Melbourne summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Melbourne.

pedestrian bridge, Melbourne
Pedestrian bridge across the Yarra River, Melbourne.

Melbourne , City (pop., 2006: 3,592,590), capital of Victoria, southeastern Australia. It is situated at the head of Port Phillip Bay and the mouth of the Yarra River. The area was discovered by Europeans in 1802 and incorporated into the colony of New South Wales. The first permanent settlement was founded in 1835 by settlers from Tasmania, and in 1837 it was named for the British prime minister, Lord Melbourne. The city was made the capital of Victoria in 1851, and it grew rapidly with the gold rush of the early 1850s. It served as the first capital of the Australian commonwealth (1901–27), until Canberra became the new capital. Second in size to Sydney, it is an industrial, commercial, and financial centre and the seat of several universities, including the University of Melbourne.

Olympic Games Summary

Olympic Games, athletic festival that originated in ancient Greece and was revived in the late 19th century. Before the 1970s the Games were officially limited to competitors with amateur status, but in the 1980s many events were opened to professional athletes. Currently, the Games are open to

Victoria Summary

Victoria, state of southeastern Australia, occupying a mountainous coastal region of the continent. Victoria is separated from New South Wales to the north by the Murray River for a length of about 1,065 miles (1,715 km) and by an additional boundary of some 110 miles (180 km) linking Cape Howe and

Australia Summary

Australia, the smallest continent and one of the largest countries on Earth, lying between the Pacific and Indian oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. Australia’s capital is Canberra, located in the southeast between the larger and more important economic and cultural centres of Sydney and Melbourne.