Which Are Unusual Things To Do In Melbourne?

Melbourne, Australia, is a seaside city with a lot of odd things to do, such as a Medieval adventure theme park, a rescue cat cafe, and a bar that will take you to Cold War Germany.

If you've already seen and done everything on the standard tourist itinerary, it's time to venture off the beaten path and discover Melbourne's hidden gems. These hidden gems—from a pub with a Cold War theme to cafes with a twist and a look at the city's criminal underworld—are not featured in your standard travel guide.

Unusual Things To Do In Melbourne

There is an almost infinite number of possible excursions, outings, and adventures to be had in Melbourne.

Visit Old Melbourne Gaol To Learn About The City's Most Notorious Criminals

This Australian prison, known as Old Melbourne Gaol, was in use from 1842 to 1929. During this time, 133 people, including outlaw Ned Kelly, were hanged at this location. Dangerous felons, minor thieves, and the mentally sick were all housed here.

The Russell Street facility is now a museum that recreates the conditions of the prison for tourists. The museum also features immersive tours and dramatic performances that provide insight into Melbourne's criminal underworld.

Take A Hot-Air Balloon Ride Above Melbourne.

Take a hot-air balloon flight above Melbourne's skyline, done in the 2019 action movie Aeronauts.

Global Ballooning Australia claims that this is not possible in any other world capital. Twelve people can travel comfortably in each padded basket. Can you tell if they're trying to look fancy? Take advantage of the champagne breakfast flight that leaves at daybreak.

Search For Lyrebirds

Looking for Lyrebirds. Spotting a lyrebird in the wild might not be as far-fetched as it seems. The splendid lyrebird is a regular resident in the woods of Victoria and New South Wales in Eastern Australia. Melburnians, on the other hand, have their pick of the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges, and even South Gippsland when it comes to potential lyrebird sightings.

Ballroom At Flinders Street Station

FLINDERS STREET STATION is home to a fading beauty of a ballroom, a relic from the period of railway romance but now abandoned.

The station sees approximately 100,000 passengers daily, but the ancient ballroom on the third floor has been off-limits since 1985. However, in recent years, seeing the area has become so wanted that at Open House Melbourne (a yearly event honouring the importance of urban planning and design), privileged entrance was provided by a secret "Golden Ticket," slipped into the programmes of a select few lucky guests.

Flinders Street Station, which had been planned in 1899 but didn't open until 1910, has become a beloved landmark in Melbourne. The ballroom once served as the Victorian Railways Institute's lecture hall, an organisation founded to promote the "betterment of railway workers."

These extras included exercise and dance lessons, a lending library, and evening courses. A private gym featuring a boxing ring and a running track was located on the top floor, and there was also a billiards area and table tennis tables designated for the use of male guests alone.

Public dances in the 1950s and 1960s packed the ballroom, and organisers made sure they ended promptly so revellers could catch the final train home. These lodgings have long since disappeared, but their former locations are still available for exploration.

The station will be completely renovated and repainted in its original early 20th-century colours in early 2017. The state government of Victoria has also developed a strategy to revitalise the ballroom, which will hopefully be implemented shortly. The dance troupe is hanging around here for a train.

Tour A Cemetery

Visit a graveyard and take a tour. Most people don't think of cemeteries as pleasant places to spend their free time, and for good reason: they're associated with morbidity and the supernatural. However, these burial grounds are important historical landmarks that should not be forgotten. Historic cemeteries in Melbourne are open to the public for excursions, with some of them dating back to the middle of the nineteenth century.

At The Escape Room, Solve Puzzles With Your Friends.

The game "Escape Room," created by two psychology Ph.D. candidates, locks you and a group of people in a room and challenges you to escape by solving a series of puzzles. You have 70 minutes to figure out what's going on at one of six places in Melbourne. Visitors can use the linguistic, visual, mathematical, spatial, physical, and lateral brainteasers to look into suspicious disappearances at a burlesque club in Oakleigh, the cause of odd activity at a mine in South Melbourne, and the reason an apartment in Flemington was left unoccupied.

Melbourne Medical Museum

Sights to see at the Museum More than five thousand instruments, books, and artefacts, such as bleeding equipment, amputation kits, and antique microscopes, make up Australia's largest medical collection. Savory and Moore Pharmacy, a London pharmacy that was open from 1849 until 1968, is on display at the museum as well. The drugstore was taken apart and rebuilt in the museum with all of its original features (including the show globes and the original window cases) intact.

