Report: Melbourne Just One Giant Parramatta Road

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A recent report by NSW Tourism has found that anyone who wants to experience the sights and sounds of Melbourne can actually get all of that in Sydney.

Known for their perfectly gridded town-planning and bustling shopfronts, Melbourne has spent decades marketing themselves as nightlife destination that doesn't need a harbour or beaches to entice tourism.

And without much sunshine, they also think that they've made up for the lack of postcard experiences offered by Queensland.

However, with the city still reeling from the economic depression of a 300 day pandemic lockdown, the hospitality sector and social atmosphere of Melbourne has taken a hit.

Instead, international tourists are being urged to alter their travel itinerary to skip Victoria entirely, because you can get everything that Melbourne has to offer just a couple kilometres from Sydney's CBD.

As a gorgeous, flat, traffic-heavy, 4-lane arterial - Parramatta Road looks exactly like all those other roads that make up inner-Melbourne.

But instead of chain homeware retailers and overseas fashion brands, Parramatta Road espouses the eccentricities that Melbourne used to.

Namely, an entire precinct dedicated to excessively frilly wedding dresses, and another historic quarter that sells nothing but plastic beads.

On top of this, it also has about 20 shithole pubs and a couple strip joints, as well as a few chicken shops and a Maccas.

"This is quintessential urban living in Australia" says mayor of Sydney's inner-west, Darcy Byrne.

"And unlike Melbourne, Parramatta Road's colourful ethnic communities haven't been replaced by university students pretending to be poor"

However, Melbourne still argues that they are now the nation's 'Queer Capital' - having taken the title from Sydney after the 2015 lock-out laws stifled the iconic LGBTI party precinct of Oxford Street.

The Inner-West mayor disagrees. He says the gays are well and truly present in the city's historical east-west artery.

"Just because Parramatta Road's LGBTI community is mostly made up of blue collar Lesbians doesn't mean it isn't queer"

"They just party a bit differently. Less glitter more Guinness"