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A graffiti tour in Melbourne, from Hosier Lane outwards

Melbourne Street Art Tour

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Summary

A graffiti tour in Melbourne starts in Hosier Lane, off Flinders Street near Federation Square, and continues through AC/DC Lane, Duckboard Place and the lanes north of Bourke Street.

Street art essentials

  • The City's art walk is about 3 km2
  • Adnate's Hosier Lane mural is 23 metres high14
  • Street art is painted with permission3

Open 54 stops

The laneways, arcades and stories on one map

Tap a route first, then a pin or stop, for its note and Google Maps.

Map of street art lanes: Hosier Lane, Rutledge Lane, AC/DC Lane, Duckboard Place, Presgrave Place, Tattersalls Lane, Croft Alley and Blender Lane

  1. The city's best-known street art lane, repainted so often that pieces vanish overnight.

    Google Maps

  2. Off Hosier Lane; even the bins here are painted over.

    Google Maps

  3. Australia's first street named after a rock band, with a lightning bolt instead of the slash.

    Google Maps

  4. Big murals by Fintan Magee and Steen Jones, and one of the last Banksy rats.

    Google Maps

  5. Lisa King's giant sleeping woman on the wall of Brunetti.

    Google Maps

  6. A miniature outdoor gallery of framed works on the walls.

    Google Maps

  7. Above the lane, a feathered portrait by Adnate and Shida from 2012; the container bar Section 8 below.

    Google Maps

  8. A winding lane off Little Bourke Street with colourful murals.

    Google Maps

  9. A tiled mosaic for Legacy House and a towering mural by Jaz Mishap at the end of the alley.

    Google Maps

  10. Named after Blender Studios, an early home of the city's street art scene, off Franklin Street.

    Google Maps

  11. Home of the bar that started the laneway revival, with Mike Makatron's Jungle Funk mural at the entry.

    Google Maps

© OpenStreetMap contributors, map data

A graffiti tour in Melbourne starts in Hosier Lane and fans out through a dozen painted lanes. Here is where to find the best walls, how guided art walks compare, and how to behave in front of a working artist.

Editorial team, melbournelanewaystour.com · Updated November 8, 2026 · 7 min of reading

Quick look

  • StartHosier Lane, off Flinders Street, the City's most iconic street art lane.1
  • On your ownThe City's free street art walk is about 3 km and takes around 2 hours.2
  • GuidedA street art tour of 3.08 hours for up to 13 people, from $59.
  • The ruleStreet art is painted with permission; graffiti is done without it.3,4
  • ChangesPieces in Hosier Lane can appear and vanish overnight.5

Where is Hosier Lane, and where the art starts

Where is Hosier Lane in Melbourne? It runs north off Flinders Street, a short walk east of Swanston Street, almost opposite Federation Square, and it is the obvious first stop: the City of Melbourne names it the street art lane Melbourne is best known for, and on a fine day it is packed.1 The lane is cobbled and has been a favourite of photographers for decades.6 Rutledge Lane branches off it in a dog-leg, and there even the garbage bins are painted.7

Hosier Lane is the start, not the whole story. The City's own street art walk threads together a string of lanes and covers about 3 km in roughly 2 hours, from Duckboard Place and AC/DC Lane in the east to Blender Lane near Queen Victoria Market in the north-west.2,8 Melbourne describes itself as one of the world's great street art capitals, and the lanes are where that reputation was earned.9

The art is everywhere once you start looking: murals, stencils, paste-ups and mixed media, at street level and several storeys up.10 A graffiti tour in Melbourne therefore works best as a loop through the eastern lanes first, while you are fresh, then north through the smaller lanes off Little Bourke Street. Our map shows every stop on the walk, and the timeline below gives the order the City recommends.

Wall by wall

The street art lanes and what to look for

LaneLook forArtistOff
Hosier LaneIndigenous boy portrait21AdnateFlinders Street
Rutledge LanePainted bins7ManyHosier Lane
AC/DC LaneBon Scott in 3D13Mike Makatron22Flinders Lane
Duckboard PlaceMan carrying a tree11Fintan MageeAC/DC Lane
Flinders WaySleeping woman23Lisa KingFlinders Lane
Presgrave PlaceFramed small works15ManyHowey Place
Tattersalls LaneWoman with feathers16Adnate and ShidaLittle Bourke Street
Drewery AlleyA towering mural24Jaz MishapDrewery Lane
Blender LaneTags and paste-ups25ManyFranklin Street

Murals as listed by the City of Melbourne; any wall can be painted over, so treat this as a guide, not a promise.5

Street art or graffiti: why the walls are allowed

People search for a graffiti tour, but the City of Melbourne draws a sharp line between the two words. Street art, in its definition, is work that is commissioned or painted with permission and adds to the city.3 Graffiti is tagging, writing, etching or scribbling done without permission.4 The big murals you came to see are the first kind. The scrawled names over the top of them are mostly the second.

