Melbourne on arvau

Wikipedia / Melbourne

Melbourne ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria and the second-most populous city in Australia. The city's name generally refers to a area, comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local government areas. The name is also used specifically to refer to the local government area, also named the City of Melbourne led by Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece, whose administrative area is centred on the Melbourne central business district and some immediate surrounds.

The city occupies much of the northern and eastern coastlines of Port Phillip Bay. As of June 2025, the population of the city was 5.435 million, or 19% of the population of Australia. It is the southernmost city in the world with a population exceeding one million. Its inhabitants are known as "Melburnians".

The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal Victorians for over 40,000 years. Of the five peoples of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land encompassing Melbourne are the Boonwurrung, Woiwurrung and the Wurundjeri peoples. In 1803, a short-lived British penal settlement was established at Port Phillip, then part of the Colony of New South Wales. Melbourne was founded in 1835 with the arrival of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania). It was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837 and named after the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, it became the capital of the newly separated Colony of Victoria in 1851. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush, the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into one of the largest and wealthiest metropolises in both Australia and the world. After the federation of Australia in 1901, Melbourne served as the interim seat of government of the new nation until Canberra became the permanent capital in 1927.

Today, Melbourne is culturally diverse and has the seventh-largest foreign-born population. It is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region, ranking 28th globally in the 2024 Global Financial Centres Index. The city's eclectic architecture blends Victorian-era structures, such as the World Heritage–listed Royal Exhibition Building, with a large skyline. Landmarks include the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the National Gallery of Victoria. Noted for its cultural heritage, the city gave rise to Australian rules football, Australian impressionism and Australian cinema, and is known for its street art, live music and theatre scenes. It hosts major annual sporting events, such as the Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Open Grand Slam, and also hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. Melbourne ranked as the world's most liveable city on The Economists measure for much of the 2010s. It was also voted the world's best city by Time Out in 2026.

Melbourne Airport is the second-busiest airport in Australia and the Port of Melbourne is the nation's busiest seaport. Its main metropolitan rail terminus is Flinders Street station and its main regional rail and road coach terminus is Southern Cross station. It also has Australia's most extensive freeway network and the largest urban tram network in the world.

Name

The Port Phillip area of Melbourne was known in the Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung languages as or .

Different parts of Melbourne had different traditional Indigenous names, though these do not match up exactly with modern council districts. The Melbourne city area near St Paul's (or possibly St Patrick's) Cathedral was called Geeburr, the Fitzroy area was referred to as Ngár-go, and Collingwood was known as Yálla-birr-ang in the Woiwurrung language. The wider Port Phillip Bay area is referred to as Naarm in the Woiwurrung language; in the Boonwurrung language, Naarm means "the Bay".

History

Indigenous people

Aboriginal Australians have lived in the Melbourne area for at least 40,000 years. When British colonists arrived in the 19th century, up to 20,000 Kulin people from three distinct language groups – the Wurundjeri, Bunurong and Wathaurong – resided in the area. It was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and a vital source of food and water. In June 2021, the boundaries between the land of two of the traditional owner groups, the Wurundjeri and Bunurong, were agreed after being drawn up by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council. The borderline runs across the city from west to east, with the CBD, Richmond and Hawthorn included in Wurundjeri land, and Albert Park, St Kilda and Caulfield on Bunurong land. However, this change in boundaries remains contested by individuals on both sides of the debate, including N'arweet Carolyn Briggs. Some sources indicate that the name Narrm refers to the area where Melbourne city is built; other sources indicate that Naarm refers to the wider Port Phillip Bay area in the Woiwurrung language, and means "the Bay" in the Boonwurrung language. Narrm means "scrub" in Eastern Kulin languages, which reflects the Creation Story of how the Bay was filled by the creation of the Birrarung (Yarra River). Before this, the dry Melbourne region extended out into the Bay, which was filled with tea-tree scrub where boorrimul (emu) and marram (kangaroo) were hunted.

British colonisation

The first British settlement in Victoria, then part of the penal colony of New South Wales, was established by Colonel David Collins in October 1803, at Sullivan Bay, near present-day Sorrento. The following year, due to a perceived lack of resources, these settlers relocated to Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) and founded the city of Hobart. It would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted.

