Above: Walking with ‘Kenny’ (Shane  Jacobson) on the  Marvellous Smellboom Tour

Melbourne Walks is one of Melbourne’s oldest walking companies. Our first walk in 1991 on the trail of escaped convict William Buckley has now evolved into 100 different tours.
Since then, we have written or published twenty history books in our mission to promote, protect and preserve Melbourne’s natural, built and Indigenous heritage.
Our not-for-profit arm has also written and published many books for free to support environmental and heritage organisations. Our website contains extensive free information for research and study purposes.
Our walkers include overseas, locals and interstate visitors. Every year we also provide over a thousand school students with imaginative learning adventures.

The miners dug for gold, we dig for hidden stories in the landscape to provide our walkers with rich experiences of the historical and cultural places surrounding them. Every walk is a unique interaction between participants, place, time and memory.

Our family company is passionate about promoting a sustainable society including tours such as Social Justice, Sustainability, Foraging, Indigenous Landscapes, Sustainable Architecture, Crime and Liveability.

Melbourne Walks is accredited with Tour Guides Australia and Guides of Australia. We maintain public liability insurance, working with children checks and first aid certification.

We partner with traditional owner groups in reconciliation projects including Indigenous guidebooks. In 2015 two of our books won awards at the Victorian Community History Awards. The judges described Melbourne Dreaming: A Guide to Important Places of the Past and Present as ‘a finely crafted example of a historical guide that provides inspiration for other guide writers.’ See Our books

• 1991  Successful submission to create St Kilda Breakwater Penguin Sanctuary – now thriving, check it out!

• 1997  Australian Sister City Award: ‘Alfreda the City Penguin’ (children’s book in English and Japanese).

• 2001  Australian Centenary Medal: ‘Outstanding contribution to community tourism‘.

• 2007 Civic Project of the Year Award – Port Phillip (Coordinator).

• 2011  Indigenous Victorian Home and Community Care Award (VICAAD)

• 2011  Immigration Museum Exhibition ‘Fighting for Equality’  (Coordinator).

• 2011   Civic Project of the Year Award –  Port Phillip ( Coordinator ‘The Heart of Middle Park‘).

• 2012 St Kilda Film Festival:  ‘A Century of Lunacy: The Story of Luna Park’.

• 2014  Finalist: City of Port Phillip Business Excellence Awards.

• 2015  Victorian Community History Awards for: ‘Yalukit Willam The River People of Port Phillip’ & ‘Melbourne Dreaming, A Guide to Important Places Past and Present’.

• 2015 City of Literature Tour voted by Lonely Planet in the top ten in the world.

• 2023 Tour Guides Australia (TGA) award: long-term ‘delivery of high-quality tour guiding services in keeping with TGA’s mission and values’.

• 2025 RHSV Achievement Award.

VIDEOS:

‘Walking Man’ by Latrobe University/Magnify Melbourne