Mr Don Churchill

When your favourite holiday destination becomes your place of work and you are appointed the head of that city’s newspaper icon, then you can count your blessings. This is doubly so when you can indulge your passions in abundance, such as eating out or watching sport.

My arrival in Melbourne from New Zealand is a pinnacle of an extensive newspaper career. As Managing Director of Fairfax in Victoria, I am able to observe this magnificent multi-cultural society from a number of perspectives.

Over many years I have visited Melbourne, either on holiday or business, but by putting down roots, meeting people across the spectrum of the community, I have been able to test what may have been perceptions and experience as a resident what previously might have been passing observations.

For me the development of the city has been mightily impressive, especially urban renewal. For locals it may have seemed to have taken forever, but the exciting developments constantly surprised as I visited over varying periods. Southbank, Port Melbourne, the Arts Centre, Docklands, Federation Square, easier access from the airport… all create, sometimes amid controversy, a mighty infrastructure.

Moves to retain the heritage of whole clusters of Victorian housing, or the integration of old with new, without unnecessarily razing whole blocks of buildings, is testament to a city that values its past, as much as for its buildings as for its people’s exploits.

It remains a constant amazement how a city this size can dominate in the arts and culture, in urban renewal, in sporting excellence, in design and architecture. These make Melbourne attractive and liveable.

The third arm attracting this visitor-turned-resident is the hugely rich ethnic tapestry and the revitalisation of areas by peoples from other parts. These ethnic precincts, distinct and colourful, seem always part of the overall fabric.

Whilst arguments rage about the effectiveness of transport and roads, tolled or otherwise, the city is blessed with a remarkable public transport network, which I have used extensively. The squealing, bell dinging trams add to the city’s colour, but probably are testament to the foresight of earlier managers when other metropolitan centres swept them away.

Perhaps for me, from a sports-made nation [New Zealand] to another, is the way AFL captures the spirit and the heart, even if the code is seriously challenged for international competition.

The original tribal nature permeates most levels of society – there’s not a person I have met who doesn’t have an opinion or a flag. I have been captured by this enthusiasm, although occasionally I alight on a little oasis of rugby-speak.

Above all, this city’s people’s constant pursuit for any battle on any sports field conveys to me an attitude of beating the odds, of competing with the best, in whatever endeavour, be it sport, science, the arts, education, business, trade or economic growth.