Rippon Lea Estate

Rippon Lea Estate

Rippon Lea Estate
4.5
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
About
Rippon Lea is a large nineteenth century mansion surrounded by 7 hectares of Victorian pleasure gardens. It is listed on the National Heritage Register because it is one of the finest examples of an original suburban estate in Australia.
Duration: 2-3 hours
Suggest edits to improve what we show.
Improve this listing
Tours & experiences
Explore different ways to experience this place.
What is Travellers’ Choice?
Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.

Top ways to experience Rippon Lea Estate and nearby attractions

Are you currently on your trip?
Help us find experiences available for you.
The area
Address
Reach out directly

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles375 reviews
Excellent
203
Very good
141
Average
16
Poor
6
Terrible
9

vivieneu
Lake Cathie, Australia167 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2022
This house is part of Melbourne history and it is a fabulous house when we visited we had a lovely lady give us a tour of the house and her knowledge was excellent. The house itself has wonderful wallpaper, some of the original furnishings,paintings and the stain glass windows were fabulous. The gardens have some wonderful plants and flowering shrubs with huge fig trees when we were there the dahlias were in bloom and made a wonderful display. All in all we had a wonderful experience and highly recommend a visit to all who are interested in historical places.
Written 29 March 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Traveller
Melbourne, Australia17,552 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2022
After driving from our house for 30 minutes, my wife and I arrived here at 9:55 am on a weekday. Although the opening time is stated as 10 am, the gate was opened, so we walked in and bought our tickets.

The Mansion Tour was at 10: 30 am, so we walked in various parts of the very large garden before that Tour. We also walked to the windmill and walked up the stairs to the viewing platform to see the gardens from above.

The Mansion Tour (around 45 minutes in total) was excellent. The Tour Guide, Peter, did an excellent presentation. We saw various rooms inside the Mansion and also walked along the Balcony.

After that tour, we spent another 45 minutes walking across all the parts of the Garden (including the lake, the lookout, the Grotto, the Archery House, the swimming pool, the boat house, the bridges and islands) to enjoy the exercise and the views. This is a magnificent Estate that is well worth the entry fee.
Written 5 May 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Diana P
Cairns, Australia37 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
I recently traveled to Melbourne and decided to pay a visit to the Beautiful Rippon Lea Estate. What a wonderful surprise. This is one of those hidden gems for anyone who loves beautiful old Victorian buildings The grounds are massive and you could easily spend a day getting lost. The tour is very informative and covers all the periods of the mansion from Victorian to the 1940's period. Most of the furniture is original to the building which is wonderful to see and the tours are small groups and very intimate. The staff were very passionate about the history of the building too which was very helpful. A stunning place and definately worth a visit. They also have outdoor movies and a Miss Fisher exhibition coming up if you are a fan of the series and books. There is a cafe or take a picnic by the lake.
Written 22 February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

ozztravellers987
13 contributions
1.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2023 • Friends
My previous visit some years ago was OK but this time in 2023 was a total disappointment.
First the "tripping hazard" of the paths and the driveway - someone may sue them one day after they fall from tripping on exposed bumpy roots on the driveway and walk ways.
the entry little building where you pay was full of nicely dressed "volunteer staff" all chatting away. But the lady at the till seemed not well versed in how to do her job. So five different visitors had to get out cash as the lady could not get the machine to take cards to work.
Once I started looking at the garden I could see Clivia plants cluttered with weeds and the Clivia in desperate need of being dug up and divided. And better compost added to enrich the soil.
RipponLea needs to source100 willing regular energetic volunteer skilled gardeners NOT more "ladies who lunch" in the little building at the front.
The shrubs need pruning. The bigger trees need some qualified arborists to properly thin out the trees (NOT remove the trees) to let more light in.
The National Trust needs to remedy the situation. The horrible amount of weeds throughout the garden made it apparent that the garden is neglected and IF there are any garden volunteers clearly they are over-whelmed and or not up to the job.
We were going to look at the mansion inside but as a mark of our disgust at the neglect outside in the garden we chose to leave.
Until we hear that the National Trust has sourced some funds to get some real CARE applied to improve the woeful state of the garden we will NOT be returning to RipponLea.
It was a very disappointing visit
Written 26 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Fran H
3 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2020
We planned to visit the house and garden and duly paid our admission fee. At the house there was a sign stating that there were no more tours for the day. We were not advised of this at entry, and would not have gone in if we had known as the grounds alone were not of sufficient interest to our party or four. The staff were disinterested and unhelpful, would recommend you check what you are paying for on entry. The gardens are nice but for us not worth the admission price on their own.
Written 4 January 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Michael-4551
Caloundra, Australia5,518 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020
Visited on Wednesday 12th February, we are NT members so entry was free for us. We checked out the grounds while we waited for our guided tour of the house. Overall spent about 2 hours there. It pays to check their website before going as the house is sometimes closed for special events and you have to pay extra even if you only want to view the house and not the exhibits.
Written 12 April 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jeffry b
Essendon, Australia13,699 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
June 2021
Rippon Lea Estate is one of the finest surviving grand mansions of the Victorian era in a suburban location. The Mansion dates from the 19th century. It is surrounded by 14 acres (6 hectares) of manicured gardens. Rippon Lea is 7 km (4 miles) from the Melbourne CBD. Tours are held of the mansion and the gardens. A market is heldin the grounds on the first Sunday of every month. By the way, activities are held for children in the gardens. Rippon Lea is on the register of the National Trust.
Written 26 June 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

DDSWM
Kurri Kurri, Australia402 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2020
Should have checked before we went... the house was closed to the Public in March 2020 as they were preparing it for the Miss Fisher Crypt of Tears exhibition. Visited on 6 March and the exhibition starts on 20 March 2020 (until 19 July 2020). Still worthwhile exploring the grounds and we were able to explore the kitchen and laundry below the house. The gate house staff were very friendly and helpful. Used our National Trust pass which gives free entry... and a discount for the exhibition. Only a short walk from the Rippon Lea Station.
Written 6 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

ronniesmum2018
Melbourne, Australia98 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2020 • Couples
We attended the Barefoot Cinema at Rippon Lea. We’ve been before with our own chairs but this time decided on the deluxe package and had chairs provided. There were beanbags, too. The food and drink available was good quality. There happened to be a French person giving samples of her lollies and pate also.

Rippon Lea looked beautiful as the sun went down. It’s always a pleasure to wander the grounds.
Written 3 March 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Mike255100
Melbourne, Australia244 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
June 2022
There is a new kitchen tour available and we quite enjoyed it. We had just seen the new Downton Abbey film and so upstairs-downstairs was very much on our mind.

Though a grand house by Australian standards, it only had seven regular servants. They would bring in extras for big events. We decided we would not have enjoyed working there. The kitchen would have been hard work with a wood-coal stove in which to cook.

The owners moved the kitchen upstairs in the early 1900s and so the basement version was left much as it was in the late 1800s.

The "butler" who was the tour guide provided a range of stories which really made our visit interesting. It was just by chance that a tour of the house was starting when we had finished. So, we had a chance to be upstairs as well.

It is impressive and we enjoyed having the opportunity. We did not do the garden tour this time but have done so in the past. It is also worth doing.
Written 7 July 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Showing results 1-10 of 364
Revenue impacts the experiences featured on this page, learn more.
*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.
Is this your Tripadvisor listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim your listing

Rippon Lea Estate (2025) - All You MUST Know Before You Go (with Reviews)

All things to do in Elsternwick
RestaurantsFlightsHoliday RentalsTravel StoriesCruisesRental Cars