Mr John Simpson

Melbourne has been home for most of my life, having been born in the city in the late 1950s.

It’s conventional wisdom to say that the best way to really appreciate your home town is to live somewhere else.

My career has enabled me to live in both Sydney and in London, but Melbourne is once again home.

The conventional wisdom is right – living elsewhere has made me appreciate Melbourne as far and away one of the world’s most livable cities.

It’s the scale of the city which is so immediately pleasing. The wide north-south boulevards of St. Kilda Road and Royal Parade herald a place of substance and importance.

Ever since childhood I have loved approaching the city via St. Kilda Road.

It’s so easy to imagine what it must have been like approaching on horseback or carriage the township of Melbourne in the years after settlement.

The well-worn tracks leading from the south to the river and then into the settlement have been transformed by the city planners into wonderful avenues – wide, landscaped and shady.

My own children literally grew up on the oak lawn at the Botanical Gardens. It was wonderful to allow them the chance to run freely in the gardens and our visits there these days are full of memories of the children hiding in the bushes and climbing trees (when that was allowed!).

The gardens on Melbourne’s perimeter are stunning and how fantastic to see the hundreds of people each day using the ‘tan’ to keep fit and enjoy the environment.

Like a lazy snake, the Yarra too winds its way through the eastern suburbs, through the CBD and Docklands and into the Bay.

Melbourne is so much more – music, food, friends, books and bookshops, music and theatre – but for me it’s the physical layout and scale of Melbourne that makes this my beloved home.