Go Plane Spotting

Enjoy some time spent plane-watching. This parking lot near the intersection of Sunbury and Oaklands Roads, not far from Melbourne (Tullamarine) Airport, has long been a favourite of those who like to watch planes take off and land. This is due to the low altitude at which the planes fly as they approach the runway.

Visit A Berlin Bar To Return To Cold War Germany

Berlin Bar is one of Melbourne's most well-known and beloved dive pubs, and the city is full of them. Visitors who make their way to the door of this hidden establishment on Little Bourke Street in Chinatown are subject to a thorough security check before being whisked away to West Germany during the height of the Cold War. The bar is divided into East and West Berlin, with a sharp contrast between the dreary and the lavish, providing an alcoholic history lesson. Enjoy your drink in the mood of Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.

Give Your Dog The Doghouse Treatment

Were you trying to plan the ideal outing for you and your dog? If so, your search ends at DogHouse on Johnston Street. This eatery caters exclusively to canines, offering dogachinos, dog pastries, and even raw meat. DogHouse is a courtyard with ten enclosed booths, perfect for a doggy nuptial or birthday party. Dog owners can choose from a limited selection as well.

The Royal Botanic Gardens' Ornamental Lake Is A Great Place To Go Punting.

The Royal Botanic Gardens are a must-see for any visitor to Melbourne, but few know there is a special way to see the gardens. Tours of the Ornamental Lake's shallow waters on punts have been available to visitors since 2013. The gardens will look very different from the sea as you glide past the islands and coves; you might even spot a turtle or two. Tours go for 30 minutes and accommodate up to eight people in each punt.

Wunderkammer

WUNDERKAMMER MEANS "wonder-chamber" in English. There have always been museums, and their earliest iterations housed collections of curiosities. They had the standard museum fare like natural specimens, minerals, and coins, as well as more out-of-the-ordinary and miraculous items like religious shrines, double apples, and so-called mermaids.

The Wunderkammer combines the functions of a museum and a store. The store sells scientific and historical items. Insects placed in hand-blown specimen domes, fossils, medical devices, and historic prints of plants and animals are all part of the collection.

It's fair to say that Wunderkammer covers just about everything that can be studied by humans. The curator of a Wunderkammer selects pieces for his or her collection based on aesthetic criteria such as rarity, historical significance, educational value, and, of course, their ability to awe and amaze.

Kryal Castle Offers A World Of Knights And Dragons

Kryal Castle is a mediaeval theme park that takes visitors back in time to a world populated by dragons, knights, and wizards. This "kingdom of myth, magic, and imagination" has gone through various transformations, but in 2013 the drawbridge was once again dropped so that tourists could explore the grounds.

Experience the Dragon's Labyrinth, the Museum of Torture, a jousting match between gallant knights, and a test of strength with the Sword in the Stone. Guests who wish to extend their visit have the option of reserving a hotel, in addition to purchasing dinner and a show.

Cooks' Cottage, Captain James Cook's Family Home, Is Worth A Visit.

James Cook, a British explorer, was famous for his voyages to the Pacific. In 1934, Sir Russell Grimwade relocated Cooks' Cottage from Yorkshire, England to its current location in the Fitzroy Gardens.

Each brick was numbered before being sent to Australia. Even worse, Cook never actually lived at the Cottage because he had already moved out by the time his parents purchased the property.

Melbourne Storm Tunnels

Melbourne, Australia's storm drain tunnels are a maze of almost 900 miles of concrete and brick tubes, chambers, and waterfalls, built apart from the city's sewage system and slowly being investigated by a dedicated group of urban explorers.

The most well-known urban exploration group in the region laid claim to the ANZAC (Army Corps of Australia and New Zealand) drain in 1987, the year the network of enormous, winding tunnels was initially discussed. Despite the risk of claustrophobia, flash floods, and whatever huge insectile Australian fauna has established a home in the darkness, the crew has continued to investigate the tunnels and chambers from this giant drain and others around Melbourne.

Several more drains have been discovered, examined, and given fanciful titles including The God, The Maze, and The Tenth Drain, but the ANZAC drain and its accompanying enormous chamber serve as the unofficial headquarters.

Although the Melbourne Storm Tunnels have the aesthetics of matte paintings from an urban gothic genre film, they pose a real threat to the public. Nonetheless, parties are held in the damp, expansive chambers, and graffiti artists frequently venture into the depths to leave their imprint.

