| Melbourne Style |
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Page 1 of 2 Australia’s second city isn’t lacking for action — urban or outdoors. These Melburnians are proof of it. Simon O’Donnell is a man of many enthusiasms: celebrated cricketer and commentator, retired Aussie-rules footballer, horse-racing trainer and manager. The breadth of his pursuits defines him as unequivocally and singularly Australian—the consummate Melbourne man. O’Donnell, a fair-sized gentleman with a tree-trunk torso and a well-kempt tussle of silvering hair, epitomizes a city that melds urban refinement with Australia’s reputation for all things virile and strapping. In his early years, the 45-year-old played two seasons of Aussie rules (think rugby meets bar brawl) for St. Kilda Football Club, then moved on to cricket and eventually competed on the 1987 national team that brought home the country’s first world cup title. Since then, he has parlayed his name into anchor for Nine Network’s weekly The Cricket Show and become the debonair half owner of OTI Racing Syndicate. A few days after the 2008 running of the Melbourne Cup, the country’s most prestigious thoroughbred competition, O’Donnell sits in his stable-side home office in the sun-withered Kilmore hills, some 50 miles north of the city, and reflects on the race. Few, if any, events capture the national imagination like the Race that Stops a Nation. The streets knot with traffic, and virtually the entire population fancies up for nightly gala balls. O’Donnell slaps down a newspaper on his cluttered desk that shows two charging mares in a photo finish. “We were the gray filly on the outside,” he says, flicking his chin at the horse being nosed out. “It’s a game of numbers, and our number didn’t quite come up.” Horse racing might be Melbourne’s most conspicuous obsession, but the city is brimming with such passions, from cricket to cycling, fashion to food. On any warm Victoria afternoon, the Yarra River, which bisects the city, spills over with sculls and other watercraft, while shoppers thread a network of open-air laneways and patio cafés that slash the Central Business District grid. The CBD shoots skyward like a patch of glass reeds along the Yarra, but Melbourne stretches mostly outward, not upward. Quiet elm-lined neighborhoods of quaint bungalows, many trimmed in gilded ironwork reminiscent of New Orleans, alternate with pockets of hip clothing boutiques and bustling, dimly lit eateries. Here, urban sophistication mixes seamlessly with rugged diversion. Love-struck couples promenade the verdant hills of the Royal Botanic Gardens, and families spread lakeside picnics in Albert Park, while surfers and kiteboarders dot the beaches and breaks of Port Phillip Bay. |
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