My suburb has a reputation for being soulless and unliveable. But people flock here anyway

There’s something in the air in my suburb. A lot of somethings, actually. Controversial somethings many people don’t want in their own ’hood – high-rise apartments.

Southbank’s high-rises aren’t just any high-rises. One, Australia 108, is 100 storeys and the tallest building in the land if you’re measuring to roof height rather than the tip of some fancy spire. Eureka Tower nearby, with a public viewing platform on the 88th floor, is 91 storeys. Take a bow, you guys. (Or maybe don’t, because you could do grave structural damage.)

When I moved back to Melbourne in the noughties after years of living in Hong Kong flats at least 20 floors up, I knew that being so close to the planet’s surface that I could open my door and step straight out onto it without a lift ride wasn’t for me.

Despite having grown up on a standard quarter-acre block in Melbourne’s north, I have had a fascination with high-rises for as long as I can remember. Seven-year-old me thought the city’s public housing towers were the place to be. My favourite children’s book is about a dressing-gown-clad elephant named Uncle, whose home is akin to 100 interconnected skyscrapers with water chutes running from top to bottom.

So here I am, in a high-rise in high-density Southbank, on the south side of the Yarra River opposite the CBD – sans water chutes, unfortunately, although there was a giant waterslide in these parts over a century ago. I’m high enough to feel that sense of vertical living that I prefer. Give me air, give me sweeping views. Let me be that much closer to the stars, even if inner-city light pollution makes them almost impossible to see.

Southbank only became a suburb of its own in 1993, when the former industrial area was hived off from South Melbourne. It now runs from St Kilda Road in the east to just behind South Wharf in the west, and from the Yarra in the north to part of Dorcas Street at its most southerly point. Apart from all those high-rises (and, I admit, a few medium-rises), the rare townhouse is to be found, but you can forget about brick veneers, weatherboards, cute cottages, Cal bungs or stately 19th century terraces. It’s not that and never was. It’s not for everyone, but it has charms of its own.

Is it soulless? Nope. Consider it a mix of the flashy (garish to some) and the culturally enriching. Southbankians (’bankers?) are expected to share postcode 3006’s gems with everyone else, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel a special attachment. The suburb covers just 1.6 square kilometres, but it packs a lot in. The Melbourne Arts Precinct, one of the highest concentrations of arts and cultural organisations in the world, is within our boundaries, giving us such stellar attractions as the NGV International building, which opened in 1968, the State Theatre and Hamer Hall.

Throw in other prominent art galleries, the Malthouse Theatre, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the ABC, the Melbourne Recital Centre and the Victorian College of the Arts as well. And the Royal Botanic Gardens are just outside our border. I could go on.

The suburb’s Yarra end could well be called CBD South, given its entertainment precinct and office towers. The cafes, restaurants, bars and river and city skyline views along Southbank Promenade keep the visitors flocking in, as does, not without critics and controversy, the Crown casino complex, which officially opened in 1997, a few years after the Southgate development brought shopping, dining, and modern office towers to a spot near Princes Bridge.

It’s a safe bet that gasps and screams will be heard if you wander past Crown when those rectangular gas towers along the riverfront embark on their nightly mission of startling the unsuspecting by shooting huge fireballs skywards. Other suburbs can’t compete. Take that, Toorak and Brighton!

It was in the mid-1980s that the state government designated Southbank an area for urban redevelopment, and growth gained pace in the ’90s. Part of the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, the area had largely been home to industries and warehouses since the 19th century. Where did that giant waterslide mentioned earlier fit in? It was part of an entertainment tradition down near the river going back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Long-gone circuses, a dance hall and an ice-skating rink were also part of the mix.

Although much that was demolished during recent decades in the rush to commercial and residential modernity hasn’t been missed, let us pause to lament the loss of a truly bright (and sweet) spot in Southbank’s past: a 30-metre by 12-metre neon sign that belonged to the also now-departed Allen’s lolly factory across the river from Flinders Street Station.

A landmark from the mid-1950s until its demise in 1987, the sign became more vibrant over the years. Abbotsford may still have the Skipping Girl Vinegar sign, but, alas, elsewhere the animated neon spectacle of throat lozenges falling out of an Anticol packet, a giant wrapped lolly and a burst of sparkles is no more.

There are an estimated 27,300 Southbanktonians (Southbankanistas?) these days, whereas the 2011 census put the population at a mere 11,235. The area has been accused over the years of lacking liveability. Yes, the traffic (trucks included) is heavy on City Road. And with so many high-rises, complaints about ground-level sterility in some pockets have merit. Some apartment towers are more liveable and easier on the eye than others. Some creak too much when the wind blows.

Some potential development sites are languishing. The much-troubled $2.7 billion STH BNK project on the site of a former BMW showroom was touted as including Australia’s tallest tower. It’s been ground-bound for years and its fate is uncertain.

At its heart, Southbank is a work in progress. We now have a linear park where native grassland grows. I’m not sure what to make of a distinctive playground nearby that features boulders on wheels, but a colleague who has let children loose there reckons it’s not as dangerous as it looks.

Just because we could do with another major art gallery, the Fox: NGV Contemporary is under construction. Also as part of the $1.7 billion Arts Precinct transformation, an 18,000-square-metre garden, Laak Boorndap, is due to open in 2028.

The 2021 census found 38 per cent of Southbank households don’t own a car, compared with 8 per cent for Melbourne as a whole. I’m in the no-car camp and do not take for granted my inner-city public transport privilege, or the fact that if I keep putting one foot in front of the other in a leisurely manner, I can get to work in Docklands under my own steam in half an hour.

Southbank’s liveability factor soared when our very own full-sized supermarket arrived at the end of 2020. There were options in the CBD and South Melbourne beforehand, and smaller Southbank places for us non-car types to wheel shopping trolleys to, but now we have our own big Woolies, and not just any Woolies. It’s at the base of a high-rise and, in a nod to its multilevel locality, it has two storeys. So appropriate.