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Melbourne Victoria
Top: Melbourne city centre, centre left: Flinders Street Station, centre right: Shrine of Remembrance, centre: Federation Square, bottom left: Melbourne Cricket Ground, bottom right: Royal Exhibition Building.
Melbourne
Population:	3.9 million (2008 estimate) [1] (2nd)
• Density:	1566/km² (4,055.9/sq mi) (2006)[2]
Established:	30 August 1835
Coordinates:	37°48′49″S 144°57′47″E / 37.81361°S 144.96306°E / -37.81361; 144.96306Coordinates: 37°48′49″S 144°57′47″E / 37.81361°S 144.96306°E / -37.81361; 144.96306
Elevation:	31 m (102 ft)
Area:	8806 km² (3,400.0 sq mi)
Time zone:  • Summer (DST)	AEST (UTC+10) AEDT (UTC+11)
LGA:	31 Municipalities across Greater Melbourne
County:	Bourke
State District:	54 electoral districts and regions
Federal Division:	23 Divisions
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Annual Rainfall 19.8 °C 68 °F 10.2 °C 50 °F 646.9 mm 25.5 in

Melbourne (pronounced /ˈmɛlbɚn/, locally also [ˈmælbən, -bn̩]^{[3][citation needed]}) is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and also the second most populous city in Australia.^[2] The Melbourne City Centre (also known as the "Central Business District" or "CBD")^[4] is the hub of the greater geographical area (or "metropolitan area") and the Census statistical division — of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of late 2009, the greater geographical area had an approximate population of 4 million.^[1][5] A resident of Melbourne is known as a "Melburnian".^[6]

The metropolis is located on the large natural bay known as Port Phillip, with the city centre positioned at the estuary of the Yarra River (at the northern-most point of the bay).^[4] The metropolitan area then extends south from the city centre, along the eastern and western shorelines of Port Phillip, and expands into the hinterland. The city centre is situated in the municipality known as the City of Melbourne, and the metropolitan area consists of a further 30 municipalities.^[7]

It was founded in 1835 (47 years after the European settlement of Australia) by settlers from Van Diemen's Land.^[8] The early settlement was originally known as "Bearbrass".^[9] It was renamed "Melbourne" in 1837, in honour of William Lamb — the 2nd Viscount Melbourne.^[8] Melbourne was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847.^[10] In 1851, it became the capital city of the newly created colony of Victoria.^[10] During the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities.^[11] After the federation of Australia in 1901, it then served as the interim seat of government of the newly created nation of Australia until 1927.^[12]

Today, it is a centre for the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, sport and tourism. It is the birthplace of cultural institutions such as Australian film (as well as the feature film),^[13][14] Australian television,^[15] Australian rules football,^[16] the Australian impressionist art movement (known as the Heidelberg School)^[17] and Australian dance styles (including New Vogue and later, the Melbourne Shuffle).^[18][19] The city is also the centre of contemporary and traditional Australian music.^[18] For these, it is known as the "cultural capital of Australia".^[20]

Melbourne is classified as a Beta World City+ by Loughborough University's GaWC Research Network,^[21] and as a City of Literature by UNESCO's Creative Cities Network.^[22] It has been ranked as one of the top three World's Most Livable Cities by the Economist Group's Intelligence Unit (since 2002),^{[23][24][25][26]} top 10 Global University Cities by RMIT's Global University Cities Index (since 2006)^[27][28][29] and top 20 Global Innovation Cities by the 2thinknow® Global Innovation Agency (since 2007).^[30][31][32] The metropolis is also home to the world's largest tram network.^[33] The main airport serving Melbourne is Melbourne Airport.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history and foundation 1.2 Victorian gold rush 1.3 The land boom and bust 1.4 Federation of Australia 1.5 Post-war period 1.6 Contemporary Melbourne 2 Geography 2.1 Topography 2.2 Climate 3 Urban structure 3.1 Housing 4 Environment 5 Culture 5.1 Sport 6 Economy 6.1 Financial centre 6.2 Tourism and convention industry 7 Demographics 7.1 Religion 8 Media 9 Governance 10 Education 10.1 Preschool, primary and secondary 10.2 Tertiary, vocational and research 11 Infrastructure 11.1 Health 11.2 Transport 11.3 Utilities 12 Sister cities 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 Further reading 17 External links

History

Early history and foundation

Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was occupied for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years^[34] by under 20,000^[35] hunter-gatherers from three indigenous regional tribes: the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong.^[36] The area was an important meeting place for clans and territories of the Kulin nation alliance as well as a vital source of food and water.^[37][38] The first European settlement in Victoria was established in 1803 on Sullivan Bay, near present-day Sorrento, but this settlement was abandoned due to a perceived lack of resources. It would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted.^[39]

In May and June 1835, the area that is now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman, a leading member of the Tasmanian Port Phillip Association, who negotiated a transaction for 600,000 acres (2,400 km²; 940 sq mi) of land from eight Wurundjeri elders.^[37][38] Batman 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. It is not known what Melbourne was called before the arrival of Europeans. Early European settlers mistranslated the words "Doutta-galla" which are believed to have been the name of a prominent tribal member, but said by some to also translate as "treeless plain". This was nevertheless used as one of the early names for the colony.^[40]

Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines was annulled by the New South Wales government (which at the time governed all of eastern mainland Australia), which compensated the Association.^[37] 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 'Batmania'^[9][41]) 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.^[42] 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, and the General Post Office opened under that name on 13 April 1837.^[43] Melbourne was declared a city by letters patent of Queen Victoria, issued on 25 June 1847.^[10]

The Port Phillip District became a separate colony of Victoria in 1851 with Melbourne as its capital.

Victorian gold rush

The discovery of gold in Victoria in the same year led to the Victorian gold rush, and Melbourne, which provided most service industries and served as the major port for the region, experienced rapid growth.

Migration to Melbourne, particularly from overseas including Ireland and China, caused a massive population increase. Slums developed including a temporary "tent city" established on the southern banks of the Yarra, the Little Lonsdale district and at Chinatown.

The population growth and flow of gold into the city helped stimulate a program of grand civic building beginning with the design and construction of many of Melbourne's surviving institutional buildings including Parliament House, the Treasury Building and Treasury Reserve, the Old Melbourne Gaol, Victoria Barracks, the State Library, Supreme Court, University, General Post Office, Government House, Customs House the Melbourne Town Hall, St Paul's, St Patrick's cathedrals and several major markets including the surviving Queen Victoria Market. The city's inner suburbs were planned, to be linked by boulevards and gardens. Melbourne had become a major finance centre, home to several banks, the Royal Mint to Australia's first stock exchange in 1861.^[44]

Before the arrival of white settlers, the indigenous population in the district was estimated at 15,000, but following settlement the number had fallen to less than 800,^[45] and continued to decline with an estimated 80% decrease by 1863, due primarily to introduced diseases, particularly smallpox.^[35]

The land boom and bust

The economic boom of the Victorian gold rush peaked during the 1880s and Melbourne had become the richest city in the world^[11] and the largest city after London in the British Empire.^[46] Melbourne hosted five international exhibitions at the large purpose-built Exhibition Building between 1880 and 1890^{[citation needed]} spurring the construction of several prestigious hotels including the Menzies, Federal and the Grand (Windsor).

During an 1885 visit, English journalist George Augustus Henry Sala coined the phrase "Marvellous Melbourne", which stuck long into the twentieth century and is still used today by Melburnians.^[47] Growing building activity culminated in a "land boom" which, in 1888, reached a peak of speculative development fuelled by consumer confidence and escalating land value.^[48] As a result of the boom, large commercial buildings, coffee palaces, terrace housing and palatial mansions proliferated in the city.^[48] The establishment of a hydraulic facility in 1887 allowed for the local manufacture of elevators which, in turn resulted in the first construction of high-rise buildings.^[49] This period also saw the expansion of a major radial rail-based transport network.^[50]

A brash boosterism that had typified Melbourne during this period ended in 1891 with a severe depression of the city's economy, sending the local finance and property industries into a period of chaos^[48][51] during which 16 small banks and building societies collapsed and 133 limited companies went into liquidation. The Melbourne financial crisis was a contributing factor in 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 recovered enough to grow slowly during the early twentieth century.^[52][53]

Federation of Australia

At the time of Australia's federation on 1 January 1901, Melbourne became the temporary seat of government of the federation. The first federal parliament was convened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building, where it was located until 1927, when it was moved to Canberra. The governor-general remained at Government House until 1930 and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the twentieth century.^[54] Flinders Street Station was the world's busiest passenger station in 1927 and Melbourne's tram network overtook Sydney's to become the world's largest in the 1940s. During World War II, Melbourne industries thrived on wartime production and the city became Australia's leading manufacturing centre.^{[citation needed]}

Post-war period

After World War II, Melbourne expanded rapidly, its growth boosted by Post war immigration to Australia.^[55] While the "Paris End" of Collins Street began Melbourne's boutique shopping and open air cafe cultures^[56], the city centre was seen by many as stale, the dreary domain of office workers, something expressed by John Brack in his famous painting Collins St 5 PM, (1955).^[57] The eyes of the world were on the city when it hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics.

Suburban expansion intensified, serviced by new indoor malls beginning with Chadstone Shopping Centre.^[58] The post-war period also saw a major renewal of the CBD and St Kilda Road which significantly modernised the city.^[59] New fire regulations and redevelopment saw most of the taller pre-war CBD buildings demolished. Many of the larger suburban mansions from the boom era were also either demolished or subdivided.

To counter the trend towards low-density suburban residential growth, the government began a series of controversial public housing projects in the inner city by the Housing Commission of Victoria, which resulted in demolition of many neighbourhoods and a proliferation of high-rise towers.^[60] In later years, with the rapid rise of motor vehicle ownership, the investment in freeway and highway developments greatly accelerated the outward suburban sprawl and declining inner city population. The Bolte government sought to rapidly accelerate the modernisation of Melbourne. Major road projects including the remodelling of St Kilda Junction, the widening of Hoddle Street and then the extensive 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan changed the face of the city into a car-dominated environment.^{[citation needed]}

Australia's financial and mining booms between 1969 and 1970 resulted in establishment of the headquarters of many major companies (BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, among others) in the city. Nauru's then booming economy resulted in several ambitious investments in Melbourne, such as Nauru House.^{[citation needed]} Melbourne remained Australia's main business and financial centre until the late 1970s, when it began to lose this primacy to Sydney.^[61]

As the centre of Australia's "rust belt", Melbourne experienced an economic downturn between 1989 to 1992, following the collapse of several local financial institutions. In 1992 the newly elected Kennett government began a campaign to revive the economy with an aggressive development campaign of public works coupled with the promotion of the city as a tourist destination with a focus on major events and sports tourism.^{[citation needed]} During this period the Australian Grand Prix moved to Melbourne from Adelaide. Major projects included the construction of a new facility for the Melbourne Museum, Federation Square, the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, Crown Casino and the 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, education and public transport infrastructure.^[62]

Contemporary Melbourne

Since 1997, Melbourne has maintained significant population and employment growth. There has been substantial international investment in the city's industries and property market. Major inner-city urban renewal has occurred in areas such as Southbank, Port Melbourne, Melbourne Docklands and more recently, South Wharf. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne sustained the highest population increase and economic growth rate of any Australian capital city in the three years ended June 2004.^[63] These factors have led to population growth and further suburban expansion through the 2000s.

In 2003, Melbourne was named as a UNESCO City of Literature.

From 2006, the growth of the city extended into "green wedges" and beyond the city's Urban growth boundary. Predictions of the city's population reaching 5 million people pushed the state government to review the growth boundary in 2008 as part of its Melbourne @ Five Million strategy.^[64]. Melbourne survived the financial crisis of 2007-2010 better than any other Australian city. In 2009, more new jobs were created in Melbourne than any other Australian capital - almost as many as the next two fastest growing cities, Brisbane and Perth, combined.^[65] and Melbourne's property market remained strong,^[66] resulting in historically high property prices and widespread rent increases.^[67]

In February 2010, The Transition Decade, an initiative to transition human society, economics and environment towards sustainability, was launched in Melbourne.^[68]

Geography

Topography

Melbourne is located in the south-eastern part of mainland Australia, within the state of Victoria.^[69][70] Geologically, it is built on the confluence of Quaternary lava flows to the west, Silurian mudstones to the east,^[71] and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip. The southeastern suburbs are situated on the Selwyn fault^[72] which transects Mount Martha and Cranbourne.

Melbourne extends along the Yarra towards the Yarra Valley^[73] 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, Darebin 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 towards West Gippsland, and southward through the Dandenong Creek valley, the 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^[74][75] 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 Sunbury and 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 granite ridge and Geelong as part of the greater metropolitan area to the south-west.

