'Melbourne' (
pronounced ) is the second most populous city in
Australia, with a
metropolitan area population of approximately 3.74 million (2006 estimate).
[1]
Located around
Port Phillip Bay in the country's south-east, Melbourne is the
state capital of
Victoria.
Melbourne is a major centre of
commerce,
industry and cultural activity.
The city is often referred to as Australia's "sporting and cultural capital"
[2]
and it is home to many of the nation's most significant cultural and sporting events and institutions.
It has been recognised as a
global city by the
Loughborough University group's 1999 inventory.
[3]
Melbourne is notable for its mix of
Victorian and
contemporary architecture, its extensive
tram network and Victorian
parks and gardens, and its diverse,
multicultural society.
It was the host city of the
1956 Summer Olympics and the
2006 Commonwealth Games.
Melbourne was founded by free settlers in
1835, 47 years after the first
European settlement of Australia, as a small
pastoral settlement situated around the
Yarra River.
Transformed rapidly into a major
metropolis by the
Victorian gold rush in the 1850s, "Marvellous Melbourne" became Australia's largest and most important city by
1865,
but was overtaken by
Sydney as the largest city in Australia during the early 20th century.
Melbourne served as the capital city of Australia from the time of the new nation's
Federation in
1901, until Federal
Parliament moved to the new, purpose-built capital,
Canberra, in
1927.
[4]
History
Main articles: History of Melbourne
Melbourne Landing, 1840; watercolour by W. Liardet (1840).
The
Windsor Hotel, one of the surviving grand buildings from the 1880s boom.
The area of the
Yarra River and
Port Phillip that is now Melbourne was first settled by the British in
1835. These settlers came from
Launceston,
Tasmania (then known as
Van Diemen's Land). The area was already inhabited by the
indigenous Kulin people. A transaction was negotiated for 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) of land from eight
Wurundjeri chiefs; this was later
annulled by the
New South Wales government (then governing all of eastern mainland Australia), which compensated the settlers.
[5]
In
1836, Governor Bourke declared the city the administrative capital of the
Port Phillip District of New South Wales, and commissioned the first plan for the
Hoddle Grid in 1837. The settlement was named Melbourne in the same year after the
British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who resided in the village of
Melbourne in
Derbyshire. Melbourne was declared a city by
Queen Victoria on
25 June 1847.
[6]
The state of Victoria was established as a separate colony in 1851 with Melbourne as its capital. With the discovery of
gold in Victoria in the
1850s, leading to the
Victorian gold rush, Melbourne grew rapidly, providing the majority of
service industries and serving as the major port for the region. The city became a major finance centre, home to several banks and to Australia's first
stock exchange (founded in 1861). During the
1880s Melbourne was one of the largest cities in the
British Empire. This period saw the construction of many high-rise Victorian buildings,
Coffee Palaces,
terrace housing, grand boulevards and gardens throughout the city. Examples of this
Victorian architecture still abound in Melbourne. So impressed was journalist
George Augustus Henry Sala during his visit in 1885 that he coined the phrase "Marvellous Melbourne" to describe the booming city, a phrase which stuck and is used by its locals and the media to this day.
The brash
boosterism which typified Melbourne during this time came to a halt in 1891 when a world
economic depression hit the city's economy, sending the finance and property industries into chaos. The effects of the depression on the city were profound, although it did continue to grow slowly during the early
20th century.
At the time of Australia's
Federation on
1 January 1901, Melbourne was specified as the temporary
seat of government and remained the
national capital until 1927, when the Federal
parliament was moved to the
planned city of
Canberra. The first Federal parliament was convened on
9 May 1901 in the
Royal Exhibition Building.
Melbourne was the Allied Pacific Headquarters from 1942 to 1944 as General
Douglas MacArthur established Australia as a launch base for Pacific operations. During
World War II, Melbourne industries thrived on wartime production and the city became Australia's leading manufacturing centre. After the war, Melbourne expanded rapidly, with its growth boosted by an influx of
immigrants and the prestige of hosting the
Olympic Games. Australia's mining boom between 1969 and 1970 proved beneficial to Melbourne, with the headquarters of many of the major companies (
BHP,
Rio Tinto and many others) based in the city.