In May and June 1835, John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association in Van Diemen's Land, explored the Melbourne area, and later claimed to have negotiated a purchase of with eight Wurundjeri elders. However, the nature of the treaty has been heavily disputed, as none of the parties spoke the same language, and the elders likely perceived it as part of the gift exchanges which had taken place over the previous few days amounting to a tanderrum ceremony which allows temporary access to and use of the land. Batman selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village" before returning to Van Diemen's Land. In August 1835, another group of Vandemonian settlers arrived in the area and established a settlement at the site of the current Melbourne Immigration Museum. Batman and his group arrived the following month, and the two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement, initially known by the Indigenous name of Dootigala.

Batman's Treaty with the Aboriginal elders was annulled by Richard Bourke, the Governor of New South Wales (who at the time governed all of eastern mainland Australia), with compensation paid to members of the association. In 1836, Bourke declared the city the administrative capital of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, and commissioned the first plan for its urban layout, the Hoddle Grid, in 1837. Previously known under various informal names, the settlement was named Melbourne on 10 April 1837 by Bourke after the British Prime Minister, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose seat was Melbourne Hall in the market town of Melbourne, Derbyshire. That year, the settlement's general post office officially opened with that name.

Between 1836 and 1842, Victorian Aboriginal groups were largely dispossessed of their land by British colonists. In 1840, the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District, Charles La Trobe, issued a directive to banish Aboriginal people from the immediate vicinity of Melbourne. This was enforced later that same year by the mass arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of Indigenous people during the Lettsom raid. However, Aboriginal people continued to live near the settlement, and by January 1844, there were said to be 675 residing in squalid camps around Melbourne. The British Colonial Office had appointed five Aboriginal Protectors for the Aboriginal people of Victoria, in 1839, but their work was nullified by a land policy that favoured squatters who took possession of Aboriginal lands. By 1845, fewer than 240 wealthy Europeans held all the pastoral licences then issued in Victoria; this group would remain a powerful political and economic force in the colony for generations. Letters patent of Queen Victoria, issued on 25 June 1847, declared Melbourne a city. On 1 July 1851, the Port Phillip District separated from New South Wales to become the Colony of Victoria, with Melbourne as its capital.

Victorian gold rush

The discovery of gold in Victoria in mid-1851 sparked a gold rush, and Melbourne, the colony's major port, experienced rapid growth. Within months, the city's population had nearly doubled from 25,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. Exponential growth ensued, and by 1865, Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous city.

An influx of intercolonial and international migrants, particularly from Europe and China, saw the establishment of slums, including Chinatown and a temporary "tent city" on the southern banks of the Yarra. In the aftermath of the 1854 Eureka Rebellion, mass public support for the plight of the miners resulted in major political changes to the colony, including improvements in working conditions across mining, agriculture, manufacturing and other local industries. At least twenty nationalities took part in the rebellion, giving some indication of immigration flows at the time.

With the wealth brought in from the gold rush and the subsequent need for public buildings, a program of grand civic construction soon began. The 1850s and 1860s saw the commencement of Parliament House, the Treasury Building, the Old Melbourne Gaol, Victoria Barracks, the State Library, the University of Melbourne, the General Post Office, Customs House, the Melbourne Town Hall, and St Patrick's Cathedral, though many remained incomplete for decades.

The layout of the inner suburbs on a largely one-mile grid pattern, cut through by wide radial boulevards and parklands surrounding the central city, was largely established in the 1850s and 1860s. These areas rapidly filled with the ubiquitous terrace houses, as well as with detached houses and grand mansions, while some of the major roads developed as shopping streets. Melbourne quickly became a major finance centre, home to several banks, the Royal Mint, and (in 1861) Australia's first stock exchange. In 1855, the Melbourne Cricket Club secured possession of its now famous ground, the MCG. Members of the Melbourne Football Club codified Australian football in 1859, and in 1861, the first Melbourne Cup race was held. Melbourne acquired its first public monument, the Burke and Wills statue, in 1864.

