Melbourne

Melbourne skyline seen from the Yarra river

Melbourne started out in 1835 as a large plot of land bought from local Aborigines of the Dutigalla tribe in exchange for flour, tools and clothing by John Batman ( no relation to the lifesaver in the movies).

This was the second attempt at settlement, it had been abandoned by the first settlers who had arrived in 1803 and then departed to Tasmania after staying for less than one year.
By 1851 the population had already increased to 80 000 people and six million sheep were grazing the surrounding country, and the place that had so far been considered part of New South Wales, was now officially declared as the British colony Victoria. It became the largest and richest settlement in Australia as a result of its proximity to the vast goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo and a large number of gracious homes and commercial buildings were built that can stil be admired today. In 2004 the Royal Exhibitions Buildings and Carlton Gardens were placed under World Heritage listing in recognicition of European settlement as part of Australia's cultura heritage.

The discovery of gold in November 1851 made the town boom and by 1854 the colony's population had grown from 80 000 to 300 000, in 1856 more than 86 tonnes of gold was mined. This established Melbourne as Australia's main financial centre. It was a very prosperous city until the Great Depression in the late 1880s.

 

It is easy to find your way around Melbourne as the city is laid out in a grid system but if you're driving watch out for the trams. The centre of the city is the Bourke Street Mall which is situated between Swanston Street and Elizabeth Street, running in a north south direction, Bourke Street and Collins Street are the main roads running west to east.

 

Melbourne is a very cosmopolitan city and has the largest Italian community outside Italy and the third largest Greek community outside Greece so you can be assured you can find a decent cup of coffee here ( which can be near impossible in some of the more remote parts of Australia).

Melbourne is famous for the annual Melbourne Cup horse race and changing the slogan on cars numberplates from 'Garden State' to 'Victoria-on-the-move' and on the move they were, thousands bailed out every year to start a new life in sunny Queensland, later an improving economy changed this trend.

While having a bit of a reputation for not always real glorious weather with many Australians, Melbourne retained its position as the best city in the world to call home in the London based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)'s survey in 2002. In 2005 it still ranked nr. 2 out of 130 cities surveyed worldwide. Melbourne's big advantage over the other capitals was its climate, the study found. The London-based EIU assessed the level of hardship for expatriates in the 130 cities, using 12 factors including housing, education, recreational activities, health, climate and terrorism.

Also, despite Sydney being the home of the annual Gay Mardi Gras, the gay.com website declared Melbourne the No. 2 place to visit on a list of top 10 international destinations beause of the city's bars, theatres, cuisine, parks, skyline and gay-friendly attitude.

 

 

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