Nauru's booming mineral economy fuelled several ambitious investments in Melbourne such as
Nauru House. Melbourne remained Australia's business and finance capital until the late 1970s, when it began to lose this primacy to
Sydney.
[7]
Melbourne experienced the worst of Victoria's economic slump between 1989 to 1992. In 1992, a newly elected Victorian government began a campaign to restore the economy with an aggressive development campaign of
public works and major events centred on Melbourne and the promotion of the city as a
tourist destination. Major projects included the
Melbourne Museum,
Federation Square, the
Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre,
Crown Casino and
CityLink tollway. Other strategies included the privatisation of some of Melbourne's services including power and public transport, and a reduction in funding to public services such as health and education.
Since
1997, Melbourne has maintained significant population and employment growth. There has been substantial international investment in the city's industries and
property market, and 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 capital city.
[8]
Geography
Map of greater Melbourne
Melbourne is located in the south-eastern part of
mainland Australia. Geologically it is built on the confluence of
Quaternary lava flows to the west,
Silurian mudstones to the east
[9] and
Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along
Port Phillip. The city's suburbs extend along the
Yarra Valley toward the
Yarra and
Dandenong Ranges to the east, down towards the
Mornington Peninsula and the city of
Frankston, along the
Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards the foothills of the
Macedon Ranges, and along the flat volcanic plain country towards
Werribee and
Geelong to the south-west.
The original city (known today as the
central business district or CBD) is laid out in the
mile-by-half-a-mile
Hoddle Grid, its southern edge fronting onto the Yarra.
Melbourne is typical of
Australian capital cities in that it was built with the underlying notion of a "quarter acre home and
garden" for every family, often referred to locally as the ''
Australian Dream''. Much of
metropolitan Melbourne is accordingly characterised by low density sprawl. The provision of an extensive
railway and
tram service in the earlier years of development encouraged this low density development, mostly in radial lines along the
transport corridors.
Melbourne is often referred to as Australia's garden city, and the state of Victoria was once known as "''the garden state''". There is an abundance of
parks and gardens in Melbourne, many close to the
CBD with a variety of common and rare plant species amid landscaped vistas, pedestrian pathways and tree-lined avenues. There are also many parks in the surrounding suburbs of Melbourne, such as in the municipalities of
Stonnington,
Boroondara and
Port Phillip, south east of the CBD.
Climate
Melbourne has a moderate
oceanic climate (
Köppen climate classification ''Cfb'').
[10] Melbourne's climate is notable for its changeable weather conditions. This is due in part to the city's flat topography, its situation on
Port Phillip Bay, and the presence of the
Dandenong Ranges to the east, a combination that creates weather systems that often circle the bay. The phrase ''"four seasons in one day"'' is part of
popular culture and observed by many visitors to the city.
Melbourne is colder than most other Australian capital cities in
winter. The lowest maximum on record is 4.4 degrees
Celsius, on
July 4,
1901.
[11] However,
snowfalls are extremely rare: the most recent occurrence of sleet in the CBD was on
July 25,
1986 and the most recent snowfalls in the Dandenongs were on August 10, 2005
[12] and November 15, 2006.
[13] There has not been a major snowfall in Melbourne since 1951, when moderate cover was recorded in both the CBD and suburbs.
[14] More commonly, Melbourne experiences
frosts and
fog in winter.
During the
spring, Melbourne commonly enjoys extended periods of mild weather and clear skies. Melbourne is also known to have hot, dry
summers, with maximum temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. The hottest temperature on record was 45.6 degrees Celsius on
13 January 1939 during a four-day nationwide
heat wave.
[15]
In 2006, Melbourne, like most of Australia, experienced one of the worst
droughts on record. 2006 was among the driest years on record with virtually no rainfall in September and October, despite October being on average the wettest month of the year. Higher than average temperatures were recorded.
In a very rare occurrence, it actually snowed in more elevated parts of the metropolitan area on 25 December 2006, in the early stages of the Southern Hemisphere summer.
It was officially announced on May 15, 2007 that the previous 12 months had seen a record low rainfall. The official results of 316mm from May 16 2006 to May 15 2007 show the lowest amount of rainfall since records began in 1855. The normal average rainfall is 653.2mm. Because of this record low rainfall, Melbourne has experienced ever increasing levels of water restrictions for over 9 months.
