37 Best Sights in Melbourne, Victoria

One of the cultural linchpins of Federation Square, ACMI is Australia's museum of screen culture, from film to TV, video games, and art. Its remit is to explore the moving image through film festivals and interactive exhibitions, games, and workshops—some focused especially on their youngest visitors. The permanent games lab, with its classic and new games, is an arcade-style experience great for all. The little ACMI kiosk sells sandwiches, salad bowls, and sweets, and there's also a museum shop for unique gifts.

Melbourne's most important cultural landmark is Victoria’s home of live performance and encompasses Hamer Hall, the Theatres Building (housing the State Theatre and other venues) with its iconic spire, and the outdoor Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Enjoy a show or take a tour through the Australian Performing Arts Collection for behind-the-scenes access to Australia's largest performing arts collection. With over 850,000 items, the Collections Store is dedicated to the development, management, preservation, and sharing of Arts Centre Melbourne's extraordinary cultural heritage. Bookings essential. At night, the complex's spire creates a magical spectacle with brilliant fiber-optic cables.

Melbourne's most elegant 19th-century shopping arcade dates from the 1880s, when "Marvelous Melbourne" was flush with the prosperity of the gold rushes. A century later, renovations scraped back the grime to reveal a magnificent mosaic floor.

The heart of the trendy South Yarra–Prahran–Windsor area, this long road is packed with pubs, bars, notable restaurants, and upscale boutiques—more than 1,000 shops can be found within the precinct. Australian icons like Dinosaur Designs and Scanlan Theodore showcase their original work at the fashion-conscious, upscale Toorak Road end of the street (nearest to the city). Catch the 78 tram or walk south along Chapel Street to Greville Street and visit a small lane of hip bars, clothing boutiques, and record stores. Past Greville Street, moving into Windsor at the south end of Chapel Street, things get hipper, with cafés and vintage shops; this part of Chapel Street has three great markets selling everything from fresh produce to vintage records.

Melbourne's best-known laneway for its vibrant street art scene, Hosier Lane is easily accessible off Flinders Lane, and may whet your appetite for further exploration. The ever-changing nature of the art means you can wander at will, or join a walking tour. With tours run by street artists, Blender Studios also conducts walks past the large-scale murals of Fitzroy, and even runs freehand spray-painting workshops for adults and kids.

The Australian and First Nations art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria hangs on the walls of this gallery in Fed Square. Key pieces include pioneering Indigenous artist Emily Kame
Kngwarreye's vast 1995 work, Anwerlarr Anganenty (Big Yam Dreaming), as well as paintings from the famous Heidelberg school, such as Frederick McCubbin's Lost and Tom Roberts's Shearing the Rams. Other displays include fashion and textiles, sculpture, and photography. A gallery highlight is the First Nations collection, which is permanently displayed on the ground floor in a dedicated gallery called Wurrdha Marra and includes both traditional and contemporary art.

A much-photographed Melbourne landmark, the park's entrance is a huge, gaping mouth, swallowing visitors whole and delivering them into a world of ghost trains, pirate ships, and carousels. Built in 1912, the Scenic Railway is the park's most popular ride. It's said to be the oldest continually operating roller coaster in the world. The railway is less roller coaster and more a relaxed loop-the-loop, with stunning views of Port Phillip Bay between each dip and turn. Luna Park is a five-minute stroll southeast of St. Kilda.

Most commonly known for its colorful and culturally significant bathing boxes, which were built more than a century ago in response to Victorian ideas of morality and seaside bathing, Brighton Beach is also ideal for families since its location in a cove means that it's protected from the wind. Perfect for those looking for a quieter spot than St. Kilda Beach, the Bath Middle Brighton ( www.middlebrightonbaths.com.au) is a nice place to view the boats and have a bite to eat. Good views of the bathing boxes and Melbourne's skyline can be enjoyed from the gardens at Green Point. Amenities: parking (fee); toilets. Best for: solitude; swimming.

An alphabet soup of Chinese, French, Italian, and Lebanese eateries—along with a fantastic array of cake shops dating from the 1930s—lines the sidewalk of St. Kilda's hip restaurant row. The street faces Luna Park.

