Max your summer in Melbourne

Werribee Open Range Zoo is bringing back its Sunset Safari for an eighth season in 2026, inviting visitors to embark on an immersive safari adventure at dusk when the animals tend to be at their most active.  Every Saturday until February 21, visitors can hop on a bus at the zoo and watch as the summer sun sets and illuminates the open range. You'll get to witness majestic animals like zebras, ostriches, giraffes, rhinos and lions as they roam the savannah, and learn from zoo guides about efforts to protect them from endangerment and extinction. And for the first time ever, you'll be able to explore the waterhole and incredible elephant trail (which only opened last year) after hours when everyone else goes home. In addition to the after-hours safari tour, you can also explore the walking trails (among meerkats, monkeys and wild dogs) at dusk and catch live performances of drums, song and dance. Food and beverage options include an African-inspired barbecue, à la carte dining and cocktails at the Elephant Terrace (these are all sold separately). The Sunset Safari experience runs from 5.30pm to 9pm on Saturday nights, and costs $62 for adults and $32 for children. Head to the Zoos Victoria website to purchase your tickets.  Looking for more fun in the city? Here's our round-up of what's on in Melbourne this weekend.

Ever wanted to soar above a rainforest canopy or wander beneath the frozen surface of the polar seas? Melbourne Museum invites you to do just that with Our Wondrous Planet, a breathtaking, immersive exhibition celebrating the interconnected magic of life on Earth. Spanning reef, rainforest, ice and soil, this multisensory experience drops visitors into the planet’s most vital ecosystems. Room-sized projections, interactive moments and storytelling bring the natural world to life. More than 800 remarkable animals from across the globe take centre stage, appearing in environments that pulse, swirl and shimmer. Witness the beginnings of a coral reef, come face-to-face with rainforest icons, glide through icy waters and explore hidden root networks and organisms working quietly beneath our feet. The exhibition is anchored by distinct spaces: Our Family, showcasing animals from the much-loved Wild gallery and exploring the human place in the tree of life; Our Roots, a reflective First Peoples-led space centred on care, reciprocity and connection to Country; and Our Moment, an interactive zone encouraging visitors to work together on the planet’s biggest challenges. What sets Our Wondrous Planet apart is its blend of First Peoples and scientific knowledge, showing how everything on Earth is connected and how small human actions can make a difference. Family-friendly, visually spectacular and thought-provoking, this exhibition entertains while leaving plenty to reflect on. Our...

Summer and sunflowers are basically synonymous, so if you're keen to get your hands on a bunch of bright yellow blooms before the season ends, we've got the scoop. Surf Coast Sunflowers is located on Victoria's Surf Coast, just a stone's throw from Geelong – it's about a 90-minute drive from Melbourne, but we recommend combining it with a beach stop for the ultimate summer day trip. The sunflower field opens on January 9 for approximately two weeks (depending on bloom time), and it's the perfect opportunity to pick your own flowers or take some Insta-worthy snaps. Admission prices are $10 for adults and $5 for kids (or $25 for a family of four). Once in the field, you can nab sunflowers for $3 per stem or $25 for ten – you just need to bring something to cut the stems (secateurs should do the trick), wear closed-toe shoes and it's helpful to bring a bucket to carry your prized blooms in.  Surf Coast Sunflowers is open daily from 10am-5pm, with additional twilight sessions from 5-8pm on Friday and Saturday nights. To find out more and book your spot, head to Instagram. Happy sunflower season! Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. Can't make the trip? Find some of Melbourne's best florists here.

Melbourne, start your engines. F1: The Exhibition has zoomed into town, marking its first-ever appearance in the Asia-Pacific region. After sell-out runs in Madrid, London and Amsterdam, the globally acclaimed show has made a pit stop at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, transforming it into an adrenaline-fuelled hub for motorsport fans. Part museum, part immersive experience, the exhibition will trace Formula 1’s past, present and future through six expansive galleries, with a seventh new section devoted to Australia’s own racing legends. Expect everything from championship-winning cars and rare memorabilia to video interviews and archive footage that captures the sport’s greatest rivalries and most spectacular victories. Visitors begin their journey in 'Once Upon a Time in Formula 1', charting seven-plus decades of drama before stepping inside 'Design Lab', a behind-the-scenes look at the factories of Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren. 'Drivers and Duels' pays tribute to legends like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, while 'Revolution by Design' explores how engineering innovation and human daring have continually pushed the limits. The exhibition’s emotional heart, 'Survival', displays the remains of Romain Grosjean’s scorched Haas car from his 2020 Bahrain crash, a stark reminder of the sport's danger. Visitors then arrive at 'The Pit Wall', a cinematic wrap-up that relives Formula 1’s most unforgettable moments. Melbourne’s edition adds...

