Museums & Landmarks in Melbourne

All five sit in central Melbourne, and three of them are effectively one precinct. National Gallery of Victoria, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and ACMI all offer free permanent collections, and the city's own What's On listings frame the museum scene as largely free to visit. The NGV is the one with the broadest sweep: one source describes walking in through the Waterwall into galleries running from Egyptian artifacts to digital art, and another calls it Australia's most-visited art museum. The Ian Potter Centre, which What's On describes as the first major gallery devoted solely to Australian art, is the choice for kids drawn to Australian and Indigenous work, and reviewers say its three floors take three to four hours to cover properly.

ACMI is the easiest sell to a reluctant child. Reviews single out the free cardboard disc handed out at entry, which kids scan at each exhibit to build a personal collection, and the permanent exhibition is hands-on throughout. Allow 90 minutes to two hours, and note that films and some exhibitions are ticketed.

The other two are history museums, and both draw reviews saying they suit children eight and up. The Immigration Museum mixes personal migration stories with video and objects in a historic building, but one parent blogger found it hard to hold a younger child's attention and suggests 12 and up; their 12-year-old rated it highly, their 10-year-old did not. The Museum of Chinese Australian History is small, and reviewers note that against the entry cost, but the goldfields diorama with its rocking boat on the lowest level is the stop younger kids remember. It sits in Chinatown, so a yum cha lunch on the same street is the natural pairing.