City Cite

Reflections from Year 9 City Cite

Throughout the 4 days of city cite, there was not one boring moment. Together with my group, we traversed around the city, explored the food Melbourne had to offer, and gained a much deeper understanding of the discrimination in our own city. Each group had to research a question, and my 6-member group had chosen to research ‘Is Melbourne accepting of all religions and ethnicities?’ We surveyed people at Flinders Street Station, and interviewed a lawyer. 

The whole experience really opened my eye to what the average Melbournian thought about this topic. Alongside the research, I gained a myriad of skills needed to navigate the city, and finally understood the tram system. Catching the train each morning with my friends and classmates was an experience I truly did enjoy, and honestly missed the most, excluding the early wake up time! 

Each day we were allowed to find out own lunch, and my friends and I were astounded by the options we had! The delicious baguette sandwiches, Boreks, burritos and more showed us how multicultural Melbourne was, while simultaneously filling our stomachs. The entire week was extremely engaging, exciting and enjoyable, and my only wish is that it was longer!  

Nirisha G 

Year 9 Student

City cite was an experience full of inspiring talks, passionate debates on what to eat for lunch, and mad dashes to the train station. Throughout the course of our trip to the city, the year 9’s underwent a diverse set of experiences, ranging from learning about marginalised groups in society, to investigating specific topics of interest. Personally, my group chose to dive into the question of whether Melbourne was or wasn’t accepting of its LGBTQIA+ counterparts. 

The year 9 cohort also had the opportunity to listen to and engage with various guest speakers, each of whom provided a thought-provoking insight to the lives of different people around the city. Another aspect of city cite was the freedom the students had – whilst this certainly created some problems surrounding people getting lost and on the wrong tram stops, it also proved to be an enriching adventure, one which enabled me and my friends to freely travel around the CBD to independently discover Melbourne’s rich culture, diversity, and coffee culture! 

Keira L

Year 9 Student

If there was one word to sum up the experience of city cite, it would be independency. For a group of 90 or so Year 9s, being given independence to navigate and work in the city for 4 whole days brought about the good, the bad, and the somewhat chaotic. We were given freedom to make our way to flinders station at the crack of dawn, to go out and buy lunch by ourselves, and to roam the city to collect surveys and do research. We were trusted with being punctual, not getting entirely lost, and being mature enough to converse with people like normal humans. Through this, we were able to get a peek into the adult society we'd one day be a part of, but of course our newfound independence didn't always lead us to the right place (also applies literally). 

Many wrong trams were taken, trains were missed, google maps' were consulted, and coffee and donuts consumed. At times, this more grown-up world had us stuck at the station, watching the carriage with our friends pass by. It got us rejected by adults wanting to avoid our survey QR codes, and had people putting in their airpods so they wouldn't be the next target of the, 'hi can you do this quick survey?' kids. However, over the course of our journey, we grew to get more accustomed to it all, even managing to be slightly less sleep deprived. The early trains we all dreaded waking up to catch, became some of our favourite parts of the day, getting to the City Cite building became easier as we figured out which direction was right, and surveys got easier as people started taking out their earbuds to listen to what we had to say. 

Something that will always stay with me is asking people on the street our question, on whether 'Melbourne is a judgemental society', because the conversations that ensued were the things that taught me the most about our society. From what I've seen, in the 4 short days in the city, all 90 of us have maybe walked away with a better ability to not to get lost, and have probably felt a little more independent, but all 90 of us have certainly left with some memories we won't want to forget. 

Sophie L

Year 9 Student