Businesses in Southbank

Discover An Underwater World

When was the last time you paid SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium a visit?

Located just across the river, the aquarium is just a short walk and is home to one of Australia’s biggest oceanariums.

According to SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium exhibit manager Tereza Todd, the oceanarium contains 1200 aquatic animals, 60 species and 2.2 million litres of water.

The Oceanarium is home to a range of animals from the tiny cleaner wrasse, which Ms Todd says is the smallest fish in the oceanarium.

According to Ms Todd, the wrasse can often be found cleaning the teeth of the largest animal in the tank, the giant grouper.

“We have a number of large marine animals in our oceanarium with the biggest being Mr G, our giant Queensland grouper,” Ms Todd said.

“Weight approximately 250 kg and measuring around 2.2 m, the other underwater residents are under no illusion of who’s boss,” she said.

With such a range of animals living in the oceanarium, feeding time involves a number of different methods.

According to Ms Todd, pole feeding, where food is attached to a long pole, is used on bigger animals including sawfish, grey nurse shark, large eagle rays and giant grouper.

“We have a specialised metallic ringer that we use to attract our sandbar whaler sharks,” Ms Todd said. “They have become used to the special sound, which allows us to target feed them without getting hassled by the others.”

“A large bell is rung to attract our large smooth rays. Much like the sandbar whalers, these smooth rays have become accustomed to the sound of the bell, so each time the bell is rung they know it’s food time.”

For the rest of the animals in the oceanarium, a large bucket is filled with food and dropped from above, Ms Todd said.

“Visitors can often see this taking place throughout the day, there’s a food frenzy when we do the bucket drops.”

Ms Todd said the oceanarium was one of her favourite exhibits to work in at the aquarium as she loves diving and interacting with some of the large animals.

“Many of the animals in this exhibit have been here for a number of years and they have become quite friendly, which allows us to get up nice and close,” Ms Todd said.

“In the wild you simply can’t have this face-to-face experience.”

SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium is located on the corner of King St and Flinders St and is open 365 days a year.

Warehouse Prices With Boutique Service

Chemist Warehouse is a national brand and, thanks to its warehouse layout, is known for having great prices, but it provides much more than that.

Southbank manager and owner Mahmoud Arakji explained that yes, the warehouse has great prices, but customer service is just as important.

“The prices are one of the things that bring people back to Chemist Warehouse,” Mr Arakji said, adding: “Though we are a warehouse, we also have great customer service and knowledge of all the products.”

One of the keys to this service is the fact that there are chemists working everyday, providing all kinds of medical needs.

“We have two professional chemists onsite every day, myself and Sartika, so you can be assured your service is top quality,” Mr Arakji said.

Being a chemist is a family trait for Mr Arakji, whose brother works at the South Melbourne branch of Chemist Warehouse. He said they were both very happy representing the Chemist Warehouse brand.

“There’s no one better than the Chemist Warehouse Group, they’re really good operators.”

So how did both brothers end up in the same field? Perhaps it had something to do with their father, who is a doctor.

“I’ve always been interested in the medical field. I’ve always wanted to be helping people out. My dad is a doctor, so I think that’s where that came from.”

Mr Arakji also said helping people was made easy by the great prices Chemist Warehouse always offered.

“What makes Chemist Warehouse unique is we’ve always got specials on. You can always get a good price, no matter what you’re looking for … When it comes to prescriptions, we’ll beat any price.”

Mr Arakji said the great deals were often aligned with the time of year.

“It’s cold and flu season at the moment, so we’ve got great deals on those products.”

Chemist Warehouse is at 153 to 159 Sturt St and is open 8am – 8pm on weekdays, 9am – 5pm Saturdays and 10am – 5pm Sundays.