However, if you’ve “been there, done that,” or are looking for a different kind of Aussie adventure, head south, and take a chance on the States of Victoria and Tasmania.

AUSTRALIA’S “SECOND CITY”

If Sydney is Marsha, Melbourne is Jan (but we all know the later was really the cool Brady girl, right?).

Women at a street festival. All photos are by Michael Hammet.

Australia’s “second city” is expected to steal the spotlight from its big sister when it becomes the country’s most populous city within the next 20 years. It is already considered by many to be the arts and culture center of the country.

It’s an urban hub with cool clubs, top restaurants, historic architecture, museums, and fantastic shopping. The locals are so friendly I felt like Brad Pitt walking the streets with all the smiles and g’days (take a shot every time you hear “no worries” and you’ll be drunk in about five minutes).

Oh, and a river runs through it.

Since it’s birth in the mid-1800s, Melbourne has been growing up along the edge of the Yarra River. Early city planners designed within a central corridor as a way to curb future sprawl, so everything is just a short walk or tram ride away.

“They were way ahead of their time,” according to Dennis Newcombe, a phoenix-based urban planner.

I preferred the Yarra Tram system to a cab (the mostly foreign cabbies didn’t seem to know their way around town). Every bit of space is maximized.

This might explain the unique use of the city’s lanes – the alleys behind the main streets (with names like AC/DC Lane), lined with café tables, packed with people, and leading to the entrances of basement pubs, restaurants (Robot Sushi was a cool discovery) and cozy cafes.

At night, when the main streets are empty, the lanes are hopping. There also are tiny parks throughout town, called “green wedges,” that infuse nature into the cement and brick urban center.

CHECKING IN

I set my bags down at Hotel Lindrum – a cool boutique accommodation within a circa-1900 Romanesque Revival building, once owned by a family of tea merchants. Hotel rep Damian Hill says, “We’re in the center of Melbourne – so everything is just 20-minutes away.”

The space feels more like a home than a hotel, with modern finishes and warm colors complimenting the building’s original bricks and beams. There’s a professional pool table (from its days as a pool hall) and a pillow menu for the perfect night’s sleep.

Plus, there’s a library of the American Film Institute’s top 100 films of all time.

Next page: What to see, what to do

But the move already is drawing condemnation from both the state and national governments.

Tasmania in 2004 became the first state in Australia to create a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples.  But Greens Party deputy leader Nick Mckim said that it’s time to give gay and lesbian couples all of the rights of marriage – including the name.

“Marriage is an institution that should be open to opposite-sex and same-sex couples,” McKim told a Hobart news conference.

And he challenged Premier David Bartlett to allow his party members a free vote.

“We believe that this matter should have a conscience vote,” McKim said.

Bartlett held his own press conference later to denounce the proposed legislation saying that marriage is a federal responsibility and under a 2004 law marriage is limited to opposite-sex couples.

“The Greens clearly don’t understand the Australian constitution, because marriage comes under the purview of the federal parliament, not the state parliament, so this is an impossibility,” Bartlett said.

McKim though believes he is on solid ground, saying he has legal advice from constitutional expert George Williams, a professor at the University of New South Wales, that says there is no constitutional barrier to a state legislating to create a same-sex marriage system.

The Australian Capital Territory ran into trouble with the federal government when it tried to enact civil unions in 2006. The Liberal government of then-prime Minister John Howard vetoed it saying it violated the marriage ban.

A revised bill again ran into a roadblock this year with the new federal Labor government over a provision that would have allowed couples entering into partnerships to hold ceremonies.

The legislation was amended to remove the ceremonies provision and and went into effect last month. (story) 

ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell on Friday said there is a fundamental difference between the problems faced by his government and the Tasmanian proposal.

“The big difference between Tasmania and the ACT is that if the state parliament passes these laws the only way they can be overturned by the federal government is by a High Court challenge,” Corbell told the AAP news service.

“Whereas in the ACT, because we are a territory, it can just be overturned by the governor-general.”

While the federal Labor government, like its Liberal predecessor opposes gay marriage it is moving to amend about 100 laws to provide benefits to same-sex couples mainly in the areas of pension laws.