Health Sciences

China Health Program

Melbourne

'Safe and Friendly city'

Melbourne sits at the mouth of the Yarra River on the northern edge of Port Phillip Bay. Some 60 kilometers to the south, Port Phillip Bay opens to the ocean through a narrow channel of treacherous water. To the north and the east of Melbourne low mountain ranges rise and the rainforest meets the clouds.

Melbourne is a sprawling low density city with a small central business district and hectares of suburbs sprawling out to the west and the north and the east. In the low hills of the north east lies the suburb of Bundoora which is where La Trobe University is located. Bundoora is typical low density outer urban sprawl; separate single story houses, each with their own garden; most with the family car in their drive or parked in the road outside.

Beyond the University Bundoora is made up of parks, hectares of housing, islands of industry, large shopping centres and rushing roads. Moving around Bundoora, going to work or school, shopping or visiting friends is easier for those with bicycles or cars. However, there is an efficient network of public transport, buses, trams and trains, which can take you shopping at the nearby shopping mall or can take you into the city. (More about public transport around Melbourne.)

The community of La Trobe takes different forms at different times of the day and of the year. On Mondays at 9.00 am during semester undergraduates scurry to study, by bicycle or motorbike, car, tram or bus; rushing to catch the first lecture of the day or a preferred location in the well stocked La Trobe Library. On Sunday mornings the La Trobe community has a different pace, a different mix and purpose. The people who live on campus or in the neighboring suburbs get on with their business: visiting friends, returning books to the library, going shopping or perhaps just walking across the hectares of green space that surround the University.

The Chinese community of La Trobe gets about its business mixing with the throngs during the week; moving through clearer space during the weekend. Melbourne has a large Chinese Australian community and many of these choose to study at La Trobe. La Trobe also attracts a large number of Chinese undergraduate and postgraduate students, from Guangdong to Harbin, from Shanghai to Xinjiang. However, the best Chinese restaurants are still in downtown Melbourne, in historic Chinatown, just a tram ride from the hills of Bundoora.

Behind the strolling walkers, gliding cyclists and dreamy motorists lies a different pace of life in Bundoora: the relationships, the personal networks, the regular dinners together, the parties and the study partners. Not so obvious from the tramstop are the networks of friendship and collegiality: the students working together; the common interest groups on campus; the cells of academic purpose struggling to find time for research midst the rush of teaching.

Melbourne is a safe and friendly city. Bundoora, where La Trobe is located, is a place of peace and green; where small cells of study are supported by wider networks of care and support. It is not always easy to find one's feet in these networks and communities but University services and the clubs and societies provide channels and pathways through which to build these networks of support.