A friend from the frozen north, Chris McLaren, is choofing off to Melbourne soon and will have a whole day to spare for sightseeing. What should he see? And will he be able to see anything given the bushfires?
I recommended the Croft Institute because it has test tubes in it and they make me happy.
He would welcome any advice, recommendations and warnings about the fair city of Melbourne from actual Melbournites.
The Ian Potter gallery at Federation Square, which houses a large collection of Australian art, is pretty good. Building crap, art good.
I also recommend checking out the echo in the newly refurbished reading room at the State Library. Wonderful stuff.
The Royal Botanical Gardens – there’s a place where bats fly around during the day. Bats as big as seagulls. It’s both “Cool!” and “OMG! Vampire bats!”
The obvious one is to tour the MCG. You probably have to pay for the guided tours, though.
Melbourne Park (home to the Australian Open of tennis) is also a good one.
The Comedy Festival is coming up, so maybe some comedians will be trying stuff out now so they can be at their best come Festival time.
Have a lovely day! 🙂
This is all great stuff!
Thanks for this Justine. Now I owe you one.
Melbourne is amazing. I’ve been here for four years now, and I keep finding new stuff…
CBD-wise, I’d recommend:
– Outre Gallery on Elizabeth Street
– almost everything in Curtin House, Swanston St
– take a good look up the top end of Flinders Lane (from Spring down to Swanston St) there’s loads of gallerys and cool shops
– have a coffee in desgraves st or centre place
– check out the underpass between desgraves st and flinders st railway station, there’s generally odd art in the ‘windows’ and corky st clair is a great shop with original melbourne designed t-shirts, jewellery etc as well as more widely available stuff
– pick up a copy of “A Creative Keepsake – A Cultural Map of Melbourne” from the TIC in Fed Sq – there’s heaps more in that, and it’s one of the best maps of melbourne’s lanes
– buy your sf&f needs from minotaur
– wander down Centre Place and Hosier Lane for great street art
– go to ACMI. It is very cool.
– NGV:I on St Kilda Rd has a sneaker exhibition at the moment
– if you’re too scared to go down that alley, and then round the corner into a smaller alley, and then round another corner into an even smaller “oh my god, is someone shooting up in that doorway” alley a) you’ll miss out on the fabulous experience that is croft
b) try double happiness on liverpool st or cherry bar i think ac/dc lane (yes, down another skanky lane, sorry)
– back issues of tourism vic’s lost and found newsletter have lots of other cool suggestions for bars, shops, art and culture – http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayObject.cfm/ObjectID.A0F5D245-9BE9-4578-9E626A13ED3BA0E1/vvt.vhtml
– take a look at the three thousand e-newsletter (http://www.threethousand.com.au/) to get an idea of what’s going on in old melbourne town
– if you want to see a performance, check out http://www.theatrealive.com.au, the website has heaps of stuff from small and independent theatre groups
Melbourne isn’t quite as up-front as Sydney, there’s heaps to do here, but you have to find it! Do go down that scary looking alley – there’s probably a cool bar, exciting cafe, edgy gallery, funky shop, or fascinating installation down there.
And I haven’t even started talking about Fitzroy, Collingwood, Brunswick or St Kilda yet!
Hmmm. Melbourne Good.
Love Melbourne…
😉
r
Wow, suddenly I am a lot more excited about this trip.
Cool stuff down scary looking alleys is just my kind of thing.
I’ve been living in Melbourne for 10 years this year and I still find something new every time I go into the CBD. I like wandering the arcades and lanes too. I also love birrarung marr which is the big park kind of behind Fed Square. There’s a bell sculpture which I love that rings a few times a day (definitely at midday and I think at 10am) and a soundscape bridge which I really love, you can walk or bike this way to the MCG from the city (you can hire bikes by the river if you like cycling) – it’s a great city for cycling.