Melbourne is widely regarded as Australia's cultural capital, offering a dazzling array of civilised indoor pursuits. There are many top-class performances throughout the year at the Victorian Arts Centre, 100 St Kilda Road (tel: (03) 9281 8000; website: www.theartscentre.com.au), which is home to Opera Australia, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Ballet. The Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Linlithgow Avenue (tel: (03) 9281 8000), hosts open-air performances all year round, especially during the many arts festivals held in the city.

Friday's Age newspaper contains the cultural listings supplement EG.

You can book cheap tickets for most venues throughout Melbourne at the Half-tix booth, Melbourne Town Hall, entrance off Swanston Street (tel: (03) 9650 9420; website: www.halftixmelbourne.com), although only on the day of the performance (except on Saturday, when tickets can be bought for Sunday too); they only accept cash. Advance tickets can be bought through Ticketek (tel: 132 849, in Australia only; website: www.ticketek.com.au).

Music: Opera Australia (tel: (03) 9685 3777; website: www.opera-australia.org.au) regularly appears at the Melbourne Concert Hall, located in the Victorian Arts Complex (see above), as does the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (tel: (03) 9626 1111; website: www.mso.com.au).

Theatre: Melbourne has a large number of theatres located throughout the city centre and in the suburbs. The Regent Theatre, 191 Collins Street (tel: (03) 9299 9500), hosts elaborate musical productions, while theatres such as the Athenaeum, 188 Collins Street (tel: (03) 9650 1500), and the Princess, 163 Spring Street (tel: (03) 9299 9800), produce Shakespeare, contemporary plays and musicals. The Melbourne Theatre Company, 129 Ferrars Street, Southbank (tel: (03) 9684 4500; website: www.mtc.com.au), is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia.

Dance: Dancehouse, 150 Princes Street, North Carlton (tel: (03) 9347 2860; website: www.dancehouse.com.au), is an exciting venue for innovative dance and physical theatre and has a well-deserved reputation in the contemporary dance field.

Film: Melbourne has many independent arthouse cinemas, including the Palace Cinema Como, at the corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, South Yarra (tel: (03) 9827 7533; website: www.palacecinemas.com.au), Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon Street, Carlton (tel: (03) 9347 5331; website: www.cinemanova.com.au), and the Kino Dendy, 45 Collins Street (tel: (03) 9650 2100; website: www.dendy.com.au).

The splendid art deco Astor Theatre is at the corner of Chapel Street and Dandenong Road, St Kilda (tel: (03) 9510 1414; website: www.astor-theatre.com), while the IMAX Theatre is located on Rathdowne Street, Carlton (tel: (03) 9663 5454; website: www.imaxmelbourne.com.au). Mainstream fare is screened at the Hoyts Melbourne Central Cinema, at the corner of Swanston Street and La Trobe Street (tel: (03) 8662 3555; website: http://hoyts.ninemsn.com.au), and at Hoyts multiplexes throughout suburban Melbourne.

The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906), reputed to be the world's first ever feature-length film, was made in and around Melbourne. Other Australian movie classics set or filmed in Melbourne include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Phar Lap (1983). Death in Brunswick (1991) and Romper Stomper (1992) both achieved international acclaim. More recent broad comedies The Castle (1997), The Wog Boy (2000) and Kenny (2006) were huge hits in Australia. Reflecting the recent trend of Hollywood production moving to Australia, The Queen of the Damned (2002) was shot in Melbourne, as were sections of Charlotte's Web (2006). India's Bollywood has also shown an interest in Australia with the box-office hit movie Salaam Namaste (2005), set in and around Melbourne.

Literary Notes: Melbourne has enjoyed its share of internationally acclaimed writers. C J Dennis, who lived in the small town of Toolangi, north of Melbourne, rose to national fame as Victoria's most popular writer with his urban romance in verse, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915). The works of Victorian writers of this period, including Dennis, reflected upon the impact of the gold rush and the business of making money. Painter and writer Norman Lindsay, who hailed from the small town of Creswick (near Ballarat), is the author of the irreverent Australian children's classic, The Magic Pudding (1917).

One of the most sensational novels to come out of Melbourne is Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory (1950). Loosely based on the affairs and dealings of notorious Melbourne businessman John Wren, the book scandalised Melbourne society and Hardy was prosecuted for criminal libel. British author Nevil Shute's novel On The Beach (1957), another literary cause célèbre, depicts Melbourne as the last outpost of a world wracked by nuclear devastation.

Melbourne playwright Ray Lawler's Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1957) pioneered dramatic realism in Australia, while criticising cultural stereotypes. Classic modern novels include Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) by Joan Lindsay, and George Johnston's My Brother Jack (1964), perhaps the definitive novel of Melbourne between the wars. Peter Carey set one of his best works, Illywhacker (1985), in the city, and his Booker Prize-winning The True History of the Kelly Gang (2001) also features Melbourne as a setting. Helen Garner, whose novels, such as Monkey Grip (1977), are mostly set in Melbourne, has also attracted a wide following.

The 'grunge lit' of the 1990s produced writers such as Christos Tsiolkas, whose Loaded (1995) portrays the town as a netherworld of drugs and sex. Criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read wrote From The Inside (1991) in the H Division of Melbourne's Pentridge Prison. While snubbed by the literary establishment, Read's lively underworld confessions are among the most popular contemporary writing in Australia.