Roaming Around Marvellous Melbourne!

Australia's other great city is Marvellous Melbourne and yes they really spell marvelous with two l's! Briefly the capital of Australia while the planned federal capital of Canberra was being developed, Melbourne was where the national parliament met from 1901 until 1927.

Personally, Melbourne feels very British with its Victorian-era architecture, dense network of hidden laneways, and strong cafe and arts culture; while Sydney feels more American. The city's grid layout makes its very easy to explore on foot, with many historic landmarks, shopping streets, and laneways concentrated within a relatively compact area.

The Victorian gold rush transformed Melbourne into a boomtown during the 1850s, bringing wealth, migrants, and grand buildings that helped earn the city its nickname, “Marvellous Melbourne.” At one point in the 1880s, Melbourne was actually the richest city in the world! 

A note from the writer: this is a pre-pandemic tale.

SkyBus City Express provides fast, frequent bus transfers between Melbourne Tullamarine Airport (MEL) and Southern Cross Station in Melbourne's CBD. Very convenient indeed!

Navigating around the city is a breeze as Melbourne has one of the world’s largest tram networks; with its iconic trams also serving as a tourist attraction!

The city is famous for its unpredictable weather, inspiring the local joke that you can experience four seasons in a single day!

Victoria’s gold rush created an enormous need for coin production, as gold discoveries brought miners, merchants, and mountains of precious metal into the colony. The Royal Mint operated from 1872 and reflected Melbourne’s transformation from a colonial settlement into a wealthy financial centre, when gold helped fuel construction, trade, and population growth.

A landmark blending historic architecture with a modern shopping experience can be found in Melbourne's Central Shopping Center with the mall preserving Coop's Shot Tower, built in 1889 to manufacture lead shots for firearms, inside a giant glass cone!

Queen Victoria Market officially opened in 1878 and has been feeding Melbourne and supplying its shoppers for nearly 150 years! "Queen Vic" though has a rather macabre past, with it standing on ground that used to be a cemetery!

This rather flat-iron looking building was the former Colonial Bank Building, another remnant of the city's gold-rush era!

This grand landmark on Bourke Street is Melbourne's General Post Office. Opened in 1867, the historic building reflects how essential postal communication was to the growing colony in keeping in touch with its mother country the UK.

Another effect of the Victorian gold rush was the creation of Melbourne's Chinatown, where Chinese migrants arrived seeking gold and where businesses sprung up to serve miners traveling to the goldfields. It is widely recognized as the oldest continuous Chinatown in Australia, and one of the longest-established Chinese settlements outside Asia!

The Forum opened in 1929 as a grand cinema whose atmospheric theaters often made audiences feel as though they were watching films beneath an open night sky. Today the building is used as a live-performance venue, hosting concerts rather than serving only as a movie theater.

Melbourne also has a world-class museum with exhibitions that include a famous Triceratops skeleton named Horridus, galleries exploring Victoria's natural environment, First People's cultures, science, history, and the evolution of life.

Fitzroy Gardens began as a reserve in 1848, growing into one of Melbourne’s most beloved historic gardens as the city expanded during the gold-rush era.

The gardens contain a historic conservatory and carefully landscaped paths, making them a green retreat just a short walk away from Melbourne’s busy central streets.

The Shrine of Remembrance was built in 1934 to honor Victorians who served in the First World War as part of the ANZAC.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Due to the shared struggle, loss of troops, and stories of courage and endurance, ANZAC as a term became central to the development of Australian and New Zealand national remembrance traditions and explains the kinship shared not only between the two peoples, but also with their mother country, the UK.

ANZAC forces also later served across multiple theatres in the Second World War, including North Africa, Greece, Crete, the Middle East and the Pacific, where Australian forces fought in campaigns much closer to home.

The Shrine has since become a memorial to Australians who served in wars and peacekeeping operations more broadly.

Melbourne’s skyline reflects several eras of wealth, from Victorian-era banks and railway buildings to modern glass skyscrapers built during the city’s more recent growth. The Yarra River provides one of the city’s most photogenic viewpoints, with skyscrapers, bridges, and waterfront restaurants highlighting a constantly evolving skyline.

As major British colony, Australia also brought over from the mother land strong Anglican Christian traditions. St. Paul’s Cathedral stands at one of Melbourne’s most famous intersections, directly opposite Flinders Street Station, placing a major Anglican cathedral amid the bustle of the city centre.

One must always find time to say a prayer in gratitude.

Hosier Lane is one of Melbourne’s most famous street-art destinations, where walls, doors, and other surfaces become a constantly changing outdoor gallery!

The Lane attracts enormous numbers of visitors, with the City of Melbourne estimating approximately 1.5 million visits annually! 95% of which are most probably influencers and TikTokers.

Melbourne recognizes Hosier Lane as a designated free-to-paint location, although artworks can still be removed for reasons such as offensive content, advertising, and public safety.

The artwork is never truly finished; new pieces appear, older works are painted over, and artists transform the lane into an evolving snapshot of Melbourne’s creative scene.

The lane’s fame is part of a wider Melbourne street-art culture, where graffiti, murals, stencils, and paste-ups have become attractions in their own right rather than merely background decoration.

State Library Victoria was established in 1854, making it Australia’s oldest public library and one of the world’s early free public libraries.

The library opened to the public in 1856, with the ambitious ideal of making knowledge available to ordinary people, not just the wealthy and privileged.

The magnificent (and very photogenic) La Trobe Reading Room is one of Melbourne’s architectural showstoppers, with an enormous domed roof above a central octagonal space and tiers of reading galleries.

The library’s collections preserve Victoria’s history, including rare books, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, maps, and other materials documenting the state’s cultural life.

You can visit the library even if you aren’t researching anything, because its historic reading spaces and exhibitions make it a destination for architecture lovers, photographers, and curious travelers!

Apart from the Anglicans, Roman Catholics also have a spiritual home in Melbourne with St. Patrick's Cathedral serving as the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne.

Completed in 1890, the cathedral is a masterpiece of Gothic Revival architecture, with soaring spires, pointed arches, intricate stonework, and a dramatic vertical design intended to draw the eye heavenward.

Its dark bluestone exterior gives it a distinctly Victorian character, while the richly decorated interior and stained-glass windows create a striking contrast with the city streets outside!

Among the more striking buildings in the city, the Hotel Windsor opened in 1883 during Melbourne’s boom years, when the city was eager to display its wealth and sophistication. Its grand Victorian character has helped it remain one of Australia’s best-known historic luxury hotels.

While walking around we happened to chance upon this small church. St Francis Church dates to the early years of Melbourne’s Catholic community, with the first church on the site opening in 1845, making it one of the city’s oldest Catholic churches.

The church has survived enormous changes around it, from the colonial settlement and gold-rush boom to today’s dense central business district of offices, shops, and trams.

Making a quick stop back at the Queen Victoria Market for some last minute shopping!

Jars of Manuka Honey... check!