Waverley Park was a symbol of, and a contributor to, the shift of the locus of power within the Victorian, later Australian, Football League from the clubs to the league, a change whose consequences are still being felt in 2000. The stadium reflected an Australian tradition of multi-sports facilities despite its genesis in Australian Rules, both in its conception and subsequent development. Waverley Park played a significant role in the development of post-war Australian football, cricket and baseball. In April 2000 it was nominated for the Victorian Heritage Register by the City of Greater Dandenong (Hay et al.). Waverley reflected also a major geographic shift, taking the game away from the traditional inner urban areas to outlying suburbs where a more affluent society with discretionary income and tastes was increasingly located. As Hay and his colleagues advise, "This was a society that could drive to games and spend on facilities, food and drink and merchandise, much though some traditionalists might regret it. Waverley, in the motor age, began to attract (often reluctant) spectators from as far away as Geelong, nearly two hundred kilometres by road to the west, which played some of its 'home' games at VFL Park" (p. 158). Beyond the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, people from the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland increasingly considered the stadium to be even more accessible than central city or suburban venues; while there is a great deal of publicity regarded the trend to inner-city living and the potential for 'theatre-going' sports audiences in central Melbourne, for some time to come the spectator base in the eastern half of Victoria will be very substantial (Hay et al.).

According to Crozier (2003), the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne is Australia's oldest political studies department. This author reports, "It had its origins in the groundbreaking efforts of William Macmahon Ball during the 1930s, culminating in the establishment of a dedicated program in Political Science in 1939. Macmahon Ball ('Mac Ball' or simply 'Mac') was appointed foundation professor of Political Science in 1949" (Crozier, p. 8). The University's Department of Political Science enjoys a long tradition of research and training, formative work on Australian politics, international relations, political sociology and political psychology, as well as other influential areas in Australia's history. As Crozier points out, "Academics and alumni from the Department have gone on to become prominent figures in the academy in Australia and overseas, in public affairs and politics at all levels, in the print and electronic media, and in public controversy across the decades" (p. 8).

Beautifully located on the southern bank of the Yarra River in Melbourne, Crown Towers sets the benchmark for luxury hotels in Australia. Lavishly appointed and offering an impeccable standard of customer service and attention to detail, Crown Towers is a hotel that truly understands the meaning of opulence. All of Crown Towers' 482 plush and well-appointed oversized guest rooms feature postcard-perfect views to the city or Port Phillip Bay and offer guests a world-class level of comfort and finish; in addition, every room has the latest in room technology including a 42-inch plasma television (Crozier).

Located just a short stroll from Melbourne's Central Business District and boasting flexible, purpose built meeting and conference facilities, Crown Towers enables visitors to conduct business in comfort and style. For those wanting to relax, hotel guests have access to the spectacular Crown Spa, the culinary delights of our superb signature restaurants and the amazing Crown Entertainment Complex with its cinemas, nightclubs, bars, shopping, indoor entertainment theme park and the 24-hour excitement of the world renowned Crown Casino.

Few hotels in the world can match this level of opulence and excitement. As Crozier enthuses, "If you're seeking luxury in Melbourne, Crown Towers is the hotel for you. Crown Towers recently won the Australian Tourism Awards for Luxury Accommodation -- one of the highest honours in the Australian Tourism industry. Finalists were winners of the State and Territory Tourism Awards (Crown Towers won the Victorian Tourism Award for Luxury Accommodation and was inducted into the Hall of Fame after winning the award for 3 consecutive years)" (and the winners are..., 2007, p. 20).

Memory and Place.

Many visitors to Melbourne will remember their shopping experience above many of the other attractions available to them because of the vast diversity of brick-and-mortar retail facilities available. As Berry and McGreal point out, "Melbourne has one of the highest levels...

239). Whilst the CBD commands the highest rents in its prime core (reflecting the limited size of the retail core and the very large CBD daytime population), the relative yields are indicative of the risks associated with the outlook for CBD retailing generally in Australia. The trend towards enclosed suburban centres has placed pressure on the viability of the CBD. Melbourne City Council, like many other city authorities around the world, has implemented the familiar programmes of pedestrianisation, CBD periphery car parking provision, retail heart regeneration, focused marketing, executive management teams and so forth in an endeavour to revitalise the CBD retail core; however, these initiatives have experienced varying degrees of success thus far (Berry & McGreal).
The renovation of the Carlton brewery facility into a prime piece of real estate just makes good sense. In this regard, Berry and McGreal emphasize, some types of vacant properties are more amenable to renovation into public places today. According to these authors, "In contrast to industrial property, the demand for shopping centres and office buildings in abandoned industrial sites is very strong. According to these authors, investors in Taipei City took advantage of an abandoned beer brewery's location and historical value to increase the return on their investment ten-fold. "One key project, Jin-Hua Shopping Centre," Berry and McGreal advise, "was the redevelopment of a large derelict beer brewery (7.8 hectares) into a modern shopping centre. Its land price after rezoning for commercial use was about U.S.$100,000/m2" (p. 96).

According to Ryan (2003), "Melbourne became marvellous in 1885, when George Augustus Sala appealed to the vanity of the colonial city with a series of articles that included one entitled 'Marvellous Melbourne' -- indeed Graeme Davison asserts that the colonial inferiority complex of the time ensured that 'if London's Mr. Sala said Melbourne was 'marvellous,' then marvellous it surely was'" (p. 81). In her essay, "New Victoria," Jacobsen (2001) reports that, "The two biggest cities in Australia are not very far apart, but they could be in different countries. Sydney is laid back, lounging relaxed in the sun round its marvellous romantic harbour, where bush still sometimes meets the sea as it did before the whites arrived, and where the undistinguished commercial towers of the CBD aspire to picturesque grandeur on the hilly Georgian plan" (p. 37). Melbourne is less climatically favorable as Sydney and remains.".. primly European and uptight on a dreary flat site firmly ordered by a nineteenth-century grid, with the tower blocks contained in the blocks. But there is another side to Melbourne's culture: a tradition of rebellion against Victorian stuffiness - the 'cult of larrikinism,'wildness which at its most extreme produced the Irish bushranger hero, Ned Kelly, and today still permeates much of the city's best architecture and painting, with a larky yet edgy ethos" (Jacobsen, p. 37).

The new Melbourne Museum is an example (out of many) which shows how wildness can become part of the official expression of the city and the State of Victoria and which houses major civic collections and is a dramatic statement about the city and its culture (Jacobsen). The site is an important one, very much part of the nineteenth-century city. "To the south is the long Beaux-Arts Royal Exhibition Building, put up in 1880 as one of the biggest structures in Australia, and hallowed as the meeting place of the first federal parliament in 1901. To the north of the site is a park, the jardin anglais of Carlton Gardens" (Jacobsen, p. 37).

The architects, who won the competition in 1994, decided to reflect on (but not repeat) the Royal Exhibition Building. The museum is parallel to it, running east-west, and its entrance is on axis with that of its neighbour, so that approach on ceremonial occasions is a progression from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. But usually people get there completely differently. On the south side of the new building are two huge canopies of perforated aluminium which stretch out welcomingly but powerfully to the streets to east and west. These almost translucent metal planes slope down towards the entrance, drawing you to the middle of the building. They are supported by a rhythmic steel exoskeleton, which the architects claim is symbolic of the grid of the city. In fact, it provides a rigorous three-dimensional cage that orders the whole composition (Jacobsen).

Although Melbourne may still be "marvellous," the city has also developed a "radical" side…