MELBOURNE FACTS
History
Melbourne is the capital city of the state of Victoria and was founded in 1835.
Melbourne was Australia's political capital from 1901 until the completion of Canberra in 1927 with the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens home to Australia's first parliament.
Thanks to the discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851, Melbourne has the best collection of Victorian architecture in Australia.
Population & Language
The greater population of Melbourne is approximately 3.9 million.
Half of the resident city population is aged between 15 to 29 years and 48% are students.
The official language is English, however more than 180 languages and dialects are spoken by the city's residents.
Melbourne exceeds the national average in terms of proportion of residents born overseas. Almost 25% of Victoria's population was born overseas, and the city is home to residents from 233 countries, who follow 116 religious faiths. Britain is the most commonly reported overseas country of birth followed by Italy, Greece and China. Melbourne also features substantial Vietnamese, Indian and Sri Lankan-born communities, in addition to recent South African and Sudanese influxes.
Did you know?
- Melbourne is often referred to as Australia's garden city with 567.8 hectares of parkland, and the state of Victoria was once known as the garden state.
- Melbourne is home to the world's largest tram network and the world's oldest operating roller coaster (Luna Park in beachside St Kilda).
- Melbourne survived the financial crisis of 2007-2010 better than any other Australian city with more jobs created in Melbourne in 2009, than any other Australian capital.
- Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market – the largest open air market in the southern hemisphere -was originally built on the site of Melbourne's first general cemetery.
- Melbourne is a prominent international cultural centre with more than 100 galleries. Most notably it's home to Australia's oldest and largest art gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria.
- Melbourne is home to the three major annual international sporting events, the Australian Open (tennis), Melbourne Cup (horse racing), and the Australian Grand Prix (Formula One), and was home to the first Olympic Games ever held in Australia, in 1956.
- Australian Football League (AFL), or 'Aussie Rules' created in Melbourne, is played on a cricket oval because the game of footy was originally conceived to keep Melbourne's cricketers fit during the winter months.
Awards & Titles
Melbourne has been ranked:
- One of the top 3 World's Most Livable Cities by the Economist Group's Intelligence Unit, since 2002
- One of the top 10 Global University Cities by RMIT's Global University Cities Index, since 2006
- One of the top 20 Global Innovation Cities by the 2thinknow® Global Innovation Agency, since 2007.
- Only the 2nd city in the world to be named a UNESCO City of Literature
- "The World's Ultimate Sports City" by Sports Business group, since 2006.
Melbourne's sister cities
Osaka, Japan, 1978
People's Republic of China - Tianjin, China, 1980
Thessaloniki, Greece, 1984
Boston, United States, 1985
Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1989
Milan, Italy, 2004
Famous Victorians
Cate Blanchett, Guy Pearce, Nick Cave, Kylie and Dannii Minogue, Eric Bana, Gabriella Cilmi, Rachel Griffiths , Jason Donovan , Missy Higgins, Tina Arena, JET, Germaine Greer, Shane Warne, Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage) and Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous outlaw!
