Background Info

• Late night shopping Wed, Thu, Fri. Many of the big stores are open 24 hr, and more are doing so each week. Most shops don't close until ~6pm, and there are a lot more shops that stay open strange hours.
• Guns are still illegal, but gun running is financially rewarding.
• After dark, street kids do _not_ cluster around Flinders St There have been rumours of graffitti artists 'falling' off trains or being killed while training surfing - but Met.Police deny them all.
• Outer Circle railway exists still. It runs from Hughesdale -> East Malvern -> Alamein ->Camberwell weekdays and Saturdays, and a sort of 'Puffing Billy' style ride from Alamein -> Hughesdale on Sunday.
• Public Transport in the city area is better, traffic is better. Less money is spent on roads in/out of the city. The City Bypass doesn't exist as such. ~15kms radius around the city, roads are good, outside that, they often need some work.
• Two train lines operate b/w Melbourne and Sydenee. Hume and Pacific lines. - Pacific is being upgraded to take the VFT, but is bogged down in arguments about gauge, pay conditions, environmental concerns, etc, etc. - Still have to change lines @ Albury/Woodonga to continue trip to Sydenee.
• Not as many of the 'Marvellous Melbourne' age (c. 1880's) buildings have been torn down for sky-scrapers - that sort of devlopment has moved across the river and Southgate/Casino area is even more devloped.
• Grollo's are more well-off and involved in building than ever. "Grollo Tower", a monstrous golden building, is in stage 1 of development. Other Grollo developments include many apartment-style housing blocks in the city-proper.
• Swanston Walk was found to be a flop and shortened. It is now only closed to cars from Collins -> Bourke -> Little Bourke, and it is closed to _all_ car traffic (like Bourke St is now)
• Vic Market is open nearly everyday, and till later.
• Churches tend to be a little more evangelical - more fire and brimstone and Judgementday is coming.
• The whole part'e and social set thing is larger and more glam. New Idea etc magasines sell like hotcakes - but unemployment is ~10%, homeless people sleep in the alleys and sidestreets all through the CBD, half the robberies in Melbourne are to finance drug habits.
• Amongst the beautiful people, homosexuality is gaining acceptance, but every week, a gay guy or girl turns up bashed to death in a back street in the suburbs.
• Geelong is even more of a country town than it is now. Higher population levels, worse conditions, higher unemployment rate. Things may, however, be on the up, as certain major companies seem interested in buying land cheap and developing it.
• Some suburbs are no-go areas after dark, even for groups of people. Dandenong, Broadmeadows, Coburg, Frankston all suffering from 'gang violence'
• Around Pt Melbourne area, there are many more abandoned buildings, especially of the shop & warehouse variety. This blight stretches up to the area near the westgate bridge...

I guess overall the impression I want to give is a Melbourne that is more shiny and glam, but that it is even more a surface sham, people frantically trying to distract themselves from how fucked the world is. They cling to groups that give them some security, whether that might be a gang, union, church or whatever. Shiny, flashing, impressive covering over a city made of concrete and pollution, pink, blue and green thinly spread over grey.