That distinction is why the famous lanes survive. Property owners and the City allow or commission work on particular walls, and programs pay artists to paint. The Flash Forward program alone has transformed 40 city laneways with work by more than 80 creatives.17 Melbourne's first official street art precinct, the Upper West Side, launched in December 2017 on the walls of an old power station.18,19

For a visitor this has a practical meaning. Watching an artist paint a permitted wall is part of the experience, and Tourism Australia notes you may see someone at work in Hosier Lane.20 Adding your own tag is not: on any wall without permission it is graffiti, and visitors have no special licence to paint. Bring a camera, not a marker.

The street art walk

The City's art route, lane by lane

  1. Start

    Duckboard Place

    Fintan Magee and Steen Jones murals, and a Banksy rat.11,12

  2. Next

    AC/DC Lane

    Malcolm Young's portrait and Bon Scott in 3D.13

  3. Then

    Hosier Lane

    Look up for Adnate's 23-metre mural.14

  4. Midway

    Presgrave Place

    A small gallery of framed works off Howey Place.15

  5. North

    Tattersalls Lane

    Adnate and Shida's feathered portrait from 2012.16

  6. Finish

    Blender Lane

    Off Franklin Street, near Queen Victoria Market.8

Hosier Lane and Rutledge Lane up close

Hosier Lane is a shifting canvas, and that is the first thing to understand about it. Graffiti here disappears and reappears overnight, so no guide or photograph can promise you a particular piece.5 What stays is the energy of the place: layers of paste-ups, murals and small sculptures tucked into corners, an ever-changing wall that rewards a second visit later in your trip.28

The piece most visitors miss is high up. Adnate's realist mural rises 23 metres up the side of a building, so the advice from the City is simply to look up.14 The City's walk describes it as his portrait of an Indigenous boy gazing towards the river.21 It is easy to miss if you only scan the lane at eye level, and it changes how the whole lane feels once you have seen it.

Rutledge Lane, which bends off Hosier, is quieter and just as covered, right down to the bins.7 Between them the two lanes take ten minutes to walk and as long as you like to look. Restaurants sit at the Flinders Street end if you want to watch the lane from a table, and that is also the best place to wait out a rain shower without leaving the art behind.

Choose your art walk

Which street art walk suits you

Which of these sounds like your kind of afternoon?

  • If I want the stories behind the walls

    Street art tour

    A working artist explains the lanes, then a studio visit.

  • If I am on a tight budget

    The free City walk

    About 3 km in around 2 hours, free to download.2,26

  • If I want art plus coffee and arcades

    The laneways tour

    Street art lanes inside a broader 3-hour walk.

  • If I only have an hour

    Hosier, Rutledge, AC/DC

    The three best-known lanes lie a few minutes apart near Federation Square.

  • If I want to take photos without crowds

    Go early

    Arrive before the tour groups, when the light is soft.

Three ways to see it

Street art tour, artist-led walk or the free route

From ACMI

Walk with an artist

Led by a street artist

  • Length3 hours
  • MeetsACMI entrance
  • FocusStreet art
Book the street art tour

AC/DC Lane and Duckboard Place

A few minutes north-east, AC/DC Lane is part music shrine and part gallery. No Australian street had been named after a rock band before this one, and its walls are a shrine: Malcolm Young looms large in paint, while Bon Scott seems to burst out of the bricks in 3D.37,13 The band filmed the clip for It's a Long Way to the Top on nearby Swanston Street in 1976, which is why fans make the pilgrimage.98

Duckboard Place, which joins AC/DC Lane, holds some of the largest works in the city. The giants here are Fintan Magee's figure hauling a tree and Steen Jones' tattoo-style love letter to the city.11 Look low as well as high: the City says this is home to one of the last Banksy rats, which once turned up all over the city centre.12 Its walk notes 2 parachuting rats to watch for before the corner.99

These two lanes are where many guided street art tours begin, because they show the full range in a short distance: commissioned murals, rock-and-roll tributes, sticker-bombed windows and the odd stencil by a famous name. Give yourself time to look closely here. The small things, a paste-up the size of a postcard or a stencil in a doorway, are often better than the giants.

Price an art walk

Street art tours for your group

Pick how many are coming to compare starting totals.

Compare 3 alternatives

Street art tours for your group

Pick how many are coming to compare starting totals.

2 people
  1. Street art tour3.08 hours · starts at, per person $59

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    View
  2. Artist-led walk3 hours · starts at, per person $55

    ≈

    View
  3. Laneways tour3 hours · starts at, per person $90

    ≈

    View

From-prices on GetYourGuide, shown at the ECB reference rate. Your exact price is confirmed during booking.