Once a run-down area of Richmond, this street hosts factory outlets selling fashion and leather goods; refuel at spots like 360 Beer, Vlado's steak house, the Motley Hotel's streetfront café, or Oster Italian osteria. Take tram No. 48 or No. 75 from the city.

Along with Lygon Street in nearby Carlton, Brunswick Street is one of Melbourne's favorite places to dine. You might want to step into a simple kebab shop serving tender meats for less than A$12, or opt for dinner at one of the stylish, highly regarded bar-restaurants. The street also has many galleries, bookstores, bars, arts-and-crafts shops, and clothes shops (vintage fashion is a feature).

Sixty-four acres of tree-lined paths, artificial lakes, and flower beds in this English-style 19th-century park, as well as a Moreton Bay fig tree significant to the Victorian Indigenous community, are the backdrop for the outstanding Melbourne Museum, and the World Heritage--listed Royal Exhibition Building, erected in 1880.

On the banks of the Merri Creek in East Brunswick, this award-winning sustainability center is home to a permaculture and bush-food nursery. Buy local produce and crafts here, eat at the seasonal, organic Merri Cafe, and explore the green technology displays. The Merri Creek bike path passes CERES.

Horse-racing information, displays, and a minishrine to Australia's most famous racehorse, Phar Lap, take center stage at this gallery in the Australian Sports Museum, within the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Once the on-leave residence of the Pacific navigator Captain James Cook, this modest two-story home, built in 1755 by Cook senior, was transported stone by stone from Great Ayton in Yorkshire, England, and rebuilt in the lush Fitzroy Gardens in 1934. It's believed that Cook lived in the cottage between his many voyages. The interior is simple, a suitable domestic realm for a man who spent much of his life in cramped quarters aboard sailing ships.

Encompassing a whole city block, the bold, abstract-style landmark was designed to be Melbourne's official meeting place, with a variety of attractions and restaurants within it. The square incorporates the second branch of the National Gallery of Victoria (The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia), which exhibits Australian and First Nations art, as well as the Australian Centre for the Moving Image; the Edge amphitheater, a contemporary music and theater performance venue; and the Koorie Heritage Trust, which runs exhibitions and programs relating to Aboriginal Melbourne, and sells Victorian Aboriginal products and designs. Regular events are held in the square and along the path beside the Yarra River. Crowds often gather to watch live performances and events televised on the giant "Fed TV" in the center of the square.

This 64-acre expanse of European trees, manicured lawns, garden beds, statuary, and sweeping walks is Melbourne's most popular central park. Among its highlights is its 94-year-old Conservatory and the Avenue of Elms, a majestic stand of 135-year-old trees, one of the few in the world that has not been devastated by Dutch elm disease.

Much more than just a train station, Flinders Street Station is a Melbourne icon and a popular meeting place. The term "meet me under the clocks" is widely used, indicating the timepieces on the front of this grand Edwardian hub of Melbourne's suburban rail network. When it was proposed to replace them with television screens, an uproar ensued. Today there are both clocks and screens.

Not just a grand hotel, the Windsor is home to one of Melbourne's proudest institutions—the ritual of afternoon tea (A$75 midweek), which is served noon–2 pm, and 2:30–4:30 from Wednesday to Friday. An even more indulgent dessert buffet (A$99), complete with chocolate fountain and other goodies, is added on weekends. Although the Grand Ball Room—a Belle Époque extravaganza with a gilded ceiling and seven glass cupolas—is reserved for private functions, occasionally afternoon tea is served there, so it's best to call first to check.

Known as Melbourne's Little Italy, Lygon Street is a perfect example of the city's multiculturalism: where once you'd have seen only Italian restaurants, there are now Thai, Egyptian, Caribbean, and Greek eateries. The city's famous café culture also took hold here, with the arrival of one of Melbourne's first espresso machines at one of the street's Italian-owned cafés in the 1950s.

A spectacular, postmodern building (in Carlton Gardens) offers visitors insights into Victoria's histories, cultures, and natural environments. Visit such globally recognized exhibitions such as Te Vainui O Pasifika, Bugs Alive!, 600 Million Years, and Dinosaur Walk, along with brilliant temporary and touring exhibitions from near and far. In the Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Center, First Peoples presents the Koorie experience and hosts works by Koorie artists, while the Melbourne Story tells the history of this city.

