The Null Device

A piece on the decline and fall of Melbourne's Brunswick St..

Trish has always lived within close proximity of Brunswick Street and she's worked in three of the cafés along this strip. "It's changed phenomenally," she gauges. "When I moved into the area in `88, every second person was wearing black or looked different from the norm."

Over the past two years, we've seen the construction of the Max Apartments and The Metropole, not to mention the glary, saturating neon washes that hallmark the new 7-Eleven and Blockbuster Video stores... "It's obvious that business is seeing Brunswick Street as a good place to invest, because they want to target younger professionals," assesses Richard Martin... "More people now own their own properties, or investors have bought into the market. There are less `shared households' here now, so [fewer] students live in the area."

"The Evelyn is the place that most gets to me -- I used to go there to see mates' bands, and there'd be fights and it was a cool pub. Now it's just kind of bland. It's the same with the Punters Club -- I used to feel really at home there, but now it's like the place is paranoid -- I can't explain it. If I was going to go to a pub now, it wouldn't be one on Brunswick Street at all."

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