Australia is full of wonders, from icons to the lesser known. Here, we’ve curated 11 wonders from our 100 list that Victoria gets to call its very own.
This article is part of our 100 Australian Wonders series. Throughout the series, we explore our nation’s wonders across culture, nature, food, islands and many more. We hope it inspires your own exploration of Australia’s many wonders.
1. Great Ocean Road
Travelling with: Megan Arkinstall
As far as road trips go, Victoria’s Great Ocean Road has earned its icon status. The 240-kilometre stretch that follows the windswept Southern Ocean was built as a utilitarian memorial to First World War servicemen.
Start your road trip in world-renowned surfing mecca Bells Beach, so the ocean is to your left for the best views. Take your time with stops in quaint towns such as Lorne and Apollo Bay. Add in detours to see the lush rainforest and waterfalls of the Otways, before reaching the star attraction, the 12 Apostles.
But don’t stop there: the charming fishing village of Port Fairy and historic Warrnambool on the western Shipwreck Coast are worth the extra kilometres.
2. Silo Art Trail
Travelling with: Carla Grossetti
Australia’s largest outdoor gallery bounces between silo towers in Brim all the way to Horsham in the Grampians/Gariwerd (itself prime road trip country). The scale of the structures alone makes the Silo Art Trail one of Victoria’s iconic attractions.
The murals provide visitors with a window into the Wimmera Mallee region. Driving from Melbourne, the trail starts in Rupanyup where Russian mural artist Julia Volchkova depicts youth culture in rural Victoria in a stunning artwork that wraps around the curved walls of concrete.
3. Prosecco Road
Travelling with: Jo Stewart
Fans of drinking Australian fizz would be familiar with the King Valley, the country’s home of prosecco.
Many of the nation’s most renowned and productive prosecco producers – including Brown Brothers , Dal Zotto and Pizzini Wines – are linked by a picturesque stretch known as ‘Prosecco Road’.
Use your car or hire an e-bike to experience tastings, pairing masterclasses, long lunches or even yoga in the vines in this welcoming corner of Victoria’s High Country, where you’ll be bowled over by cracking-good sparkling wines and old-fashioned Australian hospitality.
4. Bendigo’s art scene
Travelling with: Imogen Eveson
Five years ago, Bendigo was designated Australia’s first-ever UNESCO Creative City and Region of Gastronomy. In recent years, the old gold rush town has become an epicentre of art and design, thanks to Bendigo Art Gallery.
The regional art centre has carved a niche for itself by securing blockbuster fashion and design exhibitions including The Golden Age of Couture; Grace Kelly: Style Icon; Marilyn Monroe and Elvis: Direct from Graceland, with activations that percolate throughout town.
In 2024, the city is having a Paris moment. Paris: Impressions of Life 1880-1925 is exclusive to Bendigo Art Gallery and includes a French-inspired program of festivities and experiences, culminating in a Bastille Day celebration on 14 July.
5. Flinders Street Photo Booth
Travelling with: Jo Stewart
This Melbourne photographic institution has been capturing young love, late-night shenanigans, pet portraits and spontaneous solo shots long before selfies were a thing.
New owners have recently taken over the Flinders Street Photo Booth , previously run by the same man for five decades, to keep the candid, black-and-white print photography tradition alive in the digital age.
A documentary is in the works and an exhibition honouring the beloved booth is due to run at the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Fitzroy. Laying claim to being Melbourne’s oldest photo booth, this accidentally iconic time capsule even has its own Instagram account.
6. Melbourne’s laneways
Travelling with: Christine Aldred
Tucked away in Melbourne’s CBD, a myriad of lanes and alleyways overflows with hole-in-the-wall cafes, hidden bars, boutiques, quirky stores and great eats, from steaming dumplings to high-end dining.
These lanes are more than shortcuts, they’re pulsing urban hotspots and destinations in themselves. Living galleries too, their walls provide canvases for artists to make their mark or tell tales of the city’s history and culture: rock’n’roll stories in AC/DC Lane, graffiti scrawled in grungy cobblestoned Hosier Lane and ever-changing murals in Chinatown’s Croft Alley, just for starters.
And we haven’t even mentioned the historic glass-topped arcades. Explore on your own or let a local lead the way.
7. Little penguins of Phillip Island
Travelling with: Imogen Eveson
Every night at sunset, the Penguin Parade begins on Phillip Island. As the sun paints the sky and limited numbers of hopeful onlookers try not to make a noise, the largest colony of little penguins in the world starts to waddle their way from a day spent roaming the ocean back to their burrows on Summerland Beach.
An hour is quickly over as these tiny seabirds go about their nightly routine, a fun and adorable experience that also contributes to vital conservation, research and education programs that keep little penguins thriving.
8. Royal Exhibition Building Dome Promenade
Travelling with: Jo Stewart
Melbourne’s UNESCO Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building is often admired from afar. But visitors were finally welcomed to experience the incredible Dome Promenade and vistas of Melbourne’s skyline in 2022, a view unseen by most for 100 years.
Apart from being an architectural triumph, this grand landmark, completed in 1880, holds a wealth of significant stories crucial to Melbourne’s cultural and social history.
Book a tour to get a rare perspective of this enduring wonder that’s dominated inner Melbourne’s streetscape since its early days.
9. Australian Music Vault
Travelling with: Jo Stewart
You’ll find a compact celebration of Australian music in a quiet corner of the Arts Centre Melbourne . Home to a well-curated collection of instruments, clothing, posters, props and other ephemera, it’s free to enter this vault dedicated to the Aussie entertainers who have made their mark on the world.
From Nick Cave’s notebook to outfits worn by Kylie Minogue and a battered, old suitcase (complete with faded Ansett tags) that once belonged to multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, this nostalgic walk down memory lane will pull at your heartstrings whether you’re a fan of grunge, pop, punk or pub rock.
10. Australian Open
Travelling with: Carla Grossetti
Sporting fans descend on the Victorian capital each year to watch the highest-ranking players of the game thwack the ball back and forth over the net.
But it’s not just about watching the sport’s superstars battle it out in centre court for the title of the Australian Open . There’s the Champagne. The fashion. The people-watching. The unlikely wild cards. The off-court culture. The ball boys kneeling by the net. And of course, the tension felt in the crowd as a hard-fought game reaches break point.
Expect style queen Zendaya’s new steamy rom-com film Challengers (about a prodigy turned pro) to lure even more fans to the annual event.
11. Budj Bim Cultural Landscape
Travelling with: Lara Picone
The Gunditjmara people of south-west Victoria could tell you a thing or two, not least about how to catch a kooyang (eel). With a shared cultural knowledge that stretches back for at least 30,000 years (but likely far more), their Country is home to the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site that encompasses the areas of the Budj Bim volcano, Tae Rak (Lake Condah) and Tyrendarra and is recognised as one of the largest and oldest aquaculture systems in the world.
To take a misty morning walk through the intricate dams and channels that were devised to trap eels, back to a time when megafauna roamed the continent, is a mind-blowing rewind back to the Pleistocene. Astonishingly, despite centuries of being stomped by cattle, the restored site remains as proof of humanity’s extraordinary continuity.
