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Subscribe The Feel-Good File: The Melbourne News Headlines Lifting Our Mood
From free summer public transport to global hotel fame, this week’s Melbourne news is all sunshine, serotonin and city pride.
Here’s to the headlines that make us proud to call Melbourne home. The small triumphs, creative sparks, and community wins that remind us this city still hums with heart.
From local legends and world-stage moments to feel-good firsts lighting up our streets, these are the stories worth knowing — and sharing.
Melbourne Masters the Art of Taste at Tatler’s Best 2025
Melbourne just cleaned up at the Tatler Best Awards 2025. Legacy meets heat at Flower Drum, and the Cantonese institution still sets the standard. Cocktails? Two power plays: Caretaker’s Cottage and Apollo Inn both landed on the Asia-Pacific Best Bars list, reminding the region that this city drinks with impeccable form. For the stay: The Ritz-Carlton, Melbourne made Tatler’s Best Hotels roll-call, all sky-high views and polished service. Together, they read like a blueprint for how Melbourne does hospitality in 2025: precise, grown-up, quietly glamorous — and very hard to beat.
Melbourne Shines Bright at the 2025 Eat Drink Design Awards
Design and dining have long been Melbourne’s favourite double act — and the 2025 Eat Drink Design Awards proved just how seamlessly the city continues to blend the two. This year, Melbourne swept four national honours, each one capturing a facet of its creative DNA: refined, daring, and unapologetically design-led.
Palace Coffee by Kerry Kounnapis Architecture Practice redefined the espresso bar with its oxide-red steel entry, sculptural precision and quiet sophistication — earning Best Cafe Design for transforming a Little Collins Street laneway into a masterclass in minimalism. In Cremorne, Suupaa by IF Architecture won Best Retail Design for reimagining Japanese konbini culture through expressive tiles, functional beauty and a pulse of urban energy, while its bold brand identity by A Friend of Mine claimed Best Identity Design — a playful, meticulously executed visual language that turns every detail into an experience. Completing the lineup, Kennedy Nolan’s Melbourne Place took home Best Hotel Design, celebrating tactility, tonal warmth and a distinctly modernist elegance that feels unmistakably of this city.
Together, these winning spaces tell one story — that Melbourne doesn’t just create beautiful venues; it designs entire moods.
Melbourne’s Free Ride Summer Has Arrived
Melburnians, consider this your official permission slip to roam — because public transport just went free on weekends all summer long. From early December through to 1st February, trains, trams and buses across the state will cost exactly zero dollars. It’s part thank-you for surviving years of Metro Tunnel disruption, part homage to spontaneous city adventures.
Dubbed Tap On Tap, No Fee, the initiative means even if you habitually tag on with your Myki, the system won’t charge you a cent. Hop the 96 to St Kilda for a beachside spritz, the Upfield line for a gallery crawl, or simply ride the circle tram like you’re seeing the city for the first time.
It’s Melbourne at its best — democratic, a little chaotic, and built for discovery. Expect packed platforms, sun-chasing locals and a shared sense of smugness as the city becomes one giant, fare-free playground. Summer’s golden rule? If it moves, it’s yours to ride.
Melbourne’s Getting a Brand-New Suburb the Size of a Regional City
Fifteen thousand homes. Four town centres. Eight schools. Seventy-nine hectares of green space. Melbourne’s outer north is about to get a suburb so vast it could pass for a standalone city. With the Beveridge North West Precinct Structure Plan officially green-lit, construction begins this week on one of Victoria’s most ambitious urban expansions — a meticulously staged community that will eventually welcome over 47,000 residents.
Designed to grow with intention, the development balances modern infrastructure with lush waterways, parklands, and cycling trails, while a fully funded interchange and local quarry (with a mandated closure by 2052) promise to fuel the build. Think long-term vision with liveability at its core. Stage One is officially underway.
Melbourne’s Swimmable Yarra Dream Takes Shape — But It’s a Long Swim Ahead
For years, the Yarra — or Birrarung, as it’s known to the Traditional Owners — has been more a backdrop than a place to jump into. But now, thanks to unanimous City of Melbourne council support, the vision of a swimmable Yarra is officially moving from dream to possibility.
Inspired by global examples like Paris’s Seine and Berlin’s Spree, where urban rivers have been transformed into clean, vibrant public swimming spaces, Melbourne’s ambition is bold yet cautious. A comprehensive report, expected by late 2025, will map out feasibility, identify potential trial sites, and explore partnerships necessary to turn this dream into reality.
In the medium term, the plan includes community-engaging pilot projects such as floating saunas and plunge pools along the river — small but important steps toward reimagining the Yarra as a place to reconnect with water and nature.
The long game is even more ambitious: a fully regenerated Yarra, safe for swimming by 2050. This requires tackling pollution, upgrading infrastructure, and fostering community support — a significant challenge, but one Melbourne’s environmental groups and councils are eager to meet.
While the timeline is long and the hurdles real, the momentum is undeniable. What was once an improbable vision is now a slowly rising tide, inviting Melburnians to imagine a future where the Yarra is more than a river to look at — it’s a river to swim in.
Melbourne’s pulse never really slows — it just finds new ways to surprise us. From clever openings to feel-good wins, the city’s still serving up stories worth celebrating. For more Melbourne goodness, check out our food news guide to everything new and upcoming in hospitality, plus our pick of the best new cafes in town.
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