With the gold rush largely over by 1860, Melbourne continued to grow through ongoing gold mining, its role as the major port for exporting Victoria's agricultural products—especially wool—and a developing manufacturing sector protected by high tariffs. An extensive radial railway network spread into the countryside from the late 1850s. Construction started on further major public buildings in the 1860s and 1870s, such as the Supreme Court, Government House, and the Queen Victoria Market. The central city filled up with shops and offices, workshops, and warehouses. Large banks and hotels faced the main streets, with fine townhouses in the east end of Collins Street, contrasting with tiny cottages down laneways within the blocks. The Aboriginal population continued to decline, with an estimated 80% total decrease by 1863, due primarily to introduced diseases (particularly smallpox), frontier violence and dispossession of their lands.

Land boom and bust

The 1880s saw extraordinary growth: consumer confidence, easy access to credit, and steep increases in land prices led to an enormous amount of construction. During this "land boom", Melbourne reputedly became the richest city in the world, and the second-largest (after London) in the British Empire.

The decade began with the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880, held in the large purpose-built Exhibition Building. A telephone exchange was established that year, and the foundations of St Paul's were laid. In 1881, electric light was installed in the Eastern Market, and a generating station capable of supplying 2,000 incandescent lamps was in operation by 1882. The Melbourne cable tramway system opened in 1885 and became one of the world's most extensive systems by 1890.

In 1885, visiting English journalist George Augustus Henry Sala and Joe Harold coined the phrase "Marvellous Melbourne", which stuck long into the twentieth century and has come to refer to the opulence and energy of the 1880s, during which time large commercial buildings, grand hotels, banks, coffee palaces, terrace housing and palatial mansions proliferated in the city. The establishment of the Melbourne Hydraulic Power Company in 1886 led to the availability of high-pressure piped water, allowing for the installation of hydraulically powered elevators, which led to the construction of the first high-rise buildings in the city. The period also saw the huge expansion of a significant radial rail-based transport network throughout the city and suburbs.

Melbourne's land boom peaked in 1888, the year it hosted the Centennial Exhibition. The brash boosterism that had typified Melbourne during that time ended in the early 1890s. The bubble supporting the local finance and property industries burst, resulting in a severe economic depression. Sixteen small land banks and building societies collapsed, and 133 limited companies went into liquidation. The Melbourne financial crisis was a contributing factor to the Australian economic depression of the 1890s and the Australian banking crisis of 1893. The effects of the depression on the city were profound, with virtually no significant construction until the late 1890s.

Temporary capital of Australia and World War II

At the time of Australia's federation on 1 January 1901, Melbourne became the seat of government of the federated Commonwealth of Australia. The first federal parliament convened on 9 May 1901 in the Royal Exhibition Building, subsequently moving to the Victorian Parliament House, where it sat until it moved to Canberra in 1927. The Governor-General of Australia resided at Government House in Melbourne until 1930, and many major national institutions remained in Melbourne well into the twentieth century. During World War II, the city hosted American military forces who were fighting the Empire of Japan, and the government requisitioned the Melbourne Cricket Ground for military use.

Post-war period

In the immediate years after World War II, Melbourne expanded rapidly, its growth boosted by post-war immigration to Australia, primarily from Southern Europe and the Mediterranean. While the "Paris End" of Collins Street began Melbourne's boutique shopping and open-air café culture, 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). Up until the 21st century, Melbourne was considered Australia's "industrial heartland".

Height limits in the CBD were lifted in 1958, after the construction of ICI House, transforming the city's skyline with the introduction of skyscrapers. Suburban expansion then intensified, served by new indoor malls beginning with Chadstone Shopping Centre. The post-war period also saw a major renewal of the CBD and St Kilda Road, which significantly modernised the city. New fire regulations and redevelopment saw most of the taller pre-war CBD buildings either demolished or partially retained through a policy of facadism. 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 state government initiated a series of controversial inner-city public housing projects through the Housing Commission of Victoria, resulting in the demolition of many neighbourhoods and a proliferation of high-rise towers. In later years, with the rapid rise of motor vehicle ownership, the investment in freeway and highway developments greatly accelerated outward suburban sprawl and the decline of the 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.

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

Melbourne experienced an economic downturn between 1989 and 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. 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 Convention & Exhibition 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.

Contemporary Melbourne

Since the mid-1990s, 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 South Wharf. Melbourne sustained the highest population increase and economic growth rate of any Australian capital city from 2001 to 2004.

