Located by the banks of the Yarra River, 1.5 kilometres SW of the centre of Melbourne, the three function floors of the World Congress Centre include two theatres, plus many program rooms and a ballroom. While the 6900 square metres (64000 square feet) of room space does not rival that of LAcon III, the 6000 person capacity of the centre exceeds our more limited needs.
The reception areas for both the World Congress Centre and the Centra Hotel are directly off a ramped vehicle access around the Centre at the first floor entrance to both. (In Australia, the first floor is the one immediately above the ground floor). This area is flanked by seven smaller meeting rooms, and a tiered 400 seat theatre style room. The hotel has kitchens, restaurants and a bar downstairs, while the World Congress Centre ground floor is exclusively utilities and unloading areas.
Escalators take you from the lobby up to the main function area on the third floor, and open directly upon the atrium. At one end, full length windows give a view of the city and river. There are five rooms for smaller panels (130 capacity), plus a 1000 person room. The largest room on this level is the tiered 1400 seat Batman Theatre (not named after the comic book hero). The top floor contains another five smaller rooms (180 capacity), and a pair of considerably larger rooms, which can be opened to form a 2500 capacity ballroom.
All rooms, including concourses, are fully carpeted, and all partitioned walls are sound absorbent and reach the full height to the high ceilings. There are lifts (elevators), escalators and stairs to each floor. There are disabled facilities on some floors. The centre meets Australian standards for handicapped access.
The You Yang Rooms are not available Wednesday, Thursday or Friday morning
due to prior bookings. We anticipate having the Howqua and Press rooms
available without additional charges. Negotiations on the Batman theatre
are continuing.