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The southern capital

Bay, ranges & the Great Ocean Road

Melbourne Guide · Chapter 9 of 9

Melbourne’s weekends work outward in rings, and the ring you pick sets the day: the bay for a morning, the ranges or the valley for a Sunday, and the Great Ocean Road for the weekend everyone does at least twice a year.

The bay and the Peninsula

Port Phillip is calm, shallow water rather than surf — good for a morning swim, a paddle or a walk, and lined with piers from Williamstown round to Brighton’s bathing boxes. An hour south, the Mornington Peninsula turns it into a full weekend: cellar doors, hot springs, calm bay beaches on one side and proper Southern Ocean surf on the other at Portsea and Sorrento. The ferry across the heads to Queenscliff makes a neat loop of it.

The ranges and the valley

East of the city the Dandenong Ranges rise into mountain ash and tree ferns forty minutes from the CBD — cool, wet, quiet, with a steam railway and a lot of tea rooms. North-east, the Yarra Valley is the wine country: an hour out, serious cool-climate pinot and chardonnay, and long lunches with a view back toward the ranges. Further out again, the High Country delivers real alpine weekends with snow in winter.

The Great Ocean Road

It starts ninety minutes from the city and runs for two hundred kilometres along the Southern Ocean: surf breaks at Torquay and Bells Beach, the rainforest and waterfalls behind Lorne and Apollo Bay, koalas at Kennett River, and then the limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles standing offshore. It is one of the world’s great coastal drives, and it is a weekend rather than a holiday from here.

The rings, in driving time

Melbourne’s weekends work outward in rings, and the ring you pick sets the day. The marked row is the far end of the Great Ocean Road — the drive everyone here does at least twice a year.

Indicative driving times, direct. The Great Ocean Road itself is the point, not the distance — most people stay overnight at Apollo Bay instead of turning round.

Painted bathing boxes in a row on the sand at Brighton Beach
Brighton, on the bay
Vineyard rows running across the hills of the Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley, an hour out
The Great Ocean Road curving along cliffs above the Southern Ocean
The Great Ocean Road

The city’s own calendar

Summer
The Australian Open in January, cricket at the G, rooftop bars and the beach. The city empties briefly and then fills again.
Winter
Football from March to September, and the whole city arranges its Saturdays around it. Plus galleries, wine bars and long lunches.
Spring & autumn
The racing carnival, the comedy festival, the food and wine festival, the Grand Prix — and the best weather of the year for all of them.
Layered street art covering both walls of Hosier Lane in central Melbourne
Hosier Lane — never the same wall twice
Racks of second-hand clothing under marquees in a graffitied yard at the Fitzroy Mills market
The Fitzroy Mills — one of the weekend vintage markets

Ten weekends, to start

  • The Great Ocean Road to Apollo Bay, staying overnight rather than rushing
  • The Twelve Apostles at dusk, when the tour buses have gone
  • A Yarra Valley cellar-door lunch and the drive back over the ranges
  • The Dandenongs: Sherbrooke Forest, the steam railway and tree ferns
  • The Mornington Peninsula — hot springs, then surf at Sorrento back beach
  • Wilsons Promontory for a proper walk and empty white beaches
  • Phillip Island: the penguin parade and a surf beach without the crowds
  • A day on the bay — Williamstown, the ferry, Brighton’s bathing boxes
  • The High Country in winter for snow, or in summer for the rivers
  • A Saturday at the football, whichever team a colleague talks you into
That’s the guide

Nine chapters on Melbourne. Statewide and regional topics live in the Victoria guide, and everything national in Moving to Australia. When you’re ready to talk about roles here, send us your CV.

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