Multiculturalism in Melbourne: Accommodating a growing cultural scene
Home to world famous art, dining and musical experiences that render it a tourist haven, one of the most reputable features of Victorian capital city Melbourne is its culture, one that has aided the city’s crowning with 6 consecutive titles of ‘Most Liveable City’ between 2011 and 2017 as determined by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU, a division of the Economist Group).
With a span of 10,000,000 hectares, the Greater Melbourne region is currently home to approximately 5 million residents, and this number is set to grow by 160 percent over the next three decades which raises the questions, what is it in the way that Melbourne has managed this large population and their assorted cultures that has earned it the reputation of the acclaimed “cultural capital” of Australia, and how are they planning to accommodate the increase in population, and more importantly, diversity?
A brief history of Melbourne’s multiculturalism
The cultural scene of Melbourne dates back to the mid-to-late 1850s when the discovery and mining of gold in Victoria attracted people from across the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Western Europe — Germany in particular — and China. Over the next thirty years, gold mining, agriculture and manufacturing allowed Melbourne’s newfound international relationships to strengthen as a result of trade, making them the “economic centre” of Australia and kick-starting the property industry that involved the development and commercialisation of properties across the city that would house this growing population. At this time, there was limited harmonious coexistence and unjustified ethnic tension, mainly out of hostility and discrimination, towards the Chinese ethnic group.
Legislations were imposed and revoked across the four decades, affecting their immigration in restricting the amount of Chinese citizens that could disembark at Victoria and profiting from a 10 pound tax on each Chinese immigrant.
In the short period of time that these were revoked, a drastic increase in the portion of the population that was of Chinese descent occurred, making them the fourth largest background of the citizens of Victoria — and thus of Melbourne. Melbourne’s reliance on international ties had first proved itself to be disadvantageous when the immigration rate, the inflow of money from other countries, production and manufacturing and employment had effectively come to a halt twice before the turn of the century.
Fastforwarding to today reveals that this fact of reliance extends itself to current day Melbourne, which after experiencing 6 lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 outbreaks, surpassed Buenos Aires with 245 days spent in lockdown, and consequently just as long of a time with ceased international activity.
What does Melbourne’s cultural scene look like now?
Today’s Melbourne is far more multicultural than ever, having developed greatly since the beginning of its recorded multicultural history to now boast residents of at least 170 different backgrounds. Urban Criminologist Rebecca Wickes found upon her arrival in Melbourne, that the “…multicultural hub [, as it] has been for decades,” which is “…arguably a sanctuary city,” possesses a general incomparable appreciation for diversity.
The proportion of the Melbourne population that was born overseas, or has family that was born overseas, constitutes more than half of the population, and they represent 90% of the world’s nations. For this reason Melbourne has worked hard to implement infrastructure and plan events amongst their street art, exhibitions, festivals and heritage celebrations that represent the culture of the city itself to help accommodate and celebrate this diverse group.
These renowned precincts can be classified as either areas with built infrastructure including Chinatown, Lonsdale Street Greek quarter and the Italian Lygon Street in Carlton, or suburbs that have become areas with the highest levels of cultural diversity such as Cocoroc, Derrimut, Point Cook, Quandong and Werribee to name a few.
In spite of the strong inflow of immigrants and tourists from around the world for almost 200 years, and fairly welcoming social norm, the city has been no stranger to ethnic tensions amongst their citizens, this being one of the greatest disadvantages of the multiracial nature of Melbourne. Eminent insularity present for many years resulted in the displacement and gentrification of Indigenous peoples — common across many parts of Australia and the world — and conflict between different ethnic groups, primarily towards the East Asians, stemming from herd antagonistic ethos.
Ubiquitous racial hostility towards certain groups of people caused increased unprecedented harassment to ensue, alongside verbal abuse and heightened discrimination, especially following 9/11 and now once again due to the pandemic.
How do they plan to accomodate the population?
Considering the predicted growth of the population, the Victorian state government has discussed the implementation of initiatives such as “Melbourne 2030” and “Everybody Matters: Inclusion and Equity Statement” which plan how Melbourne and Victoria can create a more inclusive and safe environment for their citizens where there is decreased presence of interracial hostility, increased representation of culture and consultation with members of ethnic groups prior to construction to “create a sense of shared identity” — amongst other plans for the entire city’s infrastructure, transit and sustainability — rather than the bare minimum of, as Wickes stated, “tolerance and willingness here to accept a degree of diversity”.
Melbourne has proven through existing and proposed frameworks that they aim to build a stronger network between their citizen’s various cultures and thus advance their multicultural society to avoid what would otherwise feature inevitable tensions. It is fair to say in studying Melbourne’s awareness of, and pragmatic response towards their growing cultural scene, that the city has shown that it is nothing short of the title “Cultural Capital of Australia”.
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