Some people including Patrick and Leanne who I met in Ghana in 96 told me that Melbourne is a great place to live; so I thought I would check it out

Hopefully I can find one of those weird temporary jobs/projects , like I have found in the past to keep me going while I suss it out.

Summary

Tourist tips for Melbourne

I'm a little disappointed by Melbourne , it's nice enough, friendly city with a good climate, but cos it is a big city it lacks community feeling and it's not particularly alternative it's just as materialist and consumerist as other cities.

There are some disturbing dark aspects to Australian society : hidden corruption in the establishment (police, politics) and bias in the media (S11 protests). It seems is not as free and democratic scale as it should be.
It seems in Australia there is a fundamental problem of Alienation between society and the establishment

• e.g. People believe politicians and police are against them not for them.
• People pay $300 in bank charges each year in the Uk they pay $30 !
• the fire insurance costs are also the highest in the world. As well as public phones.
• Cos many people feel alienated they feel it's OK not to buy a tram ticket
• The electoral system seems to PR but it is fixed in favour of the two main parties. Even if you vote for another party your vote gets transferred to them

I still have the ticket back to NZ onto Fiji to Korea where I suppose I will find out about teaching English (The economy is picking up so the money might be reasonable)