13D Australia Summer Trip: The Southbank, Melbourne
Continuing on my adventure from Flinders Street Station, I walked across a bridge which led me into the Southbank, an inner urban neighbourhood of Melbourne. I could not really tell that Southbank is used to be an industrial area because the area is now dominated by high-rise buildings such as Australia's tallest tower, Eureka Tower and other office/apartment towers. Some of the big names who are headquartered at the Southbank are Treasury Wine Estates, Crown Limited, Alumina, The Herald and Weekly Times.
You will be able to see the Yarra River, which borders Southbank to its north side. The Southbank Promenade runs from Princes Bridge along to Queens Bridge Street and Queens Bridge. If you start to wonder how many bridges are connecting the Central Business District (CBD) area of Melbourne to the Southbank, you are not alone. Lee and I were kinda confused on which bridge we should take to make our way across but eventually we decided to cross from the Princes Bridge. Other than the abovesaid bridges, there are two other bridges connecting Melbourne's CBD to the Southbank, the King Street Bridge and Spencer Street Bridge.
We saw a number of several buskers and a pavement chalk artists on the promenade, this includes a busker in Elmo costume. Right near to the promenade is the Arts Centre Melbourne, one of the famous landmarks in Southbank. This is also Australia's largest and busiest performing art venues. The art centre has been house to many orchestra, dance performances and music concerts. On Sundays, it becomes the house of local crafts market. Restaurants are available inside the arts centre too to make sure visitors can enjoy their visit longer.
Despite its obvious height, I still need to activate my Google Maps to navigate myself and Lee throughout this corporate jungle to our next destination, Eureka Skydeck, the tallest building in Australia. I even stumbled upon the firm where I used to work, PwC near to the Skydeck. That kinda brought back memories. Ironically, the PwC Tower is the building which led us to our destination. I wonder why the designer of Eureka Skydeck chose golden wasps as the tower's decoration, do wasps bring good fortune? Hmm.
You would need a ticket to access the observation deck of Eureka which is located at level 88. There are two different categories of admission which you can select from: Individual and Family package.
Individual Admission for Skydeck:
Adult Ticket - AUD 20
Concession Ticket (must show valid student, Health Care or Seniors Card on arrival) - AUD 15.50
Child Ticket (4 - 16 y.o., <4 free admission) - AUD 11.50
Family package deals:
2 adults + 2 children - AUD 46
2 adults + 1 children - AUD 46
1 adult + 2 children - AUD 34
Extra child - AUD 9.50
The observation skydeck is located 285 metres above ground and yet, it only took us 38 seconds to get up there. It is no wonder that Eureka Tower is known to have the fastest elevator trip in the Southern Hemisphere. You can enjoy the view of many attraction sites of Melbourne City from Albert Park Lake, Port Phillip Bay, and the Dandenong Ranges and beyond. With 30 viewfinders available around the Skydeck, you will definitely spend at least 45 minutes in the Skydeck. One of the viewfinder show me the aerial view of the white Government House and its surrounding greens, the Royal Botanics Garden of Victoria. The Government House was completed back in the year 1876 and it was called the grandest house in Australia back then. Its Italian architecture-inspired tower can be seen from miles away. It was the largest governor's residence in Australia and it is designed in a similar way to Queen Victoria's palatial Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. If you are interested to find out more about the house, a guided tour will take you to the grand Ballroom, State Dining Room and Billiard Room in the house.
The Royal Botanic Gardens which surround the Government House is an extensive greens which extend over 36 hectares and it has a huge diverse collection of over 50,000 plants from around the world, including rare and even threatened species. If you visit Melbourne with kids, you may be interested to visit the Ian Potter Foundation Children's Garden where kids can play in the ruin garden, meeting place, wetland area, bamboo forest, gorge, plant tunnel, rill and kitchen garden. Other highlights of the Royal Botanic Gardens include the National Herbarium, Tropical Hothouse, Plant Craft Cottage and the Guillfoyle's Volcano water reservoir. It's really too bad we had no time to visit the garden during our visit to Melbourne.
Eureka Skydeck is located at:
Riverside Quay,
Southbank Melbourne,
Australia
Eureka Skydeck's opening hours:
Daily 10AM - 10PM
(Last entry 9.30PM)
Christmas day and NYE 10AM - 5.30PM
(Last entry 5PM)
Royal Botanics Garden Victoria is located at:
100 Birdwood Avenue,
Melbourne, Australia
Royal Botanics Garden Victoria's opening hours:
Daily 7.30AM - sunset