¶ FIELD NOTES · RICHMOND · MELBOURNE
Make friends inRichmond.
THE INNER EAST, BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE RIVER · A WEEKLY TABLE OF FIVE · FRIENDSHIP-FIRST
Richmond is a suburb of arrivals: new jobs, new apartments, the first place a lot of people live when they move to Melbourne for work. It is also weirdly easy to spend a year there knowing nobody. A standing table fixes that.
What is Hey Sini?
Hey Sini
nounHey Sini is a weekly social club for making friends as an adult. It seats five compatible people near each other at the same table, on the same night, every week for six weeks, and then the table becomes theirs. It is friendship-first, not a dating app, and it opens neighbourhood by neighbourhood, starting around Carlton.
- Format
- one matched table of five
- Rhythm
- same night, every week · a six-week first cycle
- Where
- Melbourne · Jakarta
- Cost
- free to join · founding $19/mo
- Not
- a dating app, and not one-off meetups
THE SUBURB
Why a Richmond table.
Three strips define Richmond: Bridge Road, Swan Street, and Victoria Street with its run of Vietnamese kitchens. The MCG and the sport are next door, and Richmond station is one of the best-connected in Melbourne.
Because so many people move to Richmond for work rather than a friend group, the suburb is full of people in exactly your position. The trains and the 70, 75 and 78 trams make a standing Richmond table easy to reach from wherever your day ends.
WHO IT IS FOR
Made for Richmond, specifically.
- People who moved to Richmond for a new job
- Apartment-dwellers who want neighbours who are actually friends
- Anyone who eats on Victoria or Swan Street alone too often
- New-to-Melbourne workers without a crew yet
- People who want a weeknight that is not just the gym and home
HOW IT WORKS HERE
One match, then the same five, every week.
- Getting there
- Richmond station connects most lines; trams 70 (Swan Street), 75 (Bridge Road) and 78 (Church Street) cross the suburb.
- Nearby study
- A short hop to Swinburne and the city universities
- The rhythm
- Five compatible people near you, the same night, every week for six weeks. We re-seat you if it is not right.
- The cost
- Free to join. A founding seat is $19/mo, locked for life (it is $22/mo after). You pay your own bill at the table.
A Richmond table usually lands on Swan Street, Bridge Road or around Victoria Street: somewhere with a long table and no rush. We suggest the place via Google Maps; the group confirms it. We never book it or take venue money.
RICHMOND QUESTIONS
Before you sit down.
Is Hey Sini just for students in Richmond?
No. Richmond skews to people who moved for work, so its tables do too. You are seated on your vibe, your nearest streets and the night you can keep, never on your age or where you are from.
More in the full FAQ, the Melbourne guide, or how to make friends in Melbourne.
RICHMOND
The chair is out in Richmond.
Richmond opens as enough nearby people sign up on a shared night. Sign up with Richmond as your area and you are in the first group seated when it can fill a table.
OTHER NEIGHBOURHOODS