Melbourne

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Cities; Oceania (Australasia)

Melbourne Victoria
Melbourne's Central Business District and Southbank
Population:	3,806,092  ( 2nd)
• Density:	1566/km² (4,055.9/sq mi) (2006)
Established:	30 August 1835
Area:	8806 km² (3,400.0 sq mi)
Time zone:  • Summer ( DST)	AEST ( UTC+10) AEDT ( UTC+11)
Location:	723 km (449 mi) from Adelaide 876 km (544 mi) from Sydney 1658 km (1,030 mi) from Brisbane 3412 km (2,120 mi) from Perth
LGA:	various (31)
County:	Bourke
State District:	various (54)
Federal Division:	various (23)
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Rainfall 19.8 °C 68 °F 10.2 °C 50 °F 646.9 mm 25.5 in

Melbourne (pronounced /ˈmelbən/) is the second most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 3.8 million (2007 estimate). Located around Port Phillip Bay in Australia's south-east, Melbourne is the state capital of Victoria. A person from Melbourne is called a Melburnian.

Melbourne is a major centre of commerce, industry and cultural activity. The city is often referred to as Australia's 'sporting and cultural capital' and it is home to many of the nation's most significant cultural and sporting events and institutions. It has been recognised as a gamma world city by the Loughborough University group's 1999 inventory. Melbourne is notable for its mix of Victorian and contemporary architecture, its extensive tram network and Victorian parks and gardens, as well as its diverse, multicultural society. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. In 1981, it hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In 2006, the city hosted the G20 Summit, in which the leaders of the world's nineteen largest economies met.

Melbourne was founded by free settlers in 1835, 47 years after the first European settlement of Australia, as a 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 federal seat of government from the time of the new nation's federation in 1901, until Federal Parliament moved to the purpose-built capital, Canberra, in 1927.

History

Melbourne Landing, 1840; watercolour by W. Liardet (1840).

Lithograph of the original plans for Parliament House, Melbourne. Construction began in 1855 but later stalled and the proposed reading room dome and wings were never completed.

Lithograph of the Royal Exhibition Building (now a World Heritage site) built to host the World's Fair of 1880. The main building has hosted several such fairs and later hosted the opening of the first Parliament of Australia. The area of the rear wings pictured is now parkland.

The Federal Coffee Palace, a temperance hotel was the largest and tallest building in Melbourne, but one of many built in 1888. The Windsor Hotel is the largest survivor of this era.

Flinders Street Station, intersection of Swanston and Flinders Streets in 1927 when it was the world's busiest passenger station.

Melbourne and the Yarra in 1928. The Yarra was a major transport hub. The turning basin at Queensbridge was no longer the major a port, the river's course was modified and widened and South Melbourne (now Southbank) opposite the CBD was a major industrial area

ICI House, commenced in 1955, was a powerful symbol of the Olympic city's modern aspirations.

The area of the Yarra River and Port Phillip that is now Melbourne was originally inhabited by the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. It is believed that the area was occupied by indigenous Australians for at least 40,000 years. The first British penal colony in the Port Phillip district was established in 1803 on Sullivan Bay, but this settlement was abandoned after a few months.

In May and June 1835, the area that is now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association, who negotiated a transaction for 600,000 acres (2,400 km²) of land from eight Wurundjeri chiefs. He selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village", and returned to Launceston in Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land). However, by the time a settlement party from the Association arrived to establish the new village, a separate group led by John Pascoe Fawkner had already arrived aboard the Enterprize and established a settlement at the same location, on 30 August 1835. The two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement. Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines was annulled by the New South Wales government (then governing all of eastern mainland Australia), which compensated the Association. Although this meant the settlers were now trespassing on Crown land, the government reluctantly accepted the settlers' fait accompli and allowed the town (known at first by various names, including 'Bearbrass') to remain.

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 and later that year the settlement was named Melbourne 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 letters patent of Queen Victoria, issued on 25 June 1847.

