General Information

Melbourne is the capital of Victoria and is Australia's second largest city, located on the southern coast of Australia’s eastern seaboard at the top of the Port Phillip Bay & by the banks of the Yarra River. Melbourne was named after the Prime Minister of Britain at the time of its foundation, Lord Melbourne. From 1901 until 1927, it served as the capital of the country.

About the Conference Venue –Sebel Hotel, Albert Park

The Sebel Albert Park Melbourne is centrally located on Queens Road, minutes from Melbourne's central business district and St Kilda Road.  The hotel overlooks picturesque Albert Park Lake, the venue for Melbourne's Formula One Grand Prix, is close to South Yarra's Chapel Street retail precinct and The Royal Botanic Gardens.

Airport and Transportation

  • Visitors are strongly advised to make bookings early to obtain best fares.
  • Melbourne Airport is approximately 20 kilometres or 25 minutes northwest of the city and can be easily accessed by car, taxi or bus.
  • Once in Melbourne, there are many transport options including taxi, train, tram and bus. For more information on getting around Melbourne, click here.
  • Jetbus (www.jetbus.com.au) operates a shuttle bus service from the Airport to the city and the Conferences venue, the Sebel Hotel, Albert Park. Skybus (www.skybus.com.au) operates a shuttle bus service from the Airport to the city. Both services can provide transfers to city hotels.

Passport and Visa information

All travellers, except New Zealand citizens, must obtain a visa or travel authority before travelling to Australia. Please contact your travel agent or airline for further details or visit www.immi.gov.au.

Public transport

Trams travel down St Kilda Rd. Tram stop 27 is the closest to The Sebel Albert Park Melbourne and is a short walk down Lorne Street to the hotel. The closest train stations to the hotel are Prahran and Flinders Street. For further information on public transport, visit www.victrip.com.au

Parking

Car parking is located beneath the Sebel Hotel at $16.00 per vehicle flat rate per day and accessible via Lorne Street. There is also a Wilson Parking facility (charges apply) near the hotel - entry via Queens Lane. See www.wilsonparking.com.au for details.

Distances from venue

  • St Kilda Road: 50 m, 1 minute walk
  • Melbourne airport: 24 km, 30 minutes by car
  • Melbourne CBD: 4 km, 10 minutes by car, 15 minutes by tram.

Climate

October is spring in Melbourne with generally moderate weather. The temperature usually ranges from a minimum of 9°C at
night to a maximum of 22°C during the day (48°F minimum, 71°F maximum).

Cancellation policy

Registration cancellation or substitution is only accepted by sending written notification (email acceptable) to Key Conference Solutions. Cancellations made before 6 September 2010 will be given a refund, less A$200 administration charge. After 6 September 2010 the registration for the conference is binding and no refunds will be made. However, another person may be substituted for the registered delegate. The new delegate will be acknowledged in writing. By submitting your registration you agree to the terms of the cancellation policy.

Delegate list

A list of delegates will be made available to all conference participants. The list will provide delegate’s name, organisation, state/country. If you do not wish your contact details to be included in the delegate list, please write to ARRB’s information officer on info@arrb.com.au

Proceedings

Conference proceedings will be published on CD and distributed to delegates at the Conference.

Social events

The formal social activities of the Conference will be:

More information about the Conference social events can be found on the Highlights page.

Reducing conference carbon emissions

ARRB promotes environmentally friendly initiatives within the organisation, including:

  • recycling paper, plastic, glass, aluminium, batteries and printer toner cartridges
  • utilising rain water tanks
  • subscribing ARRB vehicles with Green Fleet in order to offset carbon emissions by planting trees
  • making garden beds around offices drought resistant
  • promoting the use of video and phone conferencing over  travel
  • onsidering and adopting fuel efficient vehicles in the ARRB vehicle fleet
  • adopting and promoting water and energy saving techniques / practices
  • promoting staff car pooling.

In order to continue this theme for the ARRB conferences, ARRB will be actively promoting energy efficiency by:

  • conducting most communication between delegates, speakers and sponsors via email to reduce the amount of paper used
  • printing all paper documentation, such as programs, abstracts booklets etc., on recycled paper using environmentally friendly inks
  • promoting travel using public transport to conference attendees by:
  • encouraging use of public transport at the conference
  • providing travel smart maps for those wishing to explore Melbourne during their stay.

Here’s how you can help:

  • The suggested accommodation venues are situated very close to the Sebel Hotel, Albert Park. You can help the environment (and yourself) by walking to and from the venue to your accommodation.
  •  Visitors to the ARRB conferences are encouraged to use public transport services, along with your travel smart maps, to explore Melbourne.
  • By choosing to pay an optional extra on the conference registration form, you will provide valuable funds towards offsetting the carbon emissions utilised in attending this conference*. Funds will be forwarded to Carbon Neutral, a ‘not for profit’ organisation whose mission is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by:
  • planting trees and establishing permanent forest sinks
  • educating and encouraging organisations and individuals to minimise their emissions.

* For all the 1st International Sprayed Sealing and 23rd ARRB Conference delegates who contributed to the offset of carbon emissions utilised in attending the conferences in 2008, we are pleased to inform you that the donations were allocated to the Bally Bally (Western Australia) planting project site.

You can view all of Carbon Neutral's planting sites including detailed planting reports for most sites at: http://www.carbonneutral.com.au/plantingprojects.htm