Melbourne's Chinese community has poured millions of dollars and countless hours of work into the Heavenly Queen Temple, which was officially opened last month.

The Taoist temple in Footscray is dedicated to Mazu, a seafarers' deity who lived from 960-987 during the Sung dynasty and became a legend after saving and helping many people.

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Heavenly Queen Temple Society president William Tsang says it will be a Footscray landmark.

"We bought this land more than 10 years ago and it was a wasteland. Now it's like a dreamland," he said.

A 16-metre-high stainless steel, gold-painted statue of the sea goddess, designed and made in Nanjing, China, at a cost of about $450,000, dominates the site.

Mr Tsang said many ethnic Chinese in Vietnam were expelled by the Communist government at the end of the Vietnam war in the late 1970s.

"They fled war-torn Vietnam to settle in Australia. So when they prepared to cross the rough sea they put their trust in [Mazu]."

This is the year of the dragon and, fittingly, the temple is adorned with several. A two-tonne granite arch greets visitors, who then walk up nine steps - nine symbolising longevity - to the temple entrance.

The walls consist of 7-metre-by-13-metre granite panels, each with intricate carvings depicting scenes of the legend of Mazu, each hand-crafted by master Chinese craftsmen and shipped to Australia. Eight solid-granite poles - eight signifying wealth and prosperity - each carved and featuring dragons, support the roof frame, which, in turn, was handpainted by a Chinese artist in gold-leaf.

Inside, devotees can pray at altars to Mazu and gods of wealth, education and luck, while a poem about the goddess, written in traditional Chinese by Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, hangs from the roof beams.

Mr Tsang was heavily involved in the design and he travelled all over China to cherry-pick details of the temples and palaces he visited.

"The temple displays some of the very best of Chinese palace-style architecture and artwork," he said. "We plan to share this part of Chinese culture with all Australians."

Further stages will include a 1000-seat restaurant, a second smaller temple, a conference centre and a community hall.