Melbourne's major bayside beaches are located in the south-eastern suburbs along the shores of Port Phillip Bay, in areas like Port Melbourne, Albert Park, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Sandringham, Mentone and Frankston although there are beaches in the western suburbs of Altona and Williamstown. The nearest surf beaches are located 85 kilometres (53 mi) south-east of the Melbourne CBD in the back-beaches of Rye, Sorrento and Portsea.^[76][77]

Climate

Melbourne has a moderate oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb)^[78][79] and is well known for its changeable weather conditions. This is mainly due to Melbourne's location situated on the boundary of the very hot inland areas and the cold southern ocean. This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause very strong cold fronts to form. These cold fronts can be responsible for all sorts of severe weather from gales to severe thunderstorms and hail, large temperature drops, and heavy rain. Port Phillip is often warmer than the surrounding oceans and/or the land mass, particularly in spring and autumn; this can set up a kind of "bay effect" similar to the "lake effect" seen in the United States where showers are intensified leeward of the bay. Relatively narrow streams of heavy showers can often affect the same places (usually the eastern suburbs) for an extended period of time, whilst the rest of Melbourne and surrounds stays dry. Melbourne is also prone to isolated convective showers forming when a cold pool crosses the state, especially if there is considerable daytime heating. These showers are often heavy and can contain hail and squalls and significant drops in temperature, but they pass through very quickly at times with a rapid clearing trend to sunny and relatively calm weather and the temperature rising back to what it was before the shower. This occurs often in the space of minutes and can be repeated many times in a day, giving Melbourne a reputation for having "four seasons in one day",^[80] a phrase that is part of local popular culture and familiar to many visitors to the city.^[81]

Melbourne is colder than other mainland Australian state capital cities in the winter. The lowest temperature on record is −2.8 °C (27 °F), on 4 July 1901.^[82] However, snowfalls are rare: the most recent occurrence of sleet in the CBD was on 25 July 1986 and the most recent snowfalls in the outer eastern suburbs and Mount Dandenong were on 10 August 2005,^[83] 15 November 2006, 25 December 2006^[84] and 10 August 2008.^[85] More commonly, Melbourne experiences frosts and fog in winter.

During the spring, Melbourne commonly enjoys extended periods of mild weather and clear skies. Melbourne and Sydney's average January and February daily highs are similar.^[86][87] However, Melbourne's summers are notable for days of extreme heat, with Melbourne holding the Australian capital city extreme temperature record of 46.4°C, set on 7 February 2009.^[88]

Climate data for Melbourne

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	45.6 (114)	46.4 (116)	41.7 (107)	34.9 (95)	28.7 (84)	22.4 (72)	23.1 (74)	26.5 (80)	31.4 (89)	36.9 (98)	40.9 (106)	43.7 (111)	46.4 (116)
Average high °C (°F)	25.9 (79)	25.8 (78)	23.9 (75)	20.3 (69)	16.7 (62)	14.0 (57)	13.4 (56)	14.9 (59)	17.2 (63)	19.6 (67)	21.9 (71)	24.2 (76)	19.8 (68)
Average low °C (°F)	14.3 (58)	14.6 (58)	13.2 (56)	10.7 (51)	8.6 (47)	6.9 (44)	6.0 (43)	6.7 (44)	7.9 (46)	9.5 (49)	11.1 (52)	12.9 (55)	10.2 (50)
Record low °C (°F)	5.5 (42)	4.5 (40)	2.8 (37)	1.5 (35)	−1.1 (30)	−2.2 (28)	−2.8 (27)	−2.1 (28)	−0.5 (31)	0.1 (32)	2.5 (37)	4.4 (40)	−2.8 (27)
Precipitation mm (inches)	47.6 (1.87)	47.3 (1.86)	50.2 (1.98)	57.3 (2.26)	56.2 (2.21)	49.2 (1.94)	47.7 (1.88)	50.2 (1.98)	57.9 (2.28)	66.2 (2.61)	59.5 (2.34)	59.2 (2.33)	648.5 (25.53)
Avg. precipitation days	8.3	7.4	9.3	11.4	13.9	14.1	15.1	15.6	14.7	14.1	11.7	10.4	146.0
Source: Bureau of Meteorology.[89] 31 December 2009

Urban structure

The centre of the CBD is formed by the Hoddle Grid (dimensions of 1 by 0.5 miles (1.6 by 0.80 km)). The grid's southern edge fronts onto the Yarra River. Office, commercial and public developments in the adjoining districts of Southbank and Docklands have made these redeveloped areas into extensions of the CBD in all but name.

The city centre is well known for its historic and attractive lanes and arcades (the most notable of which are Block Place and Royal Arcade) which contain a variety of shops and cafes.^[90] The Melbourne CBD, compared with other Australian cities has comparatively unrestricted height limits and as the result of waves of post war development contains five of the six tallest buildings in Australia, the tallest of these being the Eureka Tower, which is situated in Southbank.^[91]

The Rialto tower, the city's second tallest, remains the tallest building in the old CBD; its observation deck for visitors has recently closed.^[92] The CBD and surrounds also contain many significant historic buildings such as the Royal Exhibition Building, the Melbourne Town Hall and Parliament House.^[93][94] Although the area is described as the centre, it is not actually the demographic centre of Melbourne at all, due to an urban sprawl to the south east, the demographic centre being located at Glen Iris.^[95]

Melbourne is typical of Australian capital cities in that after the turn of the 20th century, it expanded with the underlying notion of a 'quarter acre home and garden' for every family, often referred to locally as the Australian Dream. This, coupled with the popularity of the private automobile throughout much of the 20th century, led to the auto-centric urban structure now present today in the middle and outer suburbs. Much of metropolitan Melbourne is accordingly characterised by low density sprawl, whilst its inner city areas feature predominantly medium-density, transit-oriented urban forms. The city centre, Docklands, St.Kilda Road and Southbank areas feature high-density forms.

Melbourne is often referred to as Australia's garden city, and the state of Victoria was once known as the garden state.^[96][97][98] There is an abundance of parks and gardens in Melbourne,^[99] 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.

The extensive area covered by urban Melbourne is formally divided into hundreds of suburbs (for addressing and postal purposes), and administered as local government areas^[100] 31 of which are located within the metropolitan area.^[101]

Housing

Housing in Melbourne is characterised by high rates of private housing ownership^{[citation needed]}, minimal and lack of public housing and high demand for, and largely unaffordable, rental housing.^{[citation needed]} Public housing is usually provided by the Housing Commission of Victoria and operates within the framework of the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement, by which funding for public housing is provided by both federal and state governments.^{[citation needed]} Public housing can be difficult to obtain with many residents forced to wait on waiting lists.^{[citation needed]}

At present, Melbourne is experiencing high population growth, generating high demand for housing. This has created a housing boom, pushing housing prices up and having an affect on rental prices as well as availability of all types of housing. Subdivision regularly occurs in the far outer areas of Melbourne with Display homes from numerous developers offering house and land packages.

Environment

Like many urban environments, Melbourne faces some significant environmental issues, many of them relating to the city's large urban footprint and urban sprawl and the demand for infrastructure and services.

One such issue is water usage, drought and low rainfall. Drought in Victoria, low rainfalls and high temperatures deplete Melbourne water supplies and climate change will have a long-term impact on the water supplies of Melbourne.^[102] Melbourne has been in a drought since 1997.^[103] In response to low water supplies and low rainfall due to drought, the government implemented water restrictions and a range of other options including: water recycling schemes for the city, incentives for household water tanks, greywater systems, water consumption awareness initiatives, and other water saving and reuse initiatives; also, in June 2007, the Bracks Government announced that a $3.1 billion Wonthaggi desalination plant would be built on Victoria's south-east coast, capable of treating 150 billion litres of water per year,^[104] as well as a 70 km (43 mi) pipeline from the Goulburn area in Victoria's north to Melbourne and a new water pipeline linking Melbourne and Geelong. Both projects are being conducted under controversial Public-Private Partnerships and a multitude of independent reports have found that neither project is required to supply water to the city and that Sustainable Water Management is the best solution and in the meantime, the drought must be weathered.^[105]

Many of Melbourne's inner city councils have a higher than average supporter and voter base for the Australian Greens, however, the average is lower in the outer suburbs.

In response to Attribution of recent climate change, the City of Melbourne, in 2002, set a target to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2020^[106] and Moreland City Council established the Zero Moreland program, however not all metropolitan municipalities have followed, with the City of Glen Eira notably deciding in 2009 not to become carbon neutral.^[107]

Melbourne has one of the largest urban footprints in the world due to its low density housing, resulting in a vast suburban sprawl, with a high level of car dependence and minimal public transport outside of inner areas.^[108] 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.^[109] Significant introduced urban pests include the Common Myna,^[110] Feral Pigeon,^[111], Brown Rat^[112][113], European Wasp,^[114], Common Starling and Red Fox.^[115] Many outlying suburbs, particularly towards 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 urbanised native bushland. The Department of Sustainability and Environment partially addresses this problem by regularly burning off.^[116][117] Several national parks have been designated around the urban area of Melbourne, including 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.^[118][119]

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.^[96][120]

Another current environmental issue in Melbourne is the Victorian government project of channel deepening Melbourne Ports by dredging Port Phillip Bay – the Port Phillip Channel Deepening Project. It is subject to controversy and strict regulations among fears that beaches and marine wildlife could be affected by the disturbance of heavy metals and other industrial sediments.^[77][121] Other major pollution problems in Melbourne include levels of bacteria including E-coli in the Yarra River and its tributaries caused by septic systems,^[122] as well as litter. Up to 350,000 cigarette butts enter the storm water runoff every day.^[123] Several programs are being implemented to minimise beach and river pollution.^[77][124]

Culture

Melbourne is widely regarded as the cultural and sporting capital of Australia, which is considered to encompass the comedy, music, art, literature, film and television capital tags.^[125][126] It is also listed as a City of Literature by UNESCO. It has thrice shared top position^[127] 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,^[128] 2004 and 2005.^[129] In recent years rising property prices have led to Melbourne being named the 36th least affordable city in the world and the second least affordable in Australia.^[130]

The city celebrates a wide variety of annual cultural events and festivals of all types, most revolving around music, film, art, comedy, performance and more contemporary areas such as avant-garde culture and more recently, sustainability. Melbourne is also considered to be Australia's music capital with a large emphasis on live performance and independent music.

It is the birthplace of Australian film and television (as well as the world’s first feature film),^{[15][131][132]} Australian rules football,^[16] Australian impressionist art movement (known as the Heidelberg School)^[133] and Australian contemporary dance (including the Melbourne Shuffle and New Vogue styles).^[134] It is also home to Australia’s very first, and largest, art gallery (the National Gallery of Victoria)^[135] and largest sports stadium (the Melbourne Cricket Ground).^[136]

Melbourne has a large international student community – and more international students per capita than any city in the world.^[137]

Street Art in Melbourne is becoming increasingly popular with the Lonely Planet guides listing it as a major attraction. The city is also admired as one of the great cities of the Victorian Age (1837–1901) and a vigorous city life intersects with an impressive range of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century buildings.^[138]

Sport

Melbourne is a notable sporting location as the host city for the 1956 Summer Olympics games, the first Olympic Games ever held in Australia^[139] and the southern hemisphere, along with the 2006 Commonwealth Games.^[140][141]

In recent years, the city has claimed the SportsBusiness title "World's Ultimate Sports City".^[142] The city is home to the National Sports Museum, which until 2003 was located outside the members pavilion at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and reopened in 2008 in the Olympic Stand.^[143]

Australian rules football and Cricket are the most popular sports in Melbourne and also the spiritual home of these two sports in Australia and both are mostly played in the same stadia in the city and its suburbs. The first ever official cricket Test match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877 and the Melbourne Cricket Ground is the largest cricket ground in the world^{[citation needed]}. The first Australian rules football matches were played in Melbourne in 1859 and the Australian Football League is headquartered at Docklands Stadium. Nine of its teams are based in the Melbourne metropolitan area and the five Melbourne AFL matches per week attract an average 40,000 people per game.^[144] Additionally, the city annually hosts the AFL Grand Final.

The city is also home to several professional franchises in national competitions including the Melbourne Storm (rugby league),^[145] who play in the NRL competition, Melbourne Victory (football (soccer)) who play in the A-league, netball team Melbourne Vixens who play in the trans-Tasman trophy ANZ Championship. The Melbourne Tigers are Melbournes only team in the National Basketball League although there is talk of a second Melbourne team for the 2011/2012 season. The new rugby union Super 15 license was given to Melbourne to start a team at the beginning of the 2011 Super 15 season, the team most likely to represent Melbourne are the Melbourne Rebels

Melbourne is home to the three major annual international sporting events in the Australian Open (tennis),^[146] Melbourne Cup (horse racing),^[147] and the Australian Grand Prix (Formula One).^[148]

In November 2008, it was announced to the AOC that the city was considering potential bids for either the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympics.^{[citation needed]}

Economy

Melbourne is home to Australia's busiest seaport and much of Australia's automotive industry, which include Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities, and the engine manufacturing facility of Holden. It is home to many other manufacturing industries, along with being a major business and financial centre.^[149]

International freight is an important industry. The city's port, Australia's largest, handles more than $75 billion in trade every year and 39% of the nation's container trade.^{[98][150][151]} Melbourne Airport provides an entry point for national and international visitors, and is Australia's second busiest airport.

Melbourne is also a major technology hub, with an ICT industry that employs over 60,000 people (one third of Australia's ICT workforce), has a turnover of $19.8 billion and export revenues of $615 million.

Most recent major infrastructure projects, such as the redevelopment of Southern Cross Station (formerly Spencer Street Station),^[152] 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.^[153]

Financial centre

Melbourne retains a significant presence of being a financial centre for Asia-Pacific. Two of the big four banks, NAB and ANZ, are headquartered in Melbourne. The city has carved out a niche as Australia’s leading centre for superannuation (pension) funds, with 40% of the total, and 65% of industry super-funds including the $40 billion-dollar Federal Government Future Fund.

The city is headquarters for many of Australia's largest corporations, including five of the ten largest in the country (based on revenue, and five of the largest six in the country based on Market Capitalization)^[154] (ANZ, BHP Billiton, the National Australia Bank, Rio Tinto and Telstra); as well as such representative bodies and thinktanks as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Melbourne rated 34th within the top 50 financial cities as surveyed by the Mastercard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index (2007),^[155] between Barcelona and Geneva, and second only to Sydney (14th) in Australia.

