Happy birthday, Melbourne - 180 years old tomorrow! And perhaps, let's be honest, not entirely sure what anniversary it is you're celebrating.

We know this has not always been an easy occasion for you. Like an ageing Hollywood star who changed her date of birth back in the day and now can't quite remember which is the real birthday. Any celebration of your birth has always been contentious - so contentious it's mostly passed without comment. With birthdays as with everything else, Sydney has always had it easier - a harbour, a historic fleet of convicts, a national day to mark the occasion and a bridge and opera house to set off the whole fireworks-laden shindig in a fittingly grand setting.

Flinder Street station.

In this as in everything else, Melbourne plays it more low key: a river rather than a harbour and a rather more humble motivation on the part of the settlers. They came here from Van Diemen's Land looking for a suitable place to graze cows.

Arriving first, John Batman in June 1835, recording in his diary the immortal line: "About six miles up, found the river all good water and very deep. This will be the place

for a village."