"'Twas a couple of nights before Christmas,
When all through the Mall,
Not a creature was stirring,
No, no-one at all..."

City Walk is decked out with festive lighting, but an absence of people. This was actually 9:30 at night rather than 8.30; it was only the following day I'd noticed that I had forgotten to re-set the clock in my 40D after we went to daylight savings. And granted there was still activity at some of the late night restaurants a couple of blocks away. However you'd be hard pressed to find such an empty street in the heart of either Sydney or Melbourne at that time of night. Whether that's better or worse is left to the interpretation of the viewer.