ANDREW BROWN-MAY is Senior Lecturer in Australian History at the University of Melbourne and a principal editor of and contributor to 'The Encyclopedia of Melbourne' whose recent books on local urban histories include 'Melbourne Street Life' and 'Espresso! Melbourne Coffee Stories'.
ROBERTO D'ANDREA is a former Melbourne tram conductor featured in the Melbourne Immigration Museum who leads 'The Connies' performance troupe that make and distribute collectable tickets at festivals that yarn on themes of environmental sustainability and social history.

Listen:

23 Feb 2007 photos Karen Trist

People move through the city from A to B, but do we take the time to experience its richness? For Andrew the city is like an encyclopedia, where our own biographical relationship toward a place builds strong feelings. Yet even having written an encyclopedia of Melbourne, he is still ever surprised by the city and traces of life evidenced in it. Roberto tells of how the tramcar has long brought together the ‘jungle of humanity’, cross-pollinating communication between people, and the role the tram conductor once played in this. The conversation moves through the great cultural diversity developed in Melbourne since the gold rush - a diversity that has existed since, but which has been expressed and dealt with in different ways.