A gaggle of Ophelias striding up the Yarra!

Great to see an article looking at ways to change Melbourne. [Age Saturday 4th April] Apart from the fantastic and immediately doable idea to run a .05 style campaign to curb violence and make it socially unacceptable, the other ideas were great. Will it ever happen? Not likely given the ‘let’s form a sub-committee mentality’ of our current Government.
We have multiple points of interest in Melbourne due to the drive of individual entrepreneurs yet what we need is a central focus to rewrite Melbourne’s view to the world. Jorn Utzon did it for Sydney, despite narrow thinking and short term politicians, and we can do it for Melbourne. For example, the wavy roof of Spencer Street Station is great but the station’s only half done and the new and disgusting concrete building next door really shows a narrowness of thought. And, whoever put a drop ceiling in the Flinders Street station really failed to recognize or celebrate the original vaulted space; as do other great railway stations in the world. What happened? At this point Government heads go down and feet start to shuffle.
Why can’t we build an ‘Ophelia’ the size of a 20 story building housing a modern art museum? Guggenheim eat your heart out. Money is almost irrelevant – despite dire Government predictions does anyone complain about the cost of Sydney’s opera house today? Indeed, why can’t we have a whole community of Ophelias striding from our illustrious bay right up the Yarra to the city with each containing something the public could use and celebrate. Bloody hell Melbourne, let’s get some really bright way out clever types to change yawning Melbourne as did Guggenheim for Bilbao or Eiffel for Paris. Send your letters to The Age by the million and show you want Melbourne to be fantastic.