Melbourne Sights

  1. Abbotsford Convent

    The convent, which dates back to 1861, is spread over nearly seven hectares of riverside land. The nuns are long gone - no one is going to ask you if you've been to mass lately - and there's now a rambling collection of creative studios and community offices.

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  2. Aboriginal Heritage Walk

    Walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens - part of the ancestral lands of the Boon wurrung and Woi wurrung people. Learn about song lines, bush tucker, and the traditional customs and heritage of the area's original landowners. The tour takes about 1½ hours. Departures are from the visitors centre, Observatory Gate, Royal Botanic Gardens at Thursday and Friday, and on alternate Sundays.

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  3. Albert Park Lake

    Pairs of elegant black swans will give you their inimitable bottoms-up salute as you circumnavigate the 5km perimeter of this stunning lake. Waterbirds share the lake with dozens of small sailing, rowing and remote-controlled boats. You can hire sailing and rowing boats from the Jolly Roger School of Sailing (tel: 9690 5862; Aquatic Dr South).

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  4. Alcaston Gallery

    Set in an imposing boom-style terrace, the Alcaston's focus is on living indigenous artists. The gallery works directly with communities and are particularly attentive to cultural sensitivities. There's a space dedicated to works on paper.

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  5. Anna Schwartz Gallery

    Redoubtable Anna Schwartz keeps the city's most respected stable of artists, as well as representing mid-career names from around the country. The gallery is your standard white cube, the work often fiercely conceptual.

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  7. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

    The ACCA is housed in a remarkable cathedral-like rust-coloured building, articulating the contemporary aesthetic. The interior is necessarily composed of vast spaces with the capacity to display a variety of works: from enormous installation pieces (a la video, sculpture and hybrids thereof) to traditional framed works (photography, painting and prints). Though dedicated to showing contemporary works that generally challenge traditional artistic frameworks, ACCA isn't an alienating place: you won't be wondering if the exit sign is part of the exhibition here.

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  8. Australian Centre for the Moving Image

    This ambitious centre is dedicated to the display, interpretation and analysis of the dominant language of the day: the moving image, in all its forms. The four-storey complex houses a screen gallery and two hi-tech cinemas. It programmes regular workshops and forums to promote education and production, and hosts film screenings and festivals.

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  9. Australian Racing Museum

    Not November? Never mind; equine buffs can sample some of the Spring Racing fervour at this museum dedicated to thoroughbred horses, jockeys and trainers. Exhibits cover the history of racing (2003 was the first year a female jockey raced in the Melbourne Cup), and reverently trumpet the social and cultural importance of racing in Australia.

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  10. Birrarung Marr

    Featuring grassy knolls, river promenades and indigenous plants, Birrarung Marr is a welcome addition to the patchwork of parks and gardens around the city. And just to prove that all roads lead to a sporting dome, the William Barak Bridge connects the CBD to the MCG, and the promenade park runs along to the Melbourne and Olympic Park sporting precinct.

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  11. Bourke Street & Around

    West of Swanston St marks the beginning of the Bourke St Mall. The mall is thick with the sounds of trams clanging, Peruvian bands busking, spruikers and the general hubbub from shoppers. The expansive entrances of the mall's main department stores, Myer and David Jones, consume waves of eager shoppers, regurgitating them some time later with signature shopping bags.

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  13. Carlton & United Breweries

    Kind of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for adults, the Foster's beer-brewing empire runs two-hour tours of its Abbotsford operations. Enormous vats of beer, 30m wide, make the mind boggle. And the super-fast bottling operation may make you dizzy - and that's before the few free sample drinks included in the tour price. Bookings are advised. Tours run at and Monday to Friday and leave from the Carlton Brewhouse.

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  14. Centre For Contemporary Photography

    Photo-based arts are on show in the CCP's four gallery spaces. Exhibitions change regularly and include works that both challenge and celebrate the medium. Images may have been recorded with or without a camera (direct transfer or by scanner) and the output may be large, small, coloured or not. If you're here out of hours, the projection window (viewable from the street) throws up images from to .

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  15. Ceres

    Ceres (Centre for Education & Research in Environmental Strategies) is a 20-year-old community environment project, with an objective to educate in environmental sustainability. Stroll through the Permaculture and Bushfood Nursery or the Origin EcoHouse before refuelling with an organic coffee and cake at the cafe. Or, better, come for the community market where you can buy locally produced organic and handmade goodies, and have your tarot read while the kids marvel at the chooks and Helmut the black sheep.

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  16. Chinatown

    Red archways across either end of Little Bourke St's Chinatown are your gateways to clattering woks, glowing neons, exotic aromas and shops with floor-to-ceiling chambers of medicinal herbs and tinctures. Melbourne's Chinatown has been thriving since the 1850s when Chinese prospectors joined the rush to find gold.

