Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A city on its river.
An introduction to Melbourne’s riverside, where the aquarium sits between the city grid and the Yarra.
On this page
Read the city from the river
The aquarium sits beside and beneath the Flinders Street Viaduct and the King Street Bridge, at the edge of the city grid. Across the water, Southbank’s towers rise along the other bank.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how bridges, railways and buildings meet the water.
A building that goes below
Designed to resemble a ship moored on the Yarra, the aquarium reaches 7 metres below the surface, so that visitors look into its tanks from beneath the level of the river.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you who built a tank or cares for its water, or the conditions in which they work.
An aquarium chapter
SEA LIFE Melbourne shows a different side of the riverside: a building that turns inward and downward, from the city’s streets to the life of the sea.
Look at the meeting of the two: a working river in a busy city, and the water worlds kept beside it.
Make room for context
Pair this reading with the aquarium’s story and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places or represents their makers.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