'Other daily elements'| | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Yearly |
|---|
| Mean number of rain days | 8.3 | 7.4 | 9.3 | 11.5 | 14.0 | 14.2 | 15.1 | 15.6 | 14.8 | 14.3 | 11.8 | 10.5 | 146.7 |
|---|
| Mean number of clear days | 6.3 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 4.4 | 3.0 | 2.5 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 48.5 |
|---|
| Mean number of cloudy days | 11.2 | 9.7 | 13.4 | 14.9 | 18.0 | 16.8 | 17.2 | 16.8 | 15.7 | 16.4 | 15.1 | 14.2 | 179.5 |
|---|
| 'Source:' Bureau of Meteorology |
Government
The
Melbourne City Council governs the
City of Melbourne, which takes in the CBD and a few adjoining inner suburbs. However the head of the Melbourne City Council, the
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, is frequently treated as a representative of greater Melbourne (the entire metropolitan area),
[16] particularly when interstate or overseas. The current Lord Mayor is
John So.
The rest of the metropolitan area is divided into
30 local government areas. All these are designated as Cities, except for five on the city's outer fringes which have the title of Shire. The local government authorities have elected councils and are responsible for a range of functions (delegated to them from the State Government of Victoria under the Local Government Act of 1989
[17]), such as
urban planning and
waste management.
Most city-wide government activities are controlled by the
Victorian state government. These include public transport, main roads, traffic control, policing, education above preschool level, and planning of major infrastructure projects. Because three quarters of Victoria's population lives in Melbourne, state governments have traditionally been reluctant to allow the development of citywide governmental bodies, which would tend to rival the state government. The semi-autonomous
Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works was abolished in 1992 for this reason. This is not dissimilar to other Australian states where State Governments have similar powers in greater metropolitan areas.
Economy
The Hoddle Grid in central Melbourne, viewed from the Observation Deck at
Rialto Towers.
Melbourne is the southernmost city in the Globalization and World Cities group's 1999 inventory of
global cities[3] and is home to many of Australia's largest corporations:
Telstra,
BHP Billiton and the
National Australia Bank, and also to the
Business Council of Australia, the
Australian Council of Trade Unions and many of the companies listed on the
Australian Stock Exchange. Many
multinational corporations (approximately one-third of the 100 largest multinationals operating in Australia as of 2002) also have their main Australian office in Melbourne. The demand for office space means that there are many
skyscrapers in Melbourne (although the tallest, the
Eureka Tower (at 300m above street level) is mostly residential). The tallest
office tower, the
Rialto Towers (251m above street level) is also the tallest office building in the
Southern Hemisphere. Both of these tall buildings house observation decks.
Melbourne is home to Australia's largest
seaport and much of Australia's
automotive industry, which include
Ford and
Toyota manufacturing facilities, and the
engine manufacturing facility of
Holden. It is also home to many other
manufacturing industries.
[19] In mid-November 2006, Melbourne was host to the summit of
G20 finance ministers, amid violent protests.
Melbourne is also a major technology hub, with a strong
ICT industry that employs over 60,000 people (one third of Australia's ICT workforce), has a turnover of
AUD$19.8 billion, and has export revenues of
$615 million.
[20] In a recent study, out of the world's 50 most influential financial cities, Melbourne was placed at number 34, ahead of major cities such as Dubai, Bangkok and KualaLumpur.
[21]
Most recent major infrastructure projects, such as the redevelopment of
Southern Cross Station (formerly Spencer Street Station), have been centred around the
2006 Commonwealth Games, which were held in the city from
15 March to
26 March 2006. The centrepiece of the Commonwealth Games projects was the redevelopment of the
Melbourne Cricket Ground, the stadium used for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. The project involved rebuilding the northern half of the stadium and laying a temporary athletics track at a cost of
$434 million.
Construction began in February 2006 of a
$1 billion 5000-seat international convention centre, Hilton Hotel and commercial precinct adjacent to the
Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre to link development along the
Yarra River with the
Southbank precinct and multi-billion dollar
Docklands redevelopment.
International freight is an important industry to Melbourne. The city's port handles more than A$75 billion in trade every year.
