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Federation Square
A 21st-century civic hub, this vast, architecturally confronting sandstone, glass and steel box of tricks arouses a love-it-or-hate-it reaction from Melburnians and visitors alike. Stocked with a plethora of cafes, restaurants and retail outlets, Federation Square flexes more than a little cultural muscle.
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Fitzroy Gardens
The city drops away suddenly just east of Spring St, giving way to Melbourne's beautiful backyard, the Fitzroy Gardens. The stately avenues lined with English elms, flowerbeds tucked in neatly, expansive lawns and trickling creek are a short stroll from town. At weekends, a cavalcade of wedding photographers and stretched cars deliver the princesses-for-a-day to document their white gowns and princes.
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Flagstaff Gardens
These bustling gardens are popular with workers taking a lunchtime break to soak up some vitamin D. The park has a children's playground, barbecues and a lawn-bowling green.
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Flemington Racecourse
Home of the Victoria Racing Club and the Melbourne Cup, Flemington has regular race meets. During the Spring Racing Carnival, Flemington's roses bloom, the lawns are manicured and the bars are groomed for the thousands who visit at this time of the year.
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Flinders Street Station
Melbourne's first railway station, Flinders Street was built in 1854. Two railway workers won the design tender. This might explain why the station contained such fabulous facilities for railway workers, now, sadly, in disrepair. In its heyday the building buzzed with a concert hall, a library, a creche, meeting rooms, even a ballroom.
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Footscray Community Arts Centre
Borrow a beach mat from the Big Fish Cafe ( - ) to lounge on while you eat your veggie wrap or slurp your soup beside the Maribyrnong River, then stroll through Gabriel Gallery ( - Mon-Fri, noon- Sat & Sun), which profiles artworks by people who've recently arrived in Australia.
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Footscray Market
This frenetic covered food market is laden with seductive produce: you'll find lotus flowers, pigs' ears, coriander and cassava root. There's also an excellent range of fresh seafood, some of it still swimming. From the food court, take the lift to the top floor for a giddying view over the railway and docklands to the city and West Gate Bridge.
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Gem Pier
Gem Pier is where passenger ferries dock to drop off and collect those who visit Williamstown by boat. It's a fitting way to arrive, given the area's maritime ambience. Williamstown Ferries (tel: 9506 4144; www.williamstownferries.com.au) plies across Hobsons Bay, stopping at Southgate (daily) and St Kilda (weekends), visiting a number of sites along the way, including Scienceworks and the Docklands.
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Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Watch this space. Or rather, three spaces showing quality local and international work. There's a buzz about Gertrude's - its shows invariably provoke critical debate. Along with the exhibition spaces, the gallery's cultural exchange programme and 16 studios promote emerging contemporary artists. This is one of the city's most exciting gallery spaces.
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Gleadell Street Market
Buy a bag of nuts and shuffle past the fish caravan, the spruiking stallholders and hundreds of locals laden with a week's worth of fruit and veg. This little open-air market is a genuine community experience, and a terrific start to any Saturday.
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Governor La Trobe's Cottage & Government House
East of the Shrine of Remembrance, near the intersection of Birdwood Ave and Dallas Brooks Dr, is Governor La Trobe's Cottage, which is the original government house building that was sent out in prefabricated form from the mother country in 1840. Inside, you can see many of the original furnishings, and the servants' quarters is out the back.
Read more about Governor La Trobe's Cottage & Government House
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Herring Island
Theoretically, Herring Island is open to visitors at all times. The only catch is getting to it. Unless you swim (not recommended) or have your own boat (unlikely), you're limited to the Parks Victoria (tel:13 19 63) punt (per person around A$2 ). It operates from Como Landing on Alexandra Ave in South Yarra. It runs on Saturday and Sunday between noon and from October to March.
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Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria Australia
The mottled, skew-whiff building that houses the National Gallery of Victoria's Australian holdings was a choking bone of contention while under construction, but these days everyone seems to have fallen for its sleek, user-friendly displays. The collection is marvellous, ranging from Streeton to Nolan to Whiteley; there is an entire floor of indigenous art.