Born just a year apart, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo (the visionary behind Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market) couldn’t have come from more different worlds – but both knew how to tear up the fashion rulebook. Their designs dismantled ideas of beauty, gender and taste, and now Melbourne gets a world-first chance to see their radical vision side by side. Open now at the NGV, Westwood | Kawakubo is a showcase of more than 140 boundary-breaking designs. Many are drawn from the NGV’s own holdings – an extraordinary cache of 300-plus Kawakubo pieces and more than 100 by Westwood – making this one of the most important showcases of their work anywhere in the world.  The exhibition is arranged thematically, moving from punk’s anarchic spirit in the 1970s to the avant-garde silhouettes of today. Expect explorations of their shared obsessions with historical dress, radical cutting techniques and subversions of gender norms, alongside rare runway footage, archival photography and film. There are plenty of highlights: punk ensembles once worn by the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie Sioux; the tartan Anglomania gown famously modelled by Kate Moss; Sarah Jessica Parker’s wedding dress from Sex and the City: The Movie; Rihanna’s sculptural ‘petal dress’ from the Met Gala; and key Comme des Garçons collections like Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body (SS97) and Uncertain Future (SS25). A centrepiece gallery pits Westwood’s sweeping 18th-century ballgowns against Kawakubo’s...

Hands up if you were raised on The Sims? Us too. Or maybe you were a dedicated Neopets fan, or obsessed with World of Warcraft. Perhaps you're currently glued to your Switch playing Hollow Knight: Silksong. Whatever your connection to video games, it's safe to say most of us have picked up a controller at some point in our lives and been captivated by what appeared on the screen. Enter ACMI's incredible new exhibition, Game Worlds. Running until February 8, this blockbuster celebration of video games will transport you into the worlds of more than 30 iconic titles, including Final Fantasy XIV Online, Minecraft, Doom and Stardew Valley. Also featured are classics like Maze War and Zork, fan faves with cult followings like The Elder Scrolls Online, and new releases like Guardian Maia. Spanning games from the 1970s right through to this year, you'll be able to check out rare concept art, original design materials, early hands-on protoypes and so much more. There are 44 fully playable experiences (think Celeste speedruns on two huge screens), and four new microgames by emerging and established Aussie game developers have been specially commissioned for the exhibition.  There will also be after-dark sessions, developer talks, themed fan events and and plenty more. And as much as Game Worlds is about exploring how video games are designed, built and experienced, it's also an opportunity to spotlight the community and the friendships that are forged within these immersive digital...

From late-night espressos and crème caramels at Pellegrini’s to Rumi's signature Persian meatballs, Melbourne’s food culture is often celebrated at the table – but the labour behind it stays largely out of sight. Order Up: A City Fed by Many Cultures shifts the focus to the back of house, using the restaurant docket to tell a broader story about Melbourne’s culinary history as a living record of successive waves of migration and cross-cultural exchange. This immersive exhibition at the Immigration Museum centres on thousands of handwritten, food-stained order dockets suspended throughout the gallery, each pulled from the kitchens of 33 landmark Melbourne restaurants spanning cuisines and generations. Small and easily discarded, these scraps of paper have been collected to form a fluttering archive of service – capturing moments of pressure and human connection in a city whose food scene is inseparable from its stories of migration. As you move through Order Up, a layered soundscape and projected film will surround you: orders being called, cutlery clattering, extractor fans humming, languages overlapping. Audio excerpts from chefs, owners and staff reflect on journeys to Melbourne, overnight shifts, family recipes and the strange intimacy of feeding strangers night after night. The restaurants represented range from long-standing institutions to newer cult favourites, including France-Soir, Abla’s, Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar, Supper Inn, The Horn, Rumi and Pastuso. A...

Almost a decade ago, metal detectorists in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, went hunting for lost treasure. To their amazement, they would go on to discover the richest collection of Viking Age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland in a ploughed field. The Galloway Hoard has been hailed as a remarkable discovery, with more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal and earthenware objects being uncovered.  Now, everything from piles of silver arm rings to gold-mounted rock crystal jars are heading Down Under, and for the first time ever in Australia, you will be able to see the most important Viking Age discoveries of the 21st century up close at the Melbourne Museum. The Galloway Hoard dates to around AD 900, a period of intense cultural and political upheaval. The collection was buried in four parcels and includes more than 100 astonishing objects, from silver bullion and intricately worked jewellery to items that reveal trade routes stretching as far as Central Asia. Some of the pieces – including recently deciphered runic inscriptions – are still rewriting what we know and understand about the Viking Age today. Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard is a travelling exhibition, developed by National Museums Scotland, that showcases years of painstaking conservation and cutting-edge research. Intricate details, hidden inscriptions and newly uncovered mysteries are revealed for the first time outside the UK. To mark the opening weekend, Dr Martin Goldberg, principal...