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. During the optimistic 1850s and 1860s, the construction of many of Melbourne's institutional buildings began, including Parliament House, Treasury Buildings, State Library, Supreme Court, University, General Post Office, Government House as well as St Paul's and St Patrick's cathedrals. The city's inner suburbs were planned, linked by boulevards and gardens. Melbourne had become a major finance centre, home to several banks and to Australia's first stock exchange (founded in 1861).

By the 1880s, Melbourne's boom escalated. The city had become one of the largest in the British Empire, and reputedly the richest in the world. During this prosperous decade, Melbourne hosted five international exhibitions in the large purpose built Exhibition Building. Journalist George Augustus Henry Sala, during an 1885 visit, coined the phrase 'Marvellous Melbourne' to describe the booming city, which stuck long into the twentieth century. Growing building activity culminated in the "Land Boom" which in 1888 reached a peak of speculative development fuelled by optimism and escalating property prices. As a result of the boom, high-rise offices, commercial buildings, coffee palaces, terrace housing and palatial mansions proliferated in the city. Subsequent development has seen most of the taller CBD buildings (assisted by council fire regulations) and larger mansions from this era demolished, however Victorian architecture still abound in Melbourne. This period also saw the expansion of a major radial rail based transport network.

The brash boosterism which typified Melbourne during this time came to a halt in 1891 when the start of a severe depression hit the city's economy, sending the local finance and property industries into chaos during which 16 small banks and building societies collapsed and 133 limited companies went into liquidation. The Melbourne financial crisis helped trigger the Australian economic depression of 1890s and the Australian banking crisis of 1893. The effects of the depression on the city were profound, although it did continue to grow slowly during the early twentieth century.

At the time of Australia's Federation on 1 January 1901, Melbourne was specified as the temporary seat of government. The first Federal parliament was convened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building. In 1927, Federal parliament was moved to the planned city of Canberra, however the Governor-General of Australia remained at Government House until 1930 and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the 20th Century.

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 in 1956. During the subsequent decades, major freeway development and a significant increase in private car use helped the city to sprawl outwards and urban renewal projects in the inner city significantly modernised the city. Australia's finance and mining booms between 1969 and 1970 proved beneficial to Melbourne, with the headquarters of many of the major companies ( BHP and Rio Tinto, among others and the Reserve Bank of Australia) 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.

As the centre of Australia's " rust belt", Melbourne experienced the worst of Victoria's economic slump between 1989 to 1992, following the collapse of several of its financial institutions. In 1992 the newly elected Kennett Coalition government began a campaign to revive the economy with an aggressive development campaign of public works centred on Melbourne and the promotion of the city as a tourist destination with a focus on major events and sports tourism, attracting the Australian Grand Prix to the city. 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.

Geography

Topography

Map of greater Melbourne

The view of the central business district across Hobsons Bay from Williamstown

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, and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip.

Melbourne extends along the Yarra through the Yarra Valley toward the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Ranges to the east. It extends northward through the undulating bushland valleys of the Yarra's tributaries - Moonee Ponds Creek (toward Tullamarine Airport), Merri Creek and Plenty River to the outer suburban growth corridors of Craigieburn and Whittlesea. The city sprawls south-east through Dandenong to the growth corridor of Pakenham, Victoria towards West Gippsland. The suburbs sprawl southward through the Patterson River, Mornington Peninsula and the city of Frankston taking in the peaks of Olivers Hill, Mount Martha and Arthurs Seat, extending along the shores of Port Phillip as a single conurbation to reach the exclusive suburb of Portsea and Point Nepean. In the west, it extends along the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards the foothills of the Macedon Ranges, and along the flat volcanic plain country towards Melton in the west, Werribee at the foothills of the You Yangs volcanic peaks and Geelong as part of the greater metropolitan area to the south-west.

