Melbourne: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Melbourne was laid out in 1837 as a rectangle of wide streets, and the narrow lanes between them were service alleys for deliveries and night soil. By the 1980s the centre emptied after five o'clock and the council deliberately set out to fill the lanes — licensing small bars, allowing cafe tables and legalising commissioned street art. It worked, and the result is the thing the city is now known for. Two and a half hours, all of it inside the grid.
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A short history of Melbourne
For tens of thousands of years the peoples of the Kulin nation lived on the banks of the Yarra River. In 1835 John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner came here from Tasmania and set up a settlement, and two years later it was named after the British Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. In 1851 gold was discovered in Victoria, and within a few decades Melbourne became one of the richest cities in the world. From 1901 to 1927 the federal parliament sat here, until Canberra was built. In 1956 it hosted the first Olympic Games in the Southern Hemisphere. The city has one of the largest Jewish communities in Australia, with a particularly high proportion of Holocaust survivors and their descendants.
The ten best sights in Melbourne
1Federation SquareOpened in 2002 on a deck built over the railway lines, and the city argued about the design for twenty years. It is now the place everybody meets.
2St Paul's CathedralBuilt from 1880 in sandstone shipped from Australia and stone from England, and its spires were only added in 1933.
3Hosier LaneThe best-known street art lane in Australia, repainted constantly. Melbourne legalised commissioned street art on private walls, which is why it survives.
4AC/DC LaneRenamed in 2004 for the band, who filmed a video on a Melbourne street in 1975 on the back of a flatbed truck.
5State Library VictoriaFree, and its domed reading room of 1913 was the largest in the world when it was built. Ned Kelly's armour is in the gallery upstairs.
6Melbourne Town HallFrom 1870, and the Beatles waved from its balcony in 1964 to a crowd estimated at a quarter of a million.
7Parliament HouseThe federal parliament of Australia sat in this building from 1901 to 1927, before Canberra existed.
8Old Melbourne GaolNed Kelly was hanged here in 1880, and his death mask and armour are the reason most people come. A hundred and thirty-three people were executed in the building.
9Immigration MuseumIn the old customs house, and it does not soften the White Australia policy, which was law from 1901 until the 1970s.
10Koorie Heritage TrustAboriginal-run, in Federation Square, and the place to begin rather than end if you want to understand this country.
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Melbourne →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Melbourne:
Free walking tours in Melbourne
The Grid and the Lanes
Melbourne was laid out in 1837 as a rectangle of wide streets, and the narrow lanes between them were service alleys for deliveries and night soil. By the 1980s the centre emptied after five o'clock and the council deliberately set out to fill the lanes — licensing small bars, allowing cafe tables and legalising commissioned street art. It worked, and the result is the thing the city is now known for. Two and a half hours, all of it inside the grid.
- Federation Square · Built on a deck over the railway lines and opened in 2002. The design was so unpopular that a newspaper ran a campaign against it; it is now the city's meeting point and is heritage-listed.
- Flinders Street Station · Opened in 1910 and in the 1920s it was the busiest passenger station in the world. The row of clocks over the entrance shows real departure times, and when they were replaced with a digital screen in 1983 the public protest was loud enough to bring them back.
- Hosier Lane · A bluestone service lane that is now repainted every few weeks. Melbourne's council licenses commissioned street art on private walls, so the artists work in daylight and the lane is never finished.
- Degraves Street · Melbourne's coffee came with Italian and Greek migrants after the Second World War, and the first espresso machine in Australia was installed in 1954. This lane is where that became a public habit.
- Block Arcade · Opened in 1892 with a mosaic floor copied from the Galleria in Milan. Walking a circuit of these arcades was called doing the block, and that is where the building got its name.
- Queen Victoria Market · Seven hectares and trading since 1878. Part of the market stands on Melbourne's first cemetery: about nine thousand bodies are still underneath it, and the council has acknowledged that a car park was built over graves.
Gold, Parliament and the Gaol
In 1851 gold was found in Victoria and the colony's population tripled in a decade. The money built everything on this walk — a parliament grand enough to host the first federal parliament of Australia, a library with the largest dome in the world, a gallery that is still the most visited in the country. It also built a gaol, and the gold rush produced the rebellion and the outlaw that Australia still argues about. Two hours.
- Parliament House · Built from 1855 on gold money and never finished — the dome in the plans was never added. The federal parliament of Australia sat in this building from 1901 until Canberra was ready in 1927, and the Victorian parliament moved out to the Exhibition Building for those twenty-six years.
- Old Melbourne Gaol · One hundred and thirty-three people were hanged here. Ned Kelly, a bushranger whose gang wore ploughshare armour, was executed in 1880 at the age of twenty-five; his armour is in the state library and he remains the most argued-about figure in Australian history.
- State Library Victoria · Opened in 1856 as a free public library at a time when almost none existed, and the domed reading room of 1913 had the largest reinforced concrete dome in the world. Ned Kelly's armour is upstairs.
- Koorie Heritage Trust · Aboriginal-run, and the place that tells the other side of 1835: John Batman claimed to have bought six hundred thousand acres from Wurundjeri elders for blankets, knives and flour. The British governor declared the treaty void, and it is the only treaty ever attempted in Australia.
- Ian Potter Centre · Free, Australian art only, and the ground floor holds the strongest public collection of Aboriginal art in the country. Start there and work upwards.
