Rowell was a well-known artist of his time who went to school in Carlton and had a successful career in Melbourne.

His painting, An Incident in Sturt’s Trip Down The Murray River in 1831, is one of 7,000 items in Melbourne City Council’s Art and Heritage Collection and has been singled out by artist and curator Paola Balla for this special exhibition because of its striking subject.

Balla juxtaposes Rowell’s European reading of an encounter between explorer Charles Sturt and the Aboriginal people of the Murray, with some storytelling of her own.

She has gathered responses to this historical scene from several members of her community. 

A number of contemporary works by some of Australia’s leading urban Indigenous artists have also been selected from the City of Melbourne’s collection for inclusion in the display.

Hear the Curator Talk with Paolo Balla as part of the Melbourne Indigenous Arts Festival at the City Gallery at 3.30pm on Sunday 12 February and examine your own response to Rowell’s painting.

Paola Balla is a Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara woman and artist. The exhibition is at the City Gallery from Thursday 9 February to Monday 30 April.

2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon and it’s predicted that, much like the dragon’s personality, this year is the time to be bold, ambitious and enterprising.

The Chinese New Year festival runs from 23 January to 6 February. Traditionally, families and friends gather to celebrate and give gifts symbolising prosperity and good luck, and of course there’s a whole lot of feasting!

This weekend the city has plenty of options for you to celebrate Chinese New Year with all the fun, excitement and flavours of this colourful lunar festival.

Melbourne Chinese New Year celebrations
Head to Chinatown this Sunday to see the New Year celebrations in full display. See the dragon parade at 12.30pm as it makes its way down Little Bourke Street to the beat of Chinese drummers and firecrackers. Browse through bustling market stalls, sample tasty street food and immerse yourself in Chinese culture for one day. Don’t forget to spot your Chinese zodiac sign in the laneways of Crossley Street, Market Lane and Liverpool Street.

Celebrate the Year of the Water Dragon at the Chinese Museum
Discover where the 63 metre-long Millennium Dragon – the largest in the world – lives, as he awakes from hibernation in the Chinese Museum to participate in the annual New Year celebrations. Visitors will be able to enjoy free entry to the museum, where they can learn about the history of Australians of Chinese descent, from the Gold Rush to today. 

Dishing up tradition
Chinese New Year would not be complete without food. Traditionally, families and friends gather for large and elaborate feasts made up of many dishes that represent good luck, wealth and wellbeing. Here is a list of some of the dishes that you can eat during the New Year and what they represent.

Dumplings – silver ingots
Spring rolls – gold bouillon
Noodles – uncut, these represent long life
Oranges – good luck
Fish – abundance
Whole chicken (including its head and feet!) – family togetherness

By Lucy Perera

The QR codes are scattered all over Melbourne and look a lot like a randomly pixelated black and white box – see left.

To find out what’s happening, all you need to do is scan one of the QR codes (QR stands for quick response) with a smart phone  such as iPhone or Android, and information about the area, things to do and available offers will be delivered right to your phone.

Offers include special retail promotions and dining offers at a range of city venues.

Where can you find the QR codes?
The QR codes are located on Snap me t-shirts worn by staff at Flinders Street and driving mobile billboard scooters around the city, as well as at fixed locations along the Yarra River to Docklands.

How do I download a QR code reader or app?
Through iTunes app store or via the web. These are free and easy to download.

If I don’t have a smart phone, can I still find out what the offers are?
You can only access the QR codes using a smart phone, however there is plenty of information on the City of Melbourne What’s On website listing things to do in the city this summer, catering for all age groups.

How long are the offers valid?
The offers will be available during the 462 summer campaign and will change from time to time as new offers become available.

Architect Esther Sugihto, landscape architect Mark Skiba and urban designer Andy Fergus run Melbourne Architours. The tours are split into three time periods: Settlement to Marvellous Melbourne, Federation to Art Deco and Modernism to Contemporary.

Federation to Art Deco is running this Sunday morning, covering both well-known buildings and some that are off the beaten track. One of the guides’ favourites is Mitchell House on Elizabeth Street. ‘It’s quite prominent, it’s been well restored and it was quite progressive at the time it was built,’ says Esther Sugihto.

Another signature Art Deco building on Melbourne’s skyline is the Manchester Unity building on the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets. The tour takes in the timber and brass features inside this stunning building – the first in Melbourne to have an escalator.

As well as covering design features, the tour guides talk about the architects behind each building and put them into a historical, political and economic context.