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 5million people pushed the state government to review the growth boundary in 2008 as part of its Melbourne @ Five Million strategy. In 2009, Melbourne was less affected by the Great Recession in comparison to other Australian cities. At this time, more new jobs were created in Melbourne than in any other Australian city—almost as many as in the next two fastest-growing cities, Brisbane and Perth, combined; meanwhile, Melbourne's property market remained expensive, resulting in historically high property values and widespread rent increases.

Beginning in the 2010s, the State Government of Victoria initiated a number of major infrastructure projects designed to reduce congestion in Melbourne and encourage economic growth, including the Metro Tunnel, the West Gate Tunnel, the Level Crossing Removal Project and the Suburban Rail Loop. New urban renewal zones were initiated in inner-city areas like Fisherman's Bend and Arden, while suburban growth continued on the urban periphery in Melbourne's outer west and east in suburbs like Wyndham Vale and Cranbourne. Middle suburbs like Box Hill became denser as a greater proportion of Melburnians began living in apartments. A construction boom resulted in 34 new skyscrapers being built in the central business district between 2010 and 2020. In 2020, Melbourne was classified as an Alpha city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Of all major Australian cities, Melbourne was the worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and spent a long time under lockdown restrictions. Over the course of its six lockdowns, Melbourne experienced the longest total lockdown period of any city in the world, totalling 262 days. While this contributed to a net outflow of migration that caused a slight reduction in Melbourne's population between 2020 and 2022, Melbourne's population is projected to reach 6.4 million people by 2033–34.

Geography

Melbourne is in the southeastern part of mainland Australia, within the state of Victoria. Geologically, it is built on the confluence of Quaternary lava flows to the west, Silurian mudstones to the east, and Holocene sand accumulation to the southeast along Port Phillip. The southeastern suburbs are situated on the Selwyn fault, which transects Mount Martha and Cranbourne. The western portion of the metropolitan area lies within the Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands vegetation community, and the southeast falls in the Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland zone.

Melbourne extends northward through the undulating bushland valleys of the Yarra Valley's tributaries—Moonee Ponds Creek (toward Melbourne Airport), Merri Creek, Darebin Creek and Plenty River. The city reaches southeast through Dandenong to the growth corridor of Pakenham towards West Gippsland. In the west, it extends along the Maribyrnong River and its tributaries north towards Sunbury.

Melbourne's major bayside beaches are in the various suburbs along the shores of Port Phillip Bay, in areas like Port Melbourne, Albert Park, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Sandringham, Mentone, Frankston, Altona, Williamstown and Werribee South. The nearest surf beaches are south of the Melbourne CBD in the back-beaches of Rye, Sorrento and Portsea.

Climate

Melbourne has, depending on the classification system used, a temperate oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) or humid subtropical (Trewartha: Cf) climate, with warm summers and cool winters. Melbourne is well known for its changeable weather conditions, mainly due to it being located on the boundary of hot inland areas and the cool southern ocean. This temperature differential is most pronounced in the spring and summer months and can cause strong cold fronts to form. These cold fronts can be responsible for varied forms of severe weather from gales to thunderstorms and hail, large temperature drops and heavy rain. Winters, while exceptionally dry by southern Victorian standards, are often cloudy. The lack of winter rainfall is because of Melbourne's rain-shadowed location between the Otway and Macedon Ranges, which block much of the rainfall arriving from the north and west.

Port Phillip is often warmer than the surrounding oceans or the land mass, particularly in spring and autumn; this can set up a "bay effect rain", 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, while the rest of Melbourne and its surrounds remain dry. Overall, the area around Melbourne is, owing to its rain shadow, nonetheless significantly drier than average for southern Victoria. Within the city and surrounds, rainfall varies widely, from about at Little River to on the eastern fringe at Gembrook. Melbourne receives 48.6 clear days annually. Dewpoint temperatures in the summer range from .

