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Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-largest city in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.7 million (2006 estimate). Melbourne is the southernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million ... more »
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Hotels Melbourne is the state capital and largest city in the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-largest city in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.7 million (2006 estimate). Melbourne is the southernmost city in the world to have a population of over one million people.
Melbourne has twice shared top position in a survey by The Economist of The World's Most Livable Cities on the basis of its cultural attributes, climate, cost of living, and social conditions such as crime rates and health care, once in 2002, and again in 2004. The US's Utne Reader puts it thus: "Add a long tradition of civic pride, communities of new immigrants from around the world, and the best food in Australia, and you have a recipe for what many claim is the hippest city in the Southern Hemisphere" (Nov/Dec 2001).
Melbourne is located in the south-eastern corner of mainland Australia, and is the southernmost mainland capital city.
Melbourne is a large commercial and industrial centre. Many of Australia's largest companies have their headquarters there, and many multinational corporations (approximately one-third of the 100 largest multinationals operating in Australia as of 2002), have their main Australian office there. The peak body representing workers in Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, is also headquartered in Melbourne. Melbourne is home to Australia's largest seaport and much of Australia's automotive industry (including the engine manufacturing facility of Holden and the Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities), in addition to many other manufacturing industries.
Things to do
Melbourne attracts large numbers of tourists. The city's tourism information centre is located at Federation Square. The Fitzroy Gardens in East Melbourne has many attractions including Captain Cook's Cottage. Along St Kilda Road there are many cultural attractions, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Shrine of Remembrance, King's Domain and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, the Arts Centre, and Victoria Barracks. Southbank on the southern bank of the Yarra River attracts locals and tourists alike for its mix of dining, shopping and recreational facilities. The Crown Casino entertainment complex can also be found in the Southbank precinct. North of the Central Business District is home to the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, the University precinct and the Royal Melbourne Zoo.
There are many skyscrapers in Melbourne, the tallest being the Eureka Tower (300m above street level), followed by the Rialto Towers (251m above street level). Both buildings feature observation decks and facilities for hosting tourists.
Melbourne hosts a large number of spectator sports. Melbourne's best-known sporting events are the Australian Open, Australian F1 Grand Prix, numerous international Cricket matches, the Australian Football League Grand Final and the Spring Racing Carnival which culminates with the running of the Melbourne Cup horse race at Flemington. Melbourne hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Melbourne's restaurants are numerous, and are generally of high quality and good value. Some of the best restaurants can be found in St Kilda along Fitzroy Street, South Yarra along Chapel Street, Fitzroy along Brunswick Street, Carlton along Lygon St, South Melbourne along Clarendon St, Richmond along Bridge Rd and Victoria St and Collingwood along Smith Street, as well as in the CBD and Southbank precincts. Flower Drum located in Market Lane next to Chinatown is often regarded as Melbourne's finest restaurant by The Age's Good Food Guide, as well as been ranked in the top 50 best restaurants in the world by international hospitality bible Restaurant Magazine. Buffet restaurant chains like Foodstar have also appeared in recent years serving a large number of patrons around Melbourne. As one would expect from a city its size, Melbourne has a wide variety of pubs, bars and nightclubs, which can be found all over the metropolitan area.
There are a variety of interesting things to see outside Melbourne proper but still within a day trip of Melbourne. Some of the most popular include: Phillip Island (for Little Penguins, time-trial bike racing and rock festivals), the Great Ocean Road (famous for the Twelve Apostles rock formations and whale-watching at Warrnambool), Sovereign Hill (an open air museum recreating life during the Victorian goldrush) and Hanging Rock (an atmospheric volcanic formation, made famous by the book and film, Picnic at Hanging Rock). Melbourne is also surrounded by wine-producing regions, including the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Bellarine Peninsula, and the Macedon area.
The city was named after the British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose home was near the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. Melbourne in Derbyshire derives its name from the Old English for "mill stream" (mylla burne).
The European settlement at Melbourne was founded in 1835 by settlers coming from Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land), where they had difficulty finding available land.
The area was already inhabited by the Kulin people, then indigenous to the area. A transaction was negotiated for 600,000 acres of land from eight Wurundjeri representatives; this was later annulled by the New South Wales government (then governing all of eastern mainland Australia), who compensated the settlers in exchange. Ultimately, settlement continued regardless.
It was the capital first of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and then of the separate colony of Victoria. With the discovery of gold in Victoria in the 1850s, leading to the Victorian gold rush, Melbourne quickly grew as a port and service centre.
Later it became Australia's leading manufacturing centre. During the 1880s, Melbourne was the second largest city in the British Empire, and came to be known as "Marvellous Melbourne". The 1880s saw the construction of many hi-rise Victorian buildings and Coffee Palaces, terrace housing, grand boulevardes and gardens throughout the city. Victorian architecture abounds in Melbourne and today the city is home to the largest number of surviving Victorian era buildings of any city in the world other than London.
Melbourne was the capital city of Australia from 1901 until 1927. It became the national capital at Australia's Federation on 1 January 1901. The first Federal parliament was opened on 9 May of that year in the Royal Exhibition Building. The seat of government and the national capital remained in Melbourne until 1927 when it moved to the new capital city of Canberra.
Melbourne continued to expand steadily throughout the first half of the 20th century. It became the Allied Pacific Headquarters for a time from 1942 to 1944 as General Douglas MacArthur established Australia as a launch base for Pacific operations. During World War II Melbourne industries flourished and expanded with war time production. This set Melbourne on a course for significant post war expansion, particularly with the post-World War II influx of immigrants and the prestige of hosting the Olympic Games in 1956.
