Melbourne . Capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia . Melbourne City Center is the center of the metropolitan area and the census statistical division. In June 2009 , the largest geographic area had a population of approximately $ 4 million.
The metropolis is located in the large natural bay known as Port Phillip, with the city center located at the mouth of the Yarra River (at the northernmost point of the bay). The metropolitan area extends south of downtown, along the east and west coasts of Port Phillip, and expands into the interior of the country. The city center is located in the municipality known as the city of Melbourne, and the metropolitan area is made up of 30 other municipalities.
Summary
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- 1 History
- 2 Geography
- 1 Climate
- 3 Government
- 4 Demographics
- 5 Economy
- 6 Culture
- 1 Sports
- 2 Education
- 7 Transportation
- 1 Railway
- 2 Trams
- 3 Buses
- 4 Port
- 5 Air
- 6 Cycling
- 8 References
- 9 External Links
History
The land occupied by Melbourne was used by the Australian Aboriginal nations Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung. The area was an important meeting place for the clans and territories of the Kulin alliance, as well as a vital source of food and water. The first European settlement in Victoria was established in 1803 in Sullivan Bay, near present-day Sorrento, but this settlement was abandoned due to a supposed lack of resources.
Between May and June 1835 , the area of central and north Melbourne was discovered by John Batman, one of the main members of the Port Phillip Association, coming from the land of Van Diemen ( Tasmania ), who negotiated a transaction of 2400 km² of land to eight elders of the Wurundjeri tribe. Batman selected a location on the north bank of the Yarra River, and returned to Launceston, Tasmania. However, around that time a group from the Association arrived to settle in the new town, a separate group led by John Pascoe Fawkner who had arrived aboard the Enterprise and established a settlement in the same location, on August 30, 1835. The two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement. It is not known by what name Melbourne was known before the arrival of the Europeans. The first settled Europeans mistranslated the words “Doutta-galla”, which was believed to have been the name of a prominent member of a tribe, but some translated it as “plain without trees”. This was used as one of the first names for the colony.
Batman’s Treaty with the Aborigines was annulled by the government of New South Wales (then they ruled all the lands of eastern Australia ), which compensated the Association. Although this meant that the settlers were encroaching on Crown lands, the government reluctantly accepted the settlers’ fait accompli and allowed the city (initially known by various names, including ‘Bearbrass’) to remain.
Melbourne was originally the capital of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, and later became the capital of the colony of Victoria. The discovery of gold in Victoria in the late 1850s , which sparked the Victoria Gold Rush, led Melbourne to develop as a large port and service hub, which would later become Australia’s main industrial center. During the 1880s , Melbourne was the second largest city in population, after London, of the British Empire, besides being one of the richest and it was called Marvellous Melbourne (“the wonderful Melbourne”). The many Victorian-style buildings that exist in the city date from that time, making Melbourne the second city in the world, after London, in number of Victorian buildings still standing. During this prosperous decade, Melbourne hosted five international exhibitions and the Royal Exhibition Building was built. This period also witnessed the expansion of one of the main radial rail networks.
Royal Exhibition Building
Melbourne was named the national capital of the Federation of Australia on January 1 , 1901 . The first federal parliament was inaugurated on May 9 , 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building. Melbourne retained the capital and seat of government until 1927 , when the new capital of Canberra was completed , however, the Governor General remained in the Melbourne Government House until 1930 and many of the main national institutions remained. in the city well into the 20th century. The city continued its uninterrupted expansion during the first half of the 20th century, in particular thanks to the arrival of immigrants after World War II , attracted by the job opportunities in Australia and by the good reputation of the city, whose international prestige was enlarged the celebration of the Olympic Games of 1956 . Financial booms and mining between 1969 and 1970They concluded with the establishment in the city of the headquarters of large companies such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Despite the capital’s move to Canberra, Melbourne continued to be Australia’s economic and cultural capital until the 1970s, when it gradually lost prominence to the benefit of Sydney.
