Espresso machines hiss, and the coffee shops spill people back onto the pavements, refreshed, to explore and sample the variety of experiences in the City of Yarra. Nowhere can the influence of Australia's migrant communities be seen as clearly as in the energy and optimism of our retail industry. There are 14 shopping strips and two markets, and each strip has cultivated an identity of its own that, as well as appealing to the local community, attracts interstate and international visitors. Fitzroy is Melbourne's oldest suburb, and Smith Street, which borders Fitzroy and Collingwood, is Melbourne's oldest shopping street. It's all there.
Windows display the pick of products from nearly every nation.
You'll always find something priceless, something exotic and something different along the streets and laneways of the City of Yarra. What follows is a selection of the shopping strips and markets highlighting the ambience and some of the lesser known features. Meet me at Dimmeys For over 80 years the dome and clock tower on top of Dimmeys have been a landmark and meeting place in Richmond. The well-loved discount department store, built in 1853, gives Swan Street its character as a bargain hunter's paradise. Originally created in ruby-coloured glass with the word Dimmeys set in white, the dome display was lit from inside by an electric arc lamp equivalent to 5,000 candles.