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  17. City Museum At Old Treasury

    Built in 1862 at the height of the heady gold rush, the Old Treasury is fittingly elegant and opulent. The huge basement vaults were designed to house much of the around A$200 million worth of gold that came from the Victorian goldfields. Remarkably, the designer, JJ Clark, was a 19-year-old government draftsman who also designed the City Baths. The Old Treasury building has regularly changing exhibitions and houses the Gold Treasury Museum, which has three permanent exhibitions: Built on Gold, Making Melbourne, and Growing Up in the Old Treasury.

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  19. Collingwood Children's Farm

    This is a fine way to teach the kids that milk and eggs don't just come from a carton. Here, they can interact with chickens, goats, earthworms, cows, lambs and ponies. The farm is set in a beautiful nook by the Yarra River, in the grounds of the glorious Abbotsford Covent - a community-arts centre. Its veggie gardens and orchard promote sustainable farming practices, a theme carried through to the Farmers' Market (tel:5657 2337; admission around A$2 ). Held every second Saturday of the month from to , it peddles organic goods grown or made by the stallholders.

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  20. Collins Street

    The top end of Collins St has long been associated with that most romantic of European cities, Paris. Lined with plane trees, grand buildings and Euro-flash boutiques (such as Hermes and Chanel) the 'Paris end' of Collins St twinkles with grace.

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  21. Como House

    Visit the former residence of the Armytage family who, for a century, owned this colonial mansion overlooking the Yarra. Built between 1840 and 1959, the home has been faithfully restored and contains some of the family's belongings. It's set in extensive grounds, including a croquet lawn and lush flower walks - you'll appreciate what it was to be a well-known society-grazing family. Tours take around an hour: the first is at , and then half-hourly until .

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  22. Crown Casino & Entertainment Complex

    The Crown Entertainment Complex could be labelled with many an adjective, but 'subtle' most certainly wouldn't be one of them. The complex sprawls across two city blocks and includes the enormous luxury Crown Towers and Crown Casino, with over 300 tables and 2500 gaming machines open round the clock. Time is apparently irrelevant at the casino, which has no clocks and no natural light.

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  23. Docklands

    Docklands' synthesised, soulless environment comprises residential apartment towers, shopping complexes, a number of dining options and public spaces. It's the latest of Melbourne's simulacrum cities within the city, designed with precincts for certain types of activity. Among them are film and TV studios, a technology-based company hub and residential, retail and entertainment precincts. Development continues in stages, due for completion in the next decade. Of most interest to travellers is New Quay, with public art, promenades, cafes and restaurants. Or, perhaps the sporting precinct consisting of the 52,000-seat Telstra Dome (tel:8625 7700; www.telstradome.com.au). Some AFL games take place here, as do many other sporting and entertainment events. Behind-the-scenes tours (tel:8625 7277; adult/child/family around A$13 /around A$6 / A$33 ) of the venue are available.

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  25. Eastern Hill Fire Museum

    Built on the highest point of the city in 1891, the old fire station building and its lofty tower provided the necessary vantage to spot fires across the metropolis. Its ground floor now houses the Eastern Hill Fire Museum, which is especially great for kids, who get to clamber on a fire truck. For bigger kids there's a collection of historic firefighting equipment, including fire engines, helmets, brass-buttoned uniforms, medals and photographs. Facing Albert St is the five-storey mosaic mural designed by Harold Freedman (1915-99), the only person to have been state artist of Victoria, a position he held for 11 years from 1972.

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  26. Edinburgh Gardens

    Established European elms line the tranquil walking paths of this 140-year-old parkland. Not far from the North Fitzroy cafe strip, these gardens are an ideal place to laze about. On weekends, wedding parties invade the rotunda while picnic blankets are spread, Frisbees flung and barbecues fired up. Should the mood take you, there's a lawn bowls green next door .

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  27. Esplanade Sunday Market

    About a kilometre of trestle tables joined end-to-end carry an extraordinary array of crafty items made by each individual stallholder. With a seaside backdrop, you can pick your way through toys, jewellery, mobiles, soaps, woodwork and ornaments from over 200 stalls.

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  28. Eureka Tower

    The new-in-2006 Eureka Tower epitomises Melbourne's push to live in apartments by becoming the world's tallest apartment building. It's enough to make anyone who's read JG Ballard's Highrise wide-eyed and nervous. But, the tower is good news for visitors who can scoot to the 88th-storey observation tower (compared to the Rialto's 55th) for wild views of the city and its surrounds.

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  29. Fawkner Park

    This huge expanse of open grassy fields is loved and used by the area's sports folk and lapdogs alike. Walkways lined with elms, oaks and Moreton Bay fig trees provide structure to the otherwise open fields. The fields, leased as recently as the 1920s for cattle grazing, are now used for all manner of sports. Barbecues and Art Deco pavilions are available for public use.

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