May the 4th is a special date for any Star Wars fan, but this year is one to remember. A brand-new Lego Star Wars exhibition made its world premiere, and not in a galaxy far, far away but right here in Melbourne.  Lego Star Wars: the Exhibition at Melbourne Museum comes from revered Lego genius Ryan 'Brickman' McNaught, who's back with his latest mind-boggling project of massive Star Wars brick creations – some standing at a whopping four metres tall.  There are Lego replicas of many of the iconic characters, fan favourite scenes, spacecraft and more, from both the classic films and newer releases. Plus, the exhibition includes interactive brick-based activities inclusive of all ages.  It took more than 25,000 hours to finish the exhibition and it features a wild 8 million Lego bricks. One of the most monumental creations is a three-metre-tall red X-wing spacecraft, made of an astonishing 64,759 bricks, taking 382 hours to build.  "Fans will be blown away by the scale of the experience," Brickman says. "Building these iconic scenes and characters in Lego Star Wars form is an extremely complex task – taking the humble Lego brick and using it by the millions to translate into Star Wars builds and models at an epic scale the world has never seen before.  "My team and I are super excited to launch this mind-blowing experience right here in Melbourne. My inner 7-year-old self still can’t quite believe this is happening. I can’t wait till May the Fourth to be able to share this...

Werribee Open Range Zoo is bringing back its Sunset Safari for an eighth season in 2026, inviting visitors to embark on an immersive safari adventure at dusk when the animals tend to be at their most active.  Every Saturday until February 21, visitors can hop on a bus at the zoo and watch as the summer sun sets and illuminates the open range. You'll get to witness majestic animals like zebras, ostriches, giraffes, rhinos and lions as they roam the savannah, and learn from zoo guides about efforts to protect them from endangerment and extinction. And for the first time ever, you'll be able to explore the waterhole and incredible elephant trail (which only opened last year) after hours when everyone else goes home. In addition to the after-hours safari tour, you can also explore the walking trails (among meerkats, monkeys and wild dogs) at dusk and catch live performances of drums, song and dance. Food and beverage options include an African-inspired barbecue, à la carte dining and cocktails at the Elephant Terrace (these are all sold separately). The Sunset Safari experience runs from 5.30pm to 9pm on Saturday nights, and costs $62 for adults and $32 for children. Head to the Zoos Victoria website to purchase your tickets.  Looking for more fun in the city? Here's our round-up of what's on in Melbourne this weekend.

Ever wanted to soar above a rainforest canopy or wander beneath the frozen surface of the polar seas? Melbourne Museum invites you to do just that with Our Wondrous Planet, a breathtaking, immersive exhibition celebrating the interconnected magic of life on Earth. Spanning reef, rainforest, ice and soil, this multisensory experience drops visitors into the planet’s most vital ecosystems. Room-sized projections, interactive moments and storytelling bring the natural world to life. More than 800 remarkable animals from across the globe take centre stage, appearing in environments that pulse, swirl and shimmer. Witness the beginnings of a coral reef, come face-to-face with rainforest icons, glide through icy waters and explore hidden root networks and organisms working quietly beneath our feet. The exhibition is anchored by distinct spaces: Our Family, showcasing animals from the much-loved Wild gallery and exploring the human place in the tree of life; Our Roots, a reflective First Peoples-led space centred on care, reciprocity and connection to Country; and Our Moment, an interactive zone encouraging visitors to work together on the planet’s biggest challenges. What sets Our Wondrous Planet apart is its blend of First Peoples and scientific knowledge, showing how everything on Earth is connected and how small human actions can make a difference. Family-friendly, visually spectacular and thought-provoking, this exhibition entertains while leaving plenty to reflect on. Our...

Summer and sunflowers are basically synonymous, so if you're keen to get your hands on a bunch of bright yellow blooms before the season ends, we've got the scoop. Surf Coast Sunflowers is located on Victoria's Surf Coast, just a stone's throw from Geelong – it's about a 90-minute drive from Melbourne, but we recommend combining it with a beach stop for the ultimate summer day trip. The sunflower field opens on January 9 for approximately two weeks (depending on bloom time), and it's the perfect opportunity to pick your own flowers or take some Insta-worthy snaps. Admission prices are $10 for adults and $5 for kids (or $25 for a family of four). Once in the field, you can nab sunflowers for $3 per stem or $25 for ten – you just need to bring something to cut the stems (secateurs should do the trick), wear closed-toe shoes and it's helpful to bring a bucket to carry your prized blooms in.  Surf Coast Sunflowers is open daily from 10am-5pm, with additional twilight sessions from 5-8pm on Friday and Saturday nights. To find out more and book your spot, head to Instagram. Happy sunflower season! Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Melbourne newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox. Can't make the trip? Find some of Melbourne's best florists here.