Melbourne rarely receives widespread or continuous rainfall (as experienced in other Australian cities, such as Sydney or Brisbane) and instead experiences precipitation through fleeting showers that can vary in intensity. Melbourne is particularly prone to these 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 include hail, squalls, and significant drops in temperature, but they often pass through quickly, followed by rapid clearing, sunny and relatively calm weather, and a return to the preceding temperature. This can occur in the space of minutes and can be repeated many times a day, giving Melbourne a reputation for having "four seasons in one day", a phrase that is part of local popular culture. The lowest temperature on record is , recorded on 21 July 1869. The highest temperature recorded in Melbourne city was , recorded on 7 February 2009. While snow is occasionally seen at higher elevations in the outskirts of the city, and dustings were observed in 2020, it has not been recorded in the central business district since 1986.

The sea temperature in Melbourne is warmer than the surrounding ocean during the summer months, and colder during the winter months. This is predominantly due to Port Phillip Bay being an enclosed and shallow bay that is largely protected from the ocean, resulting in greater temperature variation across seasons.

{{Weather box|width = auto | metric first = y | single line = y | collapsed = Y | location = Melbourne (Olympic Park) (1991–2020 averages, extremes 2013–present) | Jan record high C = 43.4 | Feb record high C = 40.7 | Mar record high C = 38.9 | Apr record high C = 33.1 | May record high C = 26.7 | Jun record high C = 20.4 | Jul record high C = 23.8 | Aug record high C = 23.8 | Sep record high C = 30.6 | Oct record high C = 35.8 | Nov record high C = 40.9 | Dec record high C = 43.5 | year record high C = | Jan avg record high C = 35.8 | Feb avg record high C = 34.3 | Mar avg record high C = 31.4 | Apr avg record high C = 26.3 | May avg record high C = 22.0 | Jun avg record high C = 18.2 | Jul avg record high C = 17.5 | Aug avg record high C = 19.1 | Sep avg record high C = 23.3 | Oct avg record high C = 27.2 | Nov avg record high C = 31.0 | Dec avg record high C = 33.6 | year avg record high C = 35.8 | Jan high C = 26.6 | Feb high C = 26.5 | Mar high C = 24.5 | Apr high C = 21.0 | May high C = 17.5 | Jun high C = 14.6 | Jul high C = 14.1 | Aug high C = 15.3 | Sep high C = 17.5 | Oct high C = 19.8 | Nov high C = 22.3 | Dec high C = 24.3 | year high C = | Jan mean C = 21.1 | Feb mean C = 21.1 | Mar mean C = 19.4 | Apr mean C = 16.3 | May mean C = 13.6 | Jun mean C = 11.3 | Jul mean C = 10.7 | Aug mean C = 11.6 | Sep mean C = 13.3 | Oct mean C = 15.1 | Nov mean C = 17.3 | Dec mean C = 19.1 | year mean C = | Jan low C = 15.6 | Feb low C = 15.7 | Mar low C = 14.3 | Apr low C = 11.6 | May low C = 9.7 | Jun low C = 7.9 | Jul low C = 7.3 | Aug low C = 7.9 | Sep low C = 9.0 | Oct low C = 10.3 | Nov low C = 12.2 | Dec low C = 13.9

Governance

The governance of Melbourne is split between the government of Victoria and the 27 cities and four shires that make up the metropolitan area. There is no ceremonial or political head of Melbourne, but the Lord Mayor of the City of Melbourne often fulfils such a role as a first among equals.

The local governments are responsible for providing the functions set out in the Local Government Act 1989 such as urban planning and waste management. Most other government services are provided or regulated by the Victorian state government, which governs from Parliament House in Spring Street. These encompass services typically associated with local government in other countries, such as public transport, main roads, traffic control, policing, education above preschool level, healthcare, and the planning of major infrastructure projects.

Transport

Roads

Like many Australian cities, Melbourne has a high dependency on motor vehicles for transport, particularly in outer suburban areas, where the largest number of cars are registered. There are 3.6million private vehicles using of road in Melbourne, which has one of the greatest lengths of road per capita in the world. The early 20th century saw an increase in the popularity of private motor vehicles, resulting in large-scale suburban expansion and a tendency towards the development of urban sprawl—as in all Australian capital cities, inhabitants typically lived in the suburbs and commuted to the city centre for work. By the mid-1950s, there were just under 200 passenger vehicles per 1,000 people; by 2013, this figure had risen to 600 per 1,000 people.

