Tourism in Melbourne - Popular Sites and Events

Popular Sites and Events

Melbourne has a large number of year-round events and attractions, such as:

• Federation Square is a major meeting place in Melbourne. It is close to Flinders Street Station, the MCG and various other sporting and cultural venues. The square includes several buildings, housing the NGV Australia and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, as well as exhibition spaces, auditoriums, restaurants, bars and shops. Large crowds frequently watch concerts, cultural and various sporting events on the square's large electronic screen located in one of two public areas. Adjacent to the Square is Birrarung Marr, a park on the banks of the Yarra. The main Tourist Information Centre is located in the Square. It is possible to obtain a large range of tourist brochures here including guided walking tours of Melbourne.
• The Melbourne Cricket Ground, known as "the MCG" or simply the "G" has the largest capacity of any Australian sporting stadium. The MCG was the centerpiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympic Games and was renovated in preparation for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, increasing the stadium's capacity to 103,000. From April to September, the stadium typically hosts one or two Australian rules football matches each week. It has also hosted two Bledisloe Cup rugby matches. During the summer, major cricket matches including the Boxing Day test match and several one-day international games are played there.
• Eureka Skydeck, is the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere and is located in Eureka Tower. Eureka Tower is the tallest residential building in the world. The observation deck includes a glass cube ride that projects three meters from the side of the building.
• The Melbourne Observation Deck, located some 237 meters above the city streets on the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers, offers spectacular views of the central business district and beyond. The Rialto Towers is the second tallest building in Melbourne after Eureka Tower.
• Melbourne Park is the home of the Australian Open tennis tournament. Held every January, it is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments.
• The Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre is located in Southbank and was built in the 1990s as a replacement for the Royal Exhibition Building. It has hosted conventions and exhibitions since its opening.
• The Melbourne Museum is located on the north-eastern fringe of the CBD, next to the Royal Exhibition Building. To many Melburnians, the most significant exhibit is the preserved body of Phar Lap, a famous racehorse of the Depression era. The Forest Gallery is a living internal facsimile replicating the forests of the nearby Dandenong Ranges. CSIRAC, the fifth electronic computer built and the only one of its generation to survive intact is also on display. The museum complex is also home to Melbourne's IMAX cinema.
• The Royal Exhibition Building located in the Carlton Gardens was built in the 1880s for the World's Fair and is only one of a few such buildings that still exist. The building and gardens were granted World Heritage listing on 2 July 2004. It is the first building in Australia to be granted this status. The building also held the first sitting of the Australian Parliament on 9 May 1901. Subsequent federal parliamentary sittings were then moved to the Victorian Parliament building located in Spring Street and the Victorian government moved to the Exhibition Building.
• The State Library of Victoria is on Swanston Street, with its large Domed Reading Room and statue-filled front lawn.
• The National Gallery of Victoria possesses the largest art collection in Australia. The gallery operates from two sites: one housing the Australian collection at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square (notably featuring key works from the Heidelberg School); and the NGV International collection housed in the main St Kilda Road building.
• The Victorian Arts Centre at Southgate is a Melbourne landmark with its enormous skyward spire. It hosts Opera Australia's Melbourne season, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian Ballet Company, Chunky Move (one of Australia's best-known contemporary dance companies), and other touring productions. The centre consists of two separate buildings: the State Theatre; and Hamer Hall (this was recently renamed in honour of the late former premier Sir Rupert Hamer. The acoustics of the Centre are often favourably compared with those of its interstate rival, the opera theatre in the Sydney Opera House.
• Crown Casino on the Yarra River is the largest gambling centre in the southern hemisphere. The Crown Entertainment Complex also encompasses one of Melbourne’s best hotels the Crown Towers, restaurants, boutiques and cinemas. Crown also has the Palladium Ballroom which hosts some of Melbourne's biggest events, such as the Logies and the Brownlow Medal AFL award.
• The Melbourne Aquarium contains a variety of exhibits showcasing marine wildlife found in the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic.
• The Shrine of Remembrance on St Kilda Road is one of Australia's largest war memorials. It is the site of annual observances of ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day.
• Docklands is Melbourne's newest precinct and largest infrastructure development to date, and is also becoming a major tourist attraction. The Docklands area opens up the waterfront to the CBD, and is projected to attract millions of visitors every year. Telstra Dome, the Melbourne Star Ferris wheel, public art displays and several dining precincts can be found in Docklands.
• Luna Park Melbourne is an amusement park located on the foreshore of Port Phillip Bay in St Kilda, an inner suburb of Melbourne. It has been operating since 1912.

See also: Tall buildings in Melbourne and Architecture of Melbourne