1

Sort of depends on your interests.

Healesville Sanctuary is nice, a winery tour might be your thing, Mornington Penninsula way down south can be good and if you wanted a bit of a different experience Wilson's Promontory is unspoilt(ish). But all of them are atleast a day trip.

Outside the Zone 1 area of the transport system there is probably little in suburbia of interest to visitors. It also depends on your definition of city centre. If you mean outside the CBD/grid places like Brunswick St Fitzroy, Smith St Collingwood, Acland St St Kilda, and so on might be of interest to you.

When are you visiting? You might like to go to one of the horse racing days at somewhere like Cranbourne or Pakenham for something different.

2

I'm a Melbournian... And I am your man for this stuff. For the suburbs, St Kilda for bars. Fitztoy/Brunswick Street for bars and cafes and live music, Carlton/Lygon St for cafes, Brunswick/Sydney Road for bars and live music, Northcote for bars and live music, Richmond for bars and live music. The list goes on... It's the most liveable city in the world for a reason. Enjoy.

3

I am your man - self-praise is no praise at all.

4

I would definitely recommend trips to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians. And if the weather is good then possibly Wilson's Prom as well!

#2 listed all the suburbs worth visiting. He didn't distinguish between all the bars though. Fitzroy, Carlton, Brunswick, Northcote is more of an alternative, Bohemian, street culture scene.
There is also Chapel St, South Yarra and the St Kilda scene which is slightly more up-market but probably with less character.

Enjoy the greatest city on earth!

5

Dayelsford and Castlemaine.

Mornington Pensinsula, esp around Portsea.

6

Outside the Zone 1 area of the transport system there is probably little in suburbia of interest to visitors.

Except for the street in deepest suburbia where Neighbours is filmed - probably the single most visited tourist attraction in Melbourne. Companies run bus tours there for visiting Brit backpackers. I can't see the attraction myself.

Apart from that ... it does depend on your interests. Also the time of year; things at the beach aren't much good in winter.... In addition to the ideas already mentioned -

Art galleries - Heide Museum of Modern Art at Bulleen, or Montsalvat at Eltham.

Several places along the Yarra. Studley Park and Fairfield Park have genteel 19th century coffee shops, and rowboats to hire. Warrandyte has bushwalks along the river, the bakery (more coffee), and a very rural feel for a Melbourne suburb, also kangaroos if you know where to look.

Mornington Peninsula - as well as the wineries, there are the surf beaches at Sorrento and Portsea (in summer), and the spectacularly beautiful Point Nepean with Port Phillip Bay on one side and Bass Strait on the other. (These places are about 100km from central Melbourne, and best with a car - but very practical do as a day trip from the city, whereas Wilson's Prom or Great Ocean Road really deserve an overnight stay.)

Bike riding - lots of good tracks along the creeks and rivers, or along the bay. Find somewhere in central Melbourne to hire a bike, then look for paths along the Yarra, or the Merri or Moonee Ponds Creeks, or down to Port Melbourne or St Kilda and then along the bayside track.

Several bayside suburbs have a pleasant atmosphere and can be good for a walk along the coast and stops for coffee. Brighton to Sandringham for upmarket pretention and brightly-painted bathing boxes; or Williamstown for a more gritty waterfront atmosphere and a small maritime museum.

Werribee zoo if you want to see the oddity of African animals cavorting around in the Australian bush.

7

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I'm in Melbourne right now. I plan to stay here for the foreseeable future as long as I'm able to find work (bar and call centre jobs are top of my list but I'm flexible on that). So I've got quite a lot of time to get to know the place. I'm also on the lookout for nice neighbourhoods
that won't be quite as expensive to live in as some of the areas in the inner city.

I'm not sure what the locals consider to be "central Melbourne" but I would consider it to be everything between Spencer and Lansdowne Street, and Victoria Street and the South Bank (exhibition centre, skydeck, etc.). But that's just because I feel that everything in that area is within walking distance of one another.

You've given me a lot to think about. I'm going to go exploring today.

Thanks again!

8

Geelong - waterfront and bollards walk
Ballarat - sovereign hill and soaking in the history of the town
Colac - nothing really
Warrnambool & Port Fairy - worth doing some research to see if they would be of interest
Bellarine Peninsula - nice beachy area - need a car to get around
Sorrento - nice beachside town with small shops and cafes
Queenscliff - another nice place for a day visit -

9

Northcote is cheaper than most inner suburbs and is near enough to be inner city.

10

I reckon suburban train to Belgrave and steam train thence onward to emerald& gembrook
Or hop off at upper fern tree gully station, 3 stops before Belgrave, and get suburban bus up 'mt dandy tourist road' really pretty little villages in the hills, bus goes on to Montrose, which is nothing great, then croyden train station

And at the other end of town try the stkilda-williamstown ferry and werribee mansion and zoo

11

What about Puffing Billy? A bit of tourist cliche thing but a really nice trip in good weather. I think the Stk-W ferry is a jet boat thrill ride thing (or I could be wrong). There is also a more genteel Southbank to Williamstown ferry which will also take you to Scienceworks which I thought was cool (although it has been a long time).

12

For the pits go to Camberwell where I grew up!

No pubs, everyone in bed by 10pm, lots of churches!

13

MF , where do you catch the southbank-williamstown Ferry exactly?

14

info is here
http://www.williamstownferries.com.au/
but I don't think its worth it (from having done it)