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Dry July: How to survive Melbourne stone cold sober

Abstaining for a month is a challenge many people appreciate, and this month it's a win-win situation. Here's our guide to celebrating sobriety.

Jayne D'Arcy

The Crimean in North Melbourne had 50 different ginger beers on offer during Febfast.
The Crimean in North Melbourne had 50 different ginger beers on offer during Febfast.Eddie Jim

Febfast, Dry July and Ocsober. Months dedicated to not drinking alcohol seem to be building up on the calendar, and, get this, if a month isn’t enough of a challenge, you can sign up for Hello Sunday Morning for three or twelve months, too. Plenty of people are doing it, and plenty of people are donating to a variety of causes in support.

Febfast raised $1.1 million this year, with much of that going to alcohol and drug support. Right now, some 3586 Victorians are doing Dry July, raising $266,363 for cancer-related organisations (nationally 19,000 are participating), and Ocsober is next on the calendar, with money raised going to support Life Education’s school program. It’s aiming to raise $1 million this year.

Impressive mocktails at the Everleigh.
Impressive mocktails at the Everleigh.Mal Fairclough
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The popularity of going without alcohol seems to be in great contrast to what we love about Melbourne. We love showing off our cute laneway bars, embracing boozy days and nights watching the footy, and, come summer, you just try to keep Melburnians away from beer gardens and off our growing-in-number-by-the-day rooftop bars. Don’t even mention the large number of wineries a mere 45 minutes’ drive away. We’re practically flooded with grog.

Yet Melbourne has an interesting history when it comes to alcohol. Perhaps the most well-known part of it was the “six o’clock swill”, when, from 1917 to 1966 – an amazing five decades - Melbourne’s pubs shut at 6pm. Of course many punters stormed in straight after work and downed as many beers as they could before they were kicked out. It didn’t necessarily encourage responsible drinking.

The Temperance movement was big here in the 1920s, and as a result there are still official ‘‘dry areas’’ in the Cities of Whitehorse and Boroondara (east of Burke Road to Middleborough Road, bounded to the north by Koonung Creek, bounded to the south by Gardiner’s Creek, Warrigal Road and Riversdale Road, to be precise). These dry areas came into existence after a poll was held way back in October 1920. In most cases, each time there’s an application for a liquor licence, locals in the area vote yay or nay or get fined (they usually vote yay).

The great divide: Burke Road, Camberwell, has had a dry and wet side since the 1920s.
The great divide: Burke Road, Camberwell, has had a dry and wet side since the 1920s.Tina Haynes.

Today Melbourne prides itself on all the little bars squeezed into cupboard-sized spaces (and Sydney is trying its very best to catch up), but it wasn’t always like this. We can thank the Kennett government’s 1994 amendments to the Liquor Control Act for Melbourne’s thriving bar scene. It allowed bars to be set up sans kitchens. It meant that folk could get licences to set up bars in smaller locations, and we drinkers could get a drink in every nook and cranny of Melbourne. A secret bar hidden down a laneway and up some stairs became Melbourne all over.

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Then, as suddenly as a pop-up pops up and disappears, it was a cool thing – a la 1920s – to not drink grog. Of course plenty of people don’t drink alcohol anyway, but, beginning in 2007 with FebFast and 2008 with Dry July, drinkers could make a big deal out of not drinking and use their month off the booze to help raise money for charities (feel good factor x 2). “Not drinking” was a challenge designed to give the liver a one-month break and see what life was like without alcohol.

There was another catalyst for change; in 2013 Melbourne-based Fairfax journalist Jill Stark wrote the book High Sobriety; My Year Without Booze about, yes, her year without drinking. Lots of people read it and stopped drinking. Not drinking became not so unusual. Now our bars are actually changing to suit the non-drinkers, and life for Melbourne’s non-drinking folk is not all soda water and lime.

Dry July's Danielle Cormack: "I've been meeting a lot of people who just don't drink anymore."
Dry July's Danielle Cormack: "I've been meeting a lot of people who just don't drink anymore."Gina Milicia/Foxtel

According to Febfast’s national director Howard Ralley, Melbourne is a very Febfast-friendly city. Their most recent campaign involved contacting the city’s bars, restaurants and cafes and asking them to get on board and officially call themselves Febfast Friendly venues.

