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Melbourne (pronounced /ˈmelbən/) is the more common name for the geographic region and statistical division of the Greater Melbourne[3] metropolitan area. It is the second most populous city in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million (2007 estimate) and serves as the state capital of Victoria.[1] Melbourne is located on the lower reaches of the Yarra River and on the northern and eastern shorelines of Port Phillip and their hinterland.

Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was occupied for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years[4] by under 20,000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous regional tribes. A tiny pastoral settlement established around the estuary of the Yarra (47 years after the first European settlement of Australia)[5] was rapidly transformed into a wealthy metropolis by the Victorian gold rush and immigration. Between 1865 and 1902, Melbourne was Australia's largest and most important city,[6]. Marvellous Melbourne was also reputedly the richest in the world in the 1880s[7] and according to The Statesman's Yearbook it was the second largest in the British Empire after London for most of the decade,[8] a period in which the city hosted five international exhibitions including the 1880 International Exhibition recognised by the Bureau International des Expositions. Melbourne served as the seat of the federal government from the time of the new nation's federation in 1901, until Federal Parliament moved to the purpose-built capital, Canberra, in 1927.[9]
Prior to European settlement, the land now occupied by Melbourne was used by indigenous Australians, of the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong, for at least 31,000 years.[18][19] 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.[20] [5] 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.[21]

In May and June 1835, the area that is now central and northern Melbourne was explored by John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association, who negotiated a transaction for 600,000 acres (2,400 km2; 940 sq mi) of land from eight Wurundjeri elders.[20][5] He selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village", and returned to Launceston in Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land). However, by the time a settlement party from the Association arrived to establish the new village, a separate group led by John Pascoe Fawkner had already arrived aboard the Enterprize and established a settlement at the same location, on 30 August 1835. The two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement.


Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines was annulled by the New South Wales government (then governing all of eastern mainland Australia), which compensated the Association.[5] Although this meant the settlers were now trespassing on Crown land, the government reluctantly accepted the settlers' fait accompli and allowed the town (known at first by various names, including 'Bearbrass'[5]) 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.[22] Later that year, the settlement was named Melbourne after the British prime minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who resided in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. Melbourne was declared a city by letters patent of Queen Victoria, issued on 25 June 1847.[23] The Port Phillip District became a separate colony of Victoria in 1851 with Melbourne as its capita