Read more about Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria Australia
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Immigration Museum
The Immigration Museum offers a 'moving' account of immigration that uses multimedia to convey stories, both historical and modern. Housed in the old Customs House (1858-70), the restored building alone is worth the visit; its most important space, the Long Room, is a magnificent piece of Renaissance revival architecture. The 2nd-floor galleries host a range of excellent temporary exhibitions exploring social and cultural issues, such as various multiethnic rituals surrounding death or preparing food.
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Jewish Museum of Australia
This dynamic and fascinating museum has interactive displays relating to Jewish history and culture since the beginning of European settlement in Australia. Permanent exhibitions celebrate the annual cycle of festivals and holy days that are integral to Jewish life, and explore the origins of Judaism. The museum also hosts regular temporary exhibitions of well-known artists' work - who also happen to be Jewish.
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Koorie Heritage Trust
This cultural centre is uniquely devoted to southeastern Aboriginal culture. It preserves and popularises Koorie artefacts and art through a retail outlet and three gallery spaces. One space houses a permanent collection of significant objects, such as possum-fur cloaks, eel traps and baby carriers. Two gallery spaces temporarily exhibit Aboriginal artists' works.
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Linden Arts Centre & Gallery
While the building itself dates from the 1870s, Linden Arts Centre & Gallery is a contemporary art space exhibiting local and international work. Drop the kids in the children's sculpture garden while you explore inside or sit in the garden.
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Living Museum
This charming museum focuses on the unique history of the area, home to a high proportion of migrants and traditionally working class. The museum promotes local participation in its programme of documenting and interpreting the area's social, industrial and environmental history. It keeps 400 oral histories on various topics, such as migration, the role of women, and the meat industry. Old-school exhibits of photographs, maps, drawings and text thumbtacked to a display board are highly accessible. It's set in the grounds of Pipemakers Park, featuring a Discovery Park, wetlands area and indigenous gardens, which re-create the landscape of the basalt plains and valley as it was before white settlement.
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Luna Park
There's still a hint of the sideshow, carny atmosphere at this historic amusement park. Luna Park opened in 1912, sporting the impressive façade of Mr Moon flanked by oriental-style towers. Mr Moon's gaping mouth is still the park entrance - and it's arguably creepier than the ghost-train's quaint cobwebs and glow-in-the-dark skeletons.
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Melbourne & Olympic Parks
Seats and stages at these big-event stadiums morph to suit singers, cyclists and circuses - accommodating tens of thousands of fans between them. Melbourne Park comprises Vodafone Arena, the multipurpose venue with a retractable roof, and Rod Laver Arena, home to the Australian Open in January.
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Melbourne Aquarium
City-slicker sea life, a long way from home, lives very publicly at the Melbourne Aquarium. Rays, gropers and sharks cruise around their 2.2-million-litre tank, watched closely by visitors in the see-through tunnel that traverses the aquarium floor. You can also scuba dive, so occasionally you'll see a troupe of brave souls walking by on the other side of the glass.
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Melbourne City Baths
Known for the swimming pool, squash courts and gymnasium, the City Baths were literally public baths when they first opened in 1860. They were intended to stop people bathing in and drinking the seriously polluted Yarra River. The baths were rebuilt on the same site in 1903 with separate entrances for men and women, as well as separate bathing areas: basement baths for the rabble and first-class baths upstairs.
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Melbourne Cricket Ground
Melbourne's coliseum, the MCG, regularly pulls crowds of 50,000 to 80,000. The 'G' is the jewel in the sporting precinct's crown .
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Melbourne Exhibition Centre
This multipurpose venue hosts conventions, trade shows and public events around themes as diverse as brides, horses and gluten-free food. Check the calendar on the Web for upcoming events. The Exhibition Centre is soon to be part of another new city precinct - building of a 5000-seat auditorium started in mid-2006. With such an enormous capacity, things could get very weird around here depending on which convention is in town: imagine 5000 Trekkies or, worse, brides-to-be.
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Melbourne General Cemetery
Home to three Australian prime ministers, ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills, and even an Elvis monument, the Melbourne General Cemetery evidences many histories. Established here in 1852, this is the city's third cemetery, superseding the prior one now known as the Queen Victoria Market (built on thousands of bones).
