101 Best Sights in Victoria, Australia

On a rise behind lawns and heroic statuary, this handsome 1853 building was constructed during the gold-rush boom and houses more than 1½ million volumes as well as bushranger Ned Kelly's famous armor. Large reading areas—including the splendid domed reading room up the grand staircase—make this a comfortable place for browsing, and three galleries display works from the library's Pictures Collection.

This preeminent Mornington Peninsula producer of wines uses grapes from the region's oldest vines. The establishment specializes in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (from vines first planted in 1978 and 1982, respectively) and also makes a sparkling Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Although there's no restaurant, you can order a platter featuring local Red Hill cheeses to enjoy on the lawns. Visitors may be invited on an informal tour of the fermentation and barrel rooms. Several events take place during the year, such as the dedicated Sparkling Day in December.

Cultures collide on Sydney Road as Arabic mingles with French, Hindi does battle with Bengali, and the muezzin's call to prayer argues with Lebanese pop music. Scents intoxicate and colors beguile. Cafés serving everything from pastries to tagines (Moroccan stews) to Turkish delight sit shoulder to shoulder along the roadside with quirky record shops, antiques auction houses, and Bollywood video stores.

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.

This reserve—Victoria's largest dormant volcano—is packed with native Australian animals in their natural state. The Worn Gundidj Visitor Centre in the reserve conducts cultural interpretative walks. Take its 90-minute personalized bush and nature walk to learn about Indigenous lifestyles, bush food, and medicine, and hear about the local inhabitants, which include emus, sugar gliders, koalas, kangaroos, birds, and reptiles. The standard tour is A$35; also ask about the availability of other occasional specialist tours, including twilight visits, to experience Aboriginal culture firsthand. Parks Victoria's website also has a map of the reserve and self-guided walking trails.

One of Melbourne's most popular "eat streets," this 2-km (1-mile) stretch has restaurants ranging from simple canteens to tablecloth-and-candlelight dining spots. The street is packed with Vietnamese grocers, kitchenware stores, several art galleries, and a handful of chichi drinking spots and historic neighborhood hotels. Once a year at Tet, Vietnamese New Year (in January and February but the exact date varies from year to year), the street comes to life with a daylong Lunar Festival, with dragon dances, music, and more food!

About 66 km (41 miles) west of Port Campbell, Warrnambool is Victoria's southern right whale nursery. Platforms at Logan's Beach, about 3 km (2 miles) east of the city, provide views of an amazing marine show from June to September. Whales return to this beach every year to calve, with the females and young staying close to the shore and the males playing about 150 yards out to sea.

Once connected to Tasmania, this park on the southernmost point of mainland Australia is a haven for birdlife and native animals. A granite peninsula of more than 123,000 acres, it contains many kangaroos, koalas, and wombats that can be spotted around Tidal River, the main camping and accommodation area in the south of the park. Mountains, fantastic granite boulders, beaches, wetlands, lakes, and plains make it a hiker's paradise, and many walkers set off on the famous all-day inland trek to the windswept lighthouse. Active types can book a bed in the restored lighthouse keepers' cottage (A$137.50 per adult per night, off-peak A$123.80), though you must bring your own bedding. Other, less historical cottages are also available, or bring your own tent to any of the Prom's campsites (from A$50 per adult per night). Would-be lighthouse guests should bear in mind that the walk is 19 km (12 miles), one-way, from Telegraph Saddle car park, or 23 km (14 miles) from Tidal River. There are more than 30 self-guided walks that take you from an hour to a day to complete.

To get to Wilsons Promontory National Park, take the Princes Highway to Dandenong, then the South Gippsland Highway to Meeniyan or Foster. Tidal River is another 70 km (43 miles). There's no public transportation to the park.

This cute small town, 23 km (14 miles) northeast of Beechworth, shot to fame after the release of the lighthearted comedy Strange Bedfellows, starring Paul Hogan. The town's pretty historic buildings (including the two pubs, the post office, and the bank) were used as settings, and many of the town's 700 residents were movie extras. The town (Yack, to its friends), isn't looking to the past: it aims to be a carbon-neutral town by 2022.

Victoria's first vineyard still has plenty of rustic charm, and it's a delightful place to eat, drink, and stay. An 1859 redbrick building is home to the busy cellar door, where you can taste its renowned Pinot Noirs and Shiraz Vioginers, or take a guided tasting, from A$10. The property's architectural and gastronomical pièce de résistance is the winery building, which houses the Wine Bar Restaurant. It's a sweeping, hand-hewn stone building with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking spectacular valley scenery. Yering hosts an annual sculpture exhibition from October to December, and a farmers' market takes place on the third Sunday of the month.

Pubs are not generally known for their artwork, but climb the steps to the first-floor bar of the 160-year-old hotel to see Chloe, a painting that has scandalized and titillated Melburnians for many decades. The larger-than-life nude, painted by Jules Joseph Lefebvre in Paris in 1875, has adorned the walls of Young and Jackson's Hotel (which now specializes in Australian craft beers) since 1909.