Melbourne Narrm (Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung)
City
Melbourne skyline and Kings Domain Flinders Street Station Shrine of Remembrance Melbourne Cricket Ground Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne CBD and Princes Bridge
Melbourne Show map of Australia Melbourne Show map of Victoria Melbourne Show map of Oceania
Interactive map of Melbourne
Coordinates: 37°48′51″S 144°57′47″E / 37.81417°S 144.96306°E / -37.81417; 144.96306
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
LGA	31 municipalities across Greater Melbourne
Location	669 km (416 mi) SW of Canberra[1] 730 km (450 mi) SE of Adelaide[2] 877 km (545 mi) SW of Sydney[3] 1,687 km (1,048 mi) SW of Brisbane[4] 3,337 km (2,074 mi) SE of Perth[5]
Established	30 August 1835; 190 years ago (1835-08-30)
Government
• State electorate	55 electoral districts and regions
• Federal division	23 divisions
Area  (GCCSA)[8]
• Total	2,453 km2 (947 sq mi)
Elevation	31 m (102 ft)
Demonym	Melburnian
Population
• Total	5,350,705 (2024)[7] (2nd)
• Density	535.5/km2 (1,387/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+10 (AEST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+11 (AEDT)
County	Bourke, Evelyn, Grant, Mornington
Mean max temp	20.2 °C (68.4 °F)
Mean min temp	9.7 °C (49.5 °F)
Annual rainfall	515.5 mm (20.30 in)
Localities around Melbourne Loddon Mallee Hume Hume Grampians Melbourne Gippsland Barwon South West Port Phillip Bay Gippsland

Melbourne^[a] is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most-populous city in Australia, after Sydney.^[7] The city's name generally refers to a 2,453-square-kilometre (947 sq mi) area,^[8] comprising an urban agglomeration of 31 local government areas.^[12] The name is also used to specifically refer to the local government area named City of Melbourne, whose 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 2024, the population of the city was 5.35 million, or 19% of the population of Australia;^[7] inhabitants are known as "Melburnians".

The area of Melbourne has been home to Aboriginal Victorians for over 40,000 years.^[13][14] 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).^[13] 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.^[13] Declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, it became the capital of the newly separated Colony of Victoria in 1851.^[15] During the 1850s Victorian gold rush, the city entered a lengthy boom period that, by the late 1880s, had transformed it into Australia's, and one of the world's, largest and wealthiest metropolises.^[16][17] 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.^[18]

Today, Melbourne is culturally diverse and, among world cities, 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.^[19] The city's eclectic architecture blends Victorian era structures, such as the World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building, with one of the world's tallest skylines. Additional 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 noted 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, and also hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. Melbourne ranked as the world's most livable city on the Economist's measure for much of the 2010s.^[20]

Melbourne Airport is the second-busiest airport in Australia and the Port of Melbourne is the nation's busiest seaport.^[21][22] 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.^[23]

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