Calling Australians, expats in Oz or people who have travelled to Oz - Re Victoria

[DumbledoresGirl]

Please could you advise as to what there is to do during a one week touring holiday of Victoria. We already know about and plan to incorporate the Great Ocean Road but beyond that, my knowledge of Victoria is minimal.

To limit the ideas somewhat, we are a family of 6: dh myself and 4 children who will be aged 5, 8, 10 and nearly 12 at the time of travel. We like scenery (coastal and mountain) and historical things. To give you an idea, when we were last in Australia in 2002 and spent a week touring Tasmania, we mostly went to historical sites (Richmond, Hobart and Port Arthur), museums, geographical sites (blowholes etc) and spent one day walking in Freycinet National Park.

I am looking for ideas of things to do particular to Victoria (or Melbourne maybe) eg probably not zoos as we will be having a week in Brisbane with relatives before going to Victoria and we always see the wildlife at the zoo there.

Thanks.

hmm - you could easily spend a week in Melbourne!

It's a few years now since I've lived there, but here's a link to the official tourism site if you don't have it already

www.visitvictoria.com/.

Given the age range of your offspring, I'd definitely recommend a trip up to Bendigo / Ballarat and the goldfields. There's a sound and light performance called "Blood on the Southern Cross" or something similar at Ballarat, which I greatly enjoyed - and I usually hate that kind of thing.

Also, a day trip to the Dandenongs / Yarra Valley (you can let the kids wander around outside the wineries, no doubt).

The old gaol in Melbourne is interesting to visit. As is the art gallery.

And depending what time of year you are going, you should try and get along to an Aussie Rules game - generally they let you in free in the fourth quarter / term at the games at the MCG, if you just want a bit of a taster of a game.

Oh, and take the car ferry from Queenscliff over to the Mornington Peninsula. There's a great pub (outdoor space, family food, cold beers) at Sorrento.

www.sovereignhill.com.au/

Melbourne Zoo.

Oh great suggestions thanks. Especially the penguins since ds2 lives and breathes penguins. Are all these things in Melbourne then? I am always a bit confused by the scale of Australia. Eg how far is the Great Ocean Road in relation to Melbourne?

I am not sure about staying in Melbourne for the week as we will have been in Brisbane for the week before and the whole point of the second week in another location is to get away from the rellies and the city and to travel. In Tasmania, we hired a motor home and stayed in different campsites most nights, but now that we are 6 wwe are thinking of hiring the log cabins they have on campsites, but still travelling about. Is this not possible if we did the things you suggest here?

Wilsons Promontory National Park - absolutely beautiful. It's located east of Melbourne. You could visit after a trip to Phillip Island. There is loads to do there as well as visit the penguins. There is a seal colony that you can take a boat trip to. Brilliant seeing seal cubs playing about in the surf!

My last post is confusing sorry (seals and penquins relate to Phillip Island)!

Here's a website re Wilsons Promontory:

www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/1park_display.cfm?park=217

Oh - I REALLY didn't like the penguins, but I'm going to bow to popular opinion on this one, as most people certainly do!

Australia is big, but in general the roads are in fairly good nick / long / straight, so you can cover a lot more distance quickly than you would in, say, nz or tasmania. or the uk. I'd say a motorhome is probably a good idea. I think there's a route planner on the first link I posted - there are definitely some suggested driving routes.

oh - and the tourism office in Melbourne is pretty good - I'd be inclined to decide on a few things you want to do and then ask them to suggest a touring route - there's a facility for that on the site.

Dh won't set foot inside another motorhome legalalien! He is not tough like me! But I have persuaded him to try the log cabins. Every campsite in Tas had them and I was told that the same was the case on the mainland. We did find the motorhome slowed us down a lot when driving in Tas. They just don't go as fast as a car and were scarey to manoeuvre on steep roads.

Oh ds2 will adore the penguins. What do you have against them? He was so disappointed in 2002 when we could not join an organised tour to see them in the wild on Tas because dd was onyl 2 and you had to be 5 at least (ds2 was only 4 but the guide said he could have gone had it not been for 2 yo dd).

They're small and they smell bad, and I had to spend about four hours in the cold awaiting their arrival, with my then-boyfriend (with whom I had just had a screaming row) and a lot of Japanese tourists - they come in from the sea at sunset and it was midsummer! Plus at one stage I was staying in a house where the penguins lived under the house (and they smelled bad... think the novelty of fairy penguins wears off when they become familiar!)

Puffins on the other hand....

Anyway, if you go that way, you'll be able to see the Giant Worm Museum - and that's not something you get a chance to see every day...

www.langlang.net/nearby.html - scroll down for Giant Worm Museum...

I'll go for Philip Island and the seals and "little" penguins (not allowed to call them Fairy penguins anymore bah humbug). V touristy but woth going to see (really excellent tourist centre).

Soverign Hill also good.

Dh and I did a guided tour of the Great Ocean road, which took in all the usual sights, but also got too see plenty of wild koalas and did a night time glow worm walk too (fab).

Melbourne is cool. The big casino (?Star city...or is that sydney) is worth looking at for it's sheer size. Not sure when you are going DG but we were there when the Melbourne Cup was on....excellent day out.

Trying to think what else we did. A day's trip around any of the wine growing regions is always excellent. We went by bike (so long as you're not trolleyed you can get away with drinking and cycling).

The penguins are v cute. They way they take about 10 attempts to pluck up the courage to actually get out of the sea and waddle up the beach, very funny. And then when they call to their mate .

why can't I call them fairy penguins

Just for general amusement, found this list of Australia's "Big Things", which I always find hysterical.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia's_Big_Things
Agree re the casino - worth a wander and there are lots of nice places to sit outside (although the Yarra is perhaps not the most scenic river ever....)

I think the penguins will be a must. Perhaps take clothes pegs for the smell?!

We are not sure when we are going yet! Was meant to be over easter which is in March next year and would cover FIL's birthday (main reason for visit is to see FIL who refuses to come over to England anymore - he will be 74 next March and dh is worried there won't be many more opportunities to see him)

BUT

discovered last night that our children do not get a school holiday over Easter next year. They get Good Friday off and Easter Monday but no more. Their holiday is 2 weeks later in the middle of April.

So we will either be going in late March with school's permission, or mid April.

legalalien, first time I went to Philip Island was with my sister in 1998. They were Fairy penguins then.

Went back with DH in 2000. Had to be 'Little Penguins'. Some dispute as to why...possibly PCness, possible proper species name.

They will always be fairy penguins in my mind. And for some reason my sister and I decided that they taked with Liverpudlian accents.

They do stink though, Ill give you that.