- NGV International · The most visited gallery in Australia and free. The water wall at the entrance was built in 1968 and the architect fought to keep it when the building was renovated.
The River, the Shrine and the Bay
South of the river is where Melbourne put the things it wanted to be judged by: the gallery, the concert hall, the gardens, and a war memorial built by public subscription during the Depression. Then the tram keeps going to the bay, to a beach suburb with a hundred-year-old funfair and a penguin colony that arrived on its own. Three hours, and most of it is one tram line.
- Southbank · Industrial land and rail yards until the 1990s. The whole promenade is reclaimed, and the Yarra's brown colour is fine clay carried from the catchment rather than pollution.
- Arts Centre · The concert hall was built down into the ground instead of up, because the ground was too soft for a tall building and because the city did not want the skyline changed. The spire above it is a hundred and sixty-two metres.
- Royal Botanic Gardens · Thirty-eight hectares begun in 1846. The Aboriginal Heritage Walk here is led by an Aboriginal guide and covers the plants the Kulin nations used, which is a different garden from the one everyone else sees.
- Shrine of Remembrance · Paid for by public subscription in the Depression, when a quarter of Melbourne was out of work. An opening in the roof is aligned so that a shaft of sunlight crosses the Stone of Remembrance at exactly eleven on the eleventh of November.
- St Kilda and Luna Park · Luna Park opened in 1912, and its Scenic Railway is the oldest continually operating roller coaster in the world. A brakeman still rides standing in the middle of the train, because that is the only brake it has.
- St Kilda Pier · A colony of little penguins — the smallest penguin species in the world — lives in the breakwater rocks. Nobody put them there; they arrived in the 1970s and stayed, and volunteers guard the rocks every evening.
Getting to Melbourne and getting around
- Tullamarine Airport · Twenty kilometres north-west, and the only Australian capital with no rail link to its airport. The SkyBus runs every ten minutes and that is the answer.
- Southern Cross Station · The regional terminus, with a wave roof designed to trap and vent diesel fumes from the country trains below it.
- Flinders Street Station · Opened in 1910 and for a time the busiest station in the world. Meeting under the clocks is the city's standing arrangement and the clocks still show real departure times.
- The free tram zone · The whole city centre is a free tram zone, and Melbourne runs the largest tram network in the world — two hundred and fifty kilometres of track.
Cheap eats in Melbourne
Eight counters where Melbourne eats standing. Coffee is the thing here and the reason is migration: Italians and Greeks arrived in large numbers after the Second World War, the first espresso machine landed in 1954, and the city now roasts more than it drinks. Order a flat white or a long black; a filter coffee is not the default and will be questioned.
- Queen Victoria Market · Closed Monday and Wednesday
- South Melbourne Market · Wednesday and the weekend
- Victoria Street Richmond · All day · cash is quicker
- Footscray Market · Open 7 to 4, closed Sunday
- Lygon Street · Evenings are the busy time
- Hardware Lane · Lunch and early evening
- Acland Street · Open daily · go for the window first
- Prahran Market · Closed Monday and Wednesday
Museums in Melbourne
- NGV International · Free · closed Monday in some seasons
- Ian Potter Centre · Free · open every day
- Melbourne Museum · Ticketed · free for children
- Immigration Museum · Ticketed · free under sixteen
- Old Melbourne Gaol · Ticketed · the night tours sell out
- Koorie Heritage Trust · Free · tours are ticketed
- Abbotsford Convent · Free to walk in · tours at weekends
Parks and gardens in Melbourne
- Royal Botanic Gardens · Free · the walk is ticketed
- Fitzroy Gardens · Free · open always
- Carlton Gardens · Free · the museum is inside it
- Albert Park Lake · Free · the grand prix is in March
- Yarra Bend Park · Free · the colony is loudest at dusk
- Flagstaff Gardens · Free · open always
- Dandenong Ranges · Trains to Belgrave then a walk
Things to do in Melbourne with kids
- Luna Park · Entry free · pay per ride
- Melbourne Zoo · Children free at weekends
- Collingwood Children's Farm · Open every day
- Puffing Billy · Book ahead · an hour from the city
- Healesville Sanctuary · Children free at weekends
- Melbourne Museum · Free under sixteen
- St Kilda Pier · Free · after sunset every night
Nature and day trips near Melbourne
- Great Ocean Road · A long day · start before seven
- Bells Beach · An hour and a half out
- Phillip Island · Book ahead · dusk every night
- Mornington Peninsula · The springs need booking
- Yarra Valley · A day with a driver
- Sovereign Hill · Ninety minutes west
- Bendigo · Two hours by train
Live music in Melbourne
- Hamer Hall · Season all year
- Brunswick Street · Most nights · small rooms
- Smith Street · Thursday to Saturday
- Rod Laver Arena · Check the calendar
- Arts Centre · Sunday market every week
- Melbourne Cricket Ground · Tickets go in advance
- Chinatown · Late · upstairs is where it is
Frequently asked questions about Melbourne
What is there to see in Melbourne?
The top sights in Melbourne are Federation Square, St Paul's Cathedral and Hosier Lane. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Melbourne?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Melbourne without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Melbourne?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Melbourne, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Grid and the Lanes.
How do you get to Melbourne and get around?
The main ways are Tullamarine Airport, Southern Cross Station and Flinders Street Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Melbourne, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Melbourne that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Melbourne for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.