Melbourne

The following page will give you a brief overview of some of the many attractions and activities that are available in and around Melbourne. 

 Central Melbourne

Recommended websites for visitors to our city

:For those planning to attend with partners requiring retail therapy, Melbourne has the best reputations for fine shopping in Australia, plus an array of craft markets that cant be matched.

craftmarkets.com.au
www.you.com.au/market-melbourne.html

The city centre of Melbourne contains many attractions including:

• The newly completed Federation square with its art galleries, cafes and restaurants

• The Melbourne Aquarium located on the banks of the Yarra River in the city centre. The Aquarium harbours thousands of creatures from the Southern Ocean.

• The modernist Melbourne Museum is the largest museum complex in the southern hemisphere. Spread over six huge levels, half of which are below ground level, the museum draws on the latest technology to give an insight into Australia’s flora, fauna and culture

• The Scienceworks Museum combines science and technology, chiefly through a variety of ‘hands on’ exhibits, activities, tactile displays and highly interactive touring shows.

• Built between 1841-64, Old Melbourne Gaol was used to accommodate short-term prisoners, ‘lunatics’ and some of the colony’s most notorious criminals, including the outlaw Ned Kelly, who was hanged here on 11 November 1880.

• IMAX Theatre screens a dynamic program of specially created 2D and 3D films in the world’s largest format. At two storeys high, the screen is 10 times larger than a conventional cinema screen, stretching beyond your peripheral vision to make you feel a part of the action.

• Australian Rules Football, for the true Melbourne sporting experience, head to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) or Telstra Dome to watch an AFL game.

East of Melbourne

 The Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Ranges

The Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges are richly endowed with some of the most beautiful countryside in Victoria. Towering trees, verdant valleys, vineyards and parks and gardens are just a slice of the spectacular scenery on offer.

An hour’s drive from Melbourne, the Yarra Valley is home to Victoria’s earliest vineyards. Numerous wineries provide cellar-door sales and tastings of hand-crafted wines, and have restaurants serving gourmet food and fine local produce. For a fresh and exciting view of the countryside, take to the skies in a hot-air balloon before gently descending into a vineyard to enjoy a sparkling wine breakfast.

Healesville Sanctuary

Healesville Sanctuary is just one hour from Melbourne in the picturesque Yarra Valley. Open daily, the sanctuary features more than 200 species of native birds, mammals and reptiles in walk-through habitats and enclosures. As you make your way along the accessible system of pathways linking the habitats and exhibits, look out for roaming animals like kangaroos, emus and wallabies. You can also see the platypus exhibit, which provides an intimate encounter with this nocturnal creature, and participate in meet-the-keeper sessions featuring hunting demonstrations by birds of prey and daily dingo walks.

Puffing Billy

Puffing Billy is Australia’s oldest surviving and famously preserved steam railway. The 25-kilometre journey takes visitors through thick forests and lush fern-filled gullies from Belgrave, only one hour east of Melbourne, to Emerald Lake Park and Gembrook.

The last of the experimental narrow-gauge railway lines built at the turn of the twentieth century to help develop rural areas, Puffing Billy runs every day.

William Ricketts Sanctuary

Situated in the Dandenongs in a ferny glade, William Ricketts Sanctuary is a place of beauty and tranquillity, due both to the natural setting and the mystical sculptures half hidden among ferns along the pathways. It is a place for quiet reflection and for contemplation of the essence of the vision of William Ricketts.

West of Melbourne

The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road winds westwards from the major regional city of Geelong to the South Australian border. Along with striking ocean views, the region contains laidback coastal towns and maritime villages, and there are plenty of opportunities for bushwalking, swimming, surfing, fishing and whale-watching.

The Great Ocean Road itself hugs the contours of Victoria’s rugged southwest coast, taking visitors on one of Australia’s greatest and most inspiring coastal drives. From Torquay, near Geelong, to Nelson almost 300 kilometres to the west, the road snakes past cliffs, scenic lookouts, waterfalls, rainforests and sunken ships.

The Grampians

The natural beauty of the Grampians is highlighted by the mountain ranges of the Grampians National Park, which features over 160 kilometres of walking trails, waterfalls, scenic lookouts, wildlife and seasonal wildflowers.

Great for bushwalking, the Grampians National Park has an extensive network of tracks and trails catering for all-comers – the Mt Rosea trail through forest and sandstone outcrops to satisfy the veteran hiker, and the one-hour return MacKenzie Falls trail for casual walkers.

 Phillip Island

Just 26 kilometres long and 9 kilometres wide, Phillip Island is a short stretch of land just over an hour south-east of Melbourne. Accessible by passenger ferry from Crib Point or by bridge from San Remo, Phillip Island is a popular holiday destination for Melburnians. The rugged southern coastline of the Island faces Bass Strait and offers some of the best surf beaches in Victoria, while the protected northern beaches nestle into Westernport Bay and provide excellent areas for swimming, sailing, boating and fishing. Cowes, on the bay side, is the largest township on the Island and offers a lively range of restaurants, shops and family attractions. Often described as Victoria’s natural attraction, Phillip Island has an abundance of wildlife including the ever-popular colony of Little Penguins, koala and fur seal colonies.

Phillip Island Nature Park offers a unique Australian wildlife experience and is home to the famous Penguin Parade at Summerland Beach. From the viewing stands and boardwalk, visitors can watch Little Penguins emerge each night from the surf and waddle to their burrows on the foreshore.

Melbourne http://www.extremetourist.com/feature.php?eID=105001
Golfing  http://www.extremetourist.com/feature.php?eID=5106
Pubs & Clubs http://www.extremetourist.com/feature.php?eID=5800
Hot Air Ballooning http://www.extremetourist.com/feature.php?eID=5203
Theatres & Cinemas http://www.extremetourist.com/feature.php?eID=5203
Victoria http://www.extremetourist.com/feature.php?id=100000&state=Vic