An Australian hotel catering for homosexuals has won the right to ban heterosexuals from its bars.
In what is believed to be a first for Australia, the Victoria state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality, despite the fact that Australia’s equal opportunities [...]

MELBOURNE - At 7:25 p.m., the Melbourne City Council failed to approve a conditional use permit and site plan for The Lofts at Waverly, a 120-foot condominium tower proposed at the public parking lot behind Meg O’Malley’s.
Council members deadlocked in a 3-3 tie. Mayor Harry Goode, Richard Contreras and Kathy Meehan voted yes, while Joanne [...]

Early last year, The Preserve at Longleaf off Wickham Road in Melbourne was a new apartment complex all set to become a top-of-the-line condominium property, with units selling for more than $200,000.
Today, with Brevard County’s condominium market perceived as soft, Longleaf is staying as apartments, with leases starting at $900 a month for a one-bedroom, [...]

MANATEE - The bad news: the number of existing-home sales fell 8 percent in Bradenton-Sarasota in January, compared to a year earlier. The good news: Bradenton-Sarasota was the second strongest performing market in the state, which saw the number of sales fall 27 percent.
Helping more homes change hands was a 20 percent fall in the [...]

Phillip Island off the coast near Melbourne, Australia, is known around the world for a strange combination–fairy penguin colonies and a Grand Prix circuit. If you’re more on the penguins’ side you’ll be interested to hear that Accor’s All Seasons chain is opening the All Seasons Eco Resort Phillip Island in May this year.
Self contained [...]

The Victorian Government has announced travel on V/Line rail services will be free on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
Travel is free for any service arriving at or departing from Melbourne after 4:00pm AEDT on New Year’s Eve, and also on the first service home on New Year’s Day.
Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky says it [...]

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Peninsula Road Limited, a subsidiary of Melview Developments, said today it planned to build a 177-room Westin hotel near Queenstown.
The Westin Queenstown will open in 2009. The chain has hotels in Auckland Melbourne, Sydney and Denarau Island, Fiji.
The hotel will be “upper upscale, not quite in the luxury [...]

MELBOURNE - Liberal Leader Ted Baillieu played his last big card in the Victorian election campaign today, making a bid for the small business vote by promising to slash unpopular land tax.
Under the long-awaited policy, Victorian property owners would see their tax bills cut by up to 35 per cent for land valued between $A540,000 [...]

A year after the first visible slowdown in the local real estate market, real estate agents are still feeling the effects.
The third quarter of 2006 saw single-family existing home sales plummet 34 percent from the year before while condo sales tumbled 55 percent in Bradenton-Sarasota. It was the third quarter of 2005 that first showed [...]

The 2007 World Swimming Championships Corporation announced that Crown Towers is the Official Hotel for the 12th FINA World Championships. In excess of 2000 athletes from up to 175 countries, as well as team officials and staff, FINA representatives and members of the international media will stay in hotel accommodation during the World Championships which [...]

Explore Holidays has released a new ‘Taste of India’ tour that allows first-time travellers to sample all India has to offer in one go.
The well-rounded tour will stop at Mumbai, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur and Goa as well as the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum of Akbar at Sikandra, the old city of Amber, Periyar National Park, [...]

Virgin Atlantic proudly transported the Ashes Urn to Sydney, where it will be displayed as part of an historic exhibition organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Australian Ashes winning Captains Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh and the Hon Sandra Nori, NSW Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, were at Sydney Airport to mark [...]