In the 1980s , Melbourne experienced a period of decline, in which there was an increase in unemployment and a decline in population due to emigration to the states of New South Wales and Queensland. In the 1990s, the Victorian government led by liberal Prime Minister Jeff Kennett attempted to reverse this trend with an aggressive campaign to revive the economy and development of public works that focused on promoting the city as a tourist destination with a focus on tourism of major sporting events, with the creation of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix. Other major projects were the construction of new public buildings (such as the Melbourne Museum, and the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center), as well as a casino, the Crown Casino. These urban efforts were accompanied by a campaign to promote the city. Other strategies implemented are the privatization of some Melbourne services, including public transport, but also the reduction in funding for public services such as health and education.
Since 1997 , Melbourne has maintained its population and significant job growth. There have been significant international investments in the city. There has been a major renovation of the city center and urban areas such as Southbank, Port Melbourne, Melbourne Docklands and, more recently, South Wharf.
Geography
Melbourne is located in the south-eastern part of mainland Australia , in the state of Victoria. Geologically, it was built at the confluence of Quaternary lava rivers in the west, Silurian mudstones to the east, and the Holocene sand accumulation in the southeast along Port Phillip. The southeastern suburbs lie on the Selwyn Fault which crosses Mount Martha and Cranbourne.
Melbourne stretches along the Yarra River into the Yarra Valley and the Dandenong Range to the east. It runs north through the rolling scrub valleys of the Yarra’s tributaries such as Moonee Ponds Creek (toward Tullamarine Airport), MerriCreek, Creek Dareb, and Plenty River to the outer growth corridors of Craigieburn and Whittlesea.
The city extends south-east through Dandenong to the Pakenham growth corridor to the west Gippsland, and south through the Dandenong Creek valley, the Mornington Peninsula and the city of Frankston occupying the peaks of Oliver Hill, Martha Mount and Arthurs Seat, stretching along the shores of Port Phillip in the same urban agglomeration to reach the exclusive neighborhood of Portsea and Nepean Point. In the west, it runs along the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards Sunbury and the foothills of the Macedonia Range, and along the flat volcanic plain towards Melton in the west, Werribee in the foothills of the Granite Ranges YouYang and Geelong as part of the metropolitan area to the south-west.
Weather
Autumn in Melbourne
Melbourne has a moderate oceanic climate and is well known for its changeable weather conditions. This is mainly due to Melbourne’s location, situated on the border of the very hot and cold inland areas of the Southern Ocean. This temperature difference is more pronounced in the spring and summer months, and can cause the formation of very strong cold fronts. These cold fronts can be responsible for all kinds of adverse weather conditions, from storm winds and hail, large temperature drops, and heavy rains.
Port Phillip is typically warmer than the surrounding ocean and / or land mass, particularly in spring and fall, which can create a “bay effect” similar to the “lake effect” seen in the United States . where the leeward showers of the bay intensify. Relatively narrow streams of heavy rain can often affect the same places (usually the eastern suburbs) for an extended period of time, while the rest of Melbourne and its surroundings remain dry.
Melbourne is also prone to the formation of isolated convective rains when a cold wave passes through the state, especially if there is considerable daytime warming. These rains are often heavy and can contain hail and gusts and significant drops in temperature, but they pass very quickly, sometimes with a trend of rapid compensation for sunny and calm weather and increasing the temperature to what it was before. The rain. This often occurs in the space of minutes and can be repeated many times in a day, giving Melbourne the reputation of having “four seasons in one day”, a phrase that is part of local popular culture and familiar to many visitors to the city. .
government
Parliament House
The government of Melbourne is divided between the government of Victoria and the 26 cities and five counties that comprise the metropolitan area. There is no ceremonial and political head of Melbourne, however the mayor of the city of Melbourne often fulfills a role as first among equals.
Local councils are responsible for providing the functions established in the Local Government Act of 1989such as urban planning and waste management. Most government services are provided or regulated by the Victorian state government, which rules from Parliament House on Spring Street. These include services that are associated with local government in other countries, and include public transportation, main roads, traffic control, police, and education about preschool, health, and planning of large infrastructure projects. . The state government reserves the right to override certain local government decisions, including urban planning, and Melbourne issues often feature prominently in state elections.
