The Melbourne Reprise and Surprise (Part 3): Where I'll Be? Werribee!!

- May 17, 2025, Saturday.

- Werrrr should I go next in Melbourne? Well, Werribee, where else! Werribee is a western suburb of Melbourne, easily accessed by train (Werribee line) from Southern Cross Station. Although Werribee is a bit of a journey to the Melbourne countryside, there are a few things that people go to Werribee for.

- From the train station I took an Uber to Werribee Park where the main tourist spots are. The first thing I visited was the Werribee Park Mansion. Part of the mansion has been converted to a hotel. However, the main mansion, built in the 1800s by farmers Thomas and Andrew Chirnside, is now a museum. At some point, this mansion was also turned into a seminary.

Southern Cross Station.

Our train!

See the old mansion to the left, then the newer wings were part of the seminary now turned into the hotel.

This was my main reason for coming to Werribee.

Mansion front.

Please bring me my tea.

Down the stairs.

This is the drawing room, one of my favorite rooms in the mansion. This was where merrymaking took place.

Dressing room (with 19th-century clothing!)

Second floor corridor.

Playing with puppets in the children's room.

I loved the children's room as it was the only place where visitors could play with the items in the room, like children.

Was startled by this giant....deer? (antelope? Not sure.)

Billiards room.

- Because I had a very heavy breakfast at the Werribee Mansion Hotel,  I skipped lunch and decided to walk to the Werribee Open Range Zoo located within the park. Apart from the usual zoo experience, the reason why people go to this particular zoo is to have a safari experience. Visitors can board a long open bus across the zoo's open plains where the animals roam freely. (Special tours can even get an up close and personal experience with some of the animals!)

Here comes the buuuus!

Camels!

A female nyala and her newly-born baby!

Bison!

Yes, you are seeing a free roaming ostrich (blocking our path.)

Wouldn't want to get close to that rhino.

Safari animals: zebra, giraffe, rhino, ostrich.

- I tried my best to see as many animals as I could, especially Australian ones, but the weather wasn't cooperating too well. Not only was it hard to move around the zoo because of the unpredictable rain and cold, but some of the animals refused to come out.   

Rock wallaby.

Cape barren goose. It was so still I initially thought it was not real!

The Chirnside wooling shed was part of the Australian trail. They used to earn lots of money as well from selling wool.

Free-roaming emus.

A sleeping koala.

It was a nice place to see animals not in cages.

- I did not get to see all the animals since I had seen them in the past and I was rushing to go back to the city. After a comfortable but long train ride, I finally arrived at the CBD and did some work at the hotel before meeting my friend Therese for dinner.

Hello Therese!

We had some ice cream at Kariton Sorbetes! So yes, many Philippine-inspired flavors!

- It was the rainiest day of my stay in Melbourne and frankly that annoyed me quite a bit as it was hard to move, and it was colder and damper in the suburbs. However, it was nice to finally visit Werribee since it was one of the place that I wanted to visit during my stay in 2022 but was not able to. Perhaps I could also consider staying longer in Werribee given that the weather would be better. But for now, I'm happy to say that I finally scratched a three-year itch of wanting to see Werribee! 

** Check out my other adventures in Melbourne/Victoria here!

Part 1: Revisiting Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD) - here

Part 2: La Trobe University Graduation - here

Part 4: Geelong - here 

Part 5: Melbourne Central and Titanic VR - here

Part 6: Bendigo - here

Part 7:  The Lume and Dax Centre - here

Part 8: Hot Air Balloon, NGV, UniMelb, State Library, and Hello Kitty Cafe - here