Five free things to see and do in Melbourne
July 2nd, 2010 by Tim Uden
City Circle tram
Trams are to Melbourne what red double-decker buses are to London and yellow taxis are to New York City. Most routes require a ticket, but the City Circle route (route 35) is free. It is a circular route with mostly vintage W class trams that run around the city centre, every 12 minutes or so during the day, connecting major points of interest including the Docklands and the main train stations. It’s a great deal and the only real drawback is that because it is geared to tourists you have to listen to a corny commentary.
State Library of Victoria
The free Wi-Fi connection attracts at lot of travellers to the State Library but few venture beyond the first couple of rooms. The library is worthy of deeper exploration and there are surprisingly good art exhibits in many hallways; but the highlight is the domed La Trobe Reading Room, which is best known for its massive dome that was the world’s largest when it was opened in 1913.
Federation Square
For years Melbourne never really had a central square. Sure the lawn in front of the State Library is inviting, but that’s not really a square, and Melbourne’s town planners have re-designed the City Square numerous times and each time failing to create a space that people want to hang out in. Melbourne finally got a space to enjoy when Federation Square opened in 2002. The main plaza has a big screen where major sporting events are shown so if you can’t get tickets to a big event, come to Fed Square and watch it for free on the big screen.
NGV Ian Potter Centre
While you’re at Federation Square pay a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria’s Ian Potter Centre (not to be confused with NGV International across the Yarra River at 180 St Kilda Road, which displays the NGV’s international collection). This free art museum focuses on Australian art and includes some excellent exhibits among its collection of over 20,000 works of art. Sure when I last visited there was a gallery full of paintings of anuses, but once you get beyond the contemporary art section you’ll see some Australian classics such as Frederick McCubbin’s The Pioneer and Tom Roberts’ Shearing the Rams.
The view from the 35th floor
Sure you can pay $17.50 to go to the observation deck on the 88th floor of the Eureka Tower for a great view or you can save your money and take the lift to the 35th floor of the Sofitel Hotel at Collins Place (25 Collins Street, Melbourne) and use the public toilets, which offer the city’s best free view. Sure you’re only halfway up a building that’s dwarfed by the Eureka Tower and the view faces away from the city; oh, and you’re in a toilet; but it’s free and it is probably the best view you’ll get with your fly unzipped.
Melbourne’s got a bike share programme
June 29th, 2010 by Tim Uden
This past month saw the launch of the Melbourne Bike Share programme. It is Australia’s first municipal cycle hire service and is similar to programmes such as Barcelona’s Bicing, Montreal’s Bixi, Paris’ Vélib’ and City Bike programmes in Scandinavia.
Community bicycle programmes like Melbourne Bike Share are among the cheapest forms of public transport to implement and can be a great way for a visitor to explore a city, while offering a cheap alternative to often overpriced bicycle hire companies.
The pricing structure is comprised of a subscription fee ($2.50 per day, $8 per week or $50 per year) plus a fee for the time you use the bike (first 30 minutes free; 31–60 minutes $2; 61–90 minutes $5; every additional half hour $10). The idea is that you just use the service for short trips (free for trips shorter than half an hour), that way you should never need to pay more than the subscription fee. For longer trips you may need to stop at a pod midway through your journey to change bikes to avoid being charged for going over the half-hour limit.
There are currently 33 pods in the city centre with plans to extend the network to around 50 pods. However, it only operates within the City of Melbourne; which means that you can’t pick up or drop off a bike outside the city limits (which rules out trips to neighbourhoods like Richmond, South Yarra or St Kilda).
While it is a great concept, it is unlikely to ever really take off because it is illegal to ride a bicycle without a helmet in Australia and helmets are not supplied with the bikes. Australia’s tough bicycle helmet laws take the spontaneous nature away and mean that you need to carry a bicycle helmet around the city with you on the off chance that you may need to use a bike. During the first week of operation the service was only used 253 times, an abysmally poor turnout for a cheap and convenient transport option in a big city. Although it probably will become more popular as it is available in more locations, it is unlikely to take off in Melbourne like it has in some European cities.
The spur-of-the-moment appeal of hopping on a conveniently-located bike at a moment’s notice is the real draw of bike share programmes elsewhere in the world, but that just won’t work in Australia unless you just happen to be carrying a bulky bicycle helmet with you. Although it is a hassle to carry a helmet just to use occasionally, you can buy cheap helmets from Big W for $12, which could make it worth your while if you’re in town a week or longer.
