Government House — Local services in Melbourne

This place is beautiful! I believe it's only open to the public twice a year - on Australian Day and mid year as part of Open House Melbourne. Visited on the Australia Day Open Day, and not only were you allowed on the grounds (inside and out), there was a big stage with family friendly entertainment throughout the day, umbrellas for shading (in addition to the natural shading from mature trees), food trucks, children activities like face painting, play areas, mini farm, fire services letting kids have a mini lesson on handling a fire hose with pressured down water etc. You can visit the stables, have a game of tennis, lawn bowl, croquet. The air force roulettes also put on a show on the day - granted you could probably see them at other areas in the city, but you could see most of their manoeuvres clearly, plus they had someone from the force commentating on the actions on the main stage. Whilst the inside of the house has some pretty unique architectural designs, the outside grounds were simply magnificent. There were sections where I felt like I was not only transported away from the city, but also into another country. So all in all I would highly...

I couldn't get access onto the grounds obviously due to security reasons and it's not generally open to the public but however what I could see of the beautiful the state heritage listed building i really love it's sheer beautiful architectural detail and it's surrounding beautiful maintained garden. Well done City of Melbourne for looking after your beautiful heritage listed buildings and maintaining it's heritage fabric more I can say about our South Australian government they seem to be selling them off to these greedy developers for the to knock them down to build some ugly glass house looking building just because the old heritage listed building doesn't meet there criteria in...

Tours are allowed infrequently as it's a working house of the governement so jump at the chance if you get it. There will be pre-booking and ID security check but having walked the gardens and seen the tower and high fencing it is a privilege to be inside. The 'house' and gardens are stunning, but inside the size and grand layout of the formal rooms will dazzle. The foyer, drawing and dinning rooms are impressive but the last visit has the wow factor - the ballroom has to be seen. Up to functions of 800 people in sublinme spendor. The tour guiding is first class and a chat with the kitchen head...