With its top 10 floors plated in 24-carat gold, the Eureka Tower is named after the goldfields uprising of 1854. On level 88, the Melbourne Skydeck is the tallest public observation deck in the southern hemisphere (reached by the fastest elevator) and offers a bird's-eye view of the city. Step into the glass cube known as the Edge (A$15 additional charge), which projects about 10 feet from the viewing platform, to stand, seemingly suspended, over the city below.

Verdant gardens and open-environment animal enclosures are hallmarks of this world-renowned zoo, which is 4 km (2½ miles) north of the city center. A lion park, reptile house, and butterfly pavilion, where more than 600 butterflies flutter through the rain-forest setting, are on-site, as is a simulated African rain forest where a group of Western Lowland gorillas lives. The spectacular Trail of the Elephants, home of six Asiatic elephants, has a village, tropical gardens, and a swimming pool. The orangutan sanctuary and baboon outlook are other highlights. It's possible to stay overnight with the Roar 'n' Snore package (from A$245 per adult) and enjoy dinner, supper, breakfast, close encounters with animals, and a behind-the-scenes look at the zoo's operations.

This massive, moat-encircled, bluestone-and-concrete edifice of the National Gallery of Victoria houses works from renowned international painters including Picasso, Renoir, and Monet. Its Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series of international blockbuster exhibitions require tickets. In the Great Hall, it's considered perfectly reasonable to stretch out on the floor in order to properly appreciate the world's largest stained-glass ceiling, by Leonard French. A second campus of the NGV, in nearby Fed Square, exhibits Australian art only.

The city's first jail opened in 1845 and the bluestone building is now a museum that has three tiers of cells with catwalks around the upper levels and is rumored to be haunted. Its most famous inmate was the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly, who was hanged here in 1880. The Hangman's night tours (reservations essential) are a popular, if macabre, facet of Melbourne nightlife.

Construction of Rippon Lea, a sprawling polychrome brick mansion built in the Romanesque style, began in the late 1860s. By the time it was completed in 1903, the original 15-room house had expanded into a 33-room mansion. Notable architectural features include a grotto, a tower that overlooks a lake, and humpback bridges. There is also a fernery and an orchard with more than 100 varieties of heritage apples and pears. Access to the house is for exhibitions or, between exhibitions, by guided tour only, but a self-guided tour of the grounds only is available. To get here, take a Sandringham line train from Flinders Street Station to Ripponlea Station; it's a 15-minute ride south of the city center.

Opened in 1870, this is the country's oldest shopping arcade, and despite alterations it retains an airy, graceful elegance that often transfixes passersby. Browse beautiful curios, diamonds, or magic spells in its ornate shops. At the heart of the arcade, the statues of mythical monsters Gog and Magog toll the hour on either side of Gaunt's Clock.

Within its 93 acres are 8,500 species of native and imported plants and trees, sweeping lawns, and ornamental lakes populated with ducks and swans that love to be fed. The Children's Garden is a fun and interactive place for kids to explore. Summer brings alfresco performances of classic plays, usually Shakespeare, and children's classics like Wind in the Willows, as well as the popular Moonlight Cinema series. There is also a garden shop and several cafés including The Terrace, which serves high tea. The present design and layout were the brainchild of W.R. Guilfoyle, curator, botanist, and director of the gardens from 1873 to 1910. Take a 1½-hour Aboriginal Heritage walk through the gardens, a significant site for the local Kulin Nation. 

Take an underwater journey through glittering bioluminescence in the Night on the Reef exhibit. Walk through the ocean tunnels as sharks and sea turtles glide above you. Press your nose to the glass and watch the king and gentoo penguins waddle across the ice and dart through water, or don snow gear and get up close to them with a Penguin Passport. Discover the mega saltwater croc Pinjarra, and if you're feeling brave, don scuba gear for an instructor-led shark dive—no diving experience is required.

On the river's edge next to the Arts Centre, Southgate is a prime spot for lingering—designer shops, celebrity chefs' restaurants, bars, and casual eating places help locals and visitors while away the hours. The promenade links with the forecourt of Crown Melbourne's casino and hotels.