Melbourne, start your engines. F1: The Exhibition has zoomed into town, marking its first-ever appearance in the Asia-Pacific region. After sell-out runs in Madrid, London and Amsterdam, the globally acclaimed show has made a pit stop at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, transforming it into an adrenaline-fuelled hub for motorsport fans. Part museum, part immersive experience, the exhibition will trace Formula 1’s past, present and future through six expansive galleries, with a seventh new section devoted to Australia’s own racing legends. Expect everything from championship-winning cars and rare memorabilia to video interviews and archive footage that captures the sport’s greatest rivalries and most spectacular victories. Visitors begin their journey in 'Once Upon a Time in Formula 1', charting seven-plus decades of drama before stepping inside 'Design Lab', a behind-the-scenes look at the factories of Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren. 'Drivers and Duels' pays tribute to legends like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, while 'Revolution by Design' explores how engineering innovation and human daring have continually pushed the limits. The exhibition’s emotional heart, 'Survival', displays the remains of Romain Grosjean’s scorched Haas car from his 2020 Bahrain crash, a stark reminder of the sport's danger. Visitors then arrive at 'The Pit Wall', a cinematic wrap-up that relives Formula 1’s most unforgettable moments. Melbourne’s edition adds...

It's that time of year again when thousands of tennis fans will flock to Melbourne Park to watch the top seeds battle it out in the fierce summer heat. This January, Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka, Novak Djokovic, Madison Keys, Iga Swiatek and Alex de Minaur are just some of the many stars who have confirmed they'll be on court.  Yes, the Australian Open continues to attract the world's best tennis players and their fans to the first Grand Slam of the year. Opening week takes places from January 12-17, while the main draw is played over two weeks from January 18 onwards, culminating in the women's singles final on January 31 and the men's singles final on February 1. For the first time ever, the Australian Open will host an opening ceremony on January 17, the night before the main draw begins. And we'll have none other than tennis legend and six-time winner, Roger Federer, to headline this special event. He'll be joined by Andre Agassi and Aussie legends Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt in a unique ‘Battle of the World No 1s’. And even if you don’t make it into Rod Laver Arena, there will be live entertainment, giant screens, excellent drinking and dining options, and pop-up activations to enjoy all around Melbourne Park. AO Live will also return, with global artists like The Kid Laroi, The Presets, Spacey Jane, The Veronicas, Sofi Tukker, Reneé Rapp and Peggy Gou ready to entertain the crowds.  Day and night sessions are available, and adult ground pass tickets start...

Born just a year apart, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo (the visionary behind Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market) couldn’t have come from more different worlds – but both knew how to tear up the fashion rulebook. Their designs dismantled ideas of beauty, gender and taste, and now Melbourne gets a world-first chance to see their radical vision side by side. Open now at the NGV, Westwood | Kawakubo is a showcase of more than 140 boundary-breaking designs. Many are drawn from the NGV’s own holdings – an extraordinary cache of 300-plus Kawakubo pieces and more than 100 by Westwood – making this one of the most important showcases of their work anywhere in the world.  The exhibition is arranged thematically, moving from punk’s anarchic spirit in the 1970s to the avant-garde silhouettes of today. Expect explorations of their shared obsessions with historical dress, radical cutting techniques and subversions of gender norms, alongside rare runway footage, archival photography and film. There are plenty of highlights: punk ensembles once worn by the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie Sioux; the tartan Anglomania gown famously modelled by Kate Moss; Sarah Jessica Parker’s wedding dress from Sex and the City: The Movie; Rihanna’s sculptural ‘petal dress’ from the Met Gala; and key Comme des Garçons collections like Body Meets Dress – Dress Meets Body (SS97) and Uncertain Future (SS25). A centrepiece gallery pits Westwood’s sweeping 18th-century ballgowns against Kawakubo’s...