Demography
Chinatown in Melbourne
Melbourne is a diverse and multicultural city. In 2006 , 35.8% of its population was born abroad, exceeding the national average of 23.1%. In accordance with national data, the United Kingdom is the place with the highest frequency of birth abroad, with 4.7%, followed by Italy (2.1%), Croatia (1.7%), Vietnam (1 , 6%), China (1.5%), and New Zealand (1.5%). Melbourne has the third largest Greek-speaking population in the world, after Athensand Thessaloniki (Melbourne’s Greek sister city), and Nguyen’s Vietnamese surname is the second most common in Melbourne’s telephone directory. The city also has substantial communities born in India , Sri Lanka and Malaysia , in addition to the recent influx from South Africa and Sudan . Cultural diversity is reflected in the city’s restaurants serving international cuisine.
More than two-thirds of Melbourne residents only speak English at home (68.1%). Chinese (mainly Cantonese and Mandarin) is the second most common language spoken in the home (3.6%), with Greek third, Italian fourth, and Vietnamese fifth, each with more than 100,000 speakers. Although Victoria’s interstate net migration has fluctuated, Melbourne’s statistical division has grown by nearly 50,000 people a year since 2003 . Melbourne has attracted the highest proportion of international immigrants from abroad (48,000), surpassing Sydney’s international immigrationIn addition to having strong interstate migration from Sydney and other capitals, due to more affordable housing and cost of living, which have been two recent key factors determining Melbourne’s growth.
Economy
Melbourne Headquarters of the NAB (National Bank of Australia)
Melbourne has a highly diversified economy, with strengths in finance, manufacturing, research, computing, education, logistics and transportation, conventions, and tourism. Melbourne is home to many of Australia’s largest corporations, including five of the ten largest in the country (based on income), and five of the six largest in the country (based on market capitalization), as well as representative bodies and thinking tanks such as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The city is home to Australia’s largest and busiest port that handles more than $ 75 million in trade each year and 39% of the country’s container traffic. Melbourne Airport offers an entry point for domestic and international visitors, and is the second busiest airport in Australia.
Melbourne is also a major financial center. Two of the Big Four banks, NAB and ANZ, are based in Melbourne. The city has made its place as Australia’s benchmark center for retirement funds, with 40% of the total, and 65% of the super-fund industry, including the $ 40 billion from the Government Fund. Federal of the Future.
Melbourne is the industrial center of Australia. It is the center of Australia’s automotive industry, which includes Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities and Holden’s engine manufacturing facility and suppliers and parts. It is the headquarters of Australian motorsport and design centers. It is also home to a wide variety of other manufacturers, ranging from aircraft parts, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals to fashion apparel, papermaking, and food processing.
The city is a major international center for biotechnology, and is the home base for companies like CSL and Biota. Melbourne has a significant ICT sector employing over 60,000 people (one third of the ICT workforce in Australia), with a turnover of $ 19.8 billion and export earnings of $ 615 million. Furthermore, tourism also plays an important role in Melbourne’s economy, with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004 . In 2008, Melbourne surpassed Sydney with the amount of money domestic tourists made in the city, representing approximately $ 15.8 billion a year. Melbourne has been attracting a growing share of the national and international conference markets. In February 2006 , construction began on the headquarters for a 5,000-seat international convention center, the Hilton Hotel and a commercial precinct adjacent to the Melbourne Exposition and Convention Center to link development along the Yarra River with the Southbank precinct and the redevelopment of Docklands.
Culture
Princess Theater
Melbourne is an international cultural center, with cultural activities spanning major events and festivals for theater, musicals, comedy, music, art, architecture, literature, film and television. It was the second city after Edinburgh to be named a UNESCO City of Literature and has shared the top three times in a survey by The Economist of the world’s most livable cities based on a number of attributes including its cultural offering wide.