[22]
Tourism plays an important role in Melbourne's economy, with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004.
[23]
Demographics
Melbourne's Chinatown, established in 1854, is not only the oldest in Australia but one of the oldest in the world
Victorian terrace housing, typical of many of Melbourne's inner suburbs, which have been subject to
gentrification and
urban renewal since the 1970s
Today Melbourne is a diverse and
multicultural city. Almost a quarter of Victoria's population was born overseas, and the city is home to residents from 233 countries, who speak over 180 languages and dialects and follow 116 religious faiths.
[24]
A person from Melbourne is referred to as a Melburnian.
[25]
Melbourne was transformed by the 1850s
gold rush; within months of the discovery of
gold in August 1852, the city's population had increased by nearly three-quarters — from 25,000 to 40,000 inhabitants.
[26] Thereafter, growth was exponential and by 1865, Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous city.
[27] By 1900, however, Sydney and Melbourne were the same size, and by 1902, a year after
Federation, Sydney had overtaken Melbourne as the largest urban centre in Australia.
[28]
In common with the rest of the continent, the earliest inhabitants of the broad area that later became Melbourne were
Indigenous Australians — specifically, the Bunurong, Wurundjeri and Wathaurong peoples. Melbourne is still a centre of Aboriginal life — consisting of local groups and indigenes from other parts of Australia — with the Aboriginal community in the city numbering 12,015 persons (0.4 per cent of the population) according to the 2001 Census.
Immigrants
As with the rest of Australia, the first European settlers in Melbourne were
British and
Irish. These two groups accounted for nearly all arrivals before the gold rush, and supplied the predominant number of
immigrants to the city until the
Second World War. (Indeed, Victoria — and Melbourne in particular — attracted a greater proportion of
Irish than other Australasian colonies.) Nonetheless, large numbers of
Chinese,
Germans and
United States citizens were to be found on the goldfields and subsequently in Melbourne. The various nationalities involved in the
Eureka Stockade revolt nearby give some indication of the migration flows in the second half of the nineteenth century.
In the first half of the twentieth century, alongside the usual British and Irish migrants, Melbourne began to receive steady trickles of
Italians and
Greeks, as did rural New South Wales and Western Australia. At the time, these inflows were considered insignificant, but with hindsight these early groups were effectively pioneers of two of the city's more numerous contemporary communities.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Melbourne experienced an unprecedented influx of arrivals from Mediterranean Europe — primarily
Greece and
Italy, but also
Cyprus and
Turkey. The sheer numbers of Greeks and Italians — and their Greek Australian and Italian Australian children — soon led to Melbourne being referred to as "the third largest Greek city in the world" or "largest Greek city out side of Greece" and "Little Italy". Certainly, Melbourne is the centre of Greek Australian life. According to the 2001 Census, there were 151,785 ethnic Greeks in the metropolitan area, although some estimates put this number close to 300,000. Nearly half of all Greek Australians call Melbourne home.
'Melbourne
Population by year' |
|---|
| 1836 | 177 | |
| 1851 | 29,000 | |
| 1854 | 123,000 | (gold rush) |
| 1860 | 140,000 | |
| 1880 | 280,000 | (property boom) |
| 1890 | 490,000 | |
| 1895 | 900,000 | (economic collapse) |
| 1956 | 1,500,000 | |
| 1981 | 2,806,000 | |
| 1991 | 3,156,700 | (economic slump) |
| 2001 | 3,366,542 | |
| 2004 | 3,592,975 | |
| 2006 | 3,744,373 | |
| 2021 | 4,253,400 | (projected) |
| 2030 | 4,500,000 | (projected) |
| 2051 | 5,041,100 | (projected) |
However, the Greek proportion of city's population (3.8 per cent) is in fact second to that of the Italian: in 2001, 247,719 persons stated they were of Italian ancestry, accounting for 31.0 per cent of all Italian Australians and 6.2 per cent of Melbourne's population. What is more, both groups are outnumbered by those claiming
"Australian" — 959,822 persons or 24.0 per cent —
English — 929,314 persons or 23.2 per cent — or
Irish — 319,977 persons or 8.0 per cent — ancestry. Those claiming a
Chinese background are the sixth largest ethnic group in Melbourne, accounting for 146,287 census responses and 3.7 per cent of the city's total inhabitants. Vietnamese and
Vietnamese Australians are also a significant presence in the city.
