Melbourne

Melbourne's city life told in diary form, this contemporary and personal portrait depicts major events from the Australian heatwave, which culminated in more than 400 bushfires, to the destructive deluge of a hailstorm

While walking through Melbourne's oldest suburb to its largest market, experiencing an Australian Rules Football game, and attending the comedy festival, writer Sophie Cunningham journeys deep into her own recollections of the city she grew up in and tells stories from its history.

 She strolls by Melbourne's rivers and creeks and considers the history of the wetlands and rivers that sit at Melbourne's heart, for it is water, the corralling of it, the excess of it, the squandering of it, the lack of it that defines Melbourne's history, its present, and its future. 

Sophie Cunningham is a former publisher and the author of two novels, Geography published in 2004, and Bird published in 2008. She is a former editor of Meanjin, and the current Chair of the Literature Strategy Panel of the Australia Council. She was a founding member of the Stella Prize.