By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
Melbourne has a new subway line – the Metro Tunnel – running through five new stations and currently having a soft opening, before the schedule launches full tilt on 1 February 2026. The new Parkville Station will probably be the most useful new station, since it’s at the University of Melbourne which badly needed a handy Metro station.
▲ The Town Hall Station
The two new central city stations might look slightly redundant since the Town Hall Station is only a couple of hundred metres from Flinders St Station and the State Library Station is right beside the Melbourne Central Station. In fact you might find it easier to enter the State Library Station from Melbourne Central rather than from its own entrance. The Metro Tunnel line, however, runs in a different direction than the other lines through Flinders St and Melbourne Central.
Unfortunately to use the new line you still need the horrible old Myki Card. Transport Victoria have announced that they are introducing ‘tap and go’ technology to Melbourne. Tomorrow? No, they are testing it in 2026 and at some point in the future you’ll actually be able to use it. But didn’t they start testing it in 2023 at some stations? Well yes they did, but clearly three years of testing wasn’t enough, there’s more testing to be rolled out in 2026
◄ My hated Myki Card
Hasn’t anybody asked them about this before? Well yes, for one person I asked Transport Victoria why we couldn’t use contactless cards in Melbourne when London introduced the technology in 2014. So that’s 10 years ago.
And I did get an answer, ‘we’re working on it and hope to introduce it soon.’ Which in Melbourne seems to be in 10 years time. So for over 10 years I’ve been able to use my Australian ANZ credit card to pay for public transport in London, England. But not in Melbourne, Australia. Absurd isn’t it?
Once upon a time Melbourne was a regular ‘most liveable city in the world’ title holder. How could you be a ‘most liveable city’ and at the same time operate the world’s most-visitor-unfriendly-travel-card? I suggested that in 2013 and 13 years later my opinion hasn’t changed. Never mind, the new Metro Tunnel Line reportedly took lots of lessons from London’s very popular Elizabeth Line. In London I often use the Elizabeth Line even if it means travelling a bit further because it’s so fast and convenient. Perhaps Melbourne can also learn from London how to get rid of the Myki Card.
▲ The Elizabeth Line at Bond St.in London
Since it opened in 2022 the Elizabeth Line quickly became the busiest railway line in the UK although technically it’s not part of the London Underground network. It runs out to Heathrow Airport – but so does the Piccadilly Line – and even further to Reading. It’s popular and has won architectural awards as well as being so busy. Check my August 2024 posting about riding the London Tube.
Melbourne has a new subway line – the Metro Tunnel – running through five new stations and currently having a soft opening, before the schedule launches full tilt on 1 February 2026. The new Parkville Station will probably be the most useful new station, since it’s at...
Melbourne photographer Paul Dodd asked me to take part in his photo project The Chair. I was one of 40-odd subjects, each photographed in his studio, seated on the same chair, under identical lighting conditions, and captured in timeless black and white. We were encou...
The last couple of years – travelling up the coast of Albania, around Greece close to Athens and by sea from Athens to Corfu, a Mediterranean stretch of Algeria – has made me think how much of a circuit of the Mediterranean I have managed to cover over the years. Li...
No question, a highlight of my 2025 travels was my visit to the Greek island of Hydra. I definitely should have read Charmian Clift’s Peel Me a Lotus, her love letter to Hydra, before my visit, but no problem, it worked equally well reading it back home in Australia, ...
In 1930, philosopher Will Durant met a man who said he was about to commit suicide unless someone gave him a good reason not to do so. This inspired Durant to contact 100 people involved in the arts, politics, religion and sciences to write what they felt life was all...
Australian artist and architect Robert Powell died on Ko Samui in Thailand in 2020. Although he is probably little recognised in Australia many visitors to Nepal – not just Australians – will have a Robert Powell print of one of the country’s iconic buildings on a wal...
Sam Dalrymple, still in his ‘20s, is the son of well-known writer William Dalrymple, and Shattered Lands: Five Partitions & the Making of Modern Asia is easily the most interesting historic – through to current events – title I’ve read this year. I’m also surprise...
◄ Until 28 January 2026 the British Library has an intriguing exhibition about ‘secret maps.’ Maureen and I were involved in getting the exhibition off the ground and I’m there with the Secret Maps poster at the British Library. As the library’s website announces i...
I was briefly in Northern Ireland in June 2025 for a family wedding – Maureen’s family – there was one in 2024 as well. My plan to walk the spectacular Gobbins Cliff Path, north of Belfast, while I was there fell through because the walk was closed due to a 'recent ro...
Every year there are some great views I glimpse out of an airplane window and as usual, when I look back on a previous year’s travels, I’ll quote Joan Didion ‘the most beautiful things I had ever seen had all been seen from airplanes.’ ▲ Hard to beat this one and t...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013