Birthplaces
With regard to birthplace, a far higher proportion of Melbourne residents in 2001 were born overseas than the Australian average: 34.8 per cent compared to a national average of 23.1 per cent. In common with the rest of Australia,
Britain was the most commonly reported country of birth, with 158,139 responses (4.7 per cent). This was followed by
Italy with 80,109 (2.4 per cent),
Greece with 55,574 (1.7 per cent) and the
People's Republic of China with 35,844 (1.1 per cent).
Languages
Linguistically, Melbourne is one of Australia's most diverse urban centres, though according to 2001 Census data, over two-thirds of people in Melbourne speak
English only at home — 2,316,755 persons or 68.8 per cent.
Italian is the second most common home language, spoken by 133,907 residents or 4.0 per cent.
Greek is third with 118,394 habitual users (3.5 percent) and the
Chinese languages are fourth with 110,645 speakers (3.3 per cent). 84.2 per cent of those born overseas living in the city spoke English exclusively, "very well" or "well".
'Melbourne
Urban density
(people/ha)' |
|---|
| 1951 | 23.4[29] | |
| 1961 | 21.4[30] | |
| 1971 | 18.1[31] | |
| 1976 | 16.75[32] | |
| 1981 | 15.9[33] | |
| 1986 | 16.05[34] | |
| 1991 | 16.8[35] | |
| 1996 | 17.9[36] | |
Religion
In terms of religion, Christianity is the most professed faith in Melbourne with 2,097,493 followers accounting for 62.3 per cent of residents.
Catholicism — 981,974 (29.2 per cent) —
Anglicanism — 458,848 (13.6 per cent) and primarily Greek
Orthodoxy — 206,877 (6.2 per cent) — were the most numerous Christian sects. According to further census data there were 106,570
Buddhists (3.2 per cent), 87,755
Muslims (2.6 per cent), 37,779
Jews (1.1 per cent) and 23,334
Hindus (0.7 per cent) resident in the city. Melbourne is home to the largest Jewish community in
Oceania: four out of ten of
Australia's Jews (40.4 per cent) live in the metropolitan area. Melbourne also has the largest number of
Holocaust survivors of any Australian city,
[37] and the highest per capita concentration of survivors anywhere in the world except
Israel.
[38]
Population growth
Although
Brisbane and
Perth are growing faster in percentage terms, and Victoria's net interstate migration has fluctuated, the Melbourne statistical division has grown by approximately 50,000 people a year since 2003, more than any other Australian city. Attraction of a large proportion of overseas immigrants and interstate migration from Sydney due to ''more'' affordable housing are two recent key factors.
[39] In recent years,
Melton,
Wyndham and
Casey, part of the Melbourne statistical division, have recorded the highest growth rate of all
local government areas in Australia.
Melbourne's population density declined following
World War II, with the private
motor car and the lures of space and property ownership causing an exodus to the suburbs, mainly to the east. After much discussion (both at general public and planning levels) in the 1980s, the decline has been reversed since the recession of the early 1990s, and the city has seen increased density in the inner and western suburbs. Since the 1970s, Victorian Government planning blueprints such as
Postcode 3000 and
Melbourne 2030 have aimed to curtail the
urban sprawl.
A view of Melbourne Docklands and sprawling north western suburbs from the Observation Deck at Rialto Tower.
Education
Monash University is the largest in Australia, based in Melbourne it now has several international campuses.
The University of Melbourne, established in 1853, is the second oldest in Australia
Melbourne is home to some of the nation's oldest educational institutions, including the oldest
Law (1857),
Engineering (1860),
Medical (1862),
Dental (1897) and
Music (1891) schools, all at the
University of Melbourne. The University of Melbourne is also the oldest university in Victoria and the second oldest university in Australia. St. Mary's Primary School, Williamstown, is the oldest school in Victoria and
Scotch College (1851) is the oldest secondary school. Ormiston House, the junior school of
Camberwell Anglican Girls Grammar School, established in 1848, is the oldest girls' primary school on the Australian mainland.
[40] Melbourne is home to the largest secondary school in Australia,
Haileybury College.
