Magical mystery tours
Small groups, led by passionate experts, have given Carol West a whole new perspective on her hometown, Melbourne
Jerome Miller tosses these bon mots over his shoulder as we scurry behind him down a laneway, past crowded cafes, through a doorway and up a flight of stairs to where Rebecca Sampson is crafting exquisite bespoke jewellery in her bijoux studio, Tallulah.
Having become accustomed to seeing unsmiling groups in matching caps trudging behind flag-waving tour guides, I usually avoid guided tours like the proverbial plague. However, I've recently discovered that when time is limited, tours curated to particular interests are a great way to take a city's pulse.
Melbourne is a cosmopolitan kaleidoscope of idiosyncratic bars and cafes, experimental art galleries, chic couture and cutting-edge design. I've lived here nearly all my adult life but with more than 240 lanes, arcades and alleyways running off a meticulously designed grid, it's not surprising that many of the city's charms remain closely guarded secrets. A tour of its graffiti-scrawled laneways and romantic art-nouveau arcades is the ideal first step in understanding what makes Melbourne tick. Making it more palatable for me is that tour groups are often a discreet cluster of half-a-dozen people.
Miller puts his passion for Melbourne's hidden delights down to alcohol: "I was working in IT and exploring new bars for that end-of-week drink led me to discover some amazing places."
For the next 2½ hours, he happily shares his passion. Pausing in streets where bullock drays once turned and horse bazaars stood, he spins the threads of Melbourne's history, creating a canvas embroidered with mid-19th-century gold rush tales and a time when foreign capital investment made it one of the world's richest cities.