“We were blown away,” he says enthusiastically. “We had heaps of places come on board. We wanted pubs to get creative with non-alcoholic drinks, in the same way that bartenders and mixologists get really creative with cocktails. We wanted people to start thinking of a better non-alcoholic option. A lot of Febfasters told us that they get so bored of holding a glass of water in their hand, and drinking Coke isn’t always the healthiest option, so we wanted something a little more interesting. We were amazed at the number of bartenders who said: 'yeah, we’d like to get a bit creative'.”

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A few of Ralley’s faves were the Crimean in North Melbourne (351 Queensberry Street), which had 50 different ginger beers to choose from during the month and cocktail bar 1806 (169 Exhibition Street, Melbourne), which joined in with mocktails to match its cocktails. The Everleigh (upstairs, 150 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy) pitched in too. “Basically at the Everleigh you could tell them the kind of drink that you usually like and they would tailor the mocktail to your taste,” says Ralley.

Cocktail or mocktail: The Virgin Mojito.
Cocktail or mocktail: The Virgin Mojito.Domino Postiglione

There’s no doubt that one of the benefits of doing Febfast or Dry July is that thousands of others are too – you’re not the only one staying sober. This is something that actor and Dry July ambassador Danielle Cormack has noticed. “I was at a party the other night and there were quite a few Dry July-ers [officially known as DJs] and we all gathered in the corner and stood on our soap boxes swilling ginger ale together,” she says, laughing.

Cormack, who’s in Melbourne filming Wentworth, participated last year, but this year she trained for it. “I’ve been practising this time around. I had a good run-up to July, and I hadn’t been drinking for quite some time anyway. I’m really enjoying it. It might be a dry August, a dry September, I can’t guarantee anything for the months heading up to Christmas...”

After last year’s effort, which involved a couple of golden tickets (people can buy you a night off Dry July, and the same applies to Febfast), Cormack says she became more aware of when she was drinking and how much she was drinking. “It allowed me to be a bit more prepared this year, which is why I’ve given it a bit of a run up to July. I’m taking this very seriously! Like the New York Marathon – I don’t think I’d arrive at the starting gates having not prepared myself,” she says.

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One thing that strikes people when they’re off the grog, is just how alcohol effects those who are drinking. Charlotte Moscrop is 32 and lives in Collingwood. She’s participated in Dry July four times in recent years, including one where she raised $3000. She doesn’t hide herself away during the month, but says her nights out in Melbourne are not the same. “It does feel different,” she says. “Not so much if you’re having a drink or two, although it is still challenging, but it is particularly difficult when the people with you start to get a little bit drunk and you’re stone cold sober and it’s just a really interesting insight into, like wow, that would normally be me! You look in from a different perspective.”

Working in the events industry offers some particularly tempting moments for Moscrop. “Some years I feel like July is filled with networking events, and that’s when it’s particularly hard – especially networking with new people - drinks go hand in hand at those events. They’re plying you with alcohol for free! That’s where it’s a bit challenging,” she says. Her nights out are also shorter. “I suddenly get a bit over it, and tiredness kicks in more than anything, and I’m like: OK, time to go, I’ve had a good night, caught up with all my friends. They’re all going to kick on, I’m heading home, I get the benefit then because I feel fine the next day.”

For some, a month is not long enough. Hello Sunday Morning (HSM) is an online community of people who commit to either three or twelve months off alcohol. It began in Australia in 2010 and now HSMers sign up for the challenge from all over the world. According to the website, the idea is that people “take a short break from alcohol to create meaningful change in their lives”. There’s a strong Melbourne contingent, and although it can be anonymous (there’s no fundraising involved so people don’t need to ask their workmates/family members to sponsor them), there are member-initiated gatherings, and there will be a group of HSMers running in October’s Melbourne Marathon.

Fitness seems to be a byproduct of the non-drinkers’ lifestyle; and “dry” months no doubt lead to an increase in the number of runners hitting the Tan. Without alcohol in the mix, people seem to live differently. “I started filling up my weekend days with activities so I wasn’t focused on the nighttime,” says Moscrop. “I make it a good excuse to go to the gym a bit more. It doesn’t always work,” she says, laughing.

