Melbourne’s best Easter holiday boredom busters

The Easter school holidays are on the horizon, providing both parents and children the chance to skip the school run and have a well-deserved sleep in. There are loads of activities on in Melbourne throughout the holidays to keep the boredom at bay. Better still, they are action-packed enough to capture interest of those with even the shortest attention spans.

Arts Centre MelbourneAndy Griffiths has the ability to make even the most exuberant children sit up and pay attention – and they are bound to do just that at the stage adaptation of his collaboration with Terry Denton, The 52-Storey Treehouse (1-17 April). The show will premiere at Arts Centre Melbourne during the Easter school holidays, bringing with it fantastic inventions such as a rocket-powered carrot launcher, the Disguise-o-matic 5000 and a Ninja Snail Training Academy. For adrenalin-charged kids, Cirque Adrenaline (1-7 April) will showcase some of the world’s most daring and death-defying acts, turning Melbourne’s State Theatre into a high-octane circus arena.

Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI)These holidays, ACMI will present a program of children’s movies and workshops that will engage screen buffs of all ages. The Kids’ Flicks program features Moomins on the Riviera (28 March-25 April) and My Neighbour Totoro (29 March-8 April), while the creative workshops program will teach kids a range of creative skills, including coding, claymation and movie making.

Eureka SkydeckEureka Skydeck has teamed up with Crayola to provide Easter-themed activities every day of the school holidays, including bunny ear making and colouring in. For children (and parents) with a little more bravado, The Walk enables visitors to imagine what it’s like to tightrope walk from one point of Eureka Tower to the other as they cross the illusory tightrope – suspended high above the city.

Luna ParkOpen daily during the holidays, Luna Park will provide thrill seekers with access to the famous scenic railway rollercoaster and, specifically for the holidays, the park will be staging a host of Easter-themed activities, including a Darrell Lea Easter egg hunt, live music and face painting.

Melbourne MuseumEggs are the focus at Melbourne Museum – but not those of the chocolate variety. Instead, the Autumn School Holiday Program will immerse visitors in the world of animals and their eggs – including meeting egg-laying animals and getting up close and touching eggs of all types. The largest creatures to ever crack out of an egg will also be calling Melbourne Museum home, with the opening of Jurassic World: The Exhibition (19 March-9 October). Based on one of cinema’s biggest blockbusters, the exhibition immerses audiences of all ages in scenes inspired by the film, Jurassic Park. The museum is free for children during Victorian school holidays.

Melbourne ZooMelbourne Zoo will “bee” a hive of activity these school holidays, with its Keeper Kids program. Kids can dress up as a field researcher, climb aboard the research Jeep, visit the field tent to collect their equipment and imagine finding endangered wildlife. The zoo is also free for children during Victorian school holidays.

National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)Open for the first time on Good Friday, the National Gallery of Victoria will keep art lovers – big and small – entertained, with its incredibly popular Andy Warhol | Ai Weiwei exhibition (until 24 April). As part of the exhibition, NGV Kids presents Studio Cats, a large-scale installation especially for children that draws upon creative connections between the two artists and their mutual love of cats. On March 19, pint-sized NGV Members can create their own Easter bonnet at Members Kids Create: Easter Hats, inspired by the gallery’s 200 years of Australian Fashion exhibition (until 31 July).

National Sports MuseumAt the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s National Sports Museum, avid sports fans can get active with the Game On! holiday program. Visits from Australian Olympians will inspire little tackers and workshops with cartoonists Mark Knight and Paul Harvey (March 29 to April 1) will encourage kids to build their fine motor skills as part of the Drawing a Laugh: Australian Sports Cartoons exhibition (from 27 March).

ScienceworksAt Scienceworks, children can take part in a quirky art/science experiment: Space Tape: An Ever Expanding Universe (28 March-10 April), where coloured tape is used to generate a large-scale, floor-based drawing installation of the universe. Scienceworks will also be running the Astro Adventure (28 March-10 April) amphitheatre show, as well as Capturing the Cosmos (from 22 March) in the Planetarium and a 30-minute live show about LEDs, LCDs and lasers. The museum is free for children during Victorian school holidays.

SEA LIFE Melbourne AquariumVisitors to the SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium will have the chance to meet the two resident King Penguin chicks who were born earlier this year and remain under the care of their parents. For whole day of activity, the new Ocean Rangers program offers an sneak peek at the behind-the-scenes action, art and craft activities and the chance to meet aquarium aquarists and keepers.

For more information, please contact the Tourism Victoria PR team: destinationpr@tourism.vic.gov.au or call: 03 9653 9865