As Neighbours returns to UK screens this week, the soap’s setting, Melbourne, is having a moment
Neighbours: a New Chapter New episodes Mon—Thu Amazon Freevee
Matt Charlton - 15 September 2023
I arrive in Melbourne on a sunny Labour Day weekend – a public holiday in the state of Victoria – which also coincides with the city’s annual Moomba music festival. The steep inclines of the main streets and the bustling side alleys of this uniquely European-feeling Australian city are teeming. Which all makes sense when I learn later that Melbourne has now overtaken Sydney as the most populous city in Australia.
Still, ask any Brit of a certain age what springs to mind at the mention of Melbourne, and they’ll probably respond by naming a TV soap synonymous with a just-got-in-from-school, pre-Six O’Clock News vibe, where next door was only a footstep away. Set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough,
Neighbours returns to our screens this week, rescued by Amazon’s Freevee streaming service after Channel 5 decided to pull UK funding for the series. The show has always been more popular here than in Australia, even in the halcyon days of Scott, Charlene, Mrs Mangel and Bouncer.
It’s time, then, to get to know Melbourne again and explore the city to which viewers will be returning – a place of coffee, culture, cricket and more coffee.
I start the day, like most people in Melbourne, with a sizeable injection of caffeine. The city has been at the centre of Australia’s thriving coffee scene for years, and while Sydney may lay claim to the invention of the flat white, Melbourne has upped the game with “magic coffee”, a mixture of ristretto (a short espresso) and steamed milk. Despite the name, there are no hallucinogens involved – unless you count caffeine – and it is, if you will, the perfect blend.
There are many places to find great coffee – it’s taken very seriously here – but join the queue at Lune at least once for a magic coffee and almond croissant from what’s been called Melbourne’s best crois-santerie.
Sport is also a serious business here, so I head across the river to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, known as “the G”. As well as hosting Aussie Rules football, rugby and concerts, the G is home to the Australian Sports Museum, and access to this is included if you book a walking tour of the cricket ground as part of a group. I wander the hallowed halls with my fellow tourists, gazing, in awe, at people who enjoy cricket.
All this competitiveness needs to be balanced with some culture. The National Gallery of Victoria is a short and sunny walk through Melbourne Park, with a permanent collection of more than 75,000 works that spans the history and development of Australian, Indigenous and international art, design and architecture.
Speaking of Indigenous, since I last visited Australia 20 years ago, the marked change in how its society embraces the Indigenous population is striking. This is not only reflected in the gallery, but in every tour, cultural event and flag location. But Neighbours only cast its first Indigenous actor in 2014 (Meyne Wyatt), so there’s still a long way to go.
Melbourne’s incredible restaurant culture reflects the diversity of the immigrant population, from straight-up Brit fare and high-end Italian to Asian fusion. Chin Chin – if you can get in – is the spot to make for above all others. Located on the buzzy Flinders Lane (off which you’ll find AC/DC Lane, in tribute to the Aussie rock band), the Asian-inspired food and assault-on-the-senses atmosphere offer a true Melbourne experience.
Further out of the city centre is the hip district of Collingwood. With its street food, bars, quirky shops and café scene, it’s definitely worth the tram ride – but even further out is Pin Oak Court, one of the most consistent actors in Neighbours, as it plays Ramsay Street.
Neighbours tours used to run here; they’re currently on hold, but it’s hard to believe they won’t start up again. You don’t need to see Pin Oak Court itself, though: in the Melbourne suburbs, every cul-de-sac is a Ramsay Street, with bungalows on stilts sitting above lush plant life on pristine roads. It’s really why Pin Oak Court was chosen. It was the sort of street every suburban Australian would recognise and with which every viewer could identify.
Melbourne has that feel, too – that you can be who you want to be, and subsume yourself in the way of life offered in a city so thriving that the buzz spills over to the suburbs, along with the coffee beans.
I arrive in Melbourne on a sunny Labour Day weekend – a public holiday in the state of Victoria – which also coincides with the city’s annual Moomba music festival. The steep inclines of the main streets and the bustling side alleys of this uniquely European-feeling Australian city are teeming. Which all makes sense when I learn later that Melbourne has now overtaken Sydney as the most populous city in Australia.
Still, ask any Brit of a certain age what springs to mind at the mention of Melbourne, and they’ll probably respond by naming a TV soap synonymous with a just-got-in-from-school, pre-Six O’Clock News vibe, where next door was only a footstep away. Set in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough,
Neighbours returns to our screens this week, rescued by Amazon’s Freevee streaming service after Channel 5 decided to pull UK funding for the series. The show has always been more popular here than in Australia, even in the halcyon days of Scott, Charlene, Mrs Mangel and Bouncer.
It’s time, then, to get to know Melbourne again and explore the city to which viewers will be returning – a place of coffee, culture, cricket and more coffee.
I start the day, like most people in Melbourne, with a sizeable injection of caffeine. The city has been at the centre of Australia’s thriving coffee scene for years, and while Sydney may lay claim to the invention of the flat white, Melbourne has upped the game with “magic coffee”, a mixture of ristretto (a short espresso) and steamed milk. Despite the name, there are no hallucinogens involved – unless you count caffeine – and it is, if you will, the perfect blend.
There are many places to find great coffee – it’s taken very seriously here – but join the queue at Lune at least once for a magic coffee and almond croissant from what’s been called Melbourne’s best crois-santerie.
Sport is also a serious business here, so I head across the river to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, known as “the G”. As well as hosting Aussie Rules football, rugby and concerts, the G is home to the Australian Sports Museum, and access to this is included if you book a walking tour of the cricket ground as part of a group. I wander the hallowed halls with my fellow tourists, gazing, in awe, at people who enjoy cricket.
All this competitiveness needs to be balanced with some culture. The National Gallery of Victoria is a short and sunny walk through Melbourne Park, with a permanent collection of more than 75,000 works that spans the history and development of Australian, Indigenous and international art, design and architecture.
Speaking of Indigenous, since I last visited Australia 20 years ago, the marked change in how its society embraces the Indigenous population is striking. This is not only reflected in the gallery, but in every tour, cultural event and flag location. But Neighbours only cast its first Indigenous actor in 2014 (Meyne Wyatt), so there’s still a long way to go.
Melbourne’s incredible restaurant culture reflects the diversity of the immigrant population, from straight-up Brit fare and high-end Italian to Asian fusion. Chin Chin – if you can get in – is the spot to make for above all others. Located on the buzzy Flinders Lane (off which you’ll find AC/DC Lane, in tribute to the Aussie rock band), the Asian-inspired food and assault-on-the-senses atmosphere offer a true Melbourne experience.
Further out of the city centre is the hip district of Collingwood. With its street food, bars, quirky shops and café scene, it’s definitely worth the tram ride – but even further out is Pin Oak Court, one of the most consistent actors in Neighbours, as it plays Ramsay Street.
Neighbours tours used to run here; they’re currently on hold, but it’s hard to believe they won’t start up again. You don’t need to see Pin Oak Court itself, though: in the Melbourne suburbs, every cul-de-sac is a Ramsay Street, with bungalows on stilts sitting above lush plant life on pristine roads. It’s really why Pin Oak Court was chosen. It was the sort of street every suburban Australian would recognise and with which every viewer could identify.
Melbourne has that feel, too – that you can be who you want to be, and subsume yourself in the way of life offered in a city so thriving that the buzz spills over to the suburbs, along with the coffee beans.
MATT CHARLTON