City

Melbourne's a city you get to know from the inside out-you have to walk it to love it. My favourite time to do this is at night. That's when you capture glimpses of people-eating, laughing, talking, arguing, watching TV, and reading-through half-open terrace house doors and windows…it is a city of inside places and conversation. Of intimacy. Melbourne begins on Black Saturday, the day that bushfires tore through the outskirts of Melbourne, destroying the townships of Marysville and Kinglake, shattering thousands of lives. Sophie Cunningham writes about what happened over the year that followed. Sit through a heatwave, visit the drains underneath the city, participate in a letterpress workshop, wander beside the Yarra, cycle alongside tram tracks, and cheer at the footy. Live through the drought before the storm, the rain before yet more fire and days of searing heat. Along the way, be captivated as Cunningham shares her Melbourne, its stories and its characters. In a new introduction, Cunningham returns to Melbourne after a period away and reflects on how much her city has changed since Melbourne was first published in 2011: it is hotter, greener, and has endured the rollercoaster ride-from boom times to economic depression-that defined 2020.

…we rarely travel far to swim. We occasionally cross the river to Leighton or Cottesloe, where the white sand squeaks underfoot and the champagne foam in the shallows tingles the legs and fizzes over the shoreline and makes children giddy with delight… the cirrus clouds above the horizon often resemble passages of perfect cursive script written in soft white lines against the bluest page. David Whish-Wilson's Perth is a place where deeper historical currents are never far beneath the surface. Like the Swan River that can flow in two directions at once, Perth strikes perfect harmony with the city's contradictions and eccentricities. Whish-Wilson takes us beyond the near-constant sunshine, shiny glass facades, and boosterish talk of mining booms and the gloom after the bust. Lyrical and sensitive, he introduces his readers to the richness of the natural world and the trailblazers, the rebels, the occasional ghost, and the ordinary people that bring Australia's remotest capital city to life. Carefully researched, full of personal reminiscences and eye-opening facts, this updated edition of Perth now has a remarkable new postscript.

In this updated edition, Peter Timms leads us on a journey through his adopted city of Hobart, Australia's smallest, most southerly, least prosperous, but arguably most beautiful state capital. He reveals a city in transition, shaking off its dark and troubled past to claim its special place in the post-modern world: 'going boutique, nice and slow', as one overseas visitor notes. From Hobart's convict legacy, its spectacular natural setting, heritage architecture and climate, to crime rates, economic hardship, the recent disfigurements of the developers, and the opening of MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) Hobart's newest tourist attraction. Timms brings a wealth of fresh insights. He explores the city with a mixture of affection, admiration, frustration and sadness, interviewing a wide range of residents along the way. Those who have experienced Hobart as tourists will be surprised and intrigued by the lively, complex society this book reveals. Those who live here will surely discover their city anew.