Although the service is best suited to people who live or work in Melbourne’s city centre, it is worth considering if you’re planning on spending a few weeks in Melbourne (but it’s not worth buying a helmet to only use for a day or two).
Photographers’ rights in public places
June 24th, 2010 by Tim Uden
If you’re like most travellers, you travel with a camera and take photos to document your trip. Nowadays, most people carry a camera with them at all times even when they’re not travelling. The fact is that photography is a popular activity and camera phones and compact digital cameras have made it a very cheap way to create memories and document your life. Unfortunately you may not always be allowed to take a quick snapshot.
Yesterday I was in the QV Centre in Melbourne taking a few photos in an open space and after a few minutes I went into Grill’d to order lunch and a security guard came in and started harassing me about taking photos on private property. Needless to say, after being harassed by QV staff I chose not to eat there and probably won’t buy anything from the centre for a very long time.
The QV Centre may be private property, but it is a public space. Anyone can enter and external areas are open all night. Streets within the centre (like Albert Coates Lane, Jane Bell Lane and Shilling Lane) are accessible 24 hours and even appear on city maps and have standard City of Melbourne street signs.
Sure it is private property and I probably would have asked permission if I were in an enclosed part of the centre (I was in an outdoor square) or if I was taking photos for commercial purposes, but I was shocked to be approached by a security guard for taking a photo in a public outdoor area.
Although the law is often unclear, in the USA there have been cases where amateur photographers have won the right to take photos inside shopping centres as the case of photographers’ rights in a public space outweighs the property owners’ rights. If I were in the United States I would have every right to take photos at the QV Centre; but unfortunately Australia does not have a Bill of Rights (after all, it is a country founded by criminals and you wouldn’t want to give them rights, would you?) and the centre managers can enforce all sorts of stupid rules on the public.
I can understand requiring permits for commercial photography or prohibiting tripods or other bulky equipment that may cause an obstruction, but I had an old five megapixel Canon IXUS and I wasn’t using a tripod or even a flash. I certainly didn’t fit the image of a professional photographer.
In fact I would estimate that the average person shopping or dining in the QV Centre would have at least one camera on them. It’s common to carry a camera and people expect the right to take photos when they are out on the town without being abused and harassed by some thuggish rent-a-cop.
When I was there I noticed several people with professional looking DSLRs, but I expect that they were just tourists that want to capture memories of their trip to Melbourne. Instead of photos of themselves enjoying a hot chocolate or cold beer in a sunny open square, their memories of Melbourne will involve being harassed and intimidated by security guards.
Although a shopping centre may have the right to restrict what you do on their property, this is simply not good business practice. Any shopping centre should want to encourage people to visit and ensure that they have a good time. It is simply not good customer relations to harass and intimidate people.
If I had a shop in the centre I would be furious that my customers were being harassed by centre management. If I had a shop in the centre selling cameras, I wouldn’t renew my lease unless these rules were changed (I had previously purchased three cameras from the Harvey Norman store in the QV Centre but won’t be buying a camera from Harvey Norman again until they close that store or change the rules).
Some shopping centres, because of their location or architectural design, become tourist attractions in their own right. These are places where people come to visit and take photos. It is just plain bad business to employ a team of henchmen to harass and intimidate these people.
Other restrictions in Australia
Regulations prohibit using cameras for commercial purposes in the area controlled by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. This includes many of Sydney’s most touristy areas such as Darling Harbour, the Rocks and Circular Quay; however this is aimed mostly at film and TV productions and it shouldn’t affect you if you are taking a quick snap to put on your blog.
In 2004 Waverley Council (which includes Bondi and Coogee beaches in Sydney) tried to ban unauthorised photography. They cannot enforce this rule as they have no legal right to prohibit what people do in a public area, however lifeguards and police regard anyone on the beach with a camera to be a pervert despite Bondi Beach being one of Sydney’s most popular tourist attractions.
Some Australian national parks, including Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, prohibit commercial photography; but you’re probably OK if you take a few pictures for your website or Facebook page.
Do restrictions on commercial photography affect photos I take for a blog or newspaper article?
