No need to arrive early. If you have booth tickets, you are taken care of.

So if you come to Melbourne from Sydney will it be by train,bus or plane.? The train and bus ends up at Southern cross Station and the Skybus from Tullamarine Airport ends up at Southern cross Station. If you travel within the CBD and Docklands it is free by tram so you will not need a myki ticket which is expensive if only use it once and more than one person. The first thing you should do is to catch the City Circle Tram as their is a tape on board which ponts out the places to see. There are a lot of free things to do which include the Parks and Gardens, Victoria Market (closed on Mondays and Wednesdays), Royal and Block Arcade, Police Museum, Treasury Building, Parliamentn House, Town Hall, State Library, various churches. Fitzroy Gardens is worth a look as Cook's Cottage is the oldest building in Australia which goes back to 1755 and the First Fleet only came to Australia in 1788. Even Cook himself came to Australia in 1770 after the Cottage was built. It was his parents cottage and has a nice garden around it. The Eureka Tower is the tallest building but to see views free go to the 35th floor of the Sofitel Building and the toilets have a huge glass window which you can see over Melbourne.

Melbourne can be 4 seasons in one so if I was you I would plan for rain or heat but January is summer and usually hot and the time for the Australian Open-tennis if interested