jamesnixon.com


POSTCODE 3000


Great Place To Visit, But Why Would You Live There?



Imagine how you’d feel if you had believed the publicity, sold up your house in the suburbs and moved into Melbourne CBD. Postcode 3000. Many people did. High priced housing commission apartments, paper thin walls, no parking for friends to come and visit, walk blocks to find the one useless supermarket, no nearby convenience stores, you can’t buy petrol or wash your car; the streets cleaners and rubbish trucks drive through your bedroom at four every morning … there are druggies on every second corner. But wait, there’s more. When you slink home to hide from the ever-present noise you can’t even watch television! In the centre of Australia’s second-largest city the only TV you can receive is from Win and Prime TV in Bendigo and Ballarat. True Story. Channels 2, 7, 9,10, SBS and 31 all broadcast into the region but none, repeat none, can make it into Elizabeth Street, less than two hundred metres from the GPO. One resident has a country address, so they conned a satellite dish and contract out of the Government. They get to watch programs that come from central western South Australia. Their local news features the Port Lincoln Angling Club. It’s get cable – or get stuffed.

If postcode 3000 residents had free tram travel, they could inexpensively move around the city. A small price to pay to placate the residents who must wonder if they have made the biggest mistakes of their lives.