Melbourne

Melbourne is the second most populous city in Australia and serves as the state capital of Victoria. Melbourne is located at the mouth of the Yarra River and on the northern and eastern shorelines of Port Phillip on an area of land that formed part of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung nation's territories for around 40,000 years. The area was an important meeting place for clans and territories of the Kulin nation alliance as well as a vital food and water resource that was managed sustainably until early European settlers cleared much of these resources, forcing both nation's people into neighbouring territories.

Melbourne was founded by free settlers in 1835, 47 years after the first European settlement of Australia, as a pastoral settlement situated around the Yarra River. Transformed rapidly into a major metropolis by the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s, 'Marvellous Melbourne' became Australia's largest and most important city by 1865 the second largest in the British Empire, and the tenth largest in the world for a brief moment at the turn of the 20th century. Such rapid growth from nothing was unprecedented at the time. However, Melbourne's growth slowed after 1900 and it was overtaken by Sydney as the largest city in Australia during the early 20th century.

Melbourne is located in the south-eastern 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.

Melbourne extends along the Yarra through the Yarra Valley 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 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, Victoria towards West Gippsland.

Melbourne's major bayside beaches are mostly located along the shores of Port Phillip Bay along south eastern suburbs of the city, in areas like Port Melbourne, Albert Park, St Kilda, Elwood, Brighton, Sandringham, Mentone and Frankston although there are beaches at Altona and Williamstown in the west. The nearest metropolitan surf beaches are located 85 kilometres (53 mi) away from the CBD in the back-beaches of Rye, Sorrento and Portsea.

Melbourne has a moderate oceanic climate. Melbourne is colder than other mainland Australian capital cities in the winter.

Melbourne is widely known as the Australian cultural and sport capital. It has thrice shared top position 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, 2004 and 2005. 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.

The city celebrates a wide variety of annual cultural events, performing arts and architecture. Melbourne is also considered to be Australia's live music capital with a large proportion of successful Australian artists emerging from the Melbourne live music scene. Melbourne has become popular for its street art (see Melbourne street art) with the Lonely Planet guides listing it as a major attraction.

During the spring, Melbourne commonly enjoys extended periods of mild weather and clear skies. On average, Melbourne is not as hot as more northern cities such Sydney or Brisbane in summer, but occasionally experiences hotter and drier summer days, with maximum temperatures above 40 °C (104 °F) when northerly winds blow dry air from the arid Mallee region.

Melbourne is a diverse and multicultural city and melting pot.

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, which includes the largest Vietnamese, Indian and Sri Lankan communities in the country.

Melbourne has four airports. Melbourne Airport located 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 and may soon offer international flights to Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia X. It is also used as a freight and maintenance facility. 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.

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 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.

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.