Even after the national capital moved to Canberra, Melbourne remained Australia's business and finance capital until the 1970s, when it began to lose this primacy to Sydney. Melbourne also developed as a centre of the arts.
After a boom in the 1980s Melbourne experienced a (largely property market and manufacturing driven) slump from 1989 to 1992, with a loss of employment and a drain of population to New South Wales and Queensland. In the 1990s, the Victorian state government of Premier Jeff Kennett (Liberal) sought to reverse this trend with the aggressive development of new public buildings, such as the Melbourne Museum, Federation Square, the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre (nicknamed "Jeff's Shed"), Crown Casino, capital works (most notably the City Link tollway), the (somewhat controversial) selling of state assets (the State Electricity Commission and some state schools), the pruning back of state services and the publicising of Melbourne's merits both to outsiders and Melburnians.
This has continued under the government of current Premier Steve Bracks (Labor). Since 1997, Melbourne has maintained significant population and employment growth. Furthermore, there has been substantial international investment in the city's industries and property market. 2006 figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that since 2000 Melbourne has sustained the highest population and economic growth rate of any Australian city.
Melbourne has a large and vibrant arts and cultural life.
Annuals arts celebrations include Moomba, the Melbourne Arts Festival, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Melbourne Fashion Festival, the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, the Melbourne International Animation Festival and the Gay and Lesbian Midsumma festival.
Melbourne is the home of the Australian Ballet and the second home of Opera Australia. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is highly regarded both at home and internationally.
Melbourne was strongly associated with the establishment of Australia's visual arts. The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century centred in Melbourne. It was largely the work of Melbourne-based artists, and was arguably the first distinctly Australian art movement (in the Western canon, at least). Many of its most significant works hang in the National Gallery of Victoria, which has one of Australia's top collections of visual art, particularly early Australian western-tradition art.
Melbourne is also home to the unique Australian Centre for the Moving Image dedicated to "moving images" in all its forms, from film to animation to games and television. ACMI is also a venue for the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Several professional theatre companies operate in Melbourne, of which the Melbourne Theatre Company has the most institutional support of any in Australia, and there is a wide range of smaller companies, including Malthouse and Red Stitch Actors Theatre.
Melbourne's lively rock and pop music scene has fostered many internationally renowned artists and musicians. The 1960's gave rise to many performers including Olivia Newton John, John Farnham, Graeme Bell, and 1960's folk group The Seekers. The 1970's gave rise to many acts getting their first big breaks on Melbourne's Countdown (music show) including AC/DC, and Nick Cave; whilst INXS and Crowded House are among many who emerged during the 1980's. Successful Australian bands have included Hunters & Collectors, Killing Heidi, Spiderbait, TISM and Something for Kate. In recent years, Jet, Taxiride (band), as well as female singers such as Kylie Minogue, Dannii Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Vanessa Amorosi, Madison Avenue (band) and Kate Ceberano have enjoyed great international success.
The dance music scene in Melbourne is large and lively. There are dance parties happening almost every night of the year, frequently attracting some of the world's best DJs to the city. Some of the biggest nightclubs in the world are based in Melbourne, including the Melbourne Metro Nightclub (2500 capacity) and QBH (2100 capacity). The Melbourne Shuffle, a style of dance, had its birth here, and has been evolving ever since.
Melbourne has an integrated public transport system. However, while it is of considerable size, some of Melbourne's outlying suburbs still face transport difficulties. It has one of the world's most extensive tram networks, one of the few tram systems in Australia. Visitors are served by a free City Circle Tram, taking in many tourist sights. There are almost 300 bus routes and a train system with more than 15 lines. Flinders Street Station is a prominent Melbourne landmark and meeting place. From the 1920s to the 1940s it was the world's busiest passenger station. The city has rail connections with several regional cities in the state, as well as interstate rail services to Sydney and Adelaide, which depart from Melbourne's other major rail terminus, Southern Cross Station.
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The State Government's high investment in road infrastructure and the rapid growth of new suburbs lacking adequate public transport infrastructure has increased the dependency on private cars for transport, despite no home in Melbourne being more than 400m from a bus route. There is a major campaign that hopes to bring about government change in transport planning. Major highways feeding into the city include the Eastern Freeway, South Eastern Freeway and Westgate Freeway (which spans the spectacular Westgate Bridge). The Port of Melbourne is Australia's largest container and general cargo port and also its busiest. Melbourne Airport is the nation's second busiest. Station Pier in Port Phillip Bay handles cruise ships and the Spirit of Tasmania ferries which cross Bass Strait to Tasmania.
Melbourne has four significant airports. Melbourne International Airport located at Tullamarine is the city's main international and domestic (Virgin Blue and Qantas) gateway. Avalon Airport, located between Melbourne and Geelong, is the main hub of Jetstar, a low cost airline owned by QANTAS, and is also used as a freight and maintenance facility. Moorabbin Airport is a significant general aviation airport in the city's south east. Essendon Airport, which was once the city's main airport before the construction of Tullamarine, handles general aviation and some cargo flights, and is the base of the Victoria Police air wing and air ambulance.
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* Melbourne has a temperate climate under the Köppen climate classification system. The city is known for having unusual weather conditions, with the phrase 'four seasons in a day' often mentioned by locals and visitors alike. Melburnians tend to 'be prepared' with regards to the weather, for example, taking an umbrella with them even if the forecast predicts fine weather.
Temperature - Yearly Average
Like Australia's other major cities, snow is virtually unknown in the vast majority of Melbourne, though light falls sometimes occur on Mount Dandenong in the outer eastern suburbs.
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Distances are calculated as the crow flies, and are provided as an aid in planning only.
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