Tourism and convention industry

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.^[156] In 2008, Melbourne overtook Sydney with the amount of money that domestic tourists spent in the city.^[157]

Melbourne has also been attracting an increasing share of domestic and international conference markets. 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.^[158]

Demographics

Significant overseas born populations[159]
Place of Birth	Population (2006)
United Kingdom	156,457
Italy	73,801
Vietnam	57,926
People's Republic of China	54,726
New Zealand	52,453
Greece	52,279
India	50,686
Sri Lanka	30,594
Malaysia	29,174
Philippines	24,568
Germany	21,182
Malta	18,951
South Africa	17,317
Republic of Macedonia	17,287
Hong Kong	16,917
Poland	16,439
Croatia	15,367
Lebanon	14,645
Netherlands	14,581
Turkey	14,124

Melbourne population by year
1836	177
1854	123,000	(gold rush)
1890	490,000	(property boom)
1930	1,000,000
1956	1,500,000
1981	2,806,000
1991	3,156,700	(economic slump)
2001	3,366,542
2009	4,000,000[1]

Melbourne is a diverse and multicultural city and melting pot.^[160] This is reflected by the fact that the city is home to restaurants serving cuisines from all over the world.

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. Melbourne has the second largest Asian population in Australia (16.2%), which includes the largest Indian and Sri Lankan communities in the country.^[161][162]

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 World War II.

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.^[163] Thereafter, growth was exponential and by 1865, Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous city.^[164]

Large numbers of Chinese, German and United States nationals 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.^[165]

In the aftermath of the World War II, Melbourne experienced unprecedented inflows from Southern Europe, primarily Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina also West Asia mostly from Lebanon and Turkey. In 2006 149,195 persons in the Melbourne Statistical District claimed Greek ancestry, either alone or in combination with another ancestry^[166]; only four Greek cities have larger populations. Melbourne and the Greek city of Thessaloniki became sister cities in 1984^[167], as commemorated by a marble stele (pillar) from the Prefecture of Thessaloniki, unveiled 11 November 2008^[168]. Ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese also maintain significant presences.

Melbourne exceeds the national average in terms of proportion of residents born overseas: 34.8% compared to a national average of 23.1%. In concordance with national data, Britain is the most commonly reported overseas country of birth, with 4.7 %, followed by Italy (2.4%), Greece (1.9 %) and then China (1.3 %). Melbourne also features substantial Vietnamese, Indian and Sri Lankan-born communities, in addition to recent South African and Sudanese influxes. Though the city is known as a melting pot of various cultures, there has been a recent wave of attacks against people of Indian origin.^[169] This has led to a sharp fall in international student applications from India.^[170]

Over two-thirds of people in Melbourne speak only English at home (68.8 %). Italian is the second most common home language (4.0 %), with Greek third and Chinese fourth, each with over 100,000 speakers.^[171]

Although Victoria's net interstate migration has fluctuated, the Melbourne statistical division has grown by approximately 50,000 people a year since 2003. Melbourne has now attracted the largest proportion of international overseas immigrants (48,000) finding it outpacing Sydney's international migrant intake, along with 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 driving Melbourne's growth.^[172]

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. Despite a demographic study stating that Melbourne could overtake Sydney in population by 2028,^[173] the ABS has projected in two scenarios that Sydney will remain larger than Melbourne beyond 2056, albeit by a margin of less than 3% compared to a margin of 12% today. However, the first scenario projects that Melbourne's population overtakes Sydney in 2039, primarily due to larger levels of internal migration losses assumed for Sydney.^[174]

After a trend of declining population density since World War II, the city has seen increased density in the inner and western suburbs aided in part by Victorian Government planning blueprints, such as Postcode 3000 and Melbourne 2030 which have aimed to curtail the urban sprawl.^{[175] [176]}

Religion

Melbourne is also home to a wide range of religious faiths. The largest of which is Christian (64%) with a large Catholic population (28.3%).^[177] However Melbourne and indeed Australia are highly secularised, with the proportion of people identifying themselves as Christian declining from 96% in 1901 to 64% in 2006 and those who did not state their religion or declared no religion rising from 2% to over 30% over the same period.^[178] Nevertheless, the large Christian population is signified by the city's two large cathedrals – St Patrick's (Roman Catholic),^[179] and St Paul's (Anglican).^[180] Both were built in the Victorian era and are of considerable heritage significance as major landmarks of the city.^[181]

Other responses included no religion (20.0%, 717,717), Anglican (12.1%, 433,546), Eastern Orthodox (5.9%, 212,887) and the Uniting Church (4.0%, 143,552).^[177] Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs collectively account for 7.5% of the population.

Melbourne has the largest Jewish population in Australia, the community currently numbering approximately 60,000. The city is also home to the largest number of Holocaust survivors of any Australian city,^[182] indeed the highest per capita concentration outside Israel itself.^[183] Reflecting this vibrant and growing community, Melbourne has a plethora of Jewish cultural, religious and educational institutions, including over 40 synagogues and 7 full-time parochial day schools,^[184] along with a local Jewish newspaper.^[185] Melbourne's and Australia's largest university – Monash University is named after prominent Australian Jewish general and statesman, Sir John Monash.^[186]

Media

Melbourne is served by three daily newspapers, the Herald Sun (tabloid),^[187] The Age (broadsheet)^[188] and The Australian (national broadsheet).^[189] The free mX is also distributed every weekday afternoon at railway stations and on the streets of central Melbourne.^[190]

Melbourne is served by six television stations: HSV-7, which broadcasts from the Melbourne Docklands precinct; GTV-9, which broadcasts from their Richmond studios; and ATV-10, which broadcasts from the Como Complex in South Yarra. National stations that broadcast into Melbourne include the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which has two studios, one at Ripponlea and another at Southbank; and Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), which broadcasts from their studios at Federation Square in central Melbourne. C31 Melbourne is the only local community television station in Melbourne, and its broadcast range also branches out to regional centre Geelong. Melbourne also receives Pay TV, largely through cable and satellite services. Foxtel and Optus are the main Pay TV providers.

A number of radio stations service the areas of Melbourne and beyond on the AM and FM band. Popular stations on the FM band include DMG Radio channels Nova 100 and Classic Rock 91.5 as well as Australian Radio Network's Gold 104.3 and Mix 101.1, both in Richmond, and Austereo channels Fox FM and Triple M, which share studios in South Melbourne, Triple J and PBS 106.7 known for playing music seldom played on other radio stations. Also 94.3 Star FM is based in Warragul (100 kilometres South East of Melbourne) and covers the majority of Melbourne's South Eastern Suburbs. Stations that are popular on the AM band include 774 ABC Melbourne, 3AW, a prominently talkback radio station, and its affiliate, Magic 1278, which plays a selection of music from the 1930s-60s. Community radio is also strong in Melbourne, with a number of community and subscription based radio stations on both the AM and FM bands. The best known of these stations are Triple R, SYN, 3JOY, PBS & 3CR. There are also a number of community stations based around the greater Melbourne area.^[191]

Governance

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),^[192] particularly when interstate or overseas. Robert Doyle, elected in 2008, is current Lord Mayor.

The rest of the metropolitan area is divided into 31 local government areas. All these are designated as Cities, except for five on the city's outer fringes which are classified as Shires. Local government authorities have elected councils and are responsible for a range of functions set out in the Local Government Act 1989^[193], such as urban planning and waste management.

Most non-local government services are provided or regulated by the Victorian state government, which governs from Parliament House in Spring Street. These include public transport, main roads, traffic control, policing, education above preschool level, health and planning of major infrastructure projects.

Education

Education is overseen statewide by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), whose role is to 'provide policy and planning advice for the delivery of education'.^[194] It acts as advisor to two state ministers, that for Education and for Children and Early Childhood Development.

Preschool, primary and secondary

Melbourne schools are predominant among Australian schools whose alumni are listed in Who's Who in Australia, a listing of notable Australians.^{[195][196][197]} In the top ten boys schools in Australia for Who's Who-listed alumni, Melbourne schools are Scotch College (first in Australia - it is also Melbourne's oldest secondary school^[198]), Melbourne Grammar School (second), Melbourne High School (third), Geelong Grammar School (fourth - has a junior campus in suburban Toorak) and Wesley College (sixth). In the top ten girl's schools for Who's Who-listed alumni Melbourne schools are Presbyterian Ladies College (first in Australia), Methodist Ladies College (third), Melbourne Girls Grammar School (fifth), Mac.Robertson Girls' High School (sixth) and University High School (tenth).^[199].

There are three selective public schools in Melbourne (entry based on examination/audition): Melbourne High School, MacRoberston Girls' High School and The Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School (VCASS), but all public schools may restrict entry to students living in their regional 'zone'.^[200][201]

Primary and secondary assessment, curriculum development and educational research initiatives throughout Melbourne and Victoria is undertaken by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA),^[202] which offers the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) and Achievement Improvement Monitor (AIM) certificates from years Prep through Year 10, and the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) and Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) as part of senior secondary programs (Years 11 to 12).

Although non-tertiary public education is free, 35% of students attend a private primary or secondary school.^[203] The most numerous private schools are Catholic, and the rest are independent (see Public and Private Education in Australia).

Tertiary, vocational and research

Melbourne's two largest universities are the University of Melbourne and Monash University, the largest university in Australia. Both are members of the Group of Eight. Melbourne University ranked second among Australian universities in the 2006 THES international rankings.^[204] 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. Melbourne was ranked the world's fourth top university city in 2008 after London, Boston and Tokyo.^[205]

Other notable universities include the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and La Trobe University which have also placed in the THES rankings and also Swinburne University of Technology based in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. The Geelong based Deakin University also has a significant campus in Melbourne. Victoria University, Australia, has nine campuses across Melbourne's western region, including three in the heart of Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD) and another four within ten kilometers of the CBD. Some of the nation's oldest educational institutions and faculities are located in Melbourne, including the oldest Engineering (1860), Medical (1862), Dental (1897) and Music (1891) schools and the oldest law course in Australia (1857), all at the University of Melbourne. The University of Melbourne is the oldest university in Victoria and the second-oldest university in Australia.

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.

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.^[206]

There are many major medical, neuroscience and biotechnology research institutions located in Melbourne: St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, Australian Stem Cell Centre, the Burnet Institute, Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Victorian Institute of Chemical Sciences, Brain Research Institute, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre.

Other institutions include the Howard Florey Institute, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Australian Synchrotron.^[207] Many of these institutions are associated with and are located near universities.

Transport

Melbourne has an integrated public transport system based around extensive train, tram and bus networks. Its tram network is the largest in the world, while the rail network is one of the largest in the world, hosting 15 lines, the Paris Metro is a third smaller, while San Francisco's BART system is less than half the size. It is also served by an extensive network of freeways and arterial roadways.

Its train and tram networks were originally laid out late in the 19th century assisted by wealth from the gold rush. The early 20th century saw an increase in popularity of the private automobile, resulting in unsustainable outward suburban expansion.^[208] Public transport usage declined between the 1940s, when 25% of travelers used public transport, and 2003, where it bottomed out at 7.6%.^[209] The public transport system was privatised in 1999, symbolising the peak of the decline.^[210]

Despite privatisation and successive governments persisting with auto-centric urban development into the 21st century,^[211] there has been large increases in public transport patronage since, bringing the figure back up to 9% by 2006. In 2006, the State Government tentatively announced a goal of 20% public transport mode share by 2020.

Melbourne has the largest tram network in the world.^[33][212] Melbourne's is Australia's only tram network to comprise more than a single line. Sections of the tram network are on roads, while others are separated or are light rail routes. Melbourne's trams are recognised as iconic cultural assets and a tourist attraction. Heritage trams operate on the free City Circle route, intended for visitors to Melbourne, and heritage restaurant trams travel through the city during the evening.^[213]

The Melbourne rail network consists of 16 suburban lines which radiate from the City Loop, a partially underground metro section of the network beneath the Central Business District (Hoddle Grid). Flinders Street Station is Melbourne's busiest railway station, and was the world's busiest passenger station in 1926. It remains a prominent Melbourne landmark and meeting place.^[214] The city has rail connections with regional Victorian cities, as well as interstate rail services to Sydney and Adelaide, which depart from Melbourne's other major rail terminus, Southern Cross Station in Spencer Street.

