My suburb has a reputation for being soulless and unliveable. But people flock here anyway

Sydney Morning Herald

05-05-2025

There's something in the air in my suburb. A lot of somethings, actually. Controversial somethings many people don't want in their own 'hood – high-rise apartments.
Southbank's high-rises aren't just any high-rises. One, Australia 108, is 100 storeys and the tallest building in the land if you're measuring to roof height rather than the tip of some fancy spire. Eureka Tower nearby, with a public viewing platform on the 88th floor, is 91 storeys. Take a bow, you guys. (Or maybe don't, because you could do grave structural damage.)
When I moved back to Melbourne in the noughties after years of living in Hong Kong flats at least 20 floors up, I knew that being so close to the planet's surface that I could open my door and step straight out onto it without a lift ride wasn't for me.
Despite having grown up on a standard quarter-acre block in Melbourne's north, I have had a fascination with high-rises for as long as I can remember. Seven-year-old me thought the city's public housing towers were the place to be. My favourite children's book is about a dressing-gown-clad elephant named Uncle, whose home is akin to 100 interconnected skyscrapers with water chutes running from top to bottom.
So here I am, in a high-rise in high-density Southbank, on the south side of the Yarra River opposite the CBD – sans water chutes, unfortunately, although there was a giant waterslide in these parts over a century ago. I'm high enough to feel that sense of vertical living that I prefer. Give me air, give me sweeping views. Let me be that much closer to the stars, even if inner-city light pollution makes them almost impossible to see.
Southbank only became a suburb of its own in 1993, when the former industrial area was hived off from South Melbourne. It now runs from St Kilda Road in the east to just behind South Wharf in the west, and from the Yarra in the north to part of Dorcas Street at its most southerly point. Apart from all those high-rises (and, I admit, a few medium-rises), the rare townhouse is to be found, but you can forget about brick veneers, weatherboards, cute cottages, Cal bungs or stately 19th century terraces. It's not that and never was. It's not for everyone, but it has charms of its own.
Is it soulless? Nope. Consider it a mix of the flashy (garish to some) and the culturally enriching. Southbankians ('bankers?) are expected to share postcode 3006's gems with everyone else, but that doesn't mean we can't feel a special attachment. The suburb covers just 1.6 square kilometres, but it packs a lot in. The Melbourne Arts Precinct, one of the highest concentrations of arts and cultural organisations in the world, is within our boundaries, giving us such stellar attractions as the NGV International building, which opened in 1968, the State Theatre and Hamer Hall.
Throw in other prominent art galleries, the Malthouse Theatre, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the ABC, the Melbourne Recital Centre and the Victorian College of the Arts as well. And the Royal Botanic Gardens are just outside our border. I could go on.