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MHS Library | Year 9 - City Project

The Task

The Task

Melbourne regularly makes it into 'top ten' lists: most livable cities, most sporting cities, most culturally diverse cities... But how much do you actually know about Australia's second largest city?

In groups of 4, your task is to conduct an in-depth exploration of the city of Melbourne, focusing on one aspect of Melbourne life, chosen from the list below. Your findings will be presented in a 3-5 minute documentary suitable for a segment on Channel 10's "The Project".

Areas of focus

Choose one focus area from the following list.

Literary Melbourne             In Melbourne's mind

Musical Melbourne             Humanitarian Melbourne

Sporting Melbourne            Criminal and Commercial Melbourne

Linguistic Melbourne           Scientific Melbourne

Artistic Melbourne               


You are challenged to avoid the most obvious observations about your focus area; go beyond the tourist guide version of Melbourne, and explore its living, authentic, quirky heart.

To help you define your focus, generate questions. Think of the big picture to define the scope of your research and then narrow your focus to exactly what it is your want to find out.

Your exploration of Melbourne must be a personal one. In conducting your research, you must physically visit relevant sites of interest (virtual visits won't be enough). You need to record evidence of your visits, in the form of video, audio or still photos, and include these in your documentary.

Melbourne Central - Life of the City

Artistic Melbourne

Image source

What are the latest art commissions for Melbourne? What's the most expensive piece of street art? How long does it take to create an art project?
What do art curators do? Go ahead and ask!

National Gallery of Victoria 
Ian Potter Museum of Art
Public Art projects - City of Melbourne

Art in parks and gardens  
Art in the city  
Street art  
Street art, Hosier Lane, homeless and the Archibald
Galleries  
Boll-art

Art, statues and monuments in the City

Wander Melbourne's city streets and intimate laneways to find inspiring works of art in some surprising places. See some examples here.   
What is the gender proportion of statues in Melbourne? What is the gender proportion of commissioned artists?
    

Discover more statues here.

Historical Melbourne

To be or not to be

What would you ask a philosopher?
School of Philosophy, Melbourne

Existentialist Society 
For those who question whether life has a meaning and a purpose. 

Melbourne. A twist at every turn.

Food of Melbourne

Take-away & burgers - looking for a particular cuisine in a particular location?

 

 

 

 

 

Cafes - whether it be coffee, ice-cream & gelati, cakes and pastries, juices & smoothies

Charitable food places

Kinfolk : We are a café addressing social inclusion through great coffee and seasonal food. Our volunteers are the driving force of our social enterprise and their contributions make a difference with 100% of our profits being donated to our partner charities every year.

Dinesmart (StreetSmart - Action against homelessness). DineSmart unites restaurants and their diners to help people in their local community.  For the six weeks in the lead-up to Christmas and New Year, participating DineSmart restaurants ask each table to add a small $2 donation to their bill. 100% of all donations collected through restaurants are distributed locally to help people who are homeless or at risk.

Coffee cart by Crepes for change Our ‘permanent’ carts (such as the one currently running at RMIT Training in Melbourne) are financially self-sustainable and operational Monday to Friday. Each cart is staffed by at least one experienced full-time barista and 3 ‘trainees’. These trainees are disadvantaged young people in need of an opportunity to gain experience and employment to change their lives, and are recruited through our partner organisations such as Launch Housing and STREAT. The trainees receive paid employment, training and mentorship for up to one year, with the aim of then leaving to enter permanent long-term employment, often through one of our corporate partners.

Charitable Melbourne


 

Talk to people who run the very important charity organisations in our communities.
The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation

Melbourne City Mission

Feed Melbourne

The Big Issue
  
Vendors come from all walks of life with many . Some are homeless; some have intellectual of physical disabilities and some are struggling with addictions. All of our vendors have been marginalised through their circumstances and are looking to improve their lives.
Melbourne City Mission

Media Melbourne

Scientific Melbourne

The Royal Society of Melbourne -  Join up or talk to people about what they do.
CSIRO

The Young Scientists of Australia Become a Young Scientist! Or talk to people about what's involved.

Law and Order Melbourne

 

The Coroners Court
The Magistrates Court

The Supreme Court

What are you interested in finding out from people working in our legal system?

Sporting Melbourne

 

Visit The G​  and the National Sports Museum to kick a footy and other interactive stuff. Why not interview some of the members?
The Australian Grand Prix

AAMI Park The bio-frame roof design is unique in Australia and the world. What are some of it's unique features?

Investigate the city's professional sporting clubs that call 
Melbourne and Olympic Parks home. 

Free images, music and sound

Please use images, music and sound ethically. Here is a link to free images, music and sound.

Environmental Melbourne

Degraves Street Recycling Facility 

Find out how this initiative based in Ross House basement carpark is dealing with Degraves Street waste in a creative way.

What are other recycling initiatives in Melbourne?

Council House 2 - Our Green Building (Environmental Melbourne)

Interested in architecture? Urban design? the environment? Why not find out all you can about Council House 2?

CH2 is located at 240 Little Collins Street, Melbourne.

Council House 2 - our green building

CH2 has been designed to not only conserve energy and water, but improve the wellbeing of its occupants through the quality of the internal environment of the building. CH2 demonstrates a new approach to workplace design, creating a model for others to learn from and follow.  

What else can you find out about environmentally friendly buildings in Melbourne?

Environmental Melbourne

Think about what you would like to find out about environmental projects in the CBD.

Friends of the Earth Food Co-op

Clean Up Australia - volunteers welcome

Conservation Volunteers

More and more community gardens are springing up in Melbourne. Melbourne city council

What other community gardens and gardening initiatives can you find? Go and talk to people who are involved.

Musical Melbourne

Interested in finding out about the diversity of music happening in Melbourne? Get an overview or focus on a musical genre.
Ever wonder how easy it is to make a living by busking? Why not talk to the buskers around Melbourne?  
The city of Melbourne is full of buskers and street performers. Visit this website to see where you are most likely to find them.

Tap and go to end the 'sorry no cash' chorus for buskers

Melbourne busker Jessica Paige, pictured in Bourke Street Mall, is rapt customers can now pay by credit card

Melbourne Music Week  - is on from the 15/11 - 23/11 and is made up of 250 acts, 85 events.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Melbourne Chamber Orchestra

Melbourne International Jazz Festival 

Victorian Opera 

Musica Viva 

Choirs of Melbourne (alphabetical listing)

Federation Bells - You can submit a composition for the bells!

 

Botanical Melbourne

 

What do Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens do? Can anyone join?
Melbourne parks and gardens

City of Melbourne - Parks

Discover themed and hidden bookshops

Make time to talk to the people who organise author talks at The Wheeler Centre.
The Wheeler Centre Books, writing, ideas

What kind of questions would you ask people who work in these bookshops?

The Haunted Bookshop - cult horror and sci-fi classics

Metropolis Bookstore - art, graphic design, architecture, photography, textiles, music, film and more

Minotaur - the pop culture megastore

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