Melbourne's bus network consists of almost 300 routes which mainly service the outer suburbs fill the gaps in the network between rail and light rail services.^[213][215] Melbourne has a high dependency on private cars for transport, with 7.1% of trips made by public transport.^[216] However there has been a significant rise in patronage in the last two years mostly due to higher fuel prices,^[217] since 2006, public transport patronage has grown by over 20%.^[218]

The largest number of cars are bought in the outer suburban area, while the inner suburbs with greater access to train and tram services enjoy higher public transport patronage. Melbourne has a total of 3.6 million private vehicles using 22,320 km (13,870 mi) of road, and one of the highest lengths of road per capita.^[216] Major highways feeding into the city include the Eastern Freeway, Monash Freeway and West Gate Freeway (which spans the large Westgate Bridge), whilst other freeways circumnavigate the city or lead to other major cities, including CityLink, Eastlink, the Western Ring Road, Calder Freeway, Tullamarine Freeway (main airport link – no rail link) and the Hume Freeway which links Melbourne and Sydney.^[219]

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.^[150] Station Pier in Port Phillip Bay handles cruise ships and the Spirit of Tasmania ferries which cross Bass Strait to Tasmania.^[220]

Melbourne has four airports. Melbourne Airport, at Tullamarine, is the city's main international and domestic gateway. The airport is home base for passenger airlines Jetstar and Tiger Airways Australia and cargo airlines Australian air Express and Toll Priority and is a major hub for Qantas and Virgin Blue. Avalon Airport, located between Melbourne and Geelong, is a secondary hub of Jetstar. It is also used as a freight and maintenance facility. Air Ambulance facilities are available for domestic and international transportation of patients. Air ambulance australia

This makes Melbourne the only city in Australia to have a second commercial airport. Moorabbin Airport is a significant general aviation airport in the city's south east as well as handling a limited number of passenger flights. Essendon Airport, which was once the city's main airport before the construction of the airport at Tullamarine, handles passenger flights, general aviation and some cargo flights.^[221]

Utilities

Gas is provided by private companies, as is electricity, which is sourced mostly from coal fired power stations. As a result, the city has some of the most inefficient and costly sources of electricity and one of the highest carbon footprints in the world^{[citation needed]}. The limited renewable energy utilities currently under construction include mostly wind farms across the state and solar in the northwest^{[citation needed]}.

Water resources, whilst scarce, are more readily available in this region of the continent than other parts of Australia^{[citation needed]}. The water quality is also quite high, requiring much lower levels of chlorine for sanitation^{[citation needed]}. Despite these positives, water usage in Melbourne is highly inefficient and is amongst the highest in the world per person^{[citation needed]}.

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 and will be responsible for the Wonthaggi desalination plant and North–South Pipeline. Water is stored in a series of reservoirs located within and outside the Greater Melbourne area. The largest dam, the Thomson River Dam, located in the Victorian Alps, is capable of holding around 60% of Melbourne's water capacity,^[222] while smaller dams such as the Upper Yarra Dam and the Cardinia Reservoir carry secondary supplies.

Numerous telecommunications companies provide Melbourne with terrestrial and mobile telecommunications services and wireless internet services.

Sister cities

The City of Melbourne has six sister cities.^[223] They are:

Osaka, Japan, 1978 Tianjin, China, 1980 Thessaloniki, Greece, 1984[224] Boston, United States, 1985 Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1989 Milan, Italy, 2004

Some other local councils in the Melbourne metropolitan area have sister city relationships; see Local Government Areas of Victoria.

Melbourne is a member of the C40: Large Cities Climate Leadership Group and the United Nations Global Compact – Cities Programme.

See also

• Timeline of Melbourne history
• Melbourne tourism
• Crime in Melbourne
• Melway — the native street directory and general information source in Melbourne.
• Hook turn — driving manoeuvre that is common in the inner city area.
• City of Literature — Melbourne was named a City of Literature by UNESCO in 2008.
• Melbourne Model
• The Southern Star (observation wheel)
• 2am Lockout
• Melbourne population growth
• Neighbours

Lists:

• List of Melburnians
• List of Melbourne suburbs
• List of Mayors and Lord Mayors of Melbourne
• List of songs about Melbourne
• List of heritage listed buildings in Melbourne
• Local Government Areas of Victoria
• List of Australian capital cities

Notes

References

Further reading

Brown-May, Andrew; Shurlee Swain (2005). The Encyclopedia of Melbourne. Melbourne, Vic: Cambridge University Press,. pp. 820.  Bell, Agnes Paton (1965). Melbourne: John Batman's Village. Melbourne, Vic: Cassell Australia,. pp. 178.  McClymont, David; Mark Armstrong (2000). Lonely Planet Melbourne. Lonely Planet. pp. 200 pages. ISBN 1864501243, 9781864501247. http://books.google.com/books?id=1pwGAAAACAAJ&dq=Melbourne.  Cecil, David (1954). Melbourne. Bobbs-Merrill. pp. 450.  Newnham, William Henry (1956). Melbourne: The Biography of a City. F. W. Cheshire. pp. 225 pages.  Boldrewood, Rolf (1896). Old Melbourne Memories. Macmillan and Co. pp. 259 pages.  Borthwick, John Stephen; David McGonigal (1990). Insight Guide: Melbourne. Prentice Hall Travel. pp. 247. ISBN 0134677137, 9780134677132.  Priestley, Susan (1995). South Melbourne: A History. Melbourne University Press. pp. 455. ISBN 0522846645, 9780522846645.  Caroll, Brian (1972). Melbourne: An Illustrated History. Lansdowne. pp. 128. ISBN 0701801956, 9780701801953.  Coote, Maree (2009,2003). The Melbourne Book: A History of Now. Melbournestyle Books. pp. 356. ISBN 9780975704745.  Briggs, John Joseph (1852). The History of Melbourne, in the County of Derby: Including Biographical Notices of the Coke, Melbourne, and Hardinge Families. Bemrose & Son. pp. 205.  Lewis, Miles Bannatyne; Philip Goad, Alan Mayne (1994). Melbourne: The City's History and Development (2nd ed. ed.). City of Melbourne. ISBN 0949624713, 9780949624710.

External links

• Encyclopedia of Melbourne official website
• City of Melbourne official site
• Melbourne travel guide from Wikitravel
• Official tourist board site of Melbourne
• Victorian Division of the United Nations Association of Australia

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2004: Athens • 2008: Beijing • 2012: London • 2016: Rio de Janeiro Commonwealth Games host cities 1930: Hamilton • 1934: London • 1938: Sydney • 1950: Auckland • 1954: Vancouver • 1958: Cardiff • 1962: Perth • 1966: Kingston • 1970: Edinburgh • 1974: Christchurch • 1978: Edmonton • 1982: Brisbane • 1986: Edinburgh • 1990: Auckland • 1994: Victoria • 1998: Kuala Lumpur • 2002: Manchester • 2006: Melbourne • 2010: Delhi • 2014: Glasgow • 2018: TBA Parks and gardens of Melbourne Albert Park · Alexandra Gardens · Birrarung Marr · Brimbank Park · Carlton Gardens · Cremorne Gardens · Edinburgh Gardens · Fawkner Park · Fitzroy Gardens · Flagstaff Gardens · Footscray Park · Hedgeley Dene Gardens · Jells Park · Keilor Botanic Gardens · Kings Domain · Princes Park · Queen Victoria Gardens · Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne · Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne · Royal Park · Ruffey Lake Park · St Kilda Botanic Gardens · St Vincent Gardens · Wattle Park · Westerfolds Park · Yarra Park Theatres in the Melbourne City Centre Note: this includes landmarks in the Melbourne City Centre and its fringe areas, not the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area Venues ACCA  • Arts Centre  • Comedy Theatre  • Forum Theatre  • Her Majesty's Theatre  • La Mama Theatre  • Malthouse Theatre  • Melbourne Athenaeum  • Melbourne Recital Centre  • MTC Theatre  • National Theatre  • Palais Theatre  • Princess Theatre  • Regent Theatre  • RMIT Capitol Theatre  • Sidney Myer Music Bowl Major Companies The Australian Ballet  • Chunky Move  • Melbourne Symphony Orchestra  • Melbourne Theatre Company  • Victorian Opera See also: Events in the Melbourne City Centre  • Landmarks in the Melbourne City Centre  • Museums in the Melbourne City Centre Museums in the Melbourne City Centre Note: this includes landmarks in the Melbourne City Centre and its fringe areas, not the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area Chinese Museum · City Museum · Cooks' Cottage · Heide Museum of Modern Art · Hellenic Museum · Ian Potter Museum of Art · Immigration Museum · Jewish Museum · La Trobe's Cottage · Maritime Museum · Melbourne Museum · Sports Museum · Scienceworks Museum See also: Events in the Melbourne City Centre · Landmarks in the Melbourne City Centre · Theatres in the Melbourne City Centre Zoos in Melbourne Melbourne Zoo · Werribee Open Range Zoo · Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park Trams in Melbourne - Yarra Trams Routes 1 • 3 • 5 • 6 • 8 • 16 • 19 • 24 • 30 • 31 • 48 • 55 • 57 • 59 • 64 • 67 • 70 • 72 • 75 • 78 • 79 • 82 • 86 • 96 • 109 • 112 Current Tram Fleet W • Z • A • B • C • C2 • D Operator KDR Melbourne (Yarra Trams) Former operators Prahran and Malvern • Hawthorn • Melbourne, Brunswick and Coburg • Fitzroy, Northcote and Preston • Footscray • Northcote Municipality • Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board • Victorian Railways • M>Tram • Transdev TSL Tourist services City Circle Tram • Colonial Tramcar Restaurant • Karachi Tram Tram depots Brunswick • Camberwell • East Preston • Essendon • Glenhuntly • Hawthorn • Kew • Malvern • North Fitzroy • Preston Workshops • Newport Workshops • Southbank • South Melbourne Miscellaneous Melbourne Cable Trams • Tramway Museum Society of Victoria • Hook turn • Think Tram project Melbourne's public transport - Metlink Modes and Network Trains (stations) • Trams (routes) • Buses (routes) Ticketing Metcard • myki Metropolitan Rail Operators Metro Trains Melbourne (Heavy Rail) • KDR Melbourne - Yarra Trams (Light Rail) Regional Rail Operators V/Line (Heavy Rail) Metropolitan & Regional Bus Operators Broadmeadows Bus Service • Cardinia Transit • Cranbourne Transit • Driver Bus Lines • Dyson's Bus Services • Eastrans • East West Bus Company • Grenda's • Hope Street Bus Line • InvictaBus • Ivanhoe Bus Company • Kastoria Bus Lines • Martyrs Bus Service • Melbourne Bus Link • McKenzie's • Moonee Valley • Moorabbin Transit • Moreland Buslines • NationalBus • Panorama Coaches • Peninsula Bus Lines • Portsea • Reservoir • Ryans Brothers Bus Service • Sita Buslines • Skybus Super Shuttle • Sunbury Bus Service • Tullamarine Bus Lines • US Bus Lines • Ventura Bus Lines • Westrans Planned Infrastructure Melbourne Metro • Proposed Rail Extensions Authorities Department of Transport (Victoria) • Transport Ticketing Authority

(Redirected to Melbourne article)

From Wikitravel

For other places with the same name, see Melbourne (disambiguation).

Melbourne [1] is the second-largest city in Australia and the capital of the south-eastern state of Victoria, located at the head of Port Phillip Bay.

Melbourne is generally regarded as Australia’s cultural capital. The city’s features include Victorian-era architecture, extensive shopping, many cultural institutions such as museums, galleries and theatres, and large parks and gardens.

Melbourne's 3.8 million population is both multicultural (with large Greek, Italian, Jewish, Vietnamese and other immigrant communities) and sports-mad.

Reasons for tourists to visit Melbourne are to attend major sporting events, to use it as a base for exploring surrounding regions such as Grampians National Park, The Great Ocean Road, and to visit Phillip Island to view the penguin parade. Many UK visitors come to Melbourne for tours of filming locations of soap opera Neighbours [2].

Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, spreads southwards along the shoreline of Port Phillip Bay, east towards the Dandenong Ranges, westwards towards the city of Geelong and northwards towards the plains of central Victoria.

Like any large city, Melbourne is divided up into many suburbs - not all will be of interest to travellers.

The Melbourne city centre is a beautiful and interesting mix of the old and the new. You can't miss the Eureka Tower and the Rialto stands out as well but look closely and you will notice some intricate buildings from a bygone era.

• City Centre— Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD) and historical core north of the Yarra River, including the Southbank district immediately south of the Yarra and the new Docklands precinct to the west.
• Albert Park— Home of Melbourne's F1 Grand Prix circuit
• Brunswick— Inner northern suburb. The "new" Fitzroy.
• Carlton— Traditional home of Melbourne's Italian community and the University of Melbourne.
• Collingwood— Working class suburb with funky shopping on Smith Street.
• Fitzroy— The Bohemian quarter filled with interesting restaurants and trendy boutiques.
• Prahran— Favourite shopping district with Chapel Street as its main attraction.
• Richmond— North Richmond is Melbourne's Little Vietnam while the southern part of the district, Bridge Road, is famous for low price fashion outlets.
• South Melbourne— Home of the shopping strip known as Clarendon Street, South Melbourne also has the popular South Melbourne Market, which first opened in 1867 and features food, clothing, footwear and much more.
• South Yarra— South of the river, with high-end shopping and dining, it covers South Yarra and Toorak.
• St Kilda— Suburb on Port Philip Bay with its famous Sunday art market, and home to many backpacker hostels and cafes.
• Williamstown— Old, maritime-styled suburb with many cafes situated along the foreshore.
• Yarraville— Quiet, inner-western suburb with well-preserved Victorian architecture and a funky, artsy vibe.

• Eastern suburbs— Stretching from almost inner suburbs of Kew, Hawthorn and Camberwell to the outer areas like Belgrave, Lilydale, Ringwood, Glen Waverley and the Dandenong Ranges.
• Northern suburbs— Covering suburbs like Tullamarine, Broadmeadows, South Morang, Epping, Bundoora and Eltham.
• Southern suburbs— Spread along the coast of Port Philip Bay and covers areas like Brighton, Elwood, Sandringham and Frankston. Its main attraction is the beach along the bay.
• Western suburbs— Includes areas like St Albans, Footscray, Keilor, Altona, Laverton and Werribee, Williamstown.

