A CITY OF VILLAGES

"Melbourne is a fascinating city, wherever you live. You can read this city's history if you know where to look. From architecture to landscaping to infrastructure to public monuments to the faces of people on the street, Melbourne is a city that wears its history." Dale Campisi

How often do you rush through the city without ever really stopping to look up? Or look down? Next time, why not stand for a minute and imagine the footsteps taken before you on those same streets. Imagine the scene in 1880, where harried bankers rush past roadside newspaper salesmen and shoe shiners, dodging horses and carts rather than trams and couriers. Ladies meander past Georges rather than Myer, window shopping and dreaming of new finery. A different time, yes, but not such a different place.

Melbourne's history is a collection of stories; stories about places and events, stories about people from many different lands who came to Melbourne to build new lives, new futures, new communities that became villages. From the famous to the infamous, the celebrated to the forgotten, their stories created a marvellous city – one of the greatest in the world.

Written and researched by travel writer, blogger and Melbourne tour guide, Dale Campisi, MELBOURNE: A CITY OF VILLAGES is part guidebook, part history primer, visiting 50 historic villages, and using significant sites to tell Melbourne's stories. Inside you'll read about how convict William Buckley escaped to live with local Aboriginal people for 32 years, how John Batman discovered a little turning basin in the Yarra River in 1835, where Madame Brussels ran her notorious brothel, and where Kylie Minogue grew up.

Melbourne's villages are many and varied, each having evolved from their own unique history. Effectively built around the university, Carlton is the intellectual home of Melbourne; working class Fitzroy went bohemian in the 70s and is today renowned for its vast array of cafes, bars and restaurants; Collingwood is edgier, with a strong gay community; South Yarra remains flashy, and St Kilda now teems with backpackers, as Brunswick does with hipsters. Outside of the city, the Dandenong Ranges still delight day trippers, and Portsea remains the elegant holiday destination of Melbourne's elite.

A miscellany of fascinating stories and curious facts, wonderfully evocative photographs and intricate historical maps, MELBOURNE: A CITY OF VILLAGES is a beautiful and enlightening book to dip into again and again.

"This book is my view of how and why Melbourne was shaped and became the Melbourne it is today. There's a lot to explore in Melbourne's past and present. Let's take a look." Dale Campisi

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For the last 15 years or so Dale Campisi has made it his business to get to know Melbourne. At first it was just to find the right bar, cafe or restaurant for this or that occasion, but the city got under his skin.

Dale got his first look into the city's past during his Australian history studies at university, and went on to uncover some of its lesser-known stories as publisher of Arcade Publications' little books about the city's colourful past. For a time Dale worked at the Public Record Office, and now he blogs about the city and leads regular tours for Melbourne Central and Hidden Secrets Tours. He also produces the annual architecture event Open House Hobart. Over the years, he's written a number of travel guides to Victoria and Tasmania, most recently Hide & Seek Hobart and Melbourne Precincts. Dale does all this exploring with his partner Brady Michaels, whose photography illustrates this book. Soon they'll hit the road for a book about Australia.

MELBOURNE: A CITY OF VILLAGES - STORIES PAST AND PRESENT

Published by Hardie Grant Books RRP $49.95 hardback.
To view a selection of sample pages online please visit: http://issuu.com/exploreaustralia/docs/macov_e-blad