Before you read on
- When you race
- 9–13 December 2026
- How many nights to book
- 3 nights
- Who this race suits
- A summer race in a city that takes coffee and food more seriously than most.
- Nearest airport to the venue
- Melbourne airport (MEL), About 30 min by SkyBus to Southern Cross, then a 10-minute walk
- Cost for the weekend
- AUD 617 (USD 405) per person, Flights and race entry.
On this page
Should you race here?
A summer race on the river, with free trams to the door and long daylight either side of it.
Reasons to
- Fourteen and three quarter hours of daylight, so the evenings stay open.
- The venue is inside the free tram zone, so getting there from the centre costs nothing.
- 24.7°C (76°F) and 51mm of rain across the month, while Europe races in the dark.
- Fitzroy, Carlton and Richmond eat as well as anywhere on this calendar, for about AUD 25.
Reasons not to
- It is a long way to fly for most of the Hyrox field.
- Melbourne weather is genuinely unpredictable, and an average is a poor guide to any single day.
- Guns N' Roses are at Marvel Stadium across the river the night before racing starts.
Conditions on the day
BYD HYROX Melbourne runs December 9th, 2026 to December 13th, 2026 at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Here is what that specific window is like on the ground.
The catch
Long daylight, and a summer race
25°C (76°F) by day, 15°C (58°F) at night
Melbourne in mid-December
- Daylight runs 05:52 to 20:36, which is fourteen and three quarter hours.
- The December average reaches 24.7°C (76°F) by day and falls to 14.5°C (58°F) at night.
- 51mm of rain falls across six days, and humidity drops from 64% in the morning to 45% by mid-afternoon.
- Melbourne changes its weather within the hour, so the average tells you less here than almost anywhere.
- Daylight
- Dark
- Bar height is temperature
What racing here is like
Your race is here
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
December 9th, 2026
BYD HYROX Melbourne
- Everything below describes this building first, and the other for comparison
The venue at a glance
- Address
- 1 Convention Centre Place, South Wharf, Melbourne
- Nearest station
- Southern Cross station on foot (about 10 min)
- Parking
- Underground at the centre, run by Wilson. The daily rate is not published on the venue site.
- From the nearest hotel
- 2 to 10 min from Hotels at South Wharf and Southbank
- Altitude
- 31m above sea level, low enough to make no difference to your race.
- Bag drop
- Hyrox has not published the bag drop arrangement for Melbourne.
- Supporters
- Hyrox has not published spectator ticketing for Melbourne.
Melbourne has moved building, moved season, and grown from a single day into the best part of a week. Where you race, and when, changes the day more than most people expect.
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, your race is in this building
A long glass hall on the south bank of the Yarra at South Wharf, ten minutes' walk from Southern Cross station and inside the free tram zone.
Known for. Being the first convention centre in the world to get a six-star green rating, and most of the trade that comes to Victoria.
The building. The exhibition halls opened in 1996 on the old wharf, and the convention centre was added in 2009 along the river beside them.
Race day and start times
The thing that shapes your travel is not the race date. It is when you find out what time you are racing on it.
Hyrox links individual start times on the event page about three days before the race. A provisional schedule goes up earlier.
What to bring
At the convention centre, and only on the day you compete. Registration opens 90 minutes before the first wave of your division.
You do not bring a chip. You collect the ankle strap at check-in, wear it for the race, and hand it back after the line.
What your wristband does not cover
You are given a wristband at check-in. Hyrox has not published what the Melbourne one admits you to, and check-in is open only on the day you race, so do not assume it covers a second day.
Getting there on the morning
A free tram, or a walk from anywhere in the centre. Trams start around five, which covers every wave.
What you need to book
Before you book
Book flights and the last night around the provisional schedule, not around a wave you have not been given.
If Hyrox cancels or postpones the event, its terms do not cover your flights or your room. Check the cancellation deadline on both before you pay for either.
Flying into the city
Avalon takes a few domestic and Jetstar routes and is an hour away, so check which one your ticket means.
