Sydney or Melbourne? Let me chuck in a vote for this bush metropolis

March 28, 2026 — 5:00am

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The brouhaha surrounding Melbourne being crowned Time Out’s world No.1 city has inevitably unleashed a bout of civic braggadocio, especially since Sydney, inexplicably, did not even make the top 20. But I come here today not to praise Melbourne, a cultural, culinary and sporting powerhouse thoroughly deserving of global acclaim, or to defend Sydney, a city which for the past decade has realised it cannot simply rely on the staggering beauty of its harbour or the memory of the 2000 Olympics. Instead, I want to raise up Australia’s most improved metropolis.

Two decades ago, that might have been Brisbane. On my first visit, back in the noughties, I was told to adjust my watch by 10 years before landing in the Queensland capital, a sledge that itself seemed a decade out of date. For years, Perth has also been on the rise, its skyscrapers landmarks to its resources boom prosperity, its beaches and mighty Swan River affirming its enviable quality of life. No, the most improved city in this great southern land is the capital we all love to hate: Canberra.

Patently, it is an easy city to mock. Those suburbs in search of a city centre. A good sheep station ruined. One only has to retrieve that lofty quote from King O’Malley, the American-born parliamentarian at the time of federation who became such a cheerleader for the new capital.

“We desire to have a city that will be the Gotham of Australia,” he........

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