In most cases they don’t. The law varies, but in most cases restrictions on commercial photography only apply when photos are used for advertising or promotional purposes. This also relates to photos used for book and magazine covers (as these photos promote the book or magazine), but photos used for editorial purposes in magazines, newspapers or the internet are not considered commercial.
In other words you shouldn’t be required to get a permit to take a few photos to put on your blog.
The law and photographers’ rights
The laws relating to your right to take photos varies from one country to another. The following links are a great place to find further information (although they should not be taken as a substitute for legal advice).
Brief overview of photographers’ rights in Australia
Brief overview of photographers’ rights in Canada
Brief overview of photographers’ rights in New Zealand
Brief overview of photographers’ rights in the UK
Brief overview of photographers’ rights in the USA
Tiger Airways to fly from Melbourne’s Avalon Airport
April 20th, 2010 by Tim Uden
Low-cost carrier Tiger Airways Australia (the Australian branch of Singapore-based Tiger Airways) has announced that it will start flying from Melbourne’s smaller Avalon Airport in addition to Melbourne International Airport (Tullamarine).
Tiger Airways is the focus of the Australian TV show Air Ways, which is very similar to the UK television series Airline. It is the most budget orientated of Australia’s low-cost airlines. It is strict about late check ins and follows the budget airline model of cheap seats sold online with a yield-management pricing structure with additional charges for luggage, food and advance seat selection. But up till now it hadn’t been big on using secondary airports (although it did start flying into Newcastle and the Gold Coast before Sydney and Brisbane).
I’m surprised it took Tiger so long to start flying from Avalon. True budget airlines like to cut corners by choosing an out-of-the-way airport to save money, even though the cost for passengers to get to the airport may be considerably more.
One of the worst examples is Ryanair’s alternative to Frankfurt Airport. Instead of Frankfurt, Ryanair flies into Frankfurt-Hahn, which is 125km from Frankfurt and probably as you far as you can get from a train station in Germany. Ryanair’s alternatives to Barcelona are airports at Reus (near Tarragona) and Girona. Add on the additional cost of getting to one of these airports and it can often work out cheaper taking a more expensive airline directly into Barcelona.
Not all secondary airports are bad, though. London’s Luton Airport is less congested than Heathrow, and train connections mean that it’s only half an hour from central London. In the United States, Southwest has a hub at Chicago Midway and JetBlue flies to Long Beach: both less congested alternatives to Chicago O’Hare and LAX.
Avalon Airport is around a 45-minute drive southwest of Melbourne, just north of Geelong. That’s about twice as far from the city centre as Melbourne International Airport. The bus to the airport costs $4 more if you’re going to Avalon, so while it saves the airline money (hopefully resulting in lower fares) it will cost you a little extra to get there.
Avalon Airport is currently used by Jetstar (the low-cost airline owned by Qantas) and regional carrier Sharp Airlines.
Tiger will base two new Airbus A320 aircraft at Avalon, however their press release announcing the new base doesn’t say which destinations will be served from Avalon. Tiger will instead put a voting button on their website asking customers where they want to fly to from the airport.
Tiger will continue to operate from its base at Melbourne International Airport, although at Melbourne Airport it uses the frugal Terminal 4 (aka the Tiger Cage), which has a more low-cost image to Avalon’s relatively new terminal.
Although it’s not huge news, it is good to have more flights from Avalon and competition from a secondary airport means that Melbourne is generally a cheaper airport to fly from than Sydney.
Virgin improves its frequent flyer programme
April 7th, 2010 by Tim Uden
Virgin’s Australian and US-based airlines have now joined forces so members of Velocity (the frequent flyer programme of Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue and V Australia) can now earn points when they fly on Virgin America and members of Elevate (Virgin America’s frequent flyer programme) can now earn points with Virgin Blue, Pacific Blue and V Australia.
By the end of the year, members of either airline’s frequent flyer programme will also be able to redeem points on any participating Virgin-branded airline.
At this point Elevate members can not yet earn points on Virgin Atlantic, even though Virgin Blue’s Velocity members have been earning points on Virgin Atlantic flights for years. In addition to Virgin’s own airlines, Velocity members can also earn points with Airlines PNG, Delta, Emirates, Hawaiian Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Skywest.
The Virgin Group’s other airlines: Air Asia and Nigerian Eagle Airlines (formerly Virgin Nigeria) do not participate in either programme.
Phillip Island gets a new hostel
April 1st, 2010 by Tim Uden
Backpackers in Australia are spoilt for choice. For instance Sydney has almost 100 hostels, Melbourne has over 50 hostels, Cairns has over 30 hostels, and even Mildura (population 60,000) has 15 hostels. Sure some backpackers visit Mildura to find work, but honestly there’s nothing to see in the town. Compare this with big cities like Chicago that only has five hostels and San Francisco, which only has 12 (14 if you include hostels in Berkeley and Marin Headlands). The hostel market in Australia is saturated and I can only think of a handful of places that could do with another hostel; Port Arthur and Strahan in Tasmania plus Phillip Island in Victoria are the only places that come to mind.
Phillip Island is a great spot to see wildlife like koalas, kangaroos, seals and penguins and it is one of the most visited spots in Australia. While it is a popular destination, it is only 1½ hours from Melbourne so most people visit for a day trip and up till a couple of days ago there were only a couple of hostels in Cowes, the island’s main town.
The problem is that Cowes is a family-oriented town with a sheltered beach. Not really the sort of place that appeals to most backpackers. Although Cowes is the main town on the island, the Cape Woolamai-Newhaven-San Remo area at the eastern end of the island has more appeal to many budget travellers. There are bars and restaurants in San Remo and an excellent surf beach at Cape Woolamai.
I live just a 10-minute drive from the island and have long wondered when someone would realise the potential of opening a hostel at this end of the island. Well a new hostel opened in Newhaven a couple of days ago and I visited it to video and review it for BUG yesterday. I must say, I’m impressed with what I have seen.
The Island Accommodation in Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
As you can expect from brand new purpose-built hostel, everything is spanking new and the hostel is tastefully decorated with polished concrete and contemporary decor. It is comprised of two levels of accommodation comprising double rooms (with en suite bathrooms) plus four- and six-bed dorms and a couple of bigger 12-bed dormitories. Each level has a small TV lounge, a larger lounge with a fireplace plus a spacious kitchen and balcony. There is also a laundry and a rooftop sundeck.
The spacious kitchen at the Island Accommodation on Phillip Island
One of the lounges at the Island Accommodation on Phillip Island
It is really a nice place and I think it deserves a spot among Australia’s top hostels. It is certainly on a par with the YHA Eco Hostels in Apollo Bay and Halls Gap with a similar design to some of the nicer Base and Nomads flashpackers’ hostels.
The only thing missing is people. I visited the day after it opened so that explains a lot, but it is a shame to see such great facilities empty and I can imagine that the hostel will have a good atmosphere when full.
If you’re visiting Melbourne and planning a trip down to Phillip Island to see the koalas and penguins, make it more than a day trip. You’ve now got a choice of two great hostels – The Island Accommodation in Newhaven and the YHA in Cowes – plus a third, not-so-great, hostel in Cowes.
Here’s the video I shot yesterday:
Read the BUG review of The Island Accommodation here
Free membership in Qantas Frequent Flyer programme
June 18th, 2009 by Tim Uden
Qantas normally charge a one-off AUD $82.50 fee for Australians who join their frequent flyer programme. However membership is free for a limited time if you have a Woolworths Everyday Rewards card (like an Aussie version of the Nectar card) .
The deal is that from June 22, Everyday Rewards cardholders can earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points when they shop at Safeway and Woolworths supermarkets in Australia (except in Tasmania). To coincide with the introduction of earning frequent flyer points when you buy your groceries, Everyday Rewards members can sign up online for a free Qantas frequent flyer membership through the Everyday Rewards website.
This is only really applicable to Australian residents, but there is no reason you couldn’t sign up for the programme if you’re travelling around Australia.
Qantas in part of the OneWorld alliance, which also includes American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN, Japan Airlines, Malév and Royal Jordanian. This means that you can join any of the member airlines frequent flyer programmes to earn points on any other airlines. In other words, even without the Everyday Rewards promotion, you can simply choose a OneWorld airline that has a free-to-join frequent flyer programme.
I’ve known a few frequent Qantas flyers who had previously joined American Airlines Advantage programme, simply because it was a free alternative to Qantas’ overpriced programme. These people had never flown AA but just wanted to earn points on Qantas, BA and LAN. With the current promotion, these people are now signing up for the Qantas programme.
If you live in Australia, you will simply earn more points with Qantas’ own programme, likewise Brits will earn more points with British Airways and Americans will earn more points with American Airlines.
Although you can earn a lot of points with long haul flights, most points are earned from other things like rental cars, hotels and, now, the weekly grocery shop. This means that you will almost always earn more points if your frequent flyer programme is with a local airline that has more options for earning points without leaving the ground.
I’ve given up by American Airlines Advantage and Air New Zealand Airpoints programmes and now stick with my two local airline programmes: Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Blue’s Velocity Rewards.
Australia’s cheapest airport transfers
May 28th, 2009 by Tim Uden
The Lifehacker blog recently ran a post comparing public transport options between Australian airports and their respective city centres. The conclusion made Adelaide and Perth the winners with airport buses costing no more than a regular suburban bus fare in those cities.
The Lifehacker survey only covered the major airports and even left out the Gold Coast, which in my opinion is a relatively major airport, especially now that AirAsia has cheap flights to KL from there. As for public transport to Coolangatta (Gold Coast) Airport, you could pay $21 for the airport shuttle bus, but what’s the point when it’s just a simple case of walking a couple of minutes from the terminal to the Gold Coast Highway and hopping on local bus route 700. The fare from the airport to the centre of Surfers Paradise is just AUD $4.30.
That puts the Gold Coast in the same league as Adelaide and Perth, but are there any cheaper Australian airport transfers? Well there’s Broome Airport, it’s just a five minute walk to the town centre.
BUG guidebooks on the Book Depository’s bestseller list
May 21st, 2009 by Tim Uden
Today I was checking how the BUG guides were doing on various online bookshops and found that both guides are on the Book Depository’s travel bestseller list.
BUG New Zealand was at number four when I took this screenshot, although earlier today I saw it at number three…
and BUG Australia is at number 19.
I’ve been a fan of the Book Depository ever since I bought some books from them last year. I bought a hardback copy of the Oxford Style Manual, which my local Borders store was selling for over AUD $120. The Book Depository had it for under £18 with free worldwide delivery. I ordered it on a Friday evening and it arrived the next Tuesday; and I live in Australia which is the other side of the world to the Book Depository’s Gloucester warehouse. I was very impressed and will certainly order more books from them.
If you live in the UK, then amazon.co.uk is often – but not always – a better deal; but if you live abroad, then the Book Depository is well worth checking out and in many cases it is your cheapest option. Books in the UK are cheaper than in Australia and a lot cheaper than New Zealand bookshops and if you live in North America – where BUG guidebooks aren’t available – then the Book Depository is the most logical choice if you want to buy a BUG guidebook.
Australia’s top 10 small hostels
April 22nd, 2009 by Tim Uden
The latest BUG Australia guidebook reviews over 600 hostels throughout Australia.
Australia’s hostels range from small intimate places to large modern multi-storey hostels with hundreds of beds. The large hostels like Beaches of Broome, Gilligan’s Backpackers in Cairns plus Sydney Central YHA and Wake Up! in Sydney are world class with hundreds of beds plus top notch facilities that include resort-style swimming pools.
When I asked the authors working on the travel guide, their favourites were invariably the smaller hostels where the managers remember your name and provide a warmer welcome and a more personal service, all while keeping the hostel clean.
Based on the guidebook author’s recommendations I have compiled a list of Australia’s top 10 small hostels.
Most of Australia’s top 10 small hostels – all with less than 60 beds – are unique hostels with lots of charm, but some are known for the top-quality fittings and others for the friendly hospitable staff.
Australia’s top 10 small hostels are:
- Bellingen YHA (Bellingen, NSW)
- Black Cockatoo (Nannup, WA)
- Eco-Beach YHA (Apollo Bay, VIC)
- Eumeralla Backpackers (Yambuk, VIC)
- Grampians Eco YHA (Halls Gap, VIC)
- Lakeside Manor YHA (Robe, SA)
- Number 14 (Katoomba, NSW)
- Olembia (Melbourne, VIC)
- On the Wallaby (Yungaburra, QLD)
- Tim’s Place (Halls Gap, VIC)
All these hostels are reviewed on the BUG website and also in the fourth edition of BUG Australia, which is now available in bookshops in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
You can also buy the book online from amazon.co.uk, Waterstones (with free delivery in the UK) or the Book Depository (which has free worldwide shipping).