Understand

Climate

It is often said that Melbourne has "four seasons in one day". This is particularly common in late Autumn and early Spring, when the weather is quite changeable, although major extremes are rarely felt in one day. Statistically, Melbourne receives only about half of the average rainfall of Sydney, and generally receives about 600mm (24 inches) of rainfall annually, which is scattered throughout the year - October is usually considered to be statistically the wettest month. You can expect an average summer's day (December, January & February) in Melbourne to be sunny with temperatures hovering around 26-30°C (79-86°F) with the warmest temperatures tending to be in the inland suburban locations and the coast tempered by a refreshing southerly seabreeze. Heatwaves are common during the summer and daytime temperatures can often exceed 40°C (104°F) with hot northerly winds. The highest maximum temperature recorded in Melbourne was 46.4°C (116°F) in 2009. Despite the warm days Melbourne experiences in summer, humidity is rarely a problem and temperatures at night remain mildly comfortable with an average summer low usually about 16°C (61°F). Thunderstorms are more common in summer than winter but usually bring refreshing relief from the occasional stifling daytime temperatures. Winter (June, July & August) is usually cool - with a mix of clear, sunny weather and cold & damp conditions. Temperatures in winter can range from chilly overnight lows as low 2°C (36°F) to daytime highs as high as 19°C (66°F) at times. The coldest temperature recorded in Melbourne was -2.8°C (27°F) all the way back in 1869. Light snow has been recorded in and around Melbourne during the winter months only a couple of times over the last century, the hills east of the city however usually see a snow shower or two every winter. It is best advised to visit Melbourne in the autumn and spring - temperatures during these periods are usually very pleasant, without being unbearably warm and daytime highs are usually in the 20s Celsius (70s Fahrenheit).

History

The settlement of Melbourne commenced in 1835 when settlers from Tasmania "purchased" land on Port Phillip Bay and the Yarra River from the local Aboriginal tribes. The streets of central Melbourne were carefully laid out in 1837, with some streets 30 metres wide. The first British lieutenant-governor, Charles La Trobe, arrived in 1839 – his cottage still stands and can be visited in the Kings Domain. The year 1851 was a landmark for Melbourne - the colony of Victoria was separated from New South Wales and very soon after, gold was discovered in Victoria, sparking a huge goldrush. Aspects of the goldrush history can be seen at the Gold Treasury Museum, housed in the Treasury Building built in 1858. Gold was the catalyst for several decades of prosperity lasting through to the late 1880s and examples of the ornate Victorian-era structures built during this time still stand. In 1888, the property boom collapsed and Victoria suffered the depression of the 1890s. Throughout the gold and building booms, Melbourne managed to retain its many spacious parks and gardens and these remain to this day.

In 1901, the British colonies of Australia became an independent federation and Melbourne the temporary capital of Australia, with the Federal Parliament meeting in the Parliament House of Victoria until 1927 when the new Federal capital of Canberra was founded. After World War II, Melbourne grew rapidly, with its mainly Anglo-Celtic population boosted by immigration from Europe, particularly from Greece and Italy. Today Melbourne has the biggest Greek city population (over 800,000) outside Greece and the biggest Italian city population (over 230,000) outside Italy. The significant pre-war Jewish population was also boosted after the war. From the mid-70s, many immigrants came from South-east Asia, particularly Vietnam and Cambodia. Melbourne has had a Chinese population since the goldrush of the 1850s and Chinatown has existed from that time but the population of Chinese and other East Asians has also been boosted by immigration in recent years.

New high-rise buildings replaced many of Melbourne’s interesting old structures in the construction boom of the 1970s and 80s. Melbournians belatedly recognised the loss of their architectural heritage and steps were taken to protect what was left. Construction of the huge Crown Casino (briefly the largest casino in the world) in the 1990s upset some Melbournians with its introduction of a gambling culture. Melbourne’s development continues in the 2000s with the opening of the Melbourne Museum, Federation Square and the Docklands precinct.

Culture

Melbourne is often called the cultural capital of Australia, with its many art galleries, film festivals, orchestras, choral and opera productions, vibrant live music scene, and a strong food, wine and coffee culture. People in Melbourne tend to dress up more than in Sydney, partly due to the colder climate. Many bars and clubs have strict dress regulations, such as requiring collars and dress shoes for men.

Particular events to note include the Melbourne International Film Festival in August, the International Art Festival in October, and the Melbourne Comedy Festival in April, as well as individual concerts and exhibitions throughout the year. In addition to the Melbourne Museum, there are special museums dedicated to subjects such as science, immigration, Chinese history, Jewish history, sport, racing, film and moving image, railways, police, fire brigades and banking.

Sport

Melburnians are sports enthusiasts and particularly passionate about Australian Rules football [3], a sport invented in Melbourne. In fact the Australian Football League (AFL) is not so much a sport as a religion in Melbourne with 9 of the 10 Victorian teams being based in Melbourne. As a guide, the entire national competition only has 16 teams, meaning over half the league is based in Melbourne alone. Horseracing is another passion, and the majority of the state has a public holiday on the first Tuesday of November for the racing of the Melbourne Cup [4], one of the world’s famous horse races. Cricket is the big summer sport and the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the 'MCG') [5] is one of the world's leading grounds. Each January, Melbourne hosts tennis' Australian Open [6], one of the world’s four Grand Slam championships. In March, Melbourne hosts the first race of the Formula One season, the Formula One Grand Prix[7]. The race is held in Albert Park in South Melbourne. Melbournians have also taken football (soccer) to their hearts in recent times. The Melbourne Victory, playing in Australia's premier competition, the A-League, enjoy enormous crowds and colourful, boistrous support at their home ground, Etihad Stadium (previously known as the Telstra Dome). Melbourne is the unquestioned sporting capital of Australia with the largest arenas and two of the major sporting administrations basing their operation in Melbourne: Cricket Australia is a stone's throw from the MCG, and the AFL games are played at both the MCG and Etihad Stadium.

Get in

By plane

Melbourne is served by two airports, Melbourne Airport (International and Domestic) 22km north of the city centre, and Avalon Airport (Domestic), about 60km southwest of Melbourne towards Geelong.

Melbourne Airport (MEL)

Melbourne Airport [8] (MEL) is 22km north-west of the city centre, adjacent to the industrial suburb of Tullamarine. There are regular flights from all major Australian and New Zealand cities, and there are direct international flights to many Asian hubs, and onwards connections to Europe. There are direct flights to the west coast of the USA and Canada, Santiago, Fiji and Hawaii. It is practical to fly direct to Melbourne from most international points.

The airport has four terminals, T1, T2, T3 and T4. T1, T2 T3 are in the same building, and it is easy to walk to T4, however each terminal has separate security screening, and access between terminals is not available once in the sterile area.

• T1 (the "North Terminal") is used by Qantas [9] and Jetstar [10] domestic services.
• T2 (the "International Terminal") is used by all international airlines. It is the middle terminal of the airport.
• T3 (the "South Terminal") is used by Virgin Blue [11] and REX Regional Express [12] domestic services.
• T4 is used by Tiger Airways Australia [13] domestic services.

All arrivals are on the lower level of the terminals, with departures from the upper level.

Taxis between the airport and the city centre cost around $40-$45 and take about 25 minutes in clear traffic.

Skybus [14], tel +61 3 9670 7992, runs a 24/7 shuttle to and from the Southern Cross Station Coach Terminal on Spencer Street at the west end of the Central Business District, just north of Lonsdale Street. The trip takes around 20 minutes and runs directly using the freeway with no stops. It costs $16 adult one-way, $26 adult return, $6 child one-way (between 4 and 14 years of age). There are also several family ticket options available.

There are two airport pickup locations. One is outside the Virgin Blue/REX terminal (T3), 50m from the international terminal (T2). The other is outside the Qantas/Jetstar domestic terminal (T1). There are ticket desks at both T1 and T3, and if unattended, tickets can be purchased electronically or from the driver.

Frequency ranges from hourly during the wee hours to quarter hourly from about 6:30AM-7:30PM (always on the quarter hour). They also run a connection service between the terminal and central hotels/hostels during the day (M-F 6AM-8PM, Sa-Su 8AM-6PM). Book hotel pick-up 3 hours ahead. Bookings are not needed for travel from the airport to hotels.

Skybus will drop you at Southern Cross bus terminal, which is connected to Southern Cross train station, where you can board all suburban trains and country/interstate trains. You can also get a tram down Collins Street through the city centre. It can be a bit of a walk from some hotels or other points in city centre.

Alternatively, if heading to southern Melbourne (St Kilda and points beyond), the Frankston and Peninsula Airport Shuttle (FAPAS) [15] runs roughly-hourly minibus services, advance bookings required either online or at +61-3-9783 1199. Full adult fares from $18, but there are group discounts and some hostels even offer free rides if you stay for three or more nights.

Avalon Airport (AVV)

Avalon Airport, [16] (AVV), is situated in the Geelong outer suburb of Lara. The airport is located 55 km to the south-west of Melbourne, and is considerably further from Melbourne CBD than the Melbourne airport at Tullamarine. It is a very basic terminal facility, but it has an ATM and a food outlet, as well as hire car facilities.

Avalon Airport is serviced by Qantas subsidiary low-cost airline Jetstar from Sydney and Brisbane.

Options to get to the Melbourne CBD:

• A taxi from the airport to Melbourne CBD will cost up to $100.

• SITA coaches [17] operate a coach shuttle service to Melbourne's Southern Cross Station at $20 per adult and $10 per child one way. The buses meet every Jetstar arrival. An additional $7 per person charge is made for a transfer to city hotels. Only cash is accepted, not credit cards.

• Lara station is around 8km from the terminal. Trains from there to Southern Cross station in Melbourne CBD run hourly, and cost $5.60. Children 17 years and under are half price. During off-peak times up to two children travel free with every adult. You will need to get a taxi to Lara station, as there is no public transport connection. A taxi should cost around $15, so there is no cost or time benefit for a single adult of the train over the shuttle.

• The road connections are good. Hiring a car for a couple of days will usually be cheaper than a taxi, as long as you have somewhere to park it. It is about 50 minutes drive to the Melbourne CBD. Can take longer in the morning peak, or on Sunday afternoons.

You can also use Avalon airport to Get in to Geelong and the Great Ocean Road. See thoese articles for the transfer information.

By train

All intercity rail services from interstate and intrastate destinations operate to and from Southern Cross Station (formerly Spencer Street Station), located on the western edge of Melbourne's central business district. The station has recently been renovated and has excellent links to the rest of the city's public transport network as it is part of the City Loop.

CountryLink [18] operates a twice daily service from Sydney (11 hours away). Great Southern Railway run four services a week from Adelaide (10-11 hours away).

Services from cities within Victoria are operated by V/Line. These services operate from regional centres such as Geelong, Ballarat, Albury, Bendigo, Bairnsdale. V/Line also operates bus services connecting with these trains.

VicLink [19] is a handy website to manage your state-wide travel on trains and buses across Victoria. Regional Victoria's public transport is managed by VicLink [20].

By car

From Sydney, the quickest route is the Hume Highway, which takes about 9 hours (non-stop). A less popular, longer route is along the coast on the Princes Highway (National Route 1). This adds many hours to the journey as it is longer in distance, speeds are lower, and there are fewer passing lanes.

Adelaide is slightly closer, and can be reached in 7 hours. Once again, it is possible to go inland or along the coast - the coast is very scenic, but will add a couple of hours to the journey.

A direct journey from Brisbane takes around 20 hours (non-stop) and takes you further inland along the Newell Highway). This makes an interesting alternative to the more common Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne coastal route.

By bus

Bus services to Melbourne from out of state are provided by Firefly Express [21] and Greyhound [22].

Bus services within Victoria are operated by V/Line, and operate from most major and many minor Victorian towns.

By boat

Melbourne can be reached from Devonport, Tasmania by car/passenger ferries run by Spirit of Tasmania [23]. The journey takes 10 hours and runs every night (in both directions), departing at 9PM and arriving at 7AM. During the peak of summer, there are also day sailings (departing 9AM, arriving 7PM) on many days - check in advance.

Ticket prices depend on time of year and your sleeping accommodation. A seat (no bed) is the cheapest, starting (in off-peak season) from $108 for adults and $82 for children. Bear in mind, the seat is most uncomfortable, equivalent to a cinema seat. Cabins with bunk beds start from $187 adults, $97 children. Peak season costs are about 25% higher. Cars cost $59 all year round.

Get around

By foot

Melbourne is an excellent city for walking and you should have no problems navigating the CBD. Melbourne has a very large metropolitan area, but most areas of interest can be reached within about 20 minutes from the CBD on the train or tram. Maps can be purchased from bookstores such as Angus & Robertson [24], taken from Federation Square [25] or viewed online. If you're planning on taking the train to a specific area and walking the rest of the way, a combination of the afore-mentioned site and a decent printer will serve you well.

By public transport

The public transport system is known as Metlink [26], and consists of trams, trains and buses: trams service the central city and inner suburbs, trains service the city and the suburbs, and buses where there are no tram or train tracks. There are connections to most of the major attractions of the city, and it is quite possible to spend time in Melbourne without a car.

Melbourne Trains have been known to be dirty and run-down, but in recent years, a large public transport overhaul means that clean modern trains have replaced most of the fleet.

Tickets

Melbourne is in the process of rolling out a "Myki" ticketing system with stored value cards. This system is not available for visitors yet, and you can ignore the Myki machines and equipment on public transport.

A single ticket (called a "Metcard") allows travel on all three modes of transport.