Melbourne's two largest and most prestigious tertiary institutions are the University of Melbourne and
Monash University. Both are members of the
Group of Eight. Melbourne University ranked second among Australian universities in the 2006
THES international rankings.
[41] While ''
The Times Higher Education Supplement'' ranked the University of Melbourne as the 22nd best university in the world,
Monash University was ranked the 38th best university in the world. Monash University is said to be Australia's largest University, based on student numbers.
Other universities located in Melbourne include
La Trobe University,
RMIT University,
Swinburne University of Technology,
Victoria University and the St Patrick's campus of the
Australian Catholic University.
Deakin University maintains two major campuses in Melbourne and Geelong, and is the third largest university in Victoria. In recent years, the number of
international students at Melbourne's universities has risen rapidly, a result of an increasing number of places being made available to full fee paying students.
Although non-tertiary
public education is free, 35% of students attend a private primary or secondary school.
[42] The most numerous
private schools are
Catholic, and the rest are
independent (see
Public and Private Education in Australia). The most prestigious independent schools are members of the
Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS) or the
Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria (AGSV). The main purpose of these two groups is sporting competition.
Private schools achieve better results on average in the
VCE (the final year certificate) than
public schools. The exceptions to this rule are the two academically selective public high schools,
Melbourne High School and
MacRobertson Girls High School. Because of this, private school students dominate admissions into tertiary institutions.
[43]
Most
high schools in Melbourne are called 'Secondary Colleges', a remnant of the
Kirner Labor government. There are two selective public schools in Melbourne (mentioned above), but all public schools may restrict entry to students living in their regional 'zone'.
[44][45]
Culture
Main articles: Culture of Melbourne
Melbourne is known as an Australian cultural capital.
It has thrice
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, in 2002,
[46] 2004 and 2005.
[47]
The city celebrates a wide variety of annual cultural events, performing arts and architecture.
Infrastructure
Health
The
Government of Victoria's Department of Human Services oversees approximately 30 public
hospitals in the Melbourne metropolitan region, and 13 health services organisations.
[48] The major public hospitals are the
Royal Melbourne Hospital,
The Alfred Hospital and
Austin Hospital, while major private hospitals include
Epworth Hospital and
St Vincent's. The city is also home to major medical and
biotechnology research centres such as
St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, the
Burnet Institute,
Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, The
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, The
Murdoch Children's Research Institute,
Baker Heart Institute and the
Australian Synchrotron.
Transport
Main articles: Transport in Melbourne
Melbourne has an extensive tram system, where modern and heritage trams run side by side
Melbourne has an integrated
public transport system known as
Metlink, originally laid out late in the
19th century when trains and trams were the primary methods of travelling to the suburbs. The 1950s saw an increase in private vehicles and freeway construction.
[49] This trend has continued with successive governments despite relentless traffic congestion.
[50][51] The result has been a significant drop in public transport modeshare from the 1940s level of around 25% to the current level of around 9%.
[52] Melbourne's public transport system was
privatised in 1999.
Melbourne's tram network is both one of the world's most extensive and the only one comprising more than a single line remaining in Australia, a distinctive feature of the city.
Trams are not only a form of transport, but a tourist icon of Melbourne.
Visitors are served by a free
City Circle Tram, taking in many tourist sights and there is also a fleet of
restaurant trams, the first of its kind in the world.
There are almost 300
bus routes and a mostly-
electric train system with more than 15 lines.
Flinders Street Station is a prominent Melbourne landmark and meeting place.
In 1926 it was the world's busiest passenger station.
[53]
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.
Melbourne has a high dependency on private cars for transport, with 7.1% of trips made by public transport.
[54]
However there has been a significant rise in patronage in the last two years mostly due to higher fuel prices. Melbourne has a total of 3.6 million private vehicles using 22,320 km of road, and one of the highest lengths of road per capita.
[54]
Major highways feeding into the city include the
Eastern Freeway,
Monash Freeway and
West Gate Freeway (which spans the spectacular
Westgate Bridge), whilst other road systems include
CityLink and the
Western Ring Road,
Calder Freeway,
Tullamarine Freeway (main airport link) and the
Hume Freeway which links Melbourne to
Sydney.
