A guide to Open House Melbourne

Do you want to discover the city from a different perspective? To venture into places you usually never have access to? Take part in the Open House Melbourne visits! Every year on the last weekend of July, several places and buildings exceptionally open their doors to the public, for unique and fascinating tours. I'll tell you everything about this unmissable event in this article!

Have a look behind the scenes during Open House Melbourne

Summary

Open House Melbourne
The tours I took part in in 2023 and 2024: Federation Square - Orica House - Town Hall - Capitol Cinema - Melbourne Recital Centre - La Trobe's Cottage

Open House Melbourne

A unique opportunity to discover the secrets of some of the city's most significant places! Over the course of an entire weekend, Open House Melbourne allows curious people and heritage enthusiasts to access dozens of iconic buildings around Melbourne. Do you want to sit in Lord Mayor's chair? Sinking into the depths of Federation Square? Visit Melbourne's first skyscraper? This event is made for you!

From just a few buildings when it was launched in 2008, Open House Melbourne now allows you to discover more than 100 places all around the city, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year. It has also expanded to regional Victoria, with visits in other towns across the state. Melbourne is part of the Open House Worldwide network, along with around sixty other cities around the world (including Brisbane in Australia). In 2023, more than a million people on all continents participated in similar events!

Open House Melbourne takes place on the last weekend of July. The activities offered include guided or self-guided tours, open access to various buildings, exhibitions, or talks and presentations. I will give you several examples of visits that I’ve done myself in 2023 and 2024 further on this article. Some activities are by reservation only, most of the time free, sometimes requiring small booking fees. Be careful however, as the most popular tours are sold out in just a few hours when reservations open! For more details about Open House Melbourne as well as the full programme, visit the official website by clicking the link below.

Logo taken from the website openhousemelbourne.org

The tours I took part in in 2023 and 2024

Behind the scenes of Federation Square

This is one of the most original visits I have had the opportunity to do in Melbourne. This one-hour guided walk around Federation Square allowed me to explore this central place of the city in depth, while discovering some of its secrets. Make sure to stay close behind the guide as the undergrounds of Federation Square are a real maze!

The first skyscraper of Melbourne!

Completed in 1958, Orica House is Melbourne's first skyscraper, standing 81m high. This visit focused on the revolutionary architecture of this building for the time, and it also gave me the opportunity to gain perspective. Superb view of the Parliament and its gardens below!

Of course, the Town Hall can be visited all year round, and the tours organised during Open House Melbourne do not allow you to discover behind the scenes. But the 2024 weekend was the occasion for me to set foot in this building for the first time. I didn't know that it housed a huge auditorium with a gorgeous organ! But the highlight of my visit was to sit in Lord Mayor’s beautiful chair for a few seconds… One can dream!

Sit in Lord Mayor’s chair

The most beautiful cinema in Melbourne

Melbourne is home to several beautiful cinemas, such as the Astor Theater in St Kilda. But few can match the fabulous architecture of the Capitol in the CBD. Built in 1924, it celebrates its centenary this year! But it was during Open House Melbourne 2023 that I discovered this splendid building, during a brief but fascinating guided tour.

Inside a giant violin!

Another magnificent building that I had the opportunity to discover in 2023: the Melbourne Recital Centre. No guided tour here, just free access to the main auditorium, the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. Its gorgeous architecture gives the impression of being inside a giant violin!

A short tour of La Trobe’s cottage

Last example of the different tours offered during Open House Melbourne: the La Trobe’s cottage. Built in 1839, it was the residence of Charles La Trobe, superintendent of the Port Phillip District and later first governor of Victoria when it became independent from New South Wales in 1851. The cottage was originally located in Jolimont, where the Melbourne Cricket Ground can be found nowadays, and was moved to its current location near the Shrine of Remembrance in 1963.

Have you ever attended one of the Open House Melbourne weekends? Which visits did you like most? Send me a message to share your experience!