Hands up if you were raised on The Sims? Us too. Or maybe you were a dedicated Neopets fan, or obsessed with World of Warcraft. Perhaps you're currently glued to your Switch playing Hollow Knight: Silksong. Whatever your connection to video games, it's safe to say most of us have picked up a controller at some point in our lives and been captivated by what appeared on the screen. Enter ACMI's incredible new exhibition, Game Worlds. Running until February 8, this blockbuster celebration of video games will transport you into the worlds of more than 30 iconic titles, including Final Fantasy XIV Online, Minecraft, Doom and Stardew Valley. Also featured are classics like Maze War and Zork, fan faves with cult followings like The Elder Scrolls Online, and new releases like Guardian Maia. Spanning games from the 1970s right through to this year, you'll be able to check out rare concept art, original design materials, early hands-on protoypes and so much more. There are 44 fully playable experiences (think Celeste speedruns on two huge screens), and four new microgames by emerging and established Aussie game developers have been specially commissioned for the exhibition.  There will also be after-dark sessions, developer talks, themed fan events and and plenty more. And as much as Game Worlds is about exploring how video games are designed, built and experienced, it's also an opportunity to spotlight the community and the friendships that are forged within these immersive digital...

From late-night espressos and crème caramels at Pellegrini’s to Rumi's signature Persian meatballs, Melbourne’s food culture is often celebrated at the table – but the labour behind it stays largely out of sight. Order Up: A City Fed by Many Cultures shifts the focus to the back of house, using the restaurant docket to tell a broader story about Melbourne’s culinary history as a living record of successive waves of migration and cross-cultural exchange. This immersive exhibition at the Immigration Museum centres on thousands of handwritten, food-stained order dockets suspended throughout the gallery, each pulled from the kitchens of 33 landmark Melbourne restaurants spanning cuisines and generations. Small and easily discarded, these scraps of paper have been collected to form a fluttering archive of service – capturing moments of pressure and human connection in a city whose food scene is inseparable from its stories of migration. As you move through Order Up, a layered soundscape and projected film will surround you: orders being called, cutlery clattering, extractor fans humming, languages overlapping. Audio excerpts from chefs, owners and staff reflect on journeys to Melbourne, overnight shifts, family recipes and the strange intimacy of feeding strangers night after night. The restaurants represented range from long-standing institutions to newer cult favourites, including France-Soir, Abla’s, Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar, Supper Inn, The Horn, Rumi and Pastuso. A...

Almost a decade ago, metal detectorists in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, went hunting for lost treasure. To their amazement, they would go on to discover the richest collection of Viking Age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland in a ploughed field. The Galloway Hoard has been hailed as a remarkable discovery, with more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal and earthenware objects being uncovered.  Now, everything from piles of silver arm rings to gold-mounted rock crystal jars are heading Down Under, and for the first time ever in Australia, you will be able to see the most important Viking Age discoveries of the 21st century up close at the Melbourne Museum. The Galloway Hoard dates to around AD 900, a period of intense cultural and political upheaval. The collection was buried in four parcels and includes more than 100 astonishing objects, from silver bullion and intricately worked jewellery to items that reveal trade routes stretching as far as Central Asia. Some of the pieces – including recently deciphered runic inscriptions – are still rewriting what we know and understand about the Viking Age today. Treasures of the Viking Age: The Galloway Hoard is a travelling exhibition, developed by National Museums Scotland, that showcases years of painstaking conservation and cutting-edge research. Intricate details, hidden inscriptions and newly uncovered mysteries are revealed for the first time outside the UK. To mark the opening weekend, Dr Martin Goldberg, principal...

May the 4th is a special date for any Star Wars fan, but this year is one to remember. A brand-new Lego Star Wars exhibition made its world premiere, and not in a galaxy far, far away but right here in Melbourne.  Lego Star Wars: the Exhibition at Melbourne Museum comes from revered Lego genius Ryan 'Brickman' McNaught, who's back with his latest mind-boggling project of massive Star Wars brick creations – some standing at a whopping four metres tall.  There are Lego replicas of many of the iconic characters, fan favourite scenes, spacecraft and more, from both the classic films and newer releases. Plus, the exhibition includes interactive brick-based activities inclusive of all ages.  It took more than 25,000 hours to finish the exhibition and it features a wild 8 million Lego bricks. One of the most monumental creations is a three-metre-tall red X-wing spacecraft, made of an astonishing 64,759 bricks, taking 382 hours to build.  "Fans will be blown away by the scale of the experience," Brickman says. "Building these iconic scenes and characters in Lego Star Wars form is an extremely complex task – taking the humble Lego brick and using it by the millions to translate into Star Wars builds and models at an epic scale the world has never seen before.  "My team and I are super excited to launch this mind-blowing experience right here in Melbourne. My inner 7-year-old self still can’t quite believe this is happening. I can’t wait till May the Fourth to be able to share this...