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Foot traffic in Melbourne CBD has failed to return to pre-COVID levels.

Series

City Limits

This series investigates how Melbourne CBD has weathered the long shadow of the pandemic amid changing workplace, retail and entertainment trends.

7 stories
Bourke Street was once Melbourne’s premier shopping strip.

‘Not a concrete wasteland’: Lord Mayor Nick Reece’s retort to The Age’s Melbourne CBD series

Yes, pedestrian foot traffic is down and the working-from-home shift has caused pain for businesses. But when people visit the city now, they are spending more than ever before.

  • Nick Reece
Foot traffic in Melbourne CBD has failed to return to pre-COVID levels.

Are you part of Melbourne’s missing 20 per cent? Check how much foot traffic has dropped

Once Melbourne’s liveliest areas, these city zones have been transformed after they were abandoned by the CBD’s vanishing 20 per cent.

  • Cassandra Morgan and Craig Butt
Foot traffic in Melbourne CBD has failed to return to pre-COVID levels.

Are you part of Melbourne’s missing 20 per cent? Check how much foot traffic has dropped

Once Melbourne’s liveliest areas, these city zones have been transformed after they were abandoned by the CBD’s vanishing 20 per cent.

  • Cassandra Morgan and Craig Butt
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Bourke Street was once Melbourne’s premier shopping strip.
  • Exclusive

This CBD icon was a mecca for shoppers. Then Melbourne fell out of love

Once at the top of Melbourne’s retail hierarchy, this mighty strip took a mighty tumble – before a “sensorial wonder” moved in.

  • Cassandra Morgan and Craig Butt
Lygon Street is in a state of flux.
  • Exclusive

It once attracted 700,000 people in one weekend. Now Lygon Street is in a state of flux

The famous street is facing a sink-or-swim battle, decades after its heyday when visitors crammed in to dance on the road and have their first taste of pizza.

  • Cassandra Morgan and Craig Butt
Chinatown has endured the city’s downturn better than most.

Melbourne’s Chinatown comeback: How the city’s dumpling district returned

As the rest of the city battles a decline in foot traffic forcing businesses to adjust their opening hours or, in some cases, close altogether, there’s one inner-city hotspot people just can’t get enough of.

  • Isabel McMillan and Craig Butt
Bourke Street was once Melbourne’s premier shopping strip.
  • Opinion

‘Not a concrete wasteland’: Lord Mayor Nick Reece’s retort to The Age’s Melbourne CBD series

Yes, pedestrian foot traffic is down and the working-from-home shift has caused pain for businesses. But when people visit the city now, they are spending more than ever before.

  • Nick Reece

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The Sydney Central Business District, Sydney Harbour and Eastern Suburbs and surrounds are seen on 18 February 2025, in Sydney, Australia from a commercial airliner. Picture - Sam Mooy / The Sydney Morning Herald

Life in the burbs

We’re celebrating Sydney’s suburbs and local writers have been penning pieces about the neighbourhoods they know best. Read all their stories here.

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Australia's declining fertility rate.

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The fertility rate in Australia is at a record low. We explore why we’re having fewer babies – and what that means for the country’s future.

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