19 Best Sights in City Center, Melbourne

Melbourne's most important cultural landmark is the venue for performances by the Australian Ballet, Opera Australia, Melbourne Theatre Company, and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It encompasses Hamer Hall, the Arts Centre complex, the original National Gallery of Victoria, and the outdoor Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Take a 60-minute tour of the five floors of the complex, plus the current gallery exhibition and refreshment at the café, or its longer Sunday backstage tour. Neither tour is suitable for children under 12 and both must be booked in advance. At night, look for the center's spire, which creates a magical spectacle with brilliant fiber-optic cables.

Melbourne's most elegant 19th-century shopping arcade dates from the 1880s, when "Marvelous Melbourne" was flush with the prosperity of the gold rushes. A century later, renovations scraped back the grime to reveal a magnificent mosaic floor. Take a guided walking tour back to the Block's origins, back in 1892; reservations are essential.

Melbourne's best-known laneway for its vibrant street art scene, Hosier Lane is easily accessible off Flinders Lane, and may whet your appetite for further exploration. The ever-changing nature of the art means you can wander at will, or join a walking tour. With tours run by street artists, Blender Studios also conducts walks past the large-scale murals of Fitzroy, and even runs street art workshops for adults and kids.

The Aboriginal and modern Australian art collection of the National Gallery of Victoria hangs on the walls of this gallery in Fed Square. Key pieces include pioneering Indigenous artist Emily Kam Kngwarray's vast work, Anwerlarr Anganenty (Big Yam Dreaming) 1995, as well as paintings from the famous Heidelberg school, such as Frederick McCubbin's Lost and Tom Roberts's Shearing the Rams. Other displays include textiles, sculpture, and photography. A gallery highlight is the Indigenous collection, which changes every six months and includes both traditional and contemporary art.

Once the on-leave residence of the Pacific navigator Captain James Cook, this modest two-story home, built in 1755 by Cook senior, was transported stone by stone from Great Ayton in Yorkshire, England, and rebuilt in the lush Fitzroy Gardens in 1934. It's believed that Cook lived in the cottage between his many voyages. The interior is simple, a suitable domestic realm for a man who spent much of his life in cramped quarters aboard sailing ships.

Named after the goldfields uprising of 1854, the Eureka Tower (which houses the 88th-level Eureka Skydeck) is the highest public vantage point in the southern hemisphere. The funky-shape blue-glass building with an impressive gold cap is the place to get a bird's-eye view of Melbourne and overcome your fear of heights, especially on the Skydeck. An enclosed all-glass cube, known as the Edge (A$12 additional charge), projects about 10 feet out from the viewing platform—here you can stand, seemingly suspended, over the city on a clear glass floor.

Encompassing a whole city block, the bold, abstract-style landmark was designed to be Melbourne's official meeting place, with a variety of attractions and restaurants within it. The square incorporates the second branch of the National Gallery of Victoria (Ian Potter Centre), which exhibits Aboriginal and modern Australian art, as well as the Australian Centre for the Moving Image; the Edge amphitheater, a contemporary music and theater performance venue; and the Koorie Heritage Trust, which runs exhibitions and programs relating to Aboriginal Melbourne, and sells Victorian Aboriginal products and designs. Regular events are held in the square and along the path beside the Yarra River. Crowds often gather to watch live performances and events televised on the giant "Fed TV" in the center of the square.

This 64-acre expanse of European trees, manicured lawns, garden beds, statuary, and sweeping walks is Melbourne's most popular central park. Among its highlights is its 90-year-old Conservatory and the Avenue of Elms, a majestic stand of 130-year-old trees, one of the few in the world that has not been devastated by Dutch elm disease.

Much more than just a train station, Flinders Street Station is a Melbourne icon and a popular meeting place. The term "meet me under the clocks" is widely used, indicating the timepieces on the front of this grand Edwardian hub of Melbourne's suburban rail network. When it was proposed to replace them with television screens, an uproar ensued. Today there are both clocks and screens.

This massive, moat-encircled, bluestone-and-concrete edifice houses works from renowned international painters including Picasso, Renoir, and Van Gogh. Its Winter Masterpieces series of international blockbuster exhibitions require tickets. In the Great Hall, it's considered perfectly reasonable to stretch out on the floor in order to properly appreciate the world's largest stained-glass ceiling, by Leonard French. A second campus of the NGV, in nearby Federation Square, exhibits Australian art only.

This bluestone building, the city's first jail, is now a museum that has three tiers of cells with catwalks around the upper levels and is rumored to be haunted. Its most famous inmate was the notorious bushranger Ned Kelly, who was hanged here in 1880. The Hangman's night tours (reservations essential) are a popular, if macabre, facet of Melbourne nightlife.

Opened in 1870, this is the country's oldest shopping arcade, and despite alterations it retains an airy, graceful elegance that often transfixes passersby. Browse beautiful curios, diamonds, or magic spells in its ornate shops. At the heart of the arcade, the statues of mythical monsters Gog and Magog toll the hour on either side of Gaunt's Clock.

Become part of the action as you stroll through a transparent tunnel surrounded by water and the denizens of the deep on the prowl. Or press your nose to the glass in the Antarctica exhibition and watch king and gentoo penguins waddling around on ice and darting through water. You can also don snow gear and sit among the penguins. If you're feeling brave, do a shark dive—they're held twice daily, include scuba equipment, and are led by an instructor. No diving experience is required. The aquamarine building illuminates a previously dismal section of Yarra River bank, opposite Crown Casino.

On the river's edge next to the Arts Centre, Southgate is a prime spot for lingering—designer shops, celebrity chefs' restaurants, bars, and casual eating places help locals and visitors while away the hours. The promenade links with the forecourt of Crown Casino and its hotels.

Construction of the Gothic Revival building began in 1858 and took 82 years to finish. A statue of the Irish patriot Daniel O'Connell stands in the courtyard, testament to the fact that Ireland supplied Australia with many of its early immigrants, especially during the Irish potato famine in the mid-19th century.

This 1892 headquarters of Melbourne's Anglican faith is one of the most important works of William Butterfield, a leader of the Gothic Revival style in England. Located opposite Flinders Street Station, the cathedral underwent a massive restoration in 2006. Outside is a statue of Matthew Flinders, the first seaman to circumnavigate Australia, between 1801 and 1803.

On a rise behind lawns and heroic statuary, this handsome 1853 building was constructed during the gold-rush boom and houses more than 1½ million volumes as well as bushranger Ned Kelly's famous armor. Large reading areas—including the splendid domed reading room up the grand staircase—make this a comfortable place for browsing, and three galleries display works from the library's Pictures Collection.

Not just a grand hotel, the Windsor is home to one of Melbourne's proudest institutions—the ritual of afternoon tea (A$75 midweek), which is served noon–2 pm, and 2:30–4:30 from Wednesday to Friday. An even more indulgent dessert buffet (A$99), complete with chocolate fountain and other goodies, is added on weekends. Although the Grand Ball Room—a Belle Époque extravaganza with a gilded ceiling and seven glass cupolas—is reserved for private functions, occasionally afternoon tea is served there, so it's best to call first to check.

Pubs are not generally known for their artwork, but climb the steps to the first-floor bar of the 160-year-old hotel to see Chloe, a painting that has scandalized and titillated Melburnians for many decades. The larger-than-life nude, painted by Jules Joseph Lefebvre in Paris in 1875, has adorned the walls of Young and Jackson's Hotel (which now specializes in Australian craft beers) since 1909.