Welcome To Melbourne, The Cultural Capital Of Australia

Melbourne is the second-largest city in Australia and the capital of the south-eastern state of Victoria. Located on the southern coast of Australia’s eastern seaboard, it is considered by many to be one Australia’s most cultured cities, the exclusive title to which Melbourne vies for with its great rival Sydney. The city’s features include Victorian-era architecture, many cultural institutions such as museums, galleries and theaters, and large parks and gardens. Melbourne's 3.8 million population is both multicultural (with large Greek, Italian, Jewish, Vietnamese and other immigrant communities) and sports-mad.

Australia's second largest city, Melbourne is a vast sprawl of suburbs, spreading southwards along the shoreline of Port Philip Bay, east towards the Dandenong Ranges, westwards towards the city of Geelong and northwards towards the plains of central Victoria. Like any large city, Melbourne is divided up into many suburbs - not all will be of interest to travellers. NB: The districts below do not necessarily correspond with the suburbs of the same name, and will often include neighbouring areas.

Sports Activities

Melburnians are sports enthusiasts and particularly passionate about Australian Rules football , a sport invented in Melbourne. In fact AFL is not so much a sport as a religion in Melbourne with 9 of the 10 Victorian teams being based in Melbourne, the only other being based in Geelong. As a guide, the entire national competition only has 16 teams, meaning over half the league is based in Melbourne. Horseracing is another passion, and the majority of the state has a public holiday on the first Tuesday of November for the racing of the Melbourne Cup , one of the world’s famous horse races. Cricket is the big summer sport and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the 'MCG') is one of the world's leading grounds. Each January Melbourne hosts tennis' Australian Open , one of the world’s four Grand Slam championships.

In March, Melbourne hosts the first race of the Formula One season . The race is held in Albert Park in South Melbourne. Melbourne is the unquestioned sporting capital of Australia with the largest arenas and two of the major sporting administrations basing their operation in Melbourne: Cricket Australia is a stone's throw from the MCG, and the Australian Football League is based at the Telstra Dome.

Places To See

The City Centre probably has the most to attract the traveller than any other in Melbourne. Hit the streets and soak in the energy, and make sure that you take as many coffee breaks as possible in between your sight-seeing and shopping so that you can make the best of the many cafes the City Center has to offer.

Docklands - an entire new precinct filled with shops, bars, restaurants and a stadium with a waterside setting
Eureka Tower - tallest building in the southern hemisphere, panoramic views of the whole of Melbourne
Parliament House of Victoria - the first seat of the Australian federal government
Queen Victoria Market - huge and colourful, fresh and dry produce and tonnes of souvenirs and other interesting things
State Library - pretty good if you're into books
AFL Sensation - a great introduction to Australian Football
Southbank - pretty promenade on the south bank of the Yarra, good restaurants and a Sunday art market
Federation Square - modernistic but wonderful space to see Melbournians live life

Carlton
The attractions in Carlton are mostly recreational, thanks to the huge Royal Park in Parkville, historical as it houses the museum, and cultural with its strong Italian heritage.

Lygon Street - chock-a-block with Italian restaurants, gelatelerias and coffee shops
Melbourne Museum - in the Exhibition Gardens, updated and now very interesting and worth seeing
IMAX Cinema - right next to the museum
Melbourne Zoo

St Kilda
St Kilda is Melbourne's beachside suburb and is tremendously popular.

Luna Park - historic amusement park built in 1912
St Kilda Pier - popular spot for fishing and walking
St Kilda Esplanade - fine place for walking, skating, sunbathing and on Sundays, the Esplanade Sunday market
St Kilda Botanical Gardens - first trees planted in 1859
Jewish Museum of Australia - depicts history of the Jewish community in Australia
Jewish Holocaust Museum

Things To Do

See interesting films at Cinema Nova in Carlton, the Kino or ACMI in the city, or the Astor in Windsor. There are several moonlight cinema programmes in summer. The Melbourne International Film Festival is on in August.
Visit a comedy club. The Comic's Lounge has shows for $10-25 including a show filmed for Channel 31 on Mondays, or dinner and show for $45. The Comedy Club has dinner and show for $32 and shows only beginning at $7 (discount ticket price).

Watch the mesmorising process of personalised hard candy being hand-made at Suga. Around lunch time is a good time to see (and sample!). There is one store at Queen Victoria Market, but if you visit the Royal Arcade location, you can also watch chocolate making next door at Koko Black.
Watch a game of AFL football at the MCG or Telstra Dome during the winter, or a Cricket Match during the summer, AFL Fixtures Cricket Fixtures bookings at both the MCG and Telstra can be made through Ticketmaster.