Council plans $2 million push to light up city laneways
The City of Melbourne is planning a major new investment to brighten some of the CBD’s best-known streets and laneways, with a record $2 million allocation for decorative lighting proposed in its draft 2026-27 budget.
CBD budget doubles down on safety, support and a more walkable city
From empty towers to a true CAD: can adaptive reuse reshape the CBD?
Business
A bar, a laneway and 25 years of city life at Hells Kitchen
When Melbourne pub rockers-turned-stadium band Amyl and the Sniffers had their show cancelled and famously donated their $35,000 fee to the patrons of seven local music venues, Hells Kitchen was one of them.
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How the Arslans turned gozleme into a QVM staple
Ekrem Arslan and his wife Asiye were the first in Melbourne to sell gozleme, he says. Nearly a quarter of a century on, his happy family market business has expanded but remains largely unchanged.
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Tuscan-inspired wine bar The Florence opens above Flinders Lane favourite
A new late-night venue has opened on Flinders Lane, with Tuscan-inspired wine and cocktail bar The Florence taking over the level above The Meatball & Wine Bar in the latest move from Melbourne hospitality group Valarc.
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Sally’s latest Capp: former Lord Mayor joins Hickory
Former Lord Mayor Sally Capp has taken on her latest post-council role, joining Melbourne construction and property company Hickory as its inaugural chief strategy officer.
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Old church welcomes young crowd
A Neo-Gothic bluestone church nestled into a pocket of greenery overlooked by skyscrapers, St Augustine’s, consecrated in 1869, is one of the CBD’s oldest churches. Its original timber building stood on the Bourke St site from 1853.
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A bar, a laneway and 25 years of city life at Hells Kitchen
Tuscan-inspired wine bar The Florence opens above Flinders Lane favourite
Columns
Is your high-rise building safe and secure?
For residents living in Melbourne’s CBD high-rise apartments, the building you call home is far more than four walls and a roof.
Community engagement: a matter long supported by EastEnders
How seriously is the City of Melbourne in engaging with the community?
Local News
Bennetts Lane signage fight heads to VCAT as council defers decision
A planning dispute over signage at an iconic Bennetts Lane site in the CBD has now spilled into VCAT, with the City of Melbourne deferring formal consideration of the application while discussions continue between council officers and the applicant.
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Mekong owner’s scholarship fund marks 20 years and opens 2026 applications
A Swanston St restaurant owner who arrived in Australia with little more than determination has spent the past two decades quietly building one of Melbourne’s most enduring scholarship programs.
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Penny Wong visits Chinatown as MCBA builds links between government, business and community
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has paid a visit to Melbourne’s Chinatown for a community and industry breakfast dialogue, with the event highlighting the growing role the precinct and its business leaders are playing in broader conversations about multiculturalism, trade, education and civic life.
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Cohealth can no longer outrun the questions
The immediate crisis around cohealth’s inner-city clinics may have been delayed by another $1.5 million in Commonwealth funding, but the broader crisis facing the organisation is only deepening.
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Australia tightens the screws on international students
One in three international students applying to an Australian university was rejected in February 2026. That 32.5 per cent refusal rate is the highest monthly figure recorded in 21 years of tracking data, and it is no accident.
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Bennetts Lane signage fight heads to VCAT as council defers decision
Mekong owner’s scholarship fund marks 20 years and opens 2026 applications
Penny Wong visits Chinatown as MCBA builds links between government, business and community
Community engagement: a matter long supported by EastEnders
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