Horseracing is very popular in Melbourne, and there is excellent racing at the Autumn and Spring Racing carnivals. The Spring Carnival features the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s most famous horse race -it is run on the first Tuesday in November, which is a public holiday for Victorians. The festivities that have developed around this horse race are fabulous, and it is an Australian tradition to have a bet on the race, even if you are not a regular punter. Thousands of Melburnians go along on race day and have some fun, with many dressing up in either their Sunday best -including, most importantly, a hat or fancy dress.
The annual 500cc Motorcycle Grand Prix is held at Phillip Island, to the south of Melbourne. The Australian International Airshow is an exciting biennial event held in Victoria, and features aircraft from all around the world, demonstrating the latest innovations in aviation and aerospace technology. The Airshow is held at the Avalon Airport near Geelong during February.
Melbourne is an ideal destination for shoppers, and has its own fashion festival in summer. In the centre of Melbourne there are a couple of splendid arcades where you can shop in beautiful and historic surroundings: the Block Arcade and the Royal Arcade. Large shopping complexes include Melbourne Central, which features a number of retail outlets, including the Japanese-owned department store Daimaru. This magnificent building has a large glass pyramid roof and shot tower. Nearby are the Myer and David Jones department stores. The Crown Entertainment Complex and Southgate also have an enormous range of exclusive shops, many of them outlets for overseas designer products. In the suburbs, you will find streets which are considered the places to shop for particular things -Chapel Street in South Yarra for fashion, Bridge Road, Richmond, for seconds outlets, High Street, Armadale, for exclusive boutiques and Maling Road, Canterbury, for antiques. Best Buy 2022 calendars
Queen Victoria Market is the place to go for fresh produce and a bargain. It has over 1000 traders offering everything from fresh fruit and seafood through to clothing and leather goods. This historic complex was established in 1878 and is the largest outdoor market in the world.
The city of Melbourne has a large migrant population, and the food and restaurants are influenced by this diversity of cultures: almost any international cuisine is available, and many innovative mixtures are created as well.
Though the central business district of Melbourne features many fine restaurants, the city is traditionally split into cultural sectors: Lygon Street in Carlton for Italian and Richmond for Vietnamese or Greek food, to name just two. Little Bourke Street is the home of Little China, where you will find superb Chinese cuisine. Melbourne loves to celebrate the Chinese New Year in February, and thousands of people head to the Chinatown precinct to bring in the new year. Large dragons wind their way through the crowd, with firecrackers popping and drums beating in the background.
The suburb of Southgate, an area situated on the banks of the Yarra, features restaurants and the Crown Entertainment Complex. This enormous complex includes the Crown Casino, theatres, a hotel and many shops, clubs and restaurants. On a sunny day in Melbourne you will see people sitting at restaurants on the edge of the Yarra from St Kilda Road all the way to Spencer Street. In the evenings, this part of town comes alive again, with clubs and restaurants open until the early hours.
Melbourne also boasts many fine art galleries, covering a range of styles and types of exhibitions. The main art gallery to see here is the National Gallery of Victoria on St Kilda Road. The gallery’s magnificent art collection is made up of paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs from Australia and overseas. The National Gallery of Victoria is also opening its NGV: Australian Art museum at Federation Square, a magnificent building showcasing the country’s finest collection of Australian art.
Also on St Kilda Road is the Victorian Arts Centre, which includes a number of venues for the performing arts. A feature of this centre is the tall spire on the rooftop, which changes colours at night.
The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, in Bourke Street, offers Melburnians and visitors alike the chance to view works of art created by Australia’s Indigenous peoples, including dot paintings, boomerangs and didgeridoos. The centre has more than 2500 paintings.
The new Melbourne Museum, next to the Royal Exhibition Buildings, is Australia’s largest and the world’s most technologically advanced museum -the stunning modern $300 million building is an architectural feat in itself. The Museum’s priceless collections, which include Aboriginal displays, the famous racehorse Phar Lap, and dinosaur displays, combined with performance, technology and interactive exhibitions, will surely inspire delight and wonder in its visitors.
The Immigration Museum, in the Old Customs House building on Flinders Street, is a contemporary museum that brings Victoria’s immigration history to life through voices, images, memories and objects.
The Shrine of Remembrance, which stands proudly between Domain and St Kilda Roads, is, a memorial to the people who served Australia in the wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It features 42 books of remembrance, which contain the names of 116,000 Victorians who served overseas during World War I. A fascinating feature of the Shrine of Remembrance is the inner sanctuary and the stone of remembrance, which is lit by sunlight precisely at 11 am on 11 November -Remembrance Day- every year.
Scienceworks is a science and technology centre with interactive displays which are very popular with both children and adults alike. This centre is built around an old pumping station in Spotswood and is open every day. The Melbourne Planetarium is also to be found here -it is the only planetarium in the Southern Hemisphere with a state-of-the-art computer system that simulates the experience of moving through the universe.
The Melbourne Maritime Museum has, as its central exhibit, the tall ship Polly Woodside, which was built in Belfast in 1885.
When all the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Melbourne are combined and added to the sheer excitement of its many sporting and arts events and festivals, it’s easy to see why Melbourne is such a popular holiday destination for Australian and overseas visitors -and why it is so much loved and enjoyed by those who live there.