 Be A Train Driver For A Day

Try Your Hand at Being a Train Conductor For a Day. Picture yourself behind the wheel of a train for a day, whether it's a quaint old steam locomotive chugging and whistling along the tracks or a diesel train with massive engines roaring. Stop daydreaming about success and you'll find it. Puffing Billy, the Mornington Railway, the Bellarine Railway, and the Victorian Goldfields Railway all provide train driver opportunities.

Yarra Bend Park's Fruit Bats

There is a good chance that you will spot a Grey-headed Flying Fox, or fruit bat, in Melbourne. True, Australian natives are common sights, but it doesn't make a colony of 30,000 any less impressive. These "megabats," which can number in the tens of thousands, form large colonies during the day and scatter in waves just before sunset, when they begin foraging for Eucalyptus pollen, various fruits, and nectars.

There may not be a more picturesque vantage point than Yarra Bend Park's riverbanks for witnessing Melbourne's huge exodus. These big, adorable, winged creatures are both adored and feared. Their wingspan typically exceeds three feet. Once abundant bats are now steadily advancing to the top of the list of wildlife in alarming decline in serious need of protection due to their negative impacts on human health and agricultural crops. Due to habitat loss, extreme weather, and human activity, their population has dropped from the millions to below 350,000 in just the last century.

While concerns about bats transferring disease to humans were overblown, three people did contract and die from the Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV). Despite their rarity, bats have received a lot of publicity in order to raise public awareness, and they are not allowed to roost in areas with dense human populations.

This large colony has been around for a while; they originally settled at Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. Since their relocation to the park in 2003, visitors have enjoyed watching the birds take flight from the park's Bellbird Picnic Reserve every evening.

The park is a favourite roosting location for drunk lorikeets, another endangered species that is a conservation concern in Australia.

Cat Cafe Is A Great Place To Relax And Meet New People

As of 2014, Melbourne, Australia was home to Australia's first cat cafe, much to the pleasure of feline enthusiasts. The Cat Cafe is home to 16 rescued cats, all of whom have unique purr-sonalities, and offers human guests the company of these feline friends in addition to a limited menu of snacks and drinks.

High blood pressure, tension, despair, and anxiety have all been shown to decrease when people engage with cats, according to studies. The website of the cafe allows customers to schedule one-hour sessions with Lopez, Waldo, Sherlock, and the rest of the gang.

The Penguin Colony At Kilda Pier

St. Kilda Pier Provides A Rare Gemstone Of Natural Wildlife Experience In The Shadows Of An Australia Main City, As It Is Home To Several Thousand Pengu

Since the pier was built in the mid-1950s in St. Kilda, a tiny suburb of Melbourne, a thriving colony of little penguins (previously known as "fairy" penguins) has made its home on the breakwater at the pier's end.

A dedicated crew of volunteers helps take care of the penguins and safeguard them from harm from curious visitors. The volunteers will help tourists find the penguins hiding amid the rocks and will also shield the animals from any inquisitive onlookers.

Most nights, crowds of people show up, only to disperse as soon as the sun sets. Penguins can sometimes be seen during the daytime hours, lurking among the rocks, but they are much more active and migratory at night. If you want to watch the most action, plan to stay up late. It's important to allow birds lots of room, so if they dart across where you're standing, you should move.

The Neighbours Tour Allows You To Visit The Homes Of Your Favourite Characters.

Australians have watched the family drama of Neighbours for 32 years. The show's 33 seasons and almost 7,000 episodes have made it the longest-running drama on Australian television.

The show centres on a group of families who "become excellent friends" and live on Ramsay Street in Erinsborough. The popular filming location of Ramsay Street in Pin Oak Court, Vermont South, is open for tourists every day. Maybe one of the actors may even walk by!

Join The Restaurant Aboard The Colonial Tramcar.

Colonial Tramcar Restaurants, the world's first mobile dining establishments, have been delighting customers with their unique cuisine and atmosphere since 1983. Dine in style while taking in the sights of the city from the comfort of one of the luxurious burgundy trams and a seasonal meal paired with great Australian wines. There are vegetarian and gluten-free alternatives available for each of the three, four, and five-course meals on the all-inclusive menu.

Coop’s Shot Tower

Coop's Shot Tower was once the tallest building in early Melbourne, but it was quickly overshadowed by skyscrapers and other modern urban behemoths. Rather than having the landmark building destroyed in the sake of progress, a gigantic cone was constructed over the site to preserve it.

