Melbourne

Melbourne
Naarm (Woiwurrung)
Naarm (Boonwurrung)
Victoria
Map of Melbourne, Australia, printable and editable
Map of Melbourne, Australia, printable and editable
Melbourne is located in Australia
Melbourne
Melbourne
Coordinates37°48′51″S 144°57′47″E / 37.81417°S 144.96306°E / -37.81417; 144.96306
Population5,207,145 (2023)[1] (2nd)
 • Density521.079/km2 (1,349.59/sq mi)
Established30 August 1835 (1835-08-30)
Elevation31 m (102 ft)
Area9,993 km2 (3,858.3 sq mi)(GCCSA)[2]
Time zoneAEST (UTC+10)
 • Summer (DST)AEDT (UTC+11)
Location
LGA(s)31 municipalities across Greater Melbourne
CountyBourke, Evelyn, Grant, Mornington
State electorate(s)55 electoral districts and regions
Federal division(s)23 divisions
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall
20.2 °C
68 °F
9.7 °C
49 °F
515.5 mm
20.3 in
Localities around Melbourne:
Loddon Mallee Hume Hume
Grampians Melbourne Gippsland
Barwon South West Port Phillip Bay Gippsland
Greater Melbourne Region
Greater Melbourne Region

Melbourne (/ˈmɛlbərn/ MEL-bərn;[note 1] Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: Narrm or Naarm[9][10]) is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria and the second-most populous city in Australia (behind Sydney), although the most populous by contiguous urban area.[11] Its name generally refers to a 9,993 km2 (3,858 sq mi) metropolitan area also known as Greater Melbourne,[12] comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local municipalities,[13] although the name is also used specifically for the local municipality of City of Melbourne based around its central business area.

The metropolis occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay and spreads into the Mornington Peninsula, part of West Gippsland, as well as the hinterlands towards the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges, and the Macedon Ranges. Melbourne has a population over 5 million (19% of the population of Australia, as of the 2021 census), mostly residing to the east of the city centre, and its inhabitants are commonly referred to as "Melburnians".[note 2]

The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal Victorians for over 40,000 years and serves as an important meeting place for local Kulin nation clans.[16][17] Of the five peoples of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land encompassing Melbourne are the Boonwurrung, Wathaurong and the Wurundjeri peoples. A short-lived penal settlement was built in 1803 at Port Phillip, then part of the British colony of New South Wales. However, it was not until 1835, with the arrival of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania), that Melbourne was founded.[16] It was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837, and named after William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne,[16] who was then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In 1851, four years after Queen Victoria declared it a city, Melbourne became the capital of the new colony of Victoria.[18] During the 1850s Victorian gold rush, the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into one of the world's largest and wealthiest metropolises.[19][20] After the federation of Australia in 1901, Melbourne served as the interim seat of government of the new nation until Canberra became the permanent capital in 1927.[21] Today, it is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region and ranked 32nd globally in the March 2022 Global Financial Centres Index.[22]

Melbourne is home of many of Australia's best-known landmarks, such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the National Gallery of Victoria and the World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building. Noted for its cultural heritage, the city gave rise to Australian rules football, Australian impressionism and Australian cinema, and has more recently been recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a global centre for street art, live music and theatre. It hosts major annual international events, such as the Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Open, and also hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. Melbourne consistently ranked as the world's most liveable city for much of the 2010s.[23]

Melbourne Airport, also known as the Tullamarine Airport, is the second-busiest airport in Australia, and the Port of Melbourne is the nation's busiest seaport.[24] Its main metropolitan rail terminus is Flinders Street station and its main regional rail and road coach terminus is Southern Cross station. It also has Australia's most extensive freeway network and the largest urban tram network in the world.[25]

  1. ^ "Greater Melbourne". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 28 March 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "2016 Census of Population and Housing: General Community Profile". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2017. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  3. ^ "Great Circle Distance between MELBOURNE and CANBERRA". Geoscience Australia. March 2004. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Great Circle Distance between MELBOURNE and ADELAIDE". Geoscience Australia. March 2004. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  5. ^ "Great Circle Distance between MELBOURNE and SYDNEY". Geoscience Australia. March 2004.
  6. ^ "Great Circle Distance between MELBOURNE and BRISBANE". Geoscience Australia. March 2004. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Great Circle Distance between MELBOURNE and PERTH". Geoscience Australia. March 2004. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  8. ^ Wells, John C. (2008), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.), Longman, ISBN 9781405881180; Butler, S., ed. (2013). "Melbourne". Macquarie Dictionary (6th ed.). Sydney: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 978-18-7642-966-9.
  9. ^ Clark, Ian D. (2002). Dictionary of Aboriginal placenames of Melbourne and Central Victoria. Melbourne: Victorian Aboriginal Corp. for Languages. p. 62. ISBN 0957936052.
  10. ^ Nicholson, Mandy; Jones, David (2020). "Wurundjeri-al Narrm-u (Wurundjeri's Melbourne): Aboriginal living heritage in Australia's urban landscapes". The Routledge Handbook on Historic Urban Landscapes in the Asia-Pacific. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429486470-30. ISBN 978-0-429-48647-0. S2CID 213567108. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  11. ^ "Regional population". Australian Bureau of Statistics. 20 April 2023. Archived from the original on 30 March 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  12. ^ "2016 Census of Population and Housing". Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  13. ^ "Victorian Local Government Directory" (PDF). Department of Planning and Community Development, Government of Victoria. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
  14. ^ Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series, iii, s.v. "Melburnian Archived 26 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine".
  15. ^ Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Or less commonly Melbournites. Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. ISBN 1-876429-14-3.
  16. ^ a b c "History of the City of Melbourne" (PDF). City of Melbourne. November 1997. pp. 8–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference merrimerri was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference MilesLewis25 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference RobertCervero320 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Davidson, Jim (2 August 2014). "Rise and fall of British empire viewed through its cities". The Australian. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  21. ^ "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act" (PDF). Department of the Attorney-General, Government of Australia. p. 45 (Section 125). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
  22. ^ "The Global Financial Centres Index 31" (PDF). Long Finance. March 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  23. ^ Stephanie Chalkley-Rhoden (16 August 2017). "World's most liveable city: Melbourne takes top spot for seventh year running". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 16 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  24. ^ "Government outlines vision for Port of Melbourne Freight Hub" (Press release). 2006. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
  25. ^ "Investing in Transport Chapter 3 – East/West, Section 3.1.2 – Tram Network" (PDF). Department of Transport, Government of Victoria. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2009.


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