The
Port of Melbourne is Australia's largest container and general cargo port and also its busiest. In 2007, the port handled two million shipping containers in a 12 month period, making it one of the top five ports in the Southern Hemisphere.
[22] Station Pier in
Port Phillip Bay handles
cruise ships and the
Spirit of Tasmania ferries which cross
Bass Strait to
Tasmania.
Melbourne has four airports.
Melbourne International Airport located at Tullamarine is the city's main international and domestic (
Qantas and
Virgin Blue and
Jetstar) gateway. Tullamarine is the headquarters for low cost airlines
Jetstar and
Tiger Airways Australia.
Avalon Airport, located between Melbourne and
Geelong, is a secondary hub of
Jetstar. It 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 the airport at Tullamarine, handles general aviation and some cargo flights.
Utilities
The Royal Exhibition Building, showing the fountain on the southern or
Carlton Gardens side of the building
Water storage and supply for Melbourne is managed by
Melbourne Water, which is owned by the Victorian Government. The organisation is also responsible for management of sewerage and the major
water catchments in the region.
Water is mainly stored in the largest dam, the
Thomson River Dam which is capable of holding around 60% of Melbourne's water capacity,
[57] while smaller dams such as the
Upper Yarra Dam and the
Cardinia Reservoir carry secondary supplies.
Water restrictions are in place and the state government has considered
water recycling schemes for the city. In
June 2007, the Bracks Government announced a $4.9 billion water plan to secure the future of water supplies in Melbourne, including the construction of a $3.1 billion
desalination plant on Victoria's south-east coast, capable of treating 150 billion litres of water per year. Other projects included in this package is a 70 km pipeline from the Goulburn area in Victoria's north to Melbourne and a new water pipeline linking Melbourne and
Geelong.
Supply of
town gas to Melbourne was initially provided by private companies such as the
Melbourne Metropolitan Gas Company from the 1850s, with
gasworks being scattered throughout the suburbs. The
Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria was formed in 1951 to manage gas supply state wide, and to build a centralised gasworks at
Morwell. The discovery of
natural gas in
Bass Strait in the 1960s saw gas supplies converted to the new fuel by the 1970s.
[58] The Gas and Fuel Corporation was
privatised in the late 1990s.
The first
electricity supplies to Melbourne were also provided by
private companies, with a number of small
power stations such as those at
Spencer Street and
Richmond operating. These small operations were merged into the
State Electricity Commission of Victoria that was formed in 1921,
[59] the SECV also building the first of many
brown coal fired power stations at
Yallourn in the
Latrobe Valley. The responsibilities of the SECV were privatised between 1995 and 1999.
Numerous telecommunications companies operate in Melbourne providing terrestrial and mobile telecommunications services.
Sister cities
Melbourne has six
sister cities.
[60] They are:
★
Osaka,
Japan,
1978
★
Tianjin,
China,
1980
★
Thessaloniki,
Greece,
1984
★
Boston,
United States,
1985
★
Saint Petersburg,
Russia,
1989
★
Milan,
Italy,
2004
See also
★
Timeline of Melbourne history
★
Melbourne tourism
★
List of notable Melburnians
★
List of Melbourne suburbs
★
List of Mayors and Lord Mayors of Melbourne
★
Local Government Areas of Victoria
★
Crime in Melbourne
★
List of songs about Melbourne
★
List of heritage listed buildings in Melbourne
★
Australian architectural styles
★
Melway — the native street directory and general information source in Melbourne.
★
Hook turn — driving manoeuvre that is common in the inner city area.
★
World's Most Livable Cities — Melbourne has twice been ranked equal first with
Vancouver.
★
Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
Notes and references
1. Regional Population Growth, Australia, 1996 to 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics, July 2007]
2.
Australian Government Culture and Recreation Portal
3.