The massive brick structure dates back to 1888, when it was first erected for the purpose of producing shot pellets. It was typical practice at the time to build towers like these in order to form the tiny lead balls by dropping molten metal from a height into pools of water, where the metal would cool and solidify in an instant. At its peak, Coop's tower could output almost six tonnes of shoots every week.

Fortunately, as time went on, the necessity for cannons and other forms of firepower decreased, and the site expanded into other metal operations. Although the tower itself was never closed, metal production moved elsewhere, leaving the 164-foot structure as a mere monument.

Instead of letting the existing spire collapse, a massive cone of black steel and glass was constructed over the tower in 1991. In addition, inside the tower is a museum dedicated to the tower's history as well as Melbourne's. Gesture-controlled displays, for example, are put in the museum's historic tower, demonstrating the museum's dedication to keeping up with modern technology.

Go Star Gazing

Enjoy a night of stargazing. The fascination in the stars and planets in the sky dates back to the dawn of humanity. They are still a source of awe for explorers and researchers, and they have provided material for myth and folklore. For the human race, space represents the ultimate challenge and the promise of untold riches.

Those in Victoria who aren't satisfied with just looking up at the stars from their backyards can visit one of the city's public observatories equipped with astronomical telescopes. Virtual reality theatres and planetariums are bringing the cosmos closer to you.

Berkeley's Creek's Bunyip

The Australian mythical creature Swamps and rivers are common settings in Aboriginal mythology. However, a more approachable version can be seen waltzing with his matilda in front of the State Library Victoria.

Australian Aboriginal cultures all have their own myths and legends about similar monsters (and Final Fantasy X). However, the term "bunyip" originates from the native Wemba-Wemba speakers of the south-east of the country.

While many have attempted to depict the beast, no consensus has been reached. In popular culture, the clawed thing is sometimes represented as a chimaera of canines, birds, crocodiles, walruses, and other creatures.

Based on Jenny Wagner's 1973 children's book The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek, which tells the story of a creature that emerges from the water without any prior awareness of itself, this specific bunyip was cast at Meridian Foundry in Victoria. “What am I?” he wonders. Finding out from a platypus that he is a bunyip sends him on a quest to locate other members of his species.

The sculpture, based on watercolour pictures by Ron Brooks, was unveiled in 2012 during the library's children's week. One of the numerous tributes is a plush orange replica that can be found on Jetstar flights in the area.

Conclusion

Melbourne, a coastal city, has uncommon attractions, including a mediaeval theme park. Aeronauts, a 2019 action flick, takes you ballooning over Melbourne, Australia. Lyrebirds are more common than you would imagine. Flinders Street Station will be repainted in its early 20th-century colours in 2017. Melbourne's historic cemeteries welcome visitors.

The pharmacy counter from Savory and Moore, a London pharmacy from 1849 until 1968, is also shown. Next, the dog-friendly Wunderkammer is a museum and restaurant. Next, visit Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. Next, since 2013, guests can ride punts across the small Ornamental Lake. Finally, Kryal Castle transports tourists to a mediaeval fantasy world with dragons, knights, and wizards.

The Melbourne storm drain tunnels comprise 900 miles of concrete and brick tubes, chambers, and waterfalls. The Cat Cafe has 16 adopted cats with unique purr-personalities. Tourists can visit the famous Neighbours set daily. Passengers may see Melbourne's sights from a luxury tram while dining. Lead shot pellets were made at Coop's Tower, the city's tallest building, in 1888.

After production moved, the tower became a landmark. In 1991, a black steel and glass cone covered the tower. In 2012, the State Library of Victoria installed a Bunyip statue. Jenny Wagner's 1973 children's tale Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek inspired this statue. An aquatic animal emerges from the sea, unaware of its existence.