Esther Sugihto reveals that the guides and tour groups find there is so much to talk about that they usually continue the conversation over a drink or coffee.

‘After the tours we sit around and discuss what everyone’s thoughts are and how the city is progressing,’ she says. ‘It’s such a design-rich city, and the tours are really about creating awareness of how the built environment is changing and evolving.’

At the moment this dedicated trio of archiphiles is running one tour per month, with only 15 places available for each. However, private tours can also be arranged. Full details are at Melbourne Architours.

The City of Melbourne has been transformed into a Christmas wonderland this December with exciting new decorations scattered throughout the city.

One of the best ways to see festive Melbourne this year is from a seat on the new City Circle Sleigh Tram.

Just like a Christmas present, the iconic tram has been wrapped in blue, red and gold, complete with stars and lights.

The merry makeover from City Circle Tram to City Circle Sleigh took place at the Yarra Trams Preston workshop.

The design was printed on vinyl and applied to the heritage tram by a team of specialist craftsmen. They followed up the body application with hand-painted details. Electricians then fitted festoon lighting, including more than 5000 tiny LED lights.

The City Circle Tram is one of Melbourne’s most famous tourist attractions. It offers visitors a free tour of the sights around the city and Docklands.

About the City Circle tram:

• each tram does nine laps Sunday to Wednesday of the City Circle route and 12 laps Thursday to Saturday
• the City Circle loop is 7.4 kilometres and takes one hour
• on average, the City Circle trams carry 275,000 passengers every month, or 3.3 million people a year
• 67 per cent of the passengers are from outside the Melbourne metropolitan area
• one third of passengers travel the full circuit of the city.

The City Circle Sleigh will run every day until Christmas Eve, from 10am to 6pm Sunday to Wednesday and from 10am to 9pm Thursday to Saturday. It returns on Boxing Day (after Santa completes all his hard work on Christmas Day) and will stay in service until mid-January 2012.

Spread across four locations, Melbournalia is a fun new shopping experience that has magically popped up for the Christmas season.

What makes it all so very Melbourne, you ask?

The idea. A chain of pop-up shops filled with pressies perfectly designed for posting (postal service included) in time for Christmas.

The products. All achingly awesome and sourced from over 30 of Melbourne’s most talented product designers.

The locations. Housed in warehouses, coffee shops and studios, these unconventional venues couldn’t be more Melbourne if they tried.

Expect thoughtful gift ideas, intriguingly presented and beautifully packaged. You’ll find Melbournalia at the following quintessentially Melbourne locales:

Shop #1: Home
Tractor Home
First Floor, Rear 126 Franklin Street, Melbourne
Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 6pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11am – 4pm

Shop #2: Captains
Captains of Industry
Level 1, 2 Somerset Place, Melbourne
Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 5pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11am – 4pm

Shop #3: Parlour
The Nicholas Building
Level 3, Room 3, 37 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 6pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11am – 6pm

Shop #4: League
League of Honest Coffee
8 Exploration Lane, Melbourne
Tuesday to Friday: 7am – 4pm

Melbournalia’s pop-up shops are open until Christmas Eve, 24 December 2011, vanishing after the big day – much like the man in red himself.

Featuring prominent Melbourne landmarks such as the MCG, the Arts Centre and of course the Town Hall itself, the Gingerbread Village is a sight to bring out the inner child in every adult.

The contents of the village include:

120 kg of gingerbread
90 kg of royal icing
24 kg of marzipan and fondant sugar
20 litres of chocolate syrup

Baking and building the village took 800 hours over two months. A team including 30 Holmesglen TAFE students, TAFE teachers, and volunteers from Melbourne hotels toiled under the watchful eye of Epicure’s Chef de Cuisine – Pastry, Deniz Karaca.

When asked about the challenges of creating the village, Deniz replied, ‘putting the train in was the biggest’.

With almost 30 metres of track, spanning three levels and crossing its own gingerbread viaduct, it’s little wonder.

A Christmas market

Santa arrives

The Epicure Gingerbread Village is now on show at the City Gallery until 24 December 2011. Opening times are from 11am to 6pm daily.

Proceeds from a gold coin donation will go to the Starlight Children’s Foundation towards the Make a Wish program. You can also purchase unique gingerbread Christmas gifts.

How do you design the projections? It starts with a story. The creative team work out the overall narrative and message.

Next, the design team work out how best to portray the story through images, while enhancing the building’s architectural features.

How long does it take to create the work? The design process takes around eight weeks.