The city hosts a variety of annual cultural events and festivals of all kinds, including the Melbourne International Arts Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe Festival. The Australian Ballet is based in Melbourne, as well as the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Melbourne is the second Australian Opera house after it merged with “Victoria State Opera” in 1996 . The Victorian Opera had its inaugural season in 2006 and is performed at various venues in Melbourne.
Notable theaters and performance venues include: The Victorian Arts Center (including the State Theater, Hamer Hall, Playhouse, and Fairfax Studio), Melbourne Recital Center, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Princess Theater, Regent Theater, Forum Theater, Palace Theater, Comedy Theater, Athenaeum Theater, Her Majesty’s Theater, Capitol Theater, Palais Theater, and the Australian Center for Contemporary Art. There are over 100 galleries in Melbourne. Most notable is the home of Australia’s oldest and largest art gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria. Melbourne is the birthplace of Australian television, the rules of Australian football, Australia’s impressionist art movement known as the Heidelberg School, and Australian contemporary dance (including the Melbourne Shuffle and new styles of Vogue).
sports
Melbourne Cricket Ground Stadium
Melbourne is a remarkable place of sporting events because the city hosted the Olympic Games Summer 1956 (the first Olympic Games held in the southern hemisphere) and the Games of the Commonwealth 2006 . The city is host to three major annual international sporting events: the Australian Open (one of four Grand Slam tennis tournaments), the Melbourne Cup (horse racing), and the Australian Grand Prix ( Formula One ). The city is home to the National Sports Museum, which until 2003 stood outside the members’ pavilion at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and reopened in 2008in the Olympic Pavilion.
Australian football and cricket are the most popular sports in Melbourne and also the city is the spiritual home of these two sports in Australia and both are mainly played in the same stadiums in the city and its suburbs. The first official test match of cricket was played on the Melbourne cricket ground in March 1877 . The first Australian football matches were played in Melbourne in 1859 and the Australian Football League is based at Docklands Stadium. Nine of its teams are based in the Melbourne metropolitan area, and the Australian Melbourne Football League’s five games per week attract an average of 40,000 people per game. In addition, the city hosts the Grand Final of the League every year.
and the basketball club the Melbourne Tigers who play in the NBL competition and the Boomers Bulleen and the Dandenong Rangers who play in the WNBL and the Melbourne Aces baseball club who play in the Australian Baseball League. In November 2008, it was announced that the Victorian Major Events company had informed the Australian Olympic Committee that Melbourne was considering bidding for either the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympics.
Education
Melbourne University
Melbourne was ranked as the fourth best university city in the world in 2008 after London , Boston and Tokyo , in a survey commissioned by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Melbourne is home to the University of Melbourne, as well as Monash University, the largest university in Australia. The University of Melbourne is the second oldest university in Australia.
The Times Higher Education Supplement ranked the University of Melbourne as the 36th best university in the world. Monash University was ranked the 178th best university in the world. Both universities are members of the Group of Eight.
Other universities located in Melbourne include La Trobe University, RMIT University, Swinburne University of Technology, based in the inner suburb of Hawthorn, Victoria University, which has nine campuses throughout the western region of Melbourne, including three in the heart of the Melbourne’s central business district and four others within ten kilometers of these, and the St. Patrick’s campus of the Australian Catholic University. Deakin University has two main campuses in Melbourne and Geelong, and is the third largest university in Victoria. In recent years, the number of international students at Melbourne universities has increased rapidly, as a result of an increasing number of places made available to full-fee students.
Transport
Melbourne has a very high dependence on the automobile for transport especially in the outer suburban areas, where the largest number of vehicles are purchased with a total of 3.6 million private vehicles with 22,320 kilometers of road, and one of the longest road lengths per capita in the world. The twentieth century, saw an increase in the popularity of automobiles, which resulted in the large-scale expansion of the vicinity and today has an extensive network of highways and arterial roads used by both private and freight vehicles, as well as those of public transport systems such as buses and taxis. Major feeder roads in the city include the Eastern Freeway, Monash Freeway, and West Gate Freeway, while other freeways either bypass the city or lead to other major cities, including CityLink (spanning the great Bolte Bridge), Eastlink , the West Ring Road, Calder Highway, Tullamarine Freeway (main airport link) and the Hume Highway linking Melbourne and Sydney.