Search flights to MelbourneBy train
Check train times and faresSomewhere to stay
The closest beds go first, and those are the ones that matter on race morning.
Compare hotels near the venueSomething to do with the rest of the weekend
Most people fly in for one race and see nothing. The day before is dead time if you do not plan it.
Tours and tickets in MelbourneSomewhere to put your bag
Flying out the same evening? This is the difference between a good afternoon and hauling a kit bag around a city.
Left luggage in MelbourneYour entry
Sold by Hyrox, one ticket per division per day. We earn nothing from this link and include it because you need it.
Official Hyrox entriesEstimate weekend cost
| Item | Local currency | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Three nights Nights near the venue | AUD 357 | $234 |
| Travel, airport and around the city | AUD 70 | $46 |
| Eating, three days | AUD 190 | $125 |
| One athlete plus one supporter | AUD 617 | $405 |
Getting to Melbourne
Melbourne airport is about 30 minutes from the city by SkyBus, which costs AUD 25.90 one way.
SkyBus from the airport
Thirty minutes to Southern Cross for AUD 25.90, running every ten minutes. There is no airport train, so this is the public transport option.
Free trams in the centre
Every tram inside the city grid is free, and the venue is inside the zone. Step on, do not tap, get off at stop 124A.
Entry requirements
Quick tip
There is no train to Melbourne airport. SkyBus goes to Southern Cross, ten minutes' walk from the hall.
Getting to the venue
Southbank and the CBD both put you within a tram stop or a walk of the hall. Fitzroy and Carlton are fifteen minutes out and much better value.
The venue sits inside Melbourne's free tram zone, so getting to it from anywhere in the centre costs nothing at all. Outside the zone a myki caps at AUD 4.00 on a weekend, which is the cheapest city transport on this calendar.
Where to stay
The venue is in the city, so the closest hotels are also the ones you would want anyway. South Wharf and Southbank are the shortest walk, and the CBD is a free tram ride.
Open in Google Maps · Get directions
1. Hotels at South Wharf and Southbank
From about AUD 119 a night. Closest to the hall, with the river and the arts precinct next door.
2. Hotels in the CBD
The laneways, the coffee and the trams, all inside the free zone. Averaging nearer AUD 234 a night.
3. Hotels in Fitzroy and Carlton
Where Melbourne eats and drinks. Cheaper, better, and fifteen minutes on a tram from the hall.
Mid-December is the Melbourne touring season and there is a stadium show the night before racing starts, so central rooms go earlier than you would expect.
Neighbourhoods worth the commute
Melbourne is a grid with trams through it, and everywhere below is fifteen minutes or less from the hall.
| Area | To the venue | Why | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southbank | 5 to 10 min on foot | The south side of the river, with the arts centre, the casino and a promenade. Closest, and the least characterful. | |
| The CBD | 10 to 15 min on foot | Laneways, arcades, rooftop bars and the best coffee in the country. The free tram zone covers all of it. | |
| Fitzroy | about 15 min by tram | Brunswick Street and Gertrude Street, where the independent kitchens and record shops are. The best evening in the city. | |
| Carlton | about 15 min by tram | Lygon Street, the university and the museum. Italian restaurants that have been there sixty years. | |
| South Yarra | about 12 min by tram | Chapel Street, the Botanic Gardens and the smarter end of town. Good for a flat morning run. |
Eating before and after
The night before a race is not the night for the best meal of your trip, which is harder discipline than it sounds in a city this good at food.
South Wharf, by the hall
A row of restaurants along the promenade right outside the centre, which serve early and will not surprise you. Convenient rather than good.
Lygon Street
Fifteen minutes by tram for a plate of pasta at a place that has been doing it since 1960. The best version of a boring dinner.
Melbourne's food is Greek, Vietnamese, Italian and Chinese, because the people who cook it have been here for generations.
Lygon Street, Carlton
Sixty years of Italian restaurants along four blocks, where the espresso machine arrived in Australia. Pasta the night before is not a hardship here.
Victoria Street, Richmond
A kilometre of Vietnamese kitchens where a bowl of pho costs about fifteen dollars and the queue is Vietnamese. Twenty minutes east on the 109.
Race day supplies
The practical failures that spoil a race weekend are almost never the training. They are forgetting the gels, or carrying a kit bag around a city for six hours.
Pack list
- A layer, whatever the forecast says. Melbourne can drop ten degrees in an hour and often does.
- Sun protection. The December UV index here is extreme by European standards, even at 24.7°C (76°F).
- Something light for the evening. The sun does not set until 20:36.
Quick tips
- Do not tap your myki on a tram inside the free zone. You will be charged for a journey that was free.
- There is no train from Melbourne airport, so allow for SkyBus or a taxi.
South Wharf has a shopping outlet and the CBD has everything. You will not need to plan ahead here.
The last race in Melbourne
The convention centre is a recent addition to the Hyrox calendar, so there is little previous form here to pass on.
What happened
The last edition, in short.
- The site is a convention centre joined to an exhibition centre, so check which building your hall is in.
- Tram stop 124A is outside the door and the whole city centre is a free tram zone.
What it means for you
How your race differs from that one.
- Melbourne weather changes within the hour, and a 24.7°C (76°F) forecast can arrive as 15°C (59°F) and wind.
- Guns N' Roses are at Marvel Stadium on the Friday, a few hundred metres from the hall.
What else is on that weekend
A heavy weekend of concerts, with one of them next door to the hall.
| What | When | Where | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guns N' Roses | 11 December | Marvel Stadium, Docklands | Friday night, a few hundred metres across the river from the venue. Fifty thousand people and no trams to spare. |
| Melbourne Victory against Newcastle Jets | 12 December | AAMI Park, Olympic Park | Saturday, across the city at the sports precinct. Trams 70 and 75 will be full afterwards. |
| Queens of the Stone Age | 13 December | Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park | Sunday night. Nothing to do with the race unless you want somewhere to be afterwards. |
| Baby Keem, Dijon, Jordan Rakei and The Dandy Warhols | 9 and 10 December | Festival Hall, Margaret Court Arena, the Forum and the Palais | Four shows across the two arrival nights. December is the Melbourne touring season. |
What to see
Written for someone racing tomorrow, not a tourist with a week. Each entry says how far it is, because some of these are worth a longer trip and some are not.
The Royal Botanic Gardens
Thirty-eight hectares on the river, free, with eight thousand species in them. A 3.8km gravel running track rings the outside and half the city uses it.
The National Gallery of Victoria
The oldest and most visited gallery in Australia, five minutes from the hall, with free entry to the permanent collection and a stained-glass ceiling worth lying under.
Queen Victoria Market
Seven hectares of sheds trading since 1878, with produce on one side and a food hall on the other. Closed Mondays and Wednesdays, which catches people out.
The laneways
Hosier Lane, Centre Place, Degraves Street: a few square kilometres of alleys full of coffee, graffiti and bars up unmarked staircases. The reason people like this city.
What to do
The Tan
A 3.8km gravel loop around the Botanic Gardens with one real hill in it, and the run every Melbourne athlete does. Ten minutes from the hall and free.
St Kilda and the pier
Twenty minutes down the 96 tram to a bay beach, a pier with penguins on it at dusk, and Acland Street. The easiest half day in the city.
A croissant at Lune
A croissant bakery in a Fitzroy warehouse that has been called the best in the world, more than once, by people who went and queued. About six dollars.
A day on the Mornington Peninsula
An hour south, hot springs, vineyards and a coastline. The standard Melbourne day out, and best in December when the weather holds.
Raced here? Tell us about it.
Anything you wish you had known. It goes into this guide for the next person, and most of them have never done a Hyrox.
Things people find useful
- How early you really needed to arrive
- What caught you out
- What the hall was like inside
- Where your supporters watched from
- Anything good you did in the city
Not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Hyrox. HYROX is a trademark of its owner, used only to describe the races discussed.
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Last updated November 7th, 2026.