4. When Melbourne was Australia’s capital city
5. City of Melbourne - History and heritage - Settlement – foundation and surveying
6. Melbourne the city's history and development, 2nd ed pg 5, Miles Lewis, 1995
7. Elias, David Tell Melbourne it's over, we won Sydney Morning Herald, December 31, 2003
8. Marino, Melissa; Colebatch, Tim Melbourne's population booms The Age, March 24, 2005
accessed November 7, 2006
9. City of Monash:Background Information accessed November 7, 2006
10. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., 4, 439–473, 2007, 'Updated world map of the Koppen-Geiger climate classification system' accessed March 10, 2007
11. Waldon, Steve and Medew, Julia, 'Snow misses CBD lunch appointment' article from The Age dated August 10, 2005, accessed November 7, 2006
12. Snow falls in Melbourne Sydney Morning Herald, August 10, 2005 accessed online November 7, 2006
13. Rain hits the target from the Herald Sun
14. Waldon and Medew, loc. cit.
15. Record heat and stupidity as Melbourne swelters, The Age, January 25 2003
16. Dunstan, David The evolution of 'Clown Hall', The Age, November 12, 2004, accessed online November 7, 2006
17. Local Government Act 1989
18.
19. Business Victoria
20. Industry Snapshot from Multimedia Victoria
21. http://www.mastercard.com/us/company/en/wcoc/pdf/index_2007_us.pdf
22. Port Of Melbourne Sets Shipping Record
23. Melbourne Airport Passenger Figures Strongest on Record
24. Victiorian Cultural Diversity Week
25. The variant spelling 'Melbournian' is sometimes found but is considered grammatically incorrect. The term 'Melbournite' is also sometimes used. ''Right Words: A Guide to English Usage in Australia.'' Stephen Murray-Smith. 2nd ed. Ringwood, Vic. Viking, 1989
26. ~ GOLD ~
27. The Snowy Mountains Scheme and Multicultural Australia
28. Linking a Nation: Australia's Transport and Communications 1788 - 1970
29. Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme 1954, p. 23
30. Australian Bureau of Statistics 1961
31. Australian Bureau of Statistics 1971
32. Melbourne Social Atlas, 1976 (ABS)
33. Social Atlas, 1981
34. Soc. Atlas/"Supermap" Census Data, 1986
35. Social Atlas/Supermap, 1991
36. Department of Infrastructure, 1998
37. Holocaust Remembrance in Australian Jewish Communities Judith Berman
38. The Kadimah & Yiddish Melbourne in the 20th Century
39. The Resurgence of Marvellous Melbourne Trends in Population Distribution in Victoria, 1991-1996. Article by John O'Leary. Monash University Press
40. About Ormiston
41. ANU up there with the best
42. Australian Bureau of Statistics - Schools, 2005
43. Schools get VCE report cards
44. Schools inequality calls for bold reform, ''The Age'', October 17, 2003
45. How Much Do Public Schools Really Cost? Estimating the Relationship Between House Prices and School Quality, ANU, 6 August 2006
46. Melbourne and Vancouver are the world’s best cities to live in Economist Intelligence Unit (2002).
47. Vancouver Melbourne and Vienna named worlds most liveable cities Economist Intelligence Unit (2005).
48. Melbourne public hospitals and Metropolitan Health Services Victorian Department of Health
49. The cars that ate Melbourne article from the Age
50. Bid to end traffic chaos
51. Melbourne's traffic on the move? article from the ABC
52. Trial by public transport: why the system is failing article from The Age
53.
Melbourne and scenes in Victoria 1925-1926 from Victorian Government Railways From the National Library of Australia
54. Most Liveable and Best Connected? The Economic Benefits of Investing in Public Transport in Melbourne, by Jan Scheurer, Jeff Kenworthy, and Peter Newman
55. Most Liveable and Best Connected? The Economic Benefits of Investing in Public Transport in Melbourne, by Jan Scheurer, Jeff Kenworthy, and Peter Newman
56. Port Of Melbourne Sets Shipping Record
57. Melbourne Water
58. Energy Safe Victoria: Natural Gas in Victoria
59. [State Electricity Commission Act 1920 (No.3104)]
60. Official Website of the City of Melbourne; accessed 2 November 2006
External links
★
Visitvictoria.com - The official travel and accommodation site for Melbourne Victoria Australia
★
That's Melbourne - the official City of Melbourne guide to what's on in the City!
★
WikiSatellite view of Melbourne at WikiMapia
★
★
City of Melbourne official site
★
Metlink - official public transport web site
★
Google Satellite Images
★ Zoom Map from
TerraPages
★
City Wiki (still small)
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