Content Summary

• Melbourne, Australia, is a seaside city with many odd things to do, such as a Medieval adventure theme park, a rescue cat cafe, and a bar that will take you to Cold War Germany.
• These hidden gems—from a pub with a Cold War theme to cafes with a twist and a look at the city's criminal underworld—are not featured in your standard travel guide.
• This Australian prison, known as Old Melbourne Gaol, was used from 1842 to 1929.
• Take a hot-air balloon flight above Melbourne's skyline, done in the 2019 action movie Aeronauts.
• Flinders Street Station, planned in 1899 but not open until 1910, has become a beloved landmark in Melbourne.
• The ballroom once served as the Victorian Railways Institute's lecture hall, an organisation founded to promote the "betterment of railway workers."
• The station will be completely renovated and repainted in its original early 20th-century colours in early 2017.
• The state government of Victoria has also developed a strategy to revitalise the ballroom, which will hopefully be implemented shortly.
• Historic cemeteries in Melbourne are open to the public for excursions, some dating back to the middle of the nineteenth century.
• Berlin Bar is one of Melbourne's most well-known and beloved dive pubs, and the city is full of them.
• The Royal Botanic Gardens are a must-see for any visitor to Melbourne, but few know there is a special way to see the gardens.
• Tours of the Ornamental Lake's shallow waters on punts have been available to visitors since 2013.
• Kryal Castle is a mediaeval theme park that takes visitors back in time to a world populated by dragons, knights, and wizards.
• James Cook, a British explorer, was famous for his voyages to the Pacific.
• Melbourne, Australia's storm drain tunnels are a maze of almost 900 miles of concrete and brick tubes, chambers, and waterfalls, built apart from the city's sewage system and slowly being investigated by a dedicated group of urban explorers.
• There is a good chance you will spot a Grey-headed Flying Fox, or fruit bat, in Melbourne.
• True, Australian natives are common sights, but it doesn't make a colony of 30,000 any less impressive.
• These "megabats," which can number in the tens of thousands, form large colonies during the day and scatter in waves just before sunset, when they begin foraging for Eucalyptus pollen, various fruits, and nectars.
• Once abundant bats are steadily advancing to the top of the list of wildlife in an alarming decline in serious need of protection due to their negative impacts on human health and crops.
• Due to habitat loss, extreme weather, and human activity, their population has dropped from the millions to below 350,000 in just the last century.
• While concerns about bats transferring disease to humans were overblown, three people contracted and died from the Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV).
• Despite their rarity, bats have received much publicity to raise public awareness, and they are not allowed to roost in areas with dense human populations.
• This large colony has been around for a while; they originally settled at Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.
• The Cat Cafe is home to 16 rescued cats, all of whom have unique purr-personalities, and offers human guests the company of these feline friends in addition to a limited menu of snacks and drinks.
• High blood pressure, tension, despair, and anxiety have all been shown to decrease when people engage with cats, according to studies.
• Since the pier was built in the mid-1950s in St. Kilda, a tiny suburb of Melbourne, a thriving colony of little penguins (previously known as "fairy" penguins) has made its home on the breakwater at the pier's end.
• A dedicated crew of volunteers helps take care of the penguins and safeguard them from harm from curious visitors.
• Australians have watched the family drama of Neighbours for 32 years.
• Rather than having the landmark building destroyed for the sake of progress, a gigantic cone was constructed over the site to preserve it.
• The massive brick structure dates back to 1888, when it was first erected to produce shot pellets.
• Coop's tower could output almost six tonnes of shoots every week at its peak.
• Although the tower was never closed, metal production moved elsewhere, leaving the 164-foot structure as a mere monument.
• Instead of letting the existing spire collapse, a massive cone of black steel and glass was constructed over the tower in 1991.
• In addition, inside the tower is a museum dedicated to the tower's history and Melbourne's.
• Those in Victoria who aren't satisfied with looking up at the stars from their backyards can visit one of the city's public observatories equipped with astronomical telescopes.
• Virtual reality theatres and planetariums are bringing the cosmos closer to you.
• The Australian mythical creature Swamps and rivers are common settings in Aboriginal mythology.
• However, a more approachable version can be seen waltzing with his matilda in front of the State Library Victoria.
• Australian Aboriginal cultures have myths and legends about similar monsters (and Final Fantasy X).
• However, the term "bunyip" originates from the native Wemba-Wemba speakers of the country's southeast.
• In popular culture, the clawed thing is sometimes represented as a chimaera of canines, birds, crocodiles, walruses, and other creatures.
• Based on Jenny Wagner's 1973 children's book The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek, which tells the story of a creature that emerges from the water without any prior awareness of itself, this specific bunyip was cast at Meridian Foundry in Victoria. "
• Finding out from a platypus that he is a bunyip sends him on a quest to locate other members of his species.
• The sculpture, based on watercolour pictures by Ron Brooks, was unveiled in 2012 during the library's children's week.
• One of the numerous tributes is a plush orange replica that can be found on Jetstar flights in the area.