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Melbourne, Australia's second
largest city, with a population
of 3,300,000 is also capital
city of the state of Victoria.
Located in the south eastern
area of Australia, Melbourne is
built along the Yarra River.
Melbourne is the southernmost
city in the world to have a
population of over one million
people.
Melbourne is located in the
south-eastern corner of mainland
Australia, and is the
southernmost mainland capital
city. 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, its suburbs sprawling
to the east, following the Yarra
River out to the Yarra and
Dandenong Ranges, south-east to
the mouth of the bay, and
following the Maribyrnong River
and its tributaries west and
north to flat farming country.
The central business district
(the original city) is laid out
in the famous
mile-by-half-a-mile Hoddle Grid,
its southern edge fronting on to
the Yarra.
Melbourne is often the starting
point for travellers exploring
the Dandenong Ranges, or the
Great Ocean Road. Also close to
Melbourne is Phillip Island,
with its nightly display of
fairy penguins.
Melbourne is home to Australia's
three largest corporations,
Telstra, BHP Billiton and the
National Australia Bank. It is
also home to the Business
Council of Australia, the
Australian Council of Trade
Unions and the majority of
companies listed on the
Australian Stock Exchange.
Melbourne is a large commercial
and industrial centre. Many of
Australia's largest companies
have their headquarters there,
and many multinational
corporations (approximately
one-third of the 100
largest multinationals operating
in Australia as of 2002), have
their main Australian office
there. The peak body
representing workers in
Australia, the Australian
Council of Trade Unions, is also
headquartered in Melbourne.
Melbourne is home to Australia's
largest seaport and much of
Australia's automotive industry
(including the engine
manufacturing facility of Holden
and the Ford and Toyota
manufacturing facilities), in
addition to many other
manufacturing industries. 
Melbourne Cricket Ground - The
MCG.
Melbourne Central Business
District
Melbourne, often referred to as
the sporting capital of
Australia, hosts many major
Australian sporting events
including: the Melbourne Spring
Racing Carnival (including the
'race that stops the nation',
the Melbourne Cup), the
Australian Formula One Grand
Prix, the Australian Tennis Open
and the AFL Grand Final.
Melbourne hosted the first
Olympic Games in the southern
hemisphere in 1956, as well as
the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
 A
view of the Yarra River at
twilight, with Melbourne's
central business district (left)
and Southbank (right) pictured.
Melbourne has one of the highest
numbers of international
students studying in its
universities, after London, New
York City, and Paris.
Melbourne is typical of
Australian capital cities in
that it was built with the
underlying notion of a quarter
acre home and garden for every
family, often referred to
locally as the Australian
Dream. As such, much of
Metropolitan Melbourne is
characterised by low density
sprawl.
A
view of Melbourne Docklands from
the Observation Deck at Rialto
Tower.
Furthermore, the provision of an
extensive railway and tram
service in the earlier years of
development encouraged this low
density development to occur in
radial lines following the
transport corridors. The result
is today's Melbourne - one of
the world's largest cities in
terms of physical size or urban
footprint. The Victorian
Government's planning blueprint
Melbourne 2030 aims to limit
further sprawl in the future.
 A
panorama of the Melbourne
skyline from the Melbourne
Docklands.
Melbourne is often referred to
as Australia's garden city, and
the state of Victoria is
officially known as the
garden state. There is an
abundance of parks and gardens
close to the CBD with a variety
of common and rare plant species
amid landscaped vistas,
pedestrian pathways, and tree
lined avenues. There are also
many parks in the surrounding
suburbs of Melbourne, such as in
the cities of Stonnington and
Booroondara, south east of the
CBD.
Melbourne is a sprawling
metropolis. Melbourne's
population density declined
following World War II, with the
private motor car and the lure
of house and land extending the
suburbs, mainly to the east.
After much discussion (both at
general public and planning
levels) in the 1980s the decline
has actually been reversed since
the early 1990s (when hit by a
property market collapse that
was facilitated by a recession),
and the city has seen increased
density in the inner and western
suburbs. Since the late 1990's
there has been a substantial
rise in high rise apartment
construction within 2 km radius
of the central business
district. The Victorian
government's Melbourne 2030
policy has introduced an
artificial urban growth boundary
to further curtail the urban
sprawl.
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