Archive | Attractions RSS feed for this section

1000 Steps – Kokoda Track Memorial Walk

After a stressful week, I feel an urge to get outside and walk amongst the trees.  Something about being in the nature rejuvenates me.  At times like this, I head to 1000 Steps in the Dandenong Ranges National Park. As the name implies, it is a narrow and steep track surrounded by thick green vegetation.  [...]

Top 10 School Holiday Activities – Easter

Here are my top 10 school holiday activities for Easter.  If you click on the name of the attraction, it will link to my review of it, a map, website and pricing details.  Activities 1-6 are outdoor activities as the weather is predicted to be mostly sunny this week.  However, just in case there are [...]

Abbotsford Convent

One of my favourite ways to spend a sunny weekend morning is to have brunch at the Abbotsford Convent.  Sitting outside surrounded by trees, with the sound of live music from a double bass, and yummy food from the Convent Bakery.  I find myself counting my blessings here.  It is a good place to do [...]

1000 Pound Bend Cafe

Something exciting is happening in Little Lon.  For the first 100 years of Melbourne’s life, it was infamous as a “den of inequity” – reputedly bustling with prostitutes and opium.  From 1948, a clean up of this “street of evil” followed and the area became, well, fairly boring.  Melbourne institution Rue Bebelons started a change [...]

Nicholas Building

There is a magical quality to the Nicholas Building.  It isn’t the architecture or even the location.  It is a feeling that you are about to discover something new.  I thank all the artists who have lived and worked in the building for that.  Because I think their personal voyages of self discovery must have [...]

The Substation

Sixteen years ago, the mighty red brick Substation building was like a slain dragon. Its once shiny scales were gone – every one of its windows had been smashed. The guts of the building were in a state of decay. However, local resident Darren Williams had a vision. A group of artists shared that vision. [...]

Melbourne Athenaeum Library

Hidden up some stairs and ’round a corner in the Athenaeum building, there is a 170 year old library.  A sense of history pervades the Melbourne Athenaeum Library.  The Athenaeum is said to be Melbourne’s oldest cultural institution and was founded in 1839 as a Mechanics Institute. One of its objectives was to further literary [...]

Parliament of Victoria

We expected Harry Potter and his classmates to file into the dining room and take a seat at the long tables with their sturdy wooden chairs. However, if these wood panelled walls could talk, it would not be of wizardry, but of deals done and laws negotiated. We were at Parliament House, where all Victorian [...]

Werribee Open Range Zoo

The morning fog rolled across the river plain to reveal giraffes and zebras. As I looked down from the escarpment, I marvelled that I was experiencing this view, not in Africa, but in Melbourne, at the Werribee Open Range Zoo. I stayed overnight @WerribeeZoo when I signed up for their Slumber Safari. A safari bus [...]

Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne

I used to think native Australian gardens were UGLY!!  I would imagine a few mounds of dry grass, some grey bushes and a sad looking tea tree.  However, I’ve got a very different picture in my head since visiting the Australian Garden in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne. Australian gardens can be colourful, dramatic [...]