The city is divided into "Zones", with Zone 1 covering the central city and inner suburbs (and consequently almost the entire tram network) and Zone 2 covering the middle and outer suburbs. Almost all tickets are time-based; that is, they can be used for the given period of time within the specified zone(s) from the first time you use it. The most common tickets are:

• City Saver (a single trip within the CBD only; adult $2.80)
• Two-hour (adult one zone $3.70)
• Daily (adult one zone $6.80)
• Seniors Daily (for all zones in Victoria Only purchasable by Seniors Card holders from all Australia $3.40)
• Weekly (adult one zone $29.40)
• Sunday Saver (travel across all zones, all day Sunday; $3.10 but the ticket is not available at automatic ticket machines)

The "Met Shop" in the Melbourne Town Hall, on the corner of Swanston St and Little Collins St provides timetables and brochures, and sells tickets, maps and travel merchandise (open 8.30AM-5PM Monday to Friday, 9AM-1PM Saturday). The Metlink Information Centre, ph 131638 (131MET), every day 7AM-9PM, provides information and the Metlink website [27] also provides information including maps, fares and zones and all timetables. A recently released application for iPhones provides up to date timetables for trains and trams in metropolitan Melbourne.

Metcards are available from:

• Train stations - less than one-quarter of Melbourne's suburban train stations are staffed. At unstaffed stations, Metcard vending machines are provided. All ticket machines accept coins and will issue a maximum of $10 in change. Most stations will also have at least 1 machine that will take notes but less frequently used railway stations may have just coin-only machines.
• Trams - all trams have a coin-only ticket machine that issues a limited range of tickets (up to a day-ticket).
• Many retail businesses (especially 7-Eleven stores)
• The Met shop.

Concession Metcards are available for all children under fifteen years, but concessions for older students are only available to Victorian residents who are eligible and have paid for a student concession card. Concessions are also available to holders of Victorian Seniors Cards, Victorian Health Care Cards, and Australian Pensioner Concession Cards. A concession Metcard costs roughly half the price of an adult Metcard. Children under 4 years old travel free.

Before each journey, and sometimes to gain access to the station platforms, a metcard must be "validated" by inserting it into a validation machine. On trams, the metcard must be validated after boarding the tram; however, tickets purchased on the tram (from the machine) are already validated. Note that a two-hour metcard that is validated for the first time at 6:01PM (18:01) or later is valid for the rest of the night, so if you’re heading out after 6PM for an evening’s entertainment, don't buy or validate a day ticket. Another hint to know is that 2 hour tickets do not count individual minutes, as such are rounded up the next hour to ensure that the traveler gets at least 2 hours worth of travel. This means for example, that if one validates the 2 hour ticket at 3:01PM then it is rounded up to begin counting down the 2 hours form 4:00PM. Note that you will not be allowed to leave a station with fare gates if you did not validate your ticket before you first got on the train.

If you are caught using a concession ticket without a concession card, you will be fined. The ticket barriers have a light on the top which flashes if you are using a concession ticket. It has now been written into law that your ticket can be inspected even after you have left your train, tram or bus. Fines start at $158 and can be as high as $500.

Services generally operate between 5AM and midnight Monday to Saturday, and after 8AM Sunday morning. After midnight on Saturday and Sunday mornings only there are NightRider buses which run defined routes to the suburbs. Metcards are now valid on Nightrider services, but you should keep in mind that daily and 2-hourly Metcards expire at 3AM - if you're boarding a bus after this time, you'll need to buy or validate a new ticket. If you board a bus scheduled to depart before the expiry time on your ticket, it will be considered valid for your entire journey, even if you don't alight until after it expires.

Although Melbourne is a reasonably safe city, crime can and does occur on public transport. If you're waiting at a station at night, it would be wise to stand in the designated 'safety area'. These areas are well lit and provide easy access to the emergency intercom. Some outer suburban stations are known to be 'hang-outs' for youths and louts. Generally the stations are still safe and you will not be hassled if you mind your own business and ignore any illegal behaviour that may be occuring. It is particularly safe following sporting events at night when there are lots of people using public transport in particular families.

Public transport in Melbourne is unreliable. Melbourne's public transport system regularly experiences delayed and cancelled services, especially during peak hour, and on hot days. If time is critical, catch the train before the one you need.

Trains are free to travel on before 7AM working days provided if you get the Early Bird ticket from the ticket window at the station.

Tourist Services

The free City Circle [28] trams run around the CBD perimeter, covering Flinders St, Spring St, Nicholson St, Victoria St, La Trobe St and Harbour Esplanade along with the new Docklands Precinct. It is an older style tram, easily recognisable by its maroon colour. The tram stops along the route are sign posted with City Circle. They run in both directions every 12 minutes every day except Good Friday and Christmas Day from 10AM-6PM, and until 9PM Thursday-Saturday during daylight savings. Several of the trams on this service are equipped with recorded commentary about attractions passed. Tourist information is often available on board either from brochures or from a city guide person. These trams are geared to visitors and provide access to sites of interest to the tourist. They are a great introduction to central Melbourne and a free way to have a tram experience. It can be a good way to get around for the experience, or to rest, but it rarely saves much time.

The free Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle [29] bus service stops at key tourist destinations in and around the city. The buses run at 15 minute intervals between 9:30AM and 4:30PM every day. A complete circuit takes 45 minutes, and there is onboard commentary.

Melbourne has an excellent network of bike paths, plus a generally flat terrain, making pedal-power a great way to take in the city. Most paths are "shared footways" under the law, although the majority of users in most places are cyclists. This means cyclists should expect to share the path with pedestrians, dog-walkers, rollerbladers, joggers, prams and tricycles. Some trails contain on-road sections (in marked bike lanes). It is legal to cycle on footpaths only when supervising cycling children or when the path is marked or signposted as allowing bikes. Helmets are required by law, and care should be taken when cycling near slippery tram tracks.

The main paths of interest to travellers are:

• The Yarra River Trail [30] runs from the mouth of Melbourne's iconic Yarra River, through the city and onwards to Westerfolds Park in the outer suburbs.

• The Capital City Trail [31] runs a circuit through Melbourne's inner suburbs, the Docklands precinct and the city. It's a good way to see a slice of day-to-day life.

• The Bay Trail [32] is a pleasant trek around Port Phillip Bay, running from Port Melbourne, through the bustling beachside precinct of St Kilda, past the famous bathing sheds of Brighton, all the way to Carrum. A punt operates under the West Gate Bridge on weekends and public holidays allowing a start at Altona Meadows along the Williamstown Trail, across the punt, and joining with the Bay Trail. There is no cyclist access permitted to the West Gate Bridge.

Detailed maps of the bike path network can be found online [33].

Bikes can be hired from Hire-a-Bike near Federation Square at Vault 14 Princes Walk, Federation Wharf on the north side of the Yarra, ph 0417 339 203.

By car

Independent rental companies give good value. Try:

• Airport Rent A Car Melbourne, [34]. 33 Catalina Dve, Tullamarine 3043. (03)9335 3355
• Alpha Car Hire, [35].
• BC (Bargain) Car Rentals, [36]. 69 Whiteman Street, Southbank. (03) 9699 2222
• Choice Car Rentals, Melbourne Airport and Melbourne City locations, [37]. 7 days, 0800 until 2000. from $19 per day.  edit
• Crown [38], 371-379 King St, Central Melbourne or its affiliate Abel [39], 247 Mickleham Rd, Tullamarine.
• East Coast Car Rentals - Melbourne Airport and City, [40].- 5A Tarmac Dve, Tullamarine.
• Network Car Rentals [41], Melbourne Airport, Tullamarine.
• Snappy [42], 225 Franklin St, Central Melbourne or 79 Matthews Ave, Airport West.
• Turnbulls Hire [43], 8 Racecourse Rd, Pakenham, VIC 3810.

The major chains are well-represented. These include Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty.

There are a handful of intersections in the city centre where you must do a Hook turn to turn right due to tram tracks running down the centre of the road. Follow the signs, pull to the left of the intersection if you are turning right, as far forward as possible, and when the light for the street you are turning into turns green (the traffic on the street you are on stops) make the turn.

Check out CityLink's [44] site for details of Melbourne's T-shaped tollway which links the Westgate, Tullamarine and Monash (formerly South-Eastern) freeways. It is a fully electronic road with no manual tollgates. You can buy a day pass in advance, or within 3 days of having driven down it, giving your registration and car details. You can do this by phone, Internet, or at some Shell petrol stations. The registered owner of the car will get a fine in the mail if you do not buy a pass within 3 days. The tolled sections are indicated with blue and yellow signs, rather than the standard green and white. CityLink can cut a worthwhile amount of time from your journey, especially if you are driving from, say, the south-eastern suburbs to Melbourne Airport. Motorcycles are free, cars are around $11/day. Larger vehicles are more.

The EastLink tollway has recently been completed. Formerly called the Scoresby, then the Mitcham-Frankston freeway, it links the Eastern, Monash, Frankston and Mornington Peninsula freeways. Like the CityLink, it is a fully electronic road with no toll gates. If you have a tag or account, tolls range from 28c for short trips on some segments, to a toll cap of $5.15. Weekends are 20% off, and motorcycles are half price. If you don't have a tag or account, passes are available for the cost of the trip cap (e.g. travelling one way will cost you $5.15 in a car). Passes are available online at [45] and can be purchased before or up to 3 days after the trip.

Tags from other Australian cities work on Citylink and the EastLink tollway, but passes do not.

One option for travel on both CityLink and EastLink is the Melbourne Pass. It costs $5.50 to start up an account, and tolls are debited from your credit card automatically once the accumulated tolls and fees reach $10, or when the pass expires (after 30 days, but can be extended once for another 30 days). No tag is required. The pass can be purchased online at [46]

In the CBD, parking at meters and ticket machines can be as much as $3.50 per hour.

Motorcycles and scooters are well catered for as footpath parking is both free and legal (providing the footpath is not obstructed). Scooters are becoming very common, however for all size scooters a motorcycle license must be held.

See

Melbourne attractions are here listed according to their respective districts. See the district pages for full details.

The City Centre probably has the most to attract the traveller, including cafes, boutiques, department stores, and Victorian architecture, which can all be sampled on foot.

• Docklands— An entire new precinct filled with shops, bars, restaurants and a stadium with a waterside setting.
• Eureka Tower— Tallest residential building in the southern hemisphere, panoramic views of the whole of Melbourne.
• Parliament House of Victoria— The first seat of the Australian federal government, free tours are available on week days.
• Queen Victoria Market— Huge and colorful, with an assortment of fresh and dry produce and tonnes of souvenirs and other interesting things.
• State Library— Worthwhile if you're into books, city architecture and free internet.
• AFL World— A great introduction to Australian Football.
• Southgate— Pretty promenade on the south bank of the Yarra, with lively restaurants, bars and a Sunday art & craft market.
• Federation Square— Modernistic and popular meeting space to see Melbournians enjoy life whilst sitting down at cafes and bars.

Carlton

The attractions in Carlton are mostly historical as it houses the Melbourne museum, and cultural with its strong Italian heritage.

• Melbourne Musuem— It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere and home to seven main galleries, a children's gallery and a temporary exhibit gallery on three levels, Upper, Ground and Lower Level.
• Lygon Street— Crammed with Italian restaurants, gelatarias and coffee shops, which all serve some of Melbourne's best hospitality.
• IMAX Cinema— Right next to the museum. It shows movies, usually documentary films, in 3-D format.
• Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens— UNESCO World Heritage site (tours available through the museum).

• Melbourne Zoo— Usual assortment of zoo animals in a natural-like setting with lots of Australian native species too. Jazz at the Zoo is a popular weekend evening function over the summer months for a picnic, music and evening stroll around the animal enclosures.
• University of Melbourne— The premier university of Victoria, and internationally recognised as a leading university, it is a hub of students, fine Victorian architecture and gorgeous sprawling gardens.

St Kilda

St Kilda is Melbourne's beachside suburb and is tremendously popular area for beachcombers and those looking to grab a bite or sip on a latte by the sea.

• Luna Park— Historic amusement park built in 1912.
• St Kilda Pier— Popular spot for fishing and walking.
• St Kilda Esplanade— Fine place for walking, skating, sunbathing and on Sundays, discovering new treasures at the Esplanade Sunday market.
• St Kilda Botanical Gardens— With the first trees planted in 1859, the Botanical Gardens are a sprawling oasis of tranquility and greenery.
• Jewish Museum of Australia— Depicts the history of the Jewish community in Australia.

South Yarra

Greenery and high-end living are the main draws to South Yarra.

• Royal Botanic Gardens— Water restrictions limit traditional floral gardens. It does have nice old trees, drought tolerant displays, a cafe and grassy places to loll about. In summer you can see outdoor movies and Shakespeare plays.
• Chapel Street/Toorak Road— Kilometer-long strip of fashionable but often unaffordable shops plus some top end restaurants to match.

Prahran

Prahran lies to the south of the city and shopping is the main draw.

• Chapel Street— Famous for its street cafes and designer fashion boutiques. Cheaper stores are found at its southern end.
• Prahran Market— is a market dedicated to the finest quality fresh food. You can find gourmet delights here that you will find in no other place in Melbourne. Prahran Market also has children's activities and a large Market Square to sit and enjoy.
• Commercial Road— Known for its gay-friendly eateries, shops and clubs.

Northern Melbourne

Tullamarine— Home to Melbourne's International airport.

• Woodlands Historic Park— Immediately north of Melbourne Airport, contains an 1840s homestead and a nature reserve.

Southern suburbs

Brighton— Melbourne's prime bayside suburb featuring excellent upmarket cafes and boutique shops.

• Brighton Beach— One of Melbourne's favoured beaches, be sure to check out the infamous 'bathing boxes', brightly coloured boxes that are dotted along the sand.

