Allow GPS access in your browser. When you press Start Audio Tour, the browser will ask for location permission — tap Allow. Without GPS the guide cannot detect which place you are passing.
Set your screen to never sleep.iPhone: Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never. Android: Settings → Display → Screen timeout → longest option.
Use headphones (wired or Bluetooth) so you hear the commentary clearly over tram and street noise.
Sit by a window for the best GPS signal and the best view of each place as it is announced.
📍 On the tram
GUIDE is ON by default (lit button) — commentary plays automatically as the tram passes each place. You can switch to manual mode any time:
Press Start Audio Tour and board the City Circle tram (route 35). All 33 places are shown as numbered pins on the map.
With GUIDE ON, each place is narrated automatically as you pass — with the side it is on ("on your left" / "on your right"). Visited cards move to the bottom.
Tap GUIDE to turn auto-play off — then tap ▶ Listen on any card to play that place manually.
🔴 Reset (red R button, top-left next to the day/night toggle): the guide remembers which places you have already heard on this phone — even the next day — and does not repeat them. If the tram passes a place and the guide stays silent, that is why. Tap the red R to erase that history and hear the whole loop again from the start — for a second ride, or another day. Works in the full version of the guide.
ℹ Additional information
The City Circle tram is free. It runs clockwise around the CBD and Docklands, 9:30–17:00, about every 12 minutes. No service on Good Friday and Christmas Day.
Hop on and off anywhere in the Free Tram Zone — the guide picks up the story wherever you board.
This is a browser-based web guide — no app download required.
Mobile data required to stream audio. Keep this tab in the foreground — switching apps may reload and restart the guide.
Manual controls: tap a pin on the map to jump that place to the top of the list. Tap Navigate for Google Maps directions. Use SORT BY DISTANCE / NUMBER to switch order. Tap the compass icon to toggle North Up / Heading Up. Tap the ☾ (moon) button, top-left, to switch between day and night mode.
🗺️ Map controls: tap the compass icon to switch North Up / Heading Up — Heading Up turns the map with you and tilts the view like a car navigator. Two-finger gestures are enabled: twist to turn the map, slide both fingers up or down to tilt, pinch two fingers together to zoom out or spread them apart to zoom in. On a computer hold Ctrl and drag; + / − to zoom. Tap any pin to bring that place’s card to the top of the list.
⚠ Do not reload this page during the ride — reloading resets progress.
Each story starts by itself as you reach the place. Here is every place this guide tells you about:
Flinders Street Station — Flinders Street Station, with its copper dome and the row of clocks over the entrance.
Melbourne Skydeck — Melbourne Skydeck is at the top of Eureka Tower, the tall tower across the river with the gold crown.
Banana Alley Vaults — Banana Alley Vaults are the row of brick arches under the railway viaduct, facing the river.
Immigration Museum — The Immigration Museum is housed in the Old Customs House. When the building was finished in 1876, the river wharves were right outside, and every ship's cargo, and every new arrival, passed through customs here.
SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium — SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium sits on the riverbank beside the King Street bridge.
Southern Cross Station — Southern Cross Station is the long, rolling roof a short walk up Spencer Street.
DFO South Wharf — DFO South Wharf is the outlet shopping centre across the river, set in and beside the old cargo sheds of South Wharf.
Marvel Stadium and Docklands — Marvel Stadium is the arena with the retractable roof, home ground for several Australian football clubs.
Melbourne Star Observation Wheel — The Melbourne Star Observation Wheel stands 120 metres tall in Docklands.
Victoria Police Museum — The Victoria Police Museum is a few steps from the Spencer Street stop, at 313 Spencer Street.
Flagstaff Gardens — Flagstaff Gardens is the green hill between La Trobe and William Streets.
Queen Victoria Market — Queen Victoria Market is about five minutes' walk north, up William or Elizabeth Street.
Melbourne Central and Coop's Shot Tower — Melbourne Central is the shopping centre on the corner of Swanston and La Trobe Streets, with an old brick tower inside it.
RMIT University — RMIT University spreads along Swanston Street. It began in 1887 as the Working Men's College, teaching trades at night to people who worked all day, and it is still a university of the city streets rather than a campus behind gates.
State Library Victoria — State Library Victoria is the domed building with the lawn out front on Swanston Street.
Chinatown Melbourne — Chinatown is Little Bourke Street, about five minutes' walk south down Swanston or Russell Street.
Old Melbourne Gaol — The Old Melbourne Gaol is the bluestone walls on Russell Street.
Carlton Gardens — Carlton Gardens is about a five-minute walk north up Nicholson Street from the stop.
Royal Exhibition Building — The Royal Exhibition Building stands in Carlton Gardens, about five minutes' walk from the Nicholson Street stop.
Melbourne Museum and IMAX — Melbourne Museum and the IMAX cinema stand beside the Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens, a five-minute walk from the Nicholson Street stop.
Princess Theatre — The Princess Theatre is the ornate front on Spring Street. It opened in its present form in 1886, and it has a ghost.
Parliament House of Victoria — Parliament House of Victoria is the columns and the great flight of steps at the top of Bourke Street.
The Hotel Windsor — The Hotel Windsor faces Parliament across Spring Street. Opened in 1883, it is one of the last grand hotels of the Victorian age still in business in Australia.
Old Treasury Building — The Old Treasury Building stands at the top of Collins Street.
Treasury Gardens and Fitzroy Gardens — Treasury Gardens is the park behind the Old Treasury Building.
Forum Theatre — The Forum Theatre is the Moorish towers and domes on the corner of Flinders and Russell Streets.
The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia — The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, on Federation Square, is the part of the National Gallery of Victoria devoted to Australian art.
Hosier Lane — Hosier Lane is the cobbled laneway covered wall to wall in street art.
Federation Square — Federation Square is the city's public square, opened in 2002 on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets.
ACMI, Australian Centre for the Moving Image — ACMI, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, on Federation Square, is Australia's museum of film, television and videogames.
St Paul's Cathedral — St Paul's Cathedral is the Gothic spires on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets.
Young and Jackson Hotel — The Young and Jackson Hotel faces Flinders Street Station across the intersection.
Arts Centre Melbourne — Arts Centre Melbourne is the spire across Princes Bridge, 162 metres of steel lattice that lights up after dark.
