Plan your visit

Open times

Abbotsford Convent:
The Convent’s grounds are open 365 days a year.
Sunday – Monday, 7.30am — 9.30pm
Tuesday – Saturday, 7.30am — 10.30pm

Festive Season 2022 opening hours
Christmas Eve, 7.30am — 5pm
Christmas Day, 10am — 5pm
New Years Eve, 7.30am — 5pm
New Years Day, 7.30am — 5pm

 

Abbotsford Convent Foundation offices:
Monday – Friday, 9am — 5.30pm
(closed on public holidays)

Find us

Precinct Map

Download a copy of our precinct map.

Getting here

The ride or walk to the Convent is spectacular, with the Capital City cycling and walking path directly passing the precinct. The St Heliers Street turn-off is opposite the entrance to the Collingwood Children’s Farm.

Catch a Mernda or Hurstbridge line train to Victoria Park Station. The train station is a 10 – 15 minute walk to the Convent, or you can catch the 200 or 207 bus down Johnston Street to the Clarke Street stop. The bus stop is a 3 – 5 minute walk to the Convent.

Parking

All day parking is available in the car park directly across from the Convent on St Heliers Street. The machines accept credit cards, notes and gold coins. Funds from the car park go towards the restoration and daily operation of the Convent, and also support our neighbours, the Collingwood Children’s Farm.

There is no vehicle access to the Convent precinct for tour coaches and buses.
Buses should either pick up / set down and park in Johnston Street or at the south end of Clarke Street (accessible from Abbotsford Street only). Buses cannot enter St Heliers Street. There is a dedicated bus parking zone on Johnston Street, 50 metres east of the corner of Clarke Street.

Parking Weekday rates:
30 mins = free
90 mins= $5
$1 per half hour thereafter
6 – 10 hours = $14
$2 per hour after 10 hours

Max daily rate (until 2am) = $28
Additional overnight fee (after 2am) = $25
Lost ticket = $28

Parking Weekend rates:
30 mins = $3
$1 per half hour thereafter
5 ½ – 10 hours = $14
$2 per hour after 10 hours

Accessibility

The Abbotsford Convent Foundation (ACF) is committed to improving access within the Convent precinct for everyone. The ACF acknowledges that there are access challenges inherent in the Convent’s heritage buildings and gardens and remedial work is being undertaken as funding permits.

Download Access Map

Public toilets

Gender diversity is welcome at the Convent, and patrons are welcome to use any restroom that matches their gender identity or expression. There are both gendered and gender-neutral toilets available across the precinct. View the Public Toilet Map to find a bathroom of your preference.

View Public Toilet Map

Eat & drink

Cam's

Convent Bakery

Kappaya

Julie Restaurant

Gardens and grounds

Heritage gardens and grounds

Shop

Abbotsford Convent is Australia’s largest arts and cultural precinct, and we are incredibly proud of the broad range of creatives and artists that have their studios at the Convent.

While you’re here, feel free to pop into any of the open studios listed on our Makers Map to check out the wide variety of beautiful products created on site by our talented local artists.

If you can’t make it into the Convent,  you can always explore our online shop, Convent Made.

Makers Map

Convent Made online shop

Convent Wellbeing

Discover your pathway to holistic health and healing through the Convent’s wellbeing offering.

With a dedicated team of more than 20 highly-skilled practitioners, with specialisations and therapies including counselling, acupuncture, naturopathy, Feldenkrais, remedial massage, and kinesiology, the Convent offers a peaceful, inner-urban sanctuary to support you in reaching your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual goals.

Discover who’s here, and book your appointment today.

Tours

From being and remaining a Kulin Nation meeting point, to its days as a closed monastic site, and today as Australia’s largest arts and cultural precinct, Abbotsford Convent’s history is incredibly rich, layered and filled with many people’s stories.

We offer in-person Social History tours each month. Read more.

We also offer self guided walks on our Social History and Indigenous Sound Trail, all you need is a smartphone and headphones!

Our Social History Tour is based on our popular in-person Social History Tours, and includes audio memories collected from former residents and caretakers of the land.

Our Indigenous Sound Trail also known as Ngulu-nganjin (Our Voice) captures the story of the Convent’s Traditional Owner history and heritage through indigenous voices and storytelling.

These tours are accessible on both iOS and Android devices.

Social History Tour

Ngulu-nganjin (Our Voice)

The Abbotsford Mysteries Podcast

Another fantastic way to enhance your experience here at the Convent is with The Abbotsford Mysteries podcast. A collaboration between Sascha Kelly, Andrew Aronowicz and ex-Abbotsford Convent resident, Patricia Sykes, this is a series of songs, based on Sykes’ evocative book of poetry of the same name. It is an intensely intimate and moving exploration, capturing a sense of what life was like for the thousands of girls and women inhabiting Abbotsford Convent during its period as a monastic site between 1863 – 1975.

Listen to the podcast

Precinct services

Information Office (ground floor, Convent building)
The office operates from from 9am – 5.30pm, Monday – Friday. The office is currently closed for access to the general public, but you can contact reception on 03 9415 3600.

Site Coordinators
The ACF’s Site Coordinators work around the site from 7.30am – 8.30pm daily and can be contacted on 0438 380 833.

Security
The Abbotsford Convent is patrolled after hours by an external security company.

Entry fee
Entry to the Abbotsford Convent is free, yet as a not-for-profit organisation that does not receive recurrent government funding, donations are always appreciated.

ATM
A cash point is located on the ground floor corridor of the Convent building east wing, accessible via the pedestrian ramp directly to the right of the Convent Bakery. A withdrawal limit of $200 per transaction applies.

Toilets
Public toilets are available at the back of the Convent Annexe, and in the Sacred Heart Courtyard. An accessible toilet can be located in Rosina building. A baby change facility and disabled toilet exists within the public toilets of the Convent Annexe.

Cigarette bins
Bins specifically for cigarettes are located throughout the grounds. Please respect the site and use these bins accordingly. 

Waste
The site does not provide rubbish bins because the ACF cannot afford to pay someone to clean them all the time, so we kindly ask that you take your rubbish home with you.

Pooches
Dogs are very welcome at the Convent but you must make sure they are on a lead and take with you anything they might leave behind.

Wildlife
We have lots of possums and they are very fat already so please don’t provide them with any more food. In the summer, tiger snakes have been seen in the gardens so be careful where you walk. We’ve got some very shy blue tongue lizards too—if you see them please don’t talk to them.

Nearby accommodation
You can download a list of nearby accommodation here.

Conditions of entry

  • The Convent site is a pedestrian zone. No vehicles are permitted onsite and you must dismount from your bike or skateboard when you come in the gate.
  • Dogs are welcome, but must remain on a leash at all times and owners must pick up after their pets.
  • Children must be supervised at all times.
  • All rubbish must be collected and taken off-site with you.
  • Place all cigarette butts in the bins provided or take them home with you.
  • The picking of foliage and playing in the garden beds is prohibited.
  • The use of candles, incense or fire of any kind is strictly prohibited throughout the site.
  • Alcohol purchased from licensed premises at the Convent must not be consumed beyond the bounds of those premises.
  • Tenants, venue hirers and other visitors also work and play here so please respect their quiet enjoyment of the site.
  • Visitors enter the site at their own risk. The Abbotsford Convent Foundation (ACF) will not accept any responsibility for any loss, damage or injury to persons or property incurred whilst onsite.
  • The ACF reserves the right to refuse entry if you breach these conditions or other rules set out from time to time.