Melbourne's major bayside beaches are mostly located along the shores of Port Phillip Bay along south eastern suburbs of the city, in areas like Port Melbourne, Albert Park, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Sandringham, Mentone and Frankston although there are beaches at Altona and Williamstown in the west. The nearest metropolitan surf beaches are located 85 kilometres (53 mi) away from the CBD in the back-beaches of Rye, Sorrento and Portsea.

Environment

Like many urban environments, Melbourne faces some significant environmental issues. Melbourne has one of the highest urban footprints in the world due to its low density housing, suburban sprawl, and car dependence due to minimal public transport outside of the inner city. Much of the vegetation within the city are non-native species, most of European origin, and in many cases plays host to invasive species and noxious weeds. Significant introduced urban pests include the Common Myna, Rock Pigeon, Common Starling, Brown Rat, European Wasp, and Red Fox. Many outlying suburbs, particularly those in the Yarra Valley and the hills to the north-east and east, have gone for extended periods without regenerative fires leading to a lack of saplings and undergrowth in urbanized native bushland, the Department of Sustainability partially addresses this problem by regularly burning off. National parks nearby to the urban area include the Mornington Peninsula National Park, Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park and Point Nepean National Park in the south east, Organ Pipes National Park to the north and Dandenong Ranges National Park to the east. There are also a number of significant state parks just outside Melbourne.

Like many large cities, pollution in Melbourne presents a major problem. Responsibility for regulating pollution falls under the jurisdiction of the EPA Victoria and several local councils. Air pollution, by world standards, is classified as being good, however summer and autumn are the worst times of year for atmospheric haze in the urban area.

The biggest current environmental issue facing Melbourne is the Victorian government project to deepen the channel to Melbourne Ports by dredging Port Phillip Bay is subject to controversy and strict regulations among fears that beaches and marine wildlife could be effected by the disturbance of heavy metals and other industrial sediments. Other major pollution problems in Melbourne include levels of bacteria including E-coli in the Yarra River and its tributaries caused by septic systems, as well as up to 350,000 cigarette butts entering the storm water runoff every day. Several programs are being implemented to minimise beach and river pollution.

Climate

Melbourne has a moderate oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb). and is notorious 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 other mainland Australian capital cities in the winter. The lowest maximum on record is 4.4 °C (39.9 °F), on July 4, 1901. 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 outer eastern suburbs and Mount Dandenong were on August 10, 2005, November 15, 2006 and December 25, 2006. 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 extremely hot, and dry summers, with maximum temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F).

In recorded history, Melbourne has experienced a number of highly unusual weather events and extremes of climate. In 1891, the great flood caused the Yarra to swell to 305 metres (1,000 ft) in width. In 1897, a great fire destroyed an entire city block between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, Swanston Street and Elizabeth Street as well as gutting a 43-metre (140 ft) office building which was the city's tallest building of the time. In 1908, a heatwave struck Melbourne. On 2nd February 1918, the Brighton tornado, an F3 class and the most intense tornado to hit a major Australian city struck the bayside suburb of Brighton. In 1934, storms caused widespread damage. On 13 January 1939 Melbourne had its hottest temperature on record, 45.6 °C (114.1 °F), during a four-day nationwide heat wave in which the Black Friday bushfires destroyed townships that are now Melbourne suburbs. In 1951 it snowed in both the CBD and suburbs with moderate cover recorded. In February 1972, the CBD was flooded as the natural watercourse of Elizabeth Street became a raging torrent. On 8 February 1983, the city was enveloped by a massive dust storm, which turned day to night. On 16 February in 1983, Melbourne was encircled by an arc of fire as the Ash Wednesday fires encroached on the city. In 1997, Melbourne was hit by a heatwave with a minimum temperature over a 24 hour period of 28.8. Freak storms struck in January 2004 and February 2005. On December 9, 2006 some of the thickest bushfire smoke in recorded history blanketed the city sky. A heatwave struck in 2008 and bushfires threatened the suburbs.