The Best Things to Do on Australia Day in Melbourne

Brunswick Street Cider House is where it’s at for the cider lovers of Melbourne — and in particular, their garden bar out the back is perfect for some summer sipping. This Australia Day, the garden will host AusFest 2016 Craft Cider Festival, where $28 will get you your own personal stein for the day, which you can fill up with one of the 15 beverages on tap on arrival. You can refill your stein for $8.80 during the day, and will also receive a slow-cooked pork roll for lunch and apple crumble for dessert. There’s also apple bobbing, a William Tell competition (with fake arrows), and the option of turning your cider into a slushy. Cheers!

Racers at the ready! If an open water swim sounds like your perfect way to celebrate the island that we call home, then grab a wetsuit and get down to Brighton. The 1.4-kilometre open water swim is a clockwise course around the Middle Brighton Pier and breakwater from the pier to the finish gate on the beach. For those who like a bit more of a challenge, there is also a 5-kilometre swim option, and for those who want to get back to the Hottest 100 as quickly as possible, there’s an intermediate 650-metre swim. Registration closes January 24.

Dress in your very best Aussie finery and make your way to the Grosvenor Hotel. The iconic Brighton Road pub is going all-out for the public holiday, offering free entry from midday and handing out Australia Day prizes for best and worst dressed. Just remember, there’s a very fine line between wearing something ironically and just looking like a tool. Do it right. The radio will be tuned to triple j, of course, while all pints will be priced at $10. They’ll also be offering deals on food, including $15 lamb burgers and $5 lamingtons.

Celebrate the work of local musicians at the second annual Stony Creek Music Festival. Hosted at McNish Reserve in Yarraville’s Cruickshank Park, this Australia Day showcase of home-grown talent eschews the big names getting airtime on triple j and instead favours a much more local sound. You can see Nick Barker, Rebecca Barnard and The Painters & Dockers live on stage, and grab dinner from a convoy of waiting food trucks. So bring your picnic rug and as many mates as you can muster. And for your own sake, don’t forget the sunscreen.

Bowled Over is part bowls competition, part live music gig, and part Hottest 100 party. Now in its sixth year, their latest lineup includes Harts, Grenadiers and IV League, just to help remind you of all the excellent music this country produces. If you’re not quite competitive enough to throw your hat in the ring for the barefoot bowling competition, check out the private oasis section where you can chill out in deck chairs and beanbags. Food-wise, enjoy chicken from the Leonard’s House of Love pop-up, or indulge in some good old fashioned Aussie barbecue.

Celebrate Australia Day with toasties and pavlova cocktails at Village Melbourne on St Kilda Road. Open from midday, the garden bar and bistro is bringing back the Trailer Park for a day of food truck-catered revelry in the sun. There’ll be toasties by Toasta, sausages from The Snag Society and mouth-watering burgers courtesy of The Dude Food Man — plus a self-serve frozen yogurt bar and alcoholic icy poles. Alcoholic icy poles! And did we mention the pavlova cocktails? We’ve never been so proud to be Australian.

Once you’ve spent the afternoon in the sun, knocking back beers, eating way too many sausages and ranting about the taste of the people who vote in triple j polls, close out Australia Day with a movie under the stars. And not just any movie, but one of the most gloriously Aussie movies ever made. That’s right: the folks at Rooftop Cinema are screening Muriel’s Wedding, starring Toni Collette as daggy Muriel Heslop from Porpoise Spit, Queensland, who dreams of a fairytale wedding. Who needs the Hottest 100 when you’ve got a soundtrack full of ABBA songs?

Keep cool this Australia Day at the Auburn Hotel. To celebrate the national holiday and their recently refurbished beer garden, the Hawthorn watering hole once known as The Geebung has partnered with Gelato Messina for the day to offer free – that’s right, free – ice cream for anyone who stops by for lunch or a beverage. Flavours include mango sorbet, chocolate chip and their famous salted caramel with white chocolate, along with a special limited edition Australia Day variant. Could it be lamington? Pavlova? Vegemite? The question is probably more important than that of who will top the Hottest 100.

What could be better than an Australia Day BBQ, you ask? That’s a free Australia Day BBQ. Lucky for all of us, that’s exactly what’s going down at Fitzroy’s Glamorama. The recently opened Brunswick Street venue will be opening their doors a little earlier than usual, with the snags hitting the grill at 3pm sharp. There’ll also be drink specials, including VB cans for $6 and Melbourne Bitter longnecks for $11. Guest DJs, meanwhile, will be on deck until late, playing the best indie, house, hip hop, rock and pop music that 2015 had to offer.

Take a road trip down to the Four Pillars Distillery and spend your Australia Day knocking back more than just VB. Located in Healesville about an hour out of Melbourne, the distillery will be open from 10.30am to 5.30pm. The team from Fancy Hank’s will be there from noon to make sure you get your fill of pulled pork sandwiches, wings and chilli fries. Also on hand from 1pm will be former Black Pearl bartender and Four Pillars ambassador Sam Ng, whipping up a variety of gin-based cocktails. Just make sure you don’t enjoy yourself too much, unless you’re planning on spending the night in the valley and driving home in the morning. Which would be an excellent decision.