Bourne Identity

If you know, you know. That more or less sums up the spirit of Naarm, or Melbourne, Australia—a city that carries a quiet, confident coolness about it. Just last year, Smith Street in the Fitzroy neighbourhood was named “the coolest street in the world” for its line-up of understatedly chic wine bars, laidback cafés, restaurants and independent boutiques frequented by Melbourne’s creative set. The neighbourhood, once a stomping ground for street gangs in the 1800s, has a long, proud history of sticking it to the man and defying the mainstream.

It’s an attitude that has remained and become innate in modern Melburnians; naturally the city has become a breeding ground for artists and innovators. Given the city’s plethora of multicultural pockets that celebrate its diverse immigrant population, proud Indigenous