The quieter lanes further into the grid

Once you leave the eastern lanes, the art gets smaller and stranger. Presgrave Place, reached down Howey Place, is a miniature outdoor gallery of framed works on the walls: photographs, posters, stickers and pieces made from recycled materials.15 Above Tattersalls Lane, a portrait of a woman with feathers by Adnate and Shida dates from 2012.16 Croft Alley, off Little Bourke Street, winds through walls of colour.68

Drewery Lane carries a mosaic of handmade tiles honouring its long-time neighbour, Legacy House, while at the end of narrow Drewery Alley Jaz Mishap has painted a towering mural.69,24 Mornane Place hides an immersive Venice scene by Micah Nagle.100 Near Melbourne Central, Celeste Mountjoy's mural on Little Lonsdale Street measures 15m.101

The walk ends at Blender Lane, off Franklin Street near Queen Victoria Market.8 It was named after Blender Studios, the art incubator that had its first home here and shaped Melbourne's street art movement before moving on.25,70 The City calls the lane an incubator of ideas for underground street artists, which makes it a fitting place to finish.70

Video

Hosier Lane and the street art lanes on foot

Melbourne Walks on YouTube · The video stays unloaded until you press play.

The artwork is as changeable as Melbourne’s weather, so you'll always see something new.
City of Melbourne (What's On Melbourne)27

Art walk checklist

Before you go into the lanes

Bring3

  • Comfortable shoes for cobbles and kerbs
  • A layer: the weather turns fast97
  • The City's street art walk PDF on your phone26

Respect3

  • Never add a tag: without permission it is graffiti4
  • Ask before photographing an artist at work
  • Look up for the tall murals14

Guided street art tour or self-guided walk

The free option is the City's street art walk, which you can download as a small PDF and follow at your own pace.26 It is about 3 km and around 2 hours, and it is good for people who like to stop and stare.2 What it cannot give you is context: who painted what, which walls are legal, and what was there last month.

That is what a guided street art tour in Melbourne adds. The most-reviewed one, booked on this page, meets at the ACMI sign on Flinders Street, starts in Hosier Lane and spends around 120 minutes in the lanes, in English, with up to 13 people. It ends at Blender Studios, now in West Melbourne, with a tour of the working studio and food and drinks. Prices start at $59, and you get your money back if you cancel 24 hours or more before it starts.

A second option is a 3-hour walk led by a street artist, which starts from ACMI's street-level doors on Flinders Street, from $55. The laneways tour this site sells is broader: street art is one part of a 3-hour walk through the city's lanes, history and architecture, for groups no bigger than 10. Pick the art tour if the walls are why you came; pick the laneways tour if they are part of a bigger day.

Etiquette and photographs in the art lanes

Hosier Lane is narrow and busy, and the best manners are simple. Step to the side to take photos, do not block the lane for long portraits, and let delivery vans and cyclists pass. If an artist is working, ask before you photograph them up close, and never touch wet paint or stand on their gear. Most are happy to talk, but they are working, not performing.

For photographs, soft light helps. Narrow lanes throw harsh shadows across half a wall at midday, so early morning, late afternoon or an overcast day give the most even colour. A wide lens or a phone's wide mode helps in tight spaces, and for the tall works such as Adnate's 23-metre mural you need to step back to the far wall and tilt up.14

Finally, remember that the art changes. The City likens it to Melbourne's weather, so a lane you found disappointing on Monday may have a new piece by Friday.27 Walk the main lanes twice if you can, once on arrival and once before you leave, and you will see the city's open-air gallery actually moving.

FAQ

Fast answers to common questions.

Where is Hosier Lane in Melbourne?
Off Flinders Street

It runs north from Flinders Street near Federation Square; the guided street art tour meets at the ACMI sign on Flinders Street close by.

Is graffiti legal in Melbourne?
Not without permission

The City defines graffiti as tagging or writing done without permission; street art is commissioned or painted with permission.4,3

How long is a street art tour?
About 2 to 3 hours

The City's free walk takes around 2 hours; the guided street art tour runs 3.08 hours.2

Is there a Banksy in Melbourne?
At least a rat

The City says Duckboard Place has one of the last Banksy rats that once appeared across the CBD.12

Can I paint in Hosier Lane?
Not without permission

Painting without permission is graffiti by the City's definition. Watch and photograph instead.4

How tall is Adnate's Hosier Lane mural?
23 metres

Adnate's realist mural in Hosier Lane is 23 metres high.14

When is the best time to photograph street art?
Early or late in the day

Soft light in the morning or late afternoon keeps both walls of a narrow lane evenly lit, and the crowds are thinner.

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