What is the story underpinning the Christmas projections? We have created two very different stories, one for the State Library and one for St Paul’s Cathedral, which are told via large-scale digital projections.

The Nutcracker story on the State Library is designed especially for children. Melbourne has a fantastic tradition of presenting highly decorated shop windows expressing a Christmas theme and we’ve tried to capture this idea in the design for the State Library, while presenting the story in a modern way.

The story on St Paul’s was created for grown-ups. The images on the cathedral reflect our life in Melbourne. We are reminded of the wonderful pink skies of the summer months, the beauty of country Victoria and the pulsating sun that supplies the life force. The fireflies can be interpreted as humankind as we make our way towards being with friends and family at Christmas.

What other similar projects have you worked on? My background is in creating and producing large-scale public celebrations. I love thinking up ideas that can experienced by many people, especially when they are offered free to the public – thanks, City of Melbourne.

If you could design a projection for any building in the world, what would it be? To be honest, Melbourne has so many wonderful Victorian buildings that take light projections beautifully. I have my eye on a few of them and am thinking up ideas all the time. If I had my pick of international buildings, I think the Taj Mahal, and Grand Central Station in New York, would be wonderful.

The Christmas projections on the facade of St Paul’s Cathedral facing Federation Square and on the front of the State Libary, starting Friday 2 December at 9.45pm.

Book a place for dinner or drinks nearby and be the first to witness these projections as part of the Christmas Festival.

What if you got a Strawberry Shortcake doll instead of the Lego Space Moon Buggy on Christmas morning?

Or a regular water pistol instead of the galacticly awesome SuperSoaker?

It would be a disaster!

But how do you get in touch with Santa? He’s always been a traditional kind of fella. He doesn’t go in for all those new-fangled gismos most business travellers lug around.

There’s no BlackPod, iBerry, ePad for Santa. He’s not contactable by email, Twitter, Facebook, or phone. 

The truth is there’s only one tried and tested method of getting your list to the Big Man himself – by mail.

Luckily the good people at Australia Post have provided a special post box in the City Square especially for Santa’s mail.

Letters should have a 60c stamp and be addressed to:

Santa
North Pole 9999

Please post letters by 6pm on Friday 16 December, to ensure Santa has time to reply. And make sure you have your sender’s address on the back of the envelope – it’s easy to forget in all the excitement!

Call me old-fashioned, but I expected to walk around and look at an exhibition of sculptures, not for the sculptures to wander past and strike up a conversation with me.

Stuart Ringholt’s Do you want to talk about sculpture? is one of the sculptures that may challenge your expectations at the exhibition of finalists for the 2011 Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture at Fed Square.

Chatting with Stuart, I discover that he arrives at Fed Square each day with a different object in order to prompt passers-by into a conversation about ‘sculpture.’ Yesterday he came dressed all in purple; today he brought a beautiful vase of his neighbour’s roses, which look somewhat lonely and incongruous against the sharp edges and angled planes of Fed Square.

I leave Stuart chasing a reluctant conversationalist and brave the rain on the Upper Square to check out the other finalists. The sound of someone calling their dog coaxes me towards We, The Masters, the creation by sound, video and installation artists Sonia Leber and David Chesworth. Fragments of vinyl bunting hang in gum trees, highlighting a soundscape built up from hundreds of vocalisations of people talking to their animals. In the absence of any animals, the work calls out to you: beckoning, cajoling, controlling.

Across the square, Clive Murray-White’s Sara Delaney – a head of her time gazes beatifically at people taking shelter under nearby canopies. The rain doesn’t bother her. Her hint of a smile reminds me of that other famous almost-smiling lady hanging in the Louvre.

I reach the most physically imposing of the sculptures, the towering Apostle No 2. In the tropical drizzle of a late November Melbourne morning, it looks like a melting iceberg that’s become marooned in a sandstone desert. A little kid toddles up and licks the dripping sculpture. His mother drags him away, but he manages to give it a parting kick with his tiny gumboot. Unlike the limestone monolith member of the 12 Apostles that toppled into the ocean – which this piece of art parodies – this Apostle stands steadfast.

As the drizzle becomes a drenching, I abandon the hunt for Tom Nicholson’s Unfinished monument to Batman’s Treaty and Bianca Hester’s a world, fully accessible by no living being. For all I know, they’ve beaten a retreat from the weather themselves.

Melbourne Prize for Urban Sculpture 2011 @ Fed Square
Until 21 November 2011
www.melbourneprizetrust.org/mp2011