The road network in Victoria is managed by the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP), which oversees planning and integration. Road maintenance is undertaken by various bodies depending on road classification: local roads are maintained by local councils, secondary and main roads are the responsibility of the DTP, and major national freeways and corridors integral to trade are overseen by the federal government.

Today, Melbourne has an extensive network of freeways and arterial roadways. These are used by private vehicles, including road freight vehicles, as well as road-based public transport modes like buses and taxis. Major highways feeding into the city include the Eastern Freeway, Monash Freeway and West Gate Freeway (which spans the large West Gate Bridge). Other freeways include the Calder Freeway, the Tullamarine Freeway (the primary airport link), and the Hume Freeway, which connects Melbourne to Canberra and Sydney. Melbourne's middle suburbs are connected via an orbital freeway, the M80 Ring Road, which will be connected to the Eastern Freeway when the North East Link opens.

Of Melbourne's twenty declared freeways open or under construction, six are electronic toll roads. These include the M1 and M2 CityLink (incorporating the Bolte Bridge), EastLink, the North East Link, and the West Gate Tunnel. Apart from EastLink, which is owned and operated by ConnectEast, toll roads in Melbourne are operated by the private company Transurban. Unlike untolled roads that use green signage, Melbourne's tollways feature blue and yellow signage.

Public transport

Melbourne has an integrated public transport system based around extensive train, tram, bus and taxi systems. 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. From the 1940s, public transport use in Melbourne declined due to a rapid expansion of the road and freeway network, with the largest declines in tram and bus usage. This decline quickened in the early 1990s due to large public transport service cuts. Melbourne's public transport operations were privatised in 1999 through a franchising model, with operational responsibilities for the train, tram and bus networks licensed to private companies. After 1996, rapid employment growth in central Melbourne drove an increase in public transport patronage, with public transport accounting for 14.8% of work trips and 8.4% of all trips. A target of 20% public transport mode share for Melbourne by 2020 was set by the state government in 2006. Since 2006, patronage has grown by over 20%, and several major infrastructure projects have commenced to further expand public transport capacity and usage.

Train

The Melbourne metropolitan rail network dates back to the 1850s gold rush era, and today consists of 227 suburban stations on sixteen lines which radiate from the City Loop, a mostly underground subway system around the CBD. Flinders Street station, one of Australia's busiest rail hubs, serves all lines except the Pakenham, Cranbourne and Sunbury lines, which depart from nearby Town Hall station. Flinders Street station remains a prominent Melbourne landmark and meeting place. The city has rail connections with regional Victorian cities run by V/Line, as well as direct interstate rail services which depart from Melbourne's other major rail terminus, Southern Cross station, in Docklands. The Overland to Adelaide departs twice a week, while the XPT to Sydney departs twice daily. In the 2017–2018 financial year, the Melbourne metropolitan rail network recorded 240.9million passenger trips, the highest ridership in its history. Many rail lines, along with dedicated lines and rail yards, are also used for freight.

Several new railway lines are under construction or have recently been completed in Melbourne. A new AU$15billion rapid transit heavy rail corridor through the inner city—the Metro Tunnel—opened in late 2025 and became fully operational in February 2026. It comprises five new stations and twin nine-kilometre tunnels under the CBD, connecting the Sunbury line to the Cranbourne/Pakenham line. The ongoing Level Crossing Removal Project is grade-separating much of the network and rebuilding many older stations. In June 2022, early works commenced on the Suburban Rail Loop, a 90-kilometre underground automated orbital line through Melbourne's middle suburbs approximately from the CBD. Additionally, early works for an airport rail link have commenced in Keilor East.

Tram

Melbourne's tram network dates from the 1880s land boom and, as of 2021, consists of of double track, 475 trams, 25 routes, and 1,763 tram stops, making it the largest in the world. In 2017–2018, 206.3million passenger trips were made by tram. About 75% of Melbourne's tram network shares road space with other vehicles, while the remainder of the network is grade-separated or operates on light rail tracks. Melbourne's trams are recognised as iconic cultural assets and a tourist attraction. Heritage trams operate on the free City Circle route around the CBD. Trams are free within the central city Free Tram Zone and selected routes operate 24-hour services on weekends.