Melbourne lawyer and photographer Miles Standish finds he’s a lot fitter when he’s not drinking. “When I’m drinking, I lose my motivation for exercise and put on weight,” he says. Standish recently had over a year off drinking and has just recommitted to the non-drinking life after alcohol snuck back in. “I didn’t make a conscious decision to start drinking again, but I had a couple and another night I had a couple, and I got out of the habit of not drinking,” he says. “For three to four months I was drinking - not quite to the extent that I used to – but the trajectory was heading back to that default position. I could remember that I felt really good not drinking, I’d really enjoyed not drinking,” he says.

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Standish had no problem keeping up with Melbourne life during his year of sobriety. “I went to see bands, I went to exhibition openings with free grog – I didn’t find it problematic at all. I drank a lot of soda water and discovered that I really liked ginger beer. I drank so much soda water that I actually bought a soda syphon. After a month it paid for itself,” he says.

Cormack has noticed that not drinking is not so uncommon, even in what might be considered high drinking circles like the performing arts. “Surprisingly, I’ve been meeting a lot of people who just don’t drink anymore – they just don’t drink, and maybe it’s the age I’m at, or being around Dry July,” she says.

“I think because of the success of things like Febfast, a lot of people now are very comfortable with going out and not drinking,” says Ralley. “I think it’s really starting to change the way people look at alcohol. When they want a glass of wine, they have a glass of wine, but they are just as comfortable not having that glass of wine every single night. I think Melbourne has been a brilliant city in really adapting to the changing needs of what drinkers want.”

How to survive Melbourne stone cold sober

EATING OUT

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Melbourne is home to some great alcohol-free restaurants:
■ Hana at Moroccan Soup Bar (183 St Georges Road, North Fitzroy) serves bargain banquets in an alcohol-free space.
■ Tiba's Lebanese Food (504 Sydney Road, Brunswick) has been around for three decades.
■ A popular newcomer in the north is Taste of Thai (434 Sydney Road, Coburg).
■ Malaysian restaurant PappaRich (QV Building, Melbourne, Doncaster, Chadstone, Glen Waverly, Nunawading and Northland) has a huge drinks menu, none of which are alcoholic.

DRINKING

■ Head to the bars listed under "Febfast Friendly Locations" at febfast.org.au. There are 26 bars around Melbourne.
■ Consider going for some tea. Storm in a Teacup (48A Smith Street, Collingwood) and Travelling Samovar Tea
House (412 Rathdowne Street, Carlton North) are Febfast-friendly and stay open later in summer. Just avoid the tea cocktails.
■ Check out mocktails like the Palermita (pineapple, almond and orange bitters) at year-round fave Cutler & Co (55-57 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy) and the Lychee Passion (passionfruit, lychee, grape and lime juice) at Red Spice Road (27 McKillop Street, Melbourne).

SOCIAL

■ If you're aged between 18 and 35 you can join the 1357 people who are already members of the Melbourne Alcohol Free Social Group on meetup (meetup.com/MAFSgroup/).
■ You can go to the footy without getting all beery – specific areas of the MCG are designated dry areas with no alcohol allowed – buy dry zone tickets online.
■ Many of Melbourne's events are alcohol-free (though you might not think it) including the City of Melbourne's New Year's Eve celebrations, all public areas of White Night and Melbourne Moomba Waterfest.

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GIVING UP ALCOHOL FOR A MONTH? HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT

■ No hangovers for a whole month.
■ It suddenly becomes feasible to plan activities for Saturdays and Sundays.
■ More hours in the day.
■ An urge to exercise.
■ More money in your pocket (80 per cent of Febfasters said they saved money during the month).
■ Strong sugar cravings. People often replace the sugar they were getting from alcohol with chocolate or desserts, which could counteract expected weight loss.
■ Getting sick of drinking soda and lime when you go out.
■ Having earlier nights out as you abandon your tipsy friends because, frankly, you don't understand what they're going on about.
■ Your skin will probably get a lot clearer.
■ Your liver may function better.

LINKS
■ Febfast, febfast.org.au
■ Dry July, au.dryjuly.com
■ Ocsober, ocsober.com.au
■ Hello Sunday Morning, hellosundaymorning.org

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