Fitzroy

Fitzroy - Trendy 'bohemian' area north of the CBD, filled with eclectic cafes and stores.

• Brunswick St - Long and lively cafe/bar strip with cheap and decent eats.
• Smith St - Slightly run down yet charming street with cafes, bars, and unique clothing (and other) shops.

• See interesting films at the Art Deco-styled Astor Theatre [47] in St Kilda. There are several moonlight cinema programmes in summer. The Melbourne International Film Festival [48] is on in August.
• Visit a comedy club. The Comic's Lounge [49] has shows for $10-25 including a show filmed for Channel 31 on Mondays, or dinner and show for $45. The Comedy Club [50] has dinner and show for $32 and shows only beginning at $7 (discount ticket price).
• Watch the mesmorising process of personalised hard candy being hand-made at Suga [51]. Around lunch time is a good time to see (and sample!). There is a store at Queen Victoria Market, but if you visit the Royal Arcade location, you can also watch chocolate making next door at Koko Black [52].
• Watch a game of AFL football at the MCG or Telstra Dome during the winter, or a Cricket Match during the summer. AFL Fixtures [53] and Cricket Fixtures [54], bookings at both the MCG and Telstra can be made through Ticketmaster [55], however for most games you can just turn up and pay the rates at the gate: this is the most authentic way to experience the game.
• Kick back at one of Melbourne's fantastic cafes in the CBD (Degraves St, The Causeway, and other laneways are fantastic for this), South Yarra (Chapel Street) or Fitzroy (Brunswick Street, Smith Street).
• Melbourne has an exceptionally vibrant live music scene. Many bars and pubs will have copies of the free magazines "Beat" and "Inpress" which provide local gig guides. Fitzroy, Collingwood and St. Kilda are generally your best bets for seeing some of the great local talent Melbourne has to offer. Venues where you generally can't go wrong include: "The Tote", "The Evelyn" and "The Espy".
• You could try hitting a round of 18 hole Mini Golf,[56] that has been designed around an Australiana theme and is indoors and under Black Light with state of the Art light and sound system with fluorescent colours, The Black Light Mini Golf is located at the Docklands, Just behind the Big Wheel. Being located indoors means that you can play all year round, Admission pricing is $13.00 an Adult and only $10.00 a Child and takes around one hour to play.

• You can take language classes, join a cafe book group, learn to draw, sign up for historical or foodie walks, study for your Victorian Certificate of Education or take computer or business classes at the Council of Adult Education (CAE) [57]. The CAE is also home to the City Library [58] where you can sign up to borrow books or just read magazines in their cafe.

Work

The most popular industry for a working holiday is to work in hospitality jobs around the St. Kilda area. The wages in all other industries are usually much better than working in hospitality but require more specific skills. At the moment there are a lot of job offers for nurses and craftsmen.

Fruit picking is a possible source of income but in the greater Melbourne area there are not many jobs are offered. You will find better chances are in the dairy business but you should have some basic experience. Grape vine tending is another possibility in the near by Yarra Valley.

Buy

Shopping hours in metro Melbourne are typically 7 days a week, 9AM-5:30PM weekdays and 9AM (maybe later)- 5PM weekends. Most suburban shopping centres such as Chadstone have later closing hours on Thursdays and Fridays - mostly up to 9PM. Supermarkets have extended hours 7 days, most opening at 7AM and closing at midnight. There are a lot of 24 hour supermarkets around. Alcohol in Victoria can only be purchased at licensed shops/venues and supermarkets often have an adjacent bottle shop, which close earlier than supermarket hours. You need to be over 18 years old to purchase alcohol. Most bottleshops close by 10PM or so (even on weekends), but there is a bottleshop open until 3AM on Riversdale road in Hawthorn, and 24-hour bottleshops on both Chapel and Lygon streets, in Windsor and Carlton respectively.

Melbourne is known as the fashion capital of Australia with numerous malls and boutique lined streets.

In the CBD itself, Little Collins Street is home to some of the world's top designers and fashion houses; Collins Street also boasts other high end shops such as Louis Vuitton. Brunswick Street (Fitzroy), and the southern end of Chapel Street in Prahran/Windsor, have clusters of stores selling an eclectic mix of vintage, rave, retro and alternative gear.

Melbourne Central is another shopping mall based in the city, adjacent to the underground station of the same name. The Bourke Street Mall with the department stores Myer and David Jones is another city-central shopping hub.

For the bargain shopper, there is a DFO Outlet Malls located on Spencer Street, Melbourne city, just north of Southern Cross Railway station.

It is also worth noting, for Backpackers, that Elizabeth Street has plenty of Bargain backpackers stores, for example Mitchell's Adventure (255-257 Elizabeth Street), which can offer outdoor products for bargain prices.

Suburban Shopping

Bridge Road [59] in Richmond is a strip where warehouse direct outlets rule and no one pays recommended retail price. Chapel Street in South Yarra is a favourite among the locals, with its spread of exclusive boutiques, cafes and well established chain stores. There are also several huge shopping complexes in the outer suburbs, such as Chadstone and Southland (Cheltenham) in the South-East. Doncaster Shoppingtown, Eastland (Ringwood) and Knox City are in the outer East. Northland in the north, Highpoint in the west.

Melbourne is also home to many of Australia's largest shopping centres; including Chadstone (the largest shopping center in the Southern Hemisphere) which has over 530 stores, Knox City Shopping Centre which has 350 stores, and Fountain Gate Shopping Centre which includes approximately 330 stores.

Looking for something in particular?

For those in the bridal market, High Street in Armadale and Sydney Road in Brunswick are the two main clusters for bridal apparel and accessories. For those who are looking for local, aspiring designer creations, try Greville Street in South Yarra or Smith Street and surrounds in Fitzroy.

Eat

For the culinary traveller, Melbourne is one of the best destinations in the world. There is an abundance of affordable, high quality restaurants representing almost every cuisine. Eating out is cheaper than in Western Europe but not as affordable as North America. The service in Australian restaurants may be more discreet than many North Americans may be used to. Although service staff in Australia are paid considerably more than their North American counterparts and tipping is not compulsory, it is customary to give a 10% tip for good service in high-end restaurants.

Excellent eateries can be found sprinkled throughout all of the inner (and some outer) suburbs, while certain neighbourhoods have become magnets for residents and restaurants of particular countries. A large range of restaurants and cafes offering high quality food, and representating various cultures and countries, are scattered through the central city, Southbank, Carlton (mostly Italian and touristy), Victoria Street in Richmond (many low cost popular Vietnamese and South East Asian restaurants), Docklands, South Yarra and Prahran. Sydney Road in Brunswick and Coburg is known for its many Middle Eastern, Lebanese, Greek and Turkish restaurants. The popular tourist area of St Kilda offers a large range of good quality restaurants and cafes, especially on Acland Street, and Fitzroy Street.

English-style fish and chip shops are scattered through the suburbs - particularly in bayside areas. Souvlaki and gyros are very popular in Melbourne and outlets are plentiful through the inner and outer suburbs. Japanese nori rolls and sushi is very popular and many stores through the city and suburbs sell these items.

African

There is a concentration of African cafes in Racecourse Road, Flemington. Most serve a small range of meals and coffee and are frequented by the local African residents; The Abyssinian is popular for locals and tourists for a more elaborate dinner. The broth or curry dishes are served on a large pancake in the middle of the table. Everyone eats with their hands which is messy but fun. Footscray also has some outlets, and there is also one restaurant in Fitzroy.

Australian

"Australian cuisine" is a nebulous concept that may include traditional native foodstuffs and more modern cafe infusions of international influences. Items such a emu and kangaroo meat are unusual, and are most likely to be found only at the high-end fine dining restaurants as a speciality item.

Meat pies are available from bakeries and convenience stores.

Café/Delicatessen Food

High quality delicatessen style eating available in many of a cafes in the small lanes of central Melbourne. Many high quality deli style diners can be found outside the city, in Acland Street, St Kilda.

Chinese

Chinese cuisine has a long tradition in Melbourne and a large number and range of quality restaurants exist. Many are in Chinatown in Little Bourke Street, City centre. They are also dotted through the inner and outer suburbs, with concentrations in Richmond, Footscray, and suburban Box Hill, Glen Waverley and Springvale.

Most of the food is from the Southern (Cantonese) school of cooking, although Northern favourites like dumplings are also available. Eating dim sum, which is consumed either during breakfast or lunch (called yum cha or "drinking tea" in Cantonese) is an extremely popular Sunday pastime for Australians of all ethnic backgrounds.

Greek

Lonsdale Street in the City Centre is Melbourne's Greek precinct with bars, cafes and restaurants, and cake shops. Greek restaurants and food outlets can be found in Sydney Road in Brunswick, Swan Street, Richmond, Coburg and Oakleigh in the south eastern suburbs which have many Greek cafes specialising in frappe, cakes and good souvlaki.

Indian

Indian restaurants can be found throughout Melbourne, particularly in the city, North Melbourne, and inner eastern suburbs such as Richmond and Hawthorn. There are also numerous Indian snack bars in the city that serve cheap but tasty curries and samosas, cafeteria-style.

Nepalese food is also popular in Melbourne, and some restaurants feature both Nepalese and Indian cuisine on their menus. An increasing number of Indian restaurants offer home delivery.

Indonesian

Befitting its large number of Indonesian students, Melbourne has many Indonesian restaurants. One of the most famous is Blok M on Commercial Road, Prahran, which many famous Indonesians have visited. Another popular restaurant is Nelayan with two restaurants on Swanston Street and Glenferrie Road, Agung on Glenferrie Road, Bali Bagus on Franklin Street, Es Teler 77 on Swanston Street, Nusantara in Caulfield and Bali Bowl on Flinders Lane. There is also Warung Gudeg, specialising in Jogjakartan local cuisine in Caulfield. Warung Agus in West Melbourne serves Balinese cuisine on a rather upscale atmosphere.

Italian

With its large Italian population Melbourne has countless Italian restaurants, mostly offering food from the southern regions of the Italian peninsular. Pizza outlets are very much part of the Melbourne landscape. Spiga in Melbourne Central and Pizza Meine Liebe in Northcote are just two of many great pizza places in Melbourne.

Italian cafes and restaurants are plentiful throughout Melbourne but are in the greatest concentration in Lygon Street, Carlton, just north of the city centre. Lygon Street is where Melbourne's coffee culture originated. Suburban Italian restaurants are often large and family orientated and tend towards the pizza, pasta, seafood and steak formula. Most are reliable and good value, if somewhat predictable.

Japanese

A quick "sushi" take away lunch can be bought on almost every block where there is food. In and out of Chinatown there are also plenty of places that have good bento, udon and donburi as well.

For dinner, many of the inner city suburbs have Japanese restaurants, but in the city itself there is a long an interesting Japanese restaurant history that continues to this day. Both Melbourne's oldest, Kuni's (which has been around since 1978) and it's sister restaurant Kenzans are known for a very authentic, if expensive, meal. There are a plethora of choices for those on stricter budgets as well.

Jewish/Kosher

St Kilda East and Caulfield are home to vibrant Jewish communities and kosher bakeries and cafes abound most situated on Carlisle Street in Balaclava, Kooyong Road in Caulfield North and Glenhuntly Road in Elsternwick.

Malaysian

Malaysians and Singaporeans feeling homesick will find host of restaurants and foodcourt outlets offering items like roti canai/paratha, nasi lemak, prawn noodles, laksa. Many are in the City Centre; there are Malaysian restaurants scattered throughout Melbourne.

Middle Eastern

Lebanese, Moroccan, Arab and Turkish restaurants are concentrated in Sydney Road in Brunswick and Coburg to the north of the city centre. These restaurants can also be found in the outer suburbs that are home to those communities, including Dandenong.

Thai

Thai restaurants are ubiquitous in Melbourne: even dining precincts mostly known for Italian or Vietnamese food boast Thai restaurants. An excellent thai restaurant in the city centre is Melbourne Lanna Thai on Exhibition Street 287-293. Order to share or try one of the set menus to sample several of their amazing dishes.

Vegetarian

Vegetarian food is widely available in Melbourne, and you can expect every restaurant or cafe to have a few vegetarian or vegan options. There are also many vegetarian restaurants: Vegie Bar in Brunswick St, Fitzroy, Gopals in Swanston St and Shakahari in Lygon St, Carlton are just some of the options. Crossways at 123 Swanston St. serves a very popular $5 all you can eat vegetarian lunch, Mon-Sat.

Vietnamese

Melbourne's Little Vietnams are in Footscray, North Richmond and Springvale out in the far eastern suburbs. The streets in these areas are lined with pho (noodle) shops and restaurants offering other Vietnamese favourites. Many outlets have also appeared along Swanston Street in the City Centre.

Others

Spanish, Argentinian, Burmese and Polish restaurants can be found in the Richmond/Collingwood/Prahran area.

Melbourne has some Cajun/Creole restaurants and one or two faux-American 'diners', but US cuisine is otherwise absent: Foods like Southern-style barbecue and clam chowder are nearly impossible to find.

There are several Korean restaurants in the city centre.

Drink

Coffee

Melbourne has a long and rich coffee culture beginning with Victorian era coffee palaces and further enhanced by Italian migrants arriving in the aftermath of World War II.

Perhaps the most famous Italian style cafe is Pellegrini's, 66 Bourke Street, Melbourne city. Fitzroy is known for funky, bohemian-style cafes. Collins Street features many elegant cafes. Many Italian style cafes are found in Carlton; Brunetti's is open late and always packed.

