North of Yarra River, Melbourne

Directly on the banks of the Yarra River is Flinders Street Station (1905), the hub of the city's suburban lines and a good starting point for a tour of the city center. Princes Bridge spans the Yarra, heading south, while Swanston Street leads north into the central area.

Facing Flinders Street Station, St Paul's Cathedral (Anglican) is on the site of an earlier parish church of 1850 (the pews from which have been preserved). The foundation stone of the present neo-Gothic church was laid in 1880. It has a richly decorated façade with pointed gables, bell towers and a massive tower over the crossing.

The re-planned City Square features a semicircular depression, fountains and a monument to Burke and Wills, who set out from Melbourne in 1860 on their unsuccessful attempt to cross Australia from south to north.

Swanston Street cuts across Collins Street.In Collins Street - Melbourne's best known street - there are many elegant old buildings. Among them, at the east end of the street, is the Melbourne Club, founded in 1839: the oldest institution in Victoria. Collins Street has a number of well-preserved neo-Gothic buildings, including Goode House, the Olderfleet Building, the South Australian Insurance Building and, at the west end, the luxury Menzies at Rialto Hotel, whose Victorian façade is in interesting contrast to the glass walls of the surrounding high-rise blocks, the most imposing of which is the 242m high Rialto Towers. An observation deck at the top (525 Collins Street) gives a bird's-eye view of Melbourne.

At the corner of King Street and Batman Street is St James's Old Cathedral, a bluestone and sandstone building begun in 1839 which is one of Melbourne's oldest surviving buildings.

In William Street are the former Royal Mint and the Supreme Court and Law Courts, built between 1877 and 1884 (not, as originally planned, as a plain brick building but as an imposing sandstone edifice).

In Bourke Street is Myers' huge department store, the largest in the southern hemisphere. Farther east is the Bourke Street Mall, a pedestrian zone (though there are trams running through it - pedestrians must be careful).

The Windsor Hotel (1883) is one of the last of the old grand hotels, patronized by many celebrities.

The Princess Theatre, with an ornate neo-Baroque façade of 1887, is complete with a trumpet-blowing angel over the pediment and wrought-iron crowns topping the roof.

St Patrick's Cathedral (RC; 1858-68) is the largest church in Australia.The first Mass was celebrated on the site in February 1858 in a former partially completed church, some of which was incorporated into the south aisle of the present building.

The features of most interest on Latrobe Street, to the north, are mainly round the intersections with Swanston and Russell Streets.There is a fine view from the fire-watching tower, a protected building with a glass roof.

Fitzroy Gardens and the neighboring Treasury Gardens were the earliest public gardens in Melbourne. The gardens were designed by James Sinclair, who had previously worked for the Tsar in St Petersburg; the paths are laid out in the pattern of the Union Jack. In Fitzroy Gardens are Captain Cook's Cottage (said to be his parents' cottage, brought here from Yorkshire in 1935), which contains an exhibition on the great navigator, and a model Tudor village.