Melbourne has an integrated public transport system based on trains, tram, bus and taxi. In the 1940s , 25% of commuters used public transport but by 2003 it had dropped to just 7.6%. The public transportation system was privatized in 1999 , symbolizing the peak of decline. Despite privatization and successive governments, with the persistence of self-centered urban development in the 21st century, there has been a great increase in users of public transport with the participation of travelers increasing to 14.8% and 8.4% of all trips. A target of 20% for Melbourne’s public transport mode by 2020 was set by the state government in 2006. Since 2006, public transport users have grown by more than 20%.
Railway
Southern Cross Station
Melbourne’s rail network has its origins in lines built privately in the gold rush era of 1850 and today the commuter network consists of 200 suburban stations on 16 lines that radiate from the City Loop, a partial section of the subway. underground network under the administration of the Central Business District (Grid Hoddle). Flinders Street Station is the busiest railway station in Melbourne, and was the busiest passenger station in the world in 1926. It remains a major Melbourne landmark and meeting place. The city has rail links to cities in the Victoria region, as well as direct rail services between the states of Sydney and Adelaide and beyond, departing from another major rail terminal in Melbourne, Southern Cross Station on Spencer Street. . In the financial year 2008 – 2009 , Melbourne’s rail network recorded 213.9 million passenger trips, the highest in its history. Many rail lines, along with dedicated lines and rail yards are also used for freight.
Tramways
Melbourne has the largest tram network in the world, which had its origins in the city’s boom in 1880 . In the year 2010 – 2011 , 182.7 million passenger trips were made with the tram. Melbourne is the only tram network AustraliaIt comprises more than a single line and consists of 250 kilometers of tracks, 487 trams, 28 routes and 1,773 tram stops. Sections of the tram network are on roads, while others separate or are light rail routes. Melbourne trams are recognized as icons of cultural heritage and a tourist attraction. Heritage trams operate on the City Circle route for free, intended for visitors to Melbourne, and restaurant trams travel through the city at night.
Buses
Melbourne’s bus network consists of nearly 300 routes that primarily serve the suburbs filling the gaps in the network between rail and light rail services. 86.7 million passenger trips were recorded on Melbourne buses in 2007 .
Port
Shipping is an important component of Melbourne’s transportation system. The Port of Melbourne is Australia’s largest container and general cargo port and also the busiest. The port handled two million shipping containers in a 12-month period during 2007, making it one of the top five ports in the southern hemisphere. Station Pier, in Port Phillip Bay, is the main passenger ship terminal, with cruise ships and the Spirit of Tasman ferries crossing the Bass Strait of Tasmania based there. Ferries and water taxis go along the Yarra River and cross Port Phillip Bay.
aerial
Aircraft at Melbourne Airport
Melbourne has four airports. Melbourne Airport, in Tullamarine, is the city’s main international and national gateway and ranks second in Australia. The airport is the starting point for passengers for Jetstar Airways and Tiger Airways Australia airlines and Australian Air Express cargo airlines, and is a major hub for Qantas and Virgin Australia. Avalon Airport, located between Melbourne and Geelong, is a hub for Jetstar. It is also used for loading and maintenance. Buses and taxis are the only forms of public transportation available to and from the city’s main airports. The Air Ambulance facilities are available for the national and international transport of patients. Melbourne also has a major general aviation airport, as well as handling a limited number of passenger flights, Moorabbin Airport in the south east of the city. Essendon Airport, once the city’s main airport, also handles passenger flights, general aviation, and some cargo flights.
Cycling
Melbourne has a bicycle sharing system created in 2010 , using an extensive network of marked lanes on the roads and separate cycling facilities.
