Southisland, Under Southgate Footbridge, Opens

PLANNING barrister Clem Newton-Brown has spent January working at Melbourne’s newest cafe, midway between the CBD and Southgate, on a podium over the Yarra River.

The Southisland Cafe – located under the Southgate footbridge – has taken over a year to get off the ground, so to speak, given objections, permits – and the engineering feat of hooking up a toilet, in the middle of a busy river, at the centre of a thriving metropolis.

Engineers were further delayed by the fact nobody was able to locate original construction drawings for the bridge.

In a bid to get the cafe open before Christmas, Mr Newton-Brown himself pitched in with the contractors.

Mr Newton-Brown told Capital Gain he is considering selling the cafe at the end of summer, having been preselected to run for the Liberals in the next State election in Prahran in November.