Bus

Melbourne's bus network consists of more than 400 routes which mainly service the outer suburbs and fill the gaps in the network between rail and tram services. In the 2023–24 financial year, 114.9 million passenger trips were recorded on Melbourne's buses, an increase of 15.2% over the previous period.

Airports

Melbourne is served by four airports. Melbourne Airport, located in Tullamarine, is the city's primary international and domestic gateway and the second-busiest airport in Australia, recording passenger traffic of over 37million in 2018–19. The airport, which comprises four terminals, is the home base for passenger airline Jetstar and cargo airlines Australian airExpress and Team Global Express, and is a major hub for Qantas and Virgin Australia. Avalon Airport, located between Melbourne and Geelong, is a secondary hub of Jetstar. It is also used as a freight and maintenance facility. Buses and taxis are the only forms of public transport to and from the city's main airports. A rail link to Tullamarine is planned to open in the 2030s. Air ambulance facilities are available for the domestic and international medical transport of patients. Melbourne also features a significant general aviation airport, Moorabbin Airport, in the city's south-east, which also accommodates a limited number of passenger flights. Essendon Airport, once the city's principal airport, handles regional passenger flights, general aviation, and air cargo services.

Water transport

Maritime shipping is an essential component of Melbourne's freight and transport system. The Port of Melbourne is Australia's largest container and general cargo port and also its busiest, handling more than one-third of the nation's container trade. The port processed 3.39million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2024, making it one of the top five ports in the Southern Hemisphere. Station Pier on Port Phillip Bay serves as the city's primary passenger terminal, accommodating visiting cruise ships. Ferries and water taxis run from berthss along the Yarra River as far upstream as South Yarra and across Port Phillip Bay.

Infrastructure

Health

Among Australian capital cities, Melbourne ties with Canberra in first place for the highest male life expectancy (80.0 years) and ranks second behind Perth in female life expectancy (84.1 years). The Victorian Government's Department of Health oversees about 30 public hospitals in the Melbourne metropolitan region and 13 health services organisations.

Major medical, neuroscience, and biotechnology research institutions located in Melbourne include St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, the Australian Stem Cell Centre, the Burnet Institute, the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 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.

The headquarters of Australian pharmaceutical company CSL Limited is located in the Melbourne Biomedical Precinct in Parkville, which contains over 40 biomedical and research institutions. It was announced in 2021 that a new Australian Institute for Infectious Disease would also be built in Parkville. Other institutions include the Howard Florey Institute, the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and the Australian Synchrotron. Many of these institutions are associated with and located near universities. Melbourne is also home to the Royal Children's Hospital and the Monash Children's Hospital.

Utilities

Water storage and supply for Melbourne is managed by Melbourne Water, which is owned by the Victorian Government. The organisation is also responsible for the management of Melbourne's sewerage network and major regional water catchments, as well as the Wonthaggi desalination plant and the 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 about 60% of Melbourne's water capacity, while smaller dams such as the Upper Yarra Dam, Yan Yean Reservoir, and the Cardinia Reservoir carry secondary supplies.

Gas is provided by three distribution companies:

AusNet Services, which provides gas from Melbourne's inner western suburbs to southwestern Victoria.
Multinet Gas, which provides gas from Melbourne's inner eastern suburbs to eastern Victoria (owned by SP AusNet after acquisition, but continuing to trade under the brand name Multinet Gas).
Australian Gas Networks, which provides gas from Melbourne's inner northern suburbs to northern Victoria, as well as the majority of southeastern Victoria.

Electricity is provided by five distribution companies:

Citipower, which provides power to Melbourne's CBD and some inner suburbs.
Powercor, which provides power to the outer western suburbs as well as all of western Victoria (Citipower and Powercor are owned by the same entity).
Jemena, which provides power to the northern and inner western suburbs.
United Energy, which provides power to the inner eastern and southeastern suburbs and the Mornington Peninsula.
AusNet Services, which provides power to the outer eastern suburbs and all of the north and east of Victoria.

Notes

References

External links

Travel

of Tourism Victoria
Guide to Melbourne from Tourism Australia

General information

About Melbourne from the Victorian Government site
About Melbourne from the city centre local government site
Melbourne Encyclopædia Britannica entry