Serious espresso connoisseurs would enjoy visiting St Ali cafe/roastery in South Melbourne, Auction Rooms (Errol St) in North Melbourne, or the Maling Room café in Canterbury.

Atomica cafe (268 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, tel +61 3 9417 4255) serves a strong, but well-balanced mix of coffee and silky smooth milk. Atomica also has seats on the footpath, if the upbeat music is too much for your coffee buzz and, on a warm sunny day, it is an ideal spot to mix it with the Brunswick Street crowd.

Easy to miss, but better you don't, The Green Refectory, (115 Sydney Road, Brunswick, tel +61 3 9387 1150), serves great value homemade food, and quality Illy coffee to accompany it. The crowd is eclectic mix of the Brunswick artsy crowd, university students and young professionals pushing prams. Despite its non attendance in 'Signage 101' (look for the 'Illy' coffee sign that juts out from the front windows), the difficulty of locating this place hasn't affected its popularity at all.

7 grams (505 Church Street, Richmond, tel 9429 8505) has a 'best in show' coffee (check out the shelves housing their trophies, including the 2006 Pure Latte Art winner and 2007 Barista of the Year finalist). Despite these grand accolades, the cafe itself is unpretentious, with an understated decor and a row of black-topped, chrome-legged stools along a mirror bar.

Bars

Melbourne nightlife is 24 hours, loud, colourful and anything goes. Door policies are strict but once inside high quality entertainment is guaranteed. DJ's, live music, artists, beautiful people and so much more can be found. There truly is something for everyone and every taste.

Gay, lesbian and transgendered party goers are welcome everywhere as Melburnians are on the whole very tolerant and welcoming people. Perhaps the one bad thing is that nothing really starts happening until 12AM!

As a guide: The city centre has a number of pubs, the most famous being the Young and Jackson. Melbourne is also famous for it's many trendy bars in the CBD. Most of these, however, are down narrow alleys and streets, and are therefore hard to find unless you know where you are going.

The inner northern suburbs, such as Collingwood and Fitzroy cater for the young, laid-back, and bohemian crowd. Here you will find lots of live music, cheaper prices, and a relaxed atmosphere. Head for Brunswick and Gertrude Streets in Fitzroy and Smith Street, Collingwood for cafes, bars and live music, while Lygon Street, Carlton has a range of Italian restaurants and cafes with a student vibe, as it's located near the University of Melbourne. Victoria Street, North Richmond is the heart of Melbourne's Vietnamese community, with many cheap and cheerful restaurants serving good food.

Chapel Street/ Toorak Road in South Yarra and Prahran has the most glamourous bars and clubs. Here, expect high prices, strict dress codes, and beautiful people who want to be seen partying with the best. St. Kilda has a little bit of everything. With it's proximity to the beach, it is often regarded as the Melbourne suburb that feels most like Sydney.

The past decade has seen a revival of Melbourne's inner-city bar scene, with dozens of weird and wonderful watering holes opening up within forgotten alleyways and anonymous lanes of the City Centre (CBD). Melbourne also has its fair share of stylish places to drink, although the better ones can be hard to find. The theory seems to be: the harder your bar is to find, the more people will talk about it. Secrets are tucked around areas like Prahran, South Yarra and many other areas. However there are plenty of alleyway bars, once you find one they seem to pop up everywhere you look. Melbourne's clubs often market a members only rule which can upset your more upmarket traveler. The rule is in place to prevent fighting and unappealing groups of men entering a nice club and destroying the atmosphere.

Australian licensing laws are very similar to those in the UK, i.e. you are not allowed to be drunk on licensed premises. In practice though, Melbourne venues and bouncers draw the line very low. Ejection from a premises can be expected for fighting, vomiting, or frequent falling over. Some pubs and clubs are quicker to eject patrons than others, but it's only ever a short walk to another. Licensing is more liberal then what one may be used to, as you can still expect to find a drink past 2AM. This has lead to a culture of late night drinking where some venues won't get busy until some time after 11PM, especially true during summer.

Melburnians often draw a distinction between 'bars', meaning the small watering holes described above, and 'pubs' which are larger establishments in the usual Australian or British sense of the word. Melbourne's pubs, particularly those in the city and inner suburbs, usually serve restaurant-standard food and a wide range of local and imported beers. Pubs usually offer lunch from approximately midday to 2PM, and reopen their kitchens for dinner from approximately 6PM to 9PM.

Sleep

Budget

Melbourne's budget accommodation options can be found in two main areas, namely in the City Centre and in the seaside suburb of St Kilda. However, outside these two areas, there are also several popular budget options in bohemian Fitzroy, South Melbourne, and Windsor.

• Melbourne Metro YHA is an award winning hostel located on the city fringe, close to major attractions including the Queen Victoria Market and Zoo. This funky hostel is a great place to stay when visiting Melbourne.

• Melbourne Oasis YHA is an oasis in a bustling city, with no bunk beds you are guaranteed a good nights sleep. Enjoy the sunny gazebo garden, regular $2 pancake breakfasts and weekly activities.

• Nomads Melbourne Backpackers Hostel & Industry Bar & Lounge, 196-198 Beckett St, 9328 4383, Free phone 1800 44 77 62, [60]. Shared dorm accommodation from $19, Doubles from $70. Comes with a free meal every night.

• All Nations Backpackers Hostel, 2 Spencer St, 9620 1022, 1800 222 238 (info@allnations.com.au, fax 9620 1033), [61]. 24-hour reception. Dorm beds from $19, single $38, double $48.

Please note that around the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix (early March) and other international events, hostel accommodation is booked out and some hostels raise their prices. Be sure to book ahead.

Mid-range

Accommodation in this price bracket can mostly be found in the city centre. There are however options scattered throughout the suburbs.

• Jika International Motel - Melbourne - Fairfield, Melbourne 3078. Located just 6km from Melbourne CBD. [62] Phone +61 3 9481 2822 Fax +61 3 9489 8819 [63].

• Golden Chain Motels - Melbourne has many locations in Melbourne and surrounding area serving quality accommodation at affordable prices. View a of Melbourne Victoria Map [64]

• Stephanie's Bed and Breakfast in Williamstown has both B&B accommodation and self-contained accommodation. Suited to corporate travellers looking for something special as well as Romantic Melbourne Getaways. Williamstown is 20 minutes from Melbourne CBD by train and 40 minutes by ferry. 154 - 160 Ferguson Street, Williamstown VIC 3016 Phone +61 3 9397 5587 View a of Williamstown Victoria [65]

Splurge

The City Centre remains the main area for this category of accommodation.

After a fire gutted the original building in 2001, most of Melbourne's grand General Post Office (250 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne; Phone: 13 13 18; Fax: 9203 3078; Mon-Fri 8:30AM to 5:30PM, Sat 9AM to 4PM, Sun 10AM to 4PM; [66]) has now been turned into an upmarket retail precinct, but it still has a range of postal services including a post restante.

Phone

Payphones are easily found through the city, but many are being phased out due to growing mobile phone ownership. These phones are coin-operated or use prepaid Phonecards, which are available from most convenience stores or newsagents. International calling cards are also available at these outlets.

Mobile phone coverage within the CBD and surrounds is usually good-to-excellent. Melbourne's area code is 03 (internationally dial +613).

Internet

Internet cafes are dotted throughout the city, especially near the backpacker enclaves of St Kilda and Flinders Street. Speeds are usually excellent and rates range from $2.50 - $12 per hour, the cheapest usually found in combination market/internet cafes in the Asian parts of town. Some of the best include:

• The store "mag nation" on 88 Elizabeth St has a free wireless network.
• e:FiftyFive (55 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne) is like a huge basement lounge room that feels more like a bar than an internet cafe. Great DJs, comfortable couches and dirt-cheap $2/hour internet access when you buy a drink attract plenty of travellers and will make writing that email home an enjoyable experience.
• VA (Bourke Street, Melbourne) is one of the countless but arguably the best internet/LAN gaming cafes in Melbourne, which is packed full of "hardcore gamers" on Sunday afternoons (sponsored competition day). Non-member rates start at $3.50/hour while membership costs a mere $15 (includes $12 credit) and benefits include play offers such as $4/2 hours, $5/3 hours and $6/4 hours, as well as day and night packages.
• Cydus (Victoria Street, North Melbourne) large range of internet usage services every day and at any time (including most public holidays). Non-member rates start at $3/hour while membership costs $10 (includes 2 hours free play) and membership rates are $2/hour while member offers include "Endurance Pass" (5 hours play + $2.80 snack voucher) and "Survival Pass" (10 hours play).
• The City Library, (253 Flinders Lane, Melbourne) [67]. Offers free internet access to members - temporary membership is available. The service will soon have charges.
• The State Library [68]. Offers free internet at many workstations and does not require membership. You can get a free membership for access to free wireless web access, however, the wireless access is limited and you may not be able to access some sites and services.
• Melbourne Central shopping centre (corner of Swanston and La Trobe St) has free wireless internet access.
• Australia on Collins shopping centre (on Collins St) has free wireless internet access.
• You'll also find, as of March 2009, that virtually every Mc Donald's in the city has a free Wifi Hotspot. These hotspots have an idle time limit of 10mins and a down/upload limit of 50mb. There are also some browsing limitations, as Maccas is trying to keep this a 'family friendly' service. You can access MSN and most web-based e-mail services from these hotspots, but all peer2peer services are disallowed by the terms of service (which you have to agree to before you can get online).

Stay safe

While Melbourne is a very safe city for its size, the usual precautions still apply as for any large city, including keeping valuables hidden, and travelling with a friend or companion on the street or a train late at night, if possible. Certain areas which are fine during the day can be unsafe at night if you are alone, including the Collingwood and Footscray areas. However these areas are also heavily patrolled by the Victorian Police Force, so provided you stick to main streets (eg: for Collingwood - Smith Street), you should be fine.

Melbourne's red-light districts include King Street in the CBD and Grey Street, St Kilda, but you're more likely to face drunken revellers and unwelcome approaches from street walkers than any major threat. Melbourne City Council has also recently established all-night "Safe City" taxi ranks with security guards on King Street, outside Flinders Street Station and on Bourke Street.

If travelling by train at night, travel in the front carriage close to the driver's area and note emergency buttons. If a problem occurs, push emergency buttons on the train or railway station to attract attention. Stay in Safety Zones while on stations at night. These are marked with yellow lines and are usually well lit and have emergency buttons as well as about 4 cameras pointed at the area. Robbery does happen on the train system, especially at night, though, this kind of occurance is rare. Railway police patrol most services. There have been recent reports of attacks on Indian students, often incorrectly reported as being racially motivated. The reality is many of these attacks occur simply because Indian students are seen as an easy target, as they often carry expensive phones/cameras/mp3 players and often walk alone at night through poorly-lit, high-crime areas like Sunshine, St Albans and Footscray.

If you are driving your own car or rented automobile, car theft or break-in is possible. Avoid temptation by hiding valuables out of sight, and always lock the car and leave the windows up before you leave. If you are waiting in your car, it is only sensible to lock the car as well. A police officer will always show ID before asking you to open your door or window.

Pickpocketing is rare in Melbourne, but be aware of your belongings out the front of Flinders Street Station and the first block of Swanston Street (between Flinders and Collins Streets).

Beggars frequent the southern ends of Elizabeth and Swanston Streets, Bourke Street Mall, and the intersection of Bourke and Russell Streets. Very rarely are they threatening or aggressive however.

Although scams are rare in Melbourne, be wary of real estate agents (especially if you have newly arrived and plan to stay only for the short term). There have been many cases of real estate agents preying upon overseas students in particular. Common scams include charging tenants for costs that don't exist (eg. charges for 'advertising' when tenants move out) and deducting costs for non-existent reparations and cleaning from the bond. Be sure to consult the Tenants Union of Victoria [69] and know your rights when you are charged for anything and move in and out.

The infamous Melbourne gangland war which claimed many lives is now over and despite anything you see on the media having to do with it, violent criminal ocurrences are very rare and isolated. As long you are not involved with Melbourne's underworld, you will not have anything to worry about.

As with any other large metropolis, be vigilant but not paranoid, as Melbourne is generally a very safe city.

Get out

Melbourne is more-or-less centrally located on the coast of Victoria, and there are many natural and manmade attractions close enough to easily visit in a day's return drive. Another way to visit regional Victoria is utilising the VicLink public transport system. Regular train journeys leave from Southern Cross station. Regional attractions include:

• Werribee— Historic mansion & open-range zoo.
• Dandenong Ranges— National park, gardens, historic steam railway.
• Wine-tasting in the Yarra Valley, Healesville and the Healesville Sanctuary.
• Port Phillip Bay scenic drive and the Mornington Peninsula, including the seaside resort locations of Sorrento and Portsea]], offering both bayside and surf beaches.
• Mount Donna Buang (winter sightseeing snow).
• Kinglake National Park.

• Echuca-Moama.
• Mount Buller (skiing and sightseeing).

• The Great Ocean Road including the twelve apostles

• Mornington Peninsula.
• Phillip Island.
• Lake Mountain (cross-country skiing).

• The Victorian Goldfields - Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Maldon.
• Macedon Ranges and Spa Country.
• Geelong.
• Bellarine Peninsula.
• Great Ocean Road with its many scenic vistas.
• Grampians National Park.

Routes through Melbourne

Albury-Wodonga ← Seymour ←	N  S	→ END
Mount Gambier ← Geelong ←	W  E	→ Warragul → Sale

This is a usable article. It has information for getting in as well as some complete entries for restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow!