Collingwood Children's Farm — Attraction in Melbourne

I went to CCF this afternoon with my dog Skye (Lykos breed) and some friends with children. Overall, the farm is a great place for young children to roam and get closer to farm animals as well as farm experiences, and I recommend the farm to others.

The reason why I haven't given a full five stars is due to a very disappointing incident/interaction between a farm staff member and my dog Skye. Specifically, Skye was told off for allegedly harassing some chickens.

However, if the farm staff member had actually taken time to observe the interaction between Skye and the chickens, she would have firstly seen that Skye was standing calm and still on the outside of the enclosure and that the chickens were approaching Skye out of curiosity. Skye wasn't barking at them nor pulling on her lead, nor was she behaving in an aggressive way. I felt that Skye had been discriminated against purely because she was a big dog.

I certainly didn't see or hear the farm staff member telling off the children (or their parents/carers) who were actually harassing the said chickens in the enclosure (by trying to man-handle them). So this incident really put a downer on what was otherwise a pleasant afternoon, and I don't stand for unfounded accusations. Which is why I'm writing this review to call out this discriminatory behaviour.

Despite the farm info saying that dogs are welcome, be prepared for ignorant farm staff members to tell your dog off and accuse them of harassing the animals, while children are allowed by their parents/carers to actually terrorise animals in the background...

First, an expectation check: CCF is not comparable to a zoo, or even to bigger kid-friendly farms you may have visited. It's not one of the best things to do in Melbourne, and you probably won't touch many animals.

But it's still a great experience for young kids and their parents, where you can get up-close with some classic farm animals - plus some others, like guinea pigs. The space in and around the Barn is lovely. The birds (peafowl, chickens, geese) are beautiful.

The signposting isn't super clear but you can also follow the path through the fields, which I think is worth the short walk, even though you can see most of it from the Main Yarra Trail for free. You can also enter the goat pen next to the stables, where you can touch the goats if you want to.

My child was completely done within a couple of hours and then couldn't wait to get out of there, but it was still worth the admission price.

If you're travelling from further afield then you could combine CCF with the Convent and a walk along the river, at least to Dights Falls or Deep Rock (the farm itself actually doesn't make much of its riverside location). CCF includes a cafe, and there are places to eat in the Convent.

Most importantly, the animals seem happy, and CCF is a not-for-profit that's always been very community-focused. Those are big reasons why it gets five...

We have been to multiple farms all over Melbourne. Honestly this was the worst one. $17 is far too expensive for what is offered. You can only pat goats and guinea pigs and no feeding. This is offered at many other farms and the variety of animals available to see is much better at various other farms, including Bundoora Park Farm. We attended on Sat Feb 17 and were informed on entry that it was closing "early" today, 4pm due to a festival. During our visit there were sound checks and entire songs played which scared the animals and was so loud it made my toddler cry. I felt sorry for the animals. It's not like this was happening just before closure either, this was happening at 3pm! The price was the same despite the shorter time and loud music being played. The final straw was the snack we got from the cafe: an icy pole. It cost $6.05 for one single icy pole. I can't believe they can charge that for a water icypole - that is disgusting. As we walked out at 4pm (with a pram), a long, long line of 100-120 people were lined up to get into the festival. We had to ask a dense line of people to please move aside so we could get out with the pram and this continued for 20m or so! Not the experience we had hoped for. Disappointed! I had been looking forward to coming here for months, but we won't be back and would not recommend it to our...