The Geelong Art Gallery

The Geelong Gallery is an excellent regional gallery that ranks as one of the oldest of its type in the country, and which has been in existence for over 100 years. Centrally located in Geelong alongside the city's impressive town hall, the gallery resides in a building that is quite impressive in and of itself, with a visually striking facade constructed in the Victorian architectural style. Split out over two levels, the Geelong Gallery rants a helping of insight into the earliest days of the Geelong region as a whole, with artworks that date back to the days of Australia's initial colonisation.

The gallery features around 6,000 individual pieces of art in total and is largely a mixture of Australia and European art, with plenty of paintings as well as sculptures, pottery and other visual artforms including photographs (something of a rarity as far as regional museums go). There's a nice balance struck between historic and modern paintings here, and the gallery itself is well laid out, airy, and contains a surprising depth of artwork despite its relatively small size. The collection is continually changing with time, while temporary exhibitions are regularly held throughout the year as well.

A lovely gift shop offers a range of interesting and high quality cultural books and other keepsakes for sale, too, and when added to